About the Event
Chauka, Please Tell Us The Time (2017, Australia, 90 min., directed by Behrouz Boochani, Arash Kamali Sarvestani)
This film explores the everyday experience of living in a detention center on Manus Island. Since 2013, the Australian government implemented a policy which militarized its border in the wake of increase maritime migration. It then refused to accept any asylum seekers who attempted to reach Australia via boat and instead rerouted them to offshore detention centers in Manus and Nauru, where many remain incarcerated to this day as their claims for protection stand ignored. As the government has made it difficult for medical professionals and journalists to visit these detention centers, Chauka as a film reflects a political undertaking, a collaboration between Director Arash Kamali Sarvestani and Behrouz Boochani, a Kurdish journalist from Iran who has been living in Manus for over 4 years now. Shot by Boochani clandestinely on his cell phone, Chauka in its very creation reflects the ongoing struggle for social justice by those experiencing the everyday violence of Australian detention. Named after the bird that is unique to Manus, Chauka is a profound reflection on how the displaced find meaning and purpose in the everyday as they navigate the unprecedented restrictions on their mobility and freedom. Chauka is a poetic and haunting lamentation of the human fallout of one of the world’s most repressive and punitive migration policies. It sheds light on the carceral logics of contemporary Australian sovereignty.
Free and open to the public
The series is organized with the generous support of the Chao Center for Asian Studies, the Center for the Study of Women, Gender, and Sexuality, Rice Cinema, the Student Activities President’s Programming Fund, and Fondren Library.
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