Production Design Foke

Why an article about Australian politics on a production design blog?  Politics affect everyone and what better profession to comment on this particular muddle but a filmmaker.  Our job entails putting ourselves in someone else’s shoes and not thinking only about ME.  We think about what would be good for the director, the actor, the director of photography; the set, the story, the character; and the audience.  And occasionally, we consider what greater knowledge would benefit people, the world or a particular place in the world, through both non-fictional and fictional stories.

I’m not surprised everyone wants a different person in the office of the Prime Minister of Australia.  Virtually all the questions in interviews,Q and A shows and “debates” leading up to the election were from citizens about themselves as individuals.  An older person asks how much he will get for a pension; a woman with a disadvantaged child asks if there will be more money for support of the child.  A man of an ethnic minority asks what the government intends to do about racism and prejudice.  Citizens who don’t realize they too are uninvited immigrants, want to know what the government is going to do about the uninvited immigrants currently trying to get to Australia’s shores.  The everyman asks why we need to pay more taxes and what we as individuals are going to get in return, and what we will lose.  These are all important and valid issues, but until people begin to look at larger issues and philosophies first to see which candidate’s approach to running the country will set these issues as priorities, the candidate’s small electoral promises have no strength or basis for commitment.

Who out there is asking how we can prioritise the country’s spending so our tax money is used efficiently; how we can help political and social situations in difficult countries through international relations before their citizens are forced to leave their homes; and if they leave, how we can ethically help them as human beings, not as “boat people;” how we can redirect the focus and priority of this country to a culture of helping those who need help in all areas be they education, health, employment, social issues, not just ticking those issues that benefit “me.”  There are national issues, world issues and earth issues being unaddressed.  As the citizens in this country don’t seem to be reaching outside their front door, no wonder no one can agree on a leader; no one is questioning the larger issues that would actually expose a difference between candidates.  The choice of leader cannot please a majority if each individual is simply looking for a government to solve their individual crisis.  And if this is all the citizens of Australia want in a country, in a culture and in a leader, does it really matter much who is in office?  When the people of Australia start thinking about larger philosophical, ethical and logistical world and earth issues they will have a greater stake in choosing who is leading the country. When people come to appreciate that Australia’s actions will not only effect an individual’s current life but also the lives of generations to come in an individual’s family, in Australia, in the world and on the Earth, the question of who should lead this country will have an importance great enough to throw the balance.

In the meantime, people are purely obsessed with Me.   Me alone does not make a country.  Me alone only makes a place for one to reflect on oneself.  Perhaps in Australia, films could be produced that make a link from ME to the world or the Earth and not continue in this trend of ME, ME, ME films.  Producing an Australian content story could connect Australia’s culture to someone or someplace outside of ME and thus ironically teach people more about Me.

Now it is up to Independent MPs to decide whether Julia Gillard or Tony Abbott should be running Australia.  What have they said is the main issue helping them make this decision?  Regional issues from their own regions.  The slightly larger ME.