Worth: $18.50
FilmInk rates movies out of $20 — the score indicates the amount we believe a ticket to the movie to be worth
Cast:
Oliver Cassidy, Bob Brown, Jim Everett
Intro:
...an utterly enthralling documentary about one of the most incendiary periods in Australian history.
The vigorous, highly divisive 1980s campaign to stop the damming of The Franklin River in Tasmania by the decidedly environmentally unfriendly Tasmanian Hydro-Electric Commission remains one of the key moments in this nation’s heated history of environmental activism. The campaign became a flashpoint for right-versus-left, Greenie-versus-industry animosity, and drove news reports for many, many months. It was seen by many as the birthplace of the Green movement in Australia, and the campaign’s importance cannot be overstated.
This poetic, deeply sensitive documentary from Kasimir Burgess (who helmed the very artful The Leunig Fragments and the hypnotic feature Fell) expertly navigates the course of the campaign to save The Franklin River, as well as the prior environmental struggles that led to this explosive confrontation in the pristine Tasmanian wilderness. Through interviews with former Greens leader and environmental figurehead Bob Brown (who really made his name on the Franklin), along with many activists who were there with him on the often hotly contested and dangerous frontlines, a vivid, thrilling and occasionally funny portrait is constructed. It’s wonderfully informative and entertaining.
Franklin, however, is also a deeply personal documentary. The madness and chaos of the Franklin campaign is fascinatingly seen through the quiet, meditative lense of young trans man Oliver Cassidy, who embarks on a contemporary solo rafting trip down the Franklin, following the trail of the original activists, one of whom was his late father. It’s a beautiful tale of a son finding his own way while in the quiet thrall of a great father and admirable man. Showcasing the extraordinary natural beauty of Tasmania through Benjamin Bryan’s painterly cinematography and the languorous, poetic editing of Kasimir Burgess and Johanna Scott, it creates an absorbing framework for this big story.
A beautifully constructed and created mesh of the micro and the macro, the personal and the political, Franklin is an utterly enthralling documentary about one of the most incendiary periods in Australian history.
