Christmas Island, off the coast of Australia: here 50 million crabs make their slow and ancient migration from the jungle to the ocean’s edge, while thousands of people seeking asylum are indefinitely held in a high security detention facility. Poh Lin, a trauma counsellor living on the island, bears witness to the dramatic stories and decline of those being detained.
Some speak of the families they’ve left behind and the journey they took to get to the island. Others tell of waiting indefinitely and being exposed to the gradual mental collapse of their friends and family around them. Rarely leaving the detention centre, and with little idea of the natural beauty of Christmas Island, their sessions with Poh Lin are rare moments of human connection.
The island’s crabs come to serve as a metaphor for the ancient and timeless natural movements of migration. Their spectacle sits in stark contrast to the chaotic human movements and entrapment that become senseless and absurd – not just on this island, but around the world.
The Island is commissioned as part of the Guardian Bertha documentary partnership, which aims to tell international stories with global impact.
Film-maker portrait: Gabrielle Brady
Gabrielle Brady is a documentary film director originally from Australia, who studied Documentary Direction at the Escuela Internacional de Cine in Havana, Cuba. She made a short documentary for the United Nations with women living in a remote mountain community in Indonesia. An extended version of The Island is due to be released as feature-length documentary.
Refugees and Australia
The Guardian has investigated Australian immigration and asylum policy from many angles, particularly in our investigation The Nauru Files which included a documentary comprised of interviews with children detained there. The Guardian has also produced a video series, Dear Australia, in which refugees and asylum seekers describe their lives, and a podcast, The Messenger, in which Abdul Aziz Muhamat, a refugee detained on Manus Island, tells the story of his life in detention.
Coming up: The Fight
People with disabilities are among the most discriminated against in Bolivia. Fed up of being ignored, a group of them marched across the Andes to La Paz in an effort to speak with President Evo Morales. They were met with riot police and beatings. Out Friday 21 April - watch the trailer now.
Recommended viewing
Who’s Gonna Love Me Now? - currently on limited general release, also available to watch on demand
At the age of 21, Saar Maoz arrived in the UK from Israel after being kicked out of his religious kibbutz. Following the highs and lows that accompanied his newfound freedom, Saar discovered an alternative family with the London Gay Men’s Chorus. After 19 years, he has contacted his conservative Israeli family in an attempt at reconciliation. Now his parents are coming to visit. Who’s Gonna Love Me Now? celebrates the triumph of love over hate, of understanding over ignorance and the melding of cultures who traditionally view each other as extreme.
Membership
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