MEDIA RELEASE
FILM AUSTRALIA COMMENT ON DEATH OF
JOURNALIST/FILMMAKER MARK WORTH
Film Australia CEO, Sharon Connolly, today expressed the company’s
sadness on learning of the death, after an illness, of filmmaker and journalist,
Mark Worth, writer/director of the documentary, Land of the Morning Star.
After graduating from Swinburne Film and Television School in 1984, Mark
Worth began making documentaries in the Asia Pacific region with an emphasis
on his birthplace, Papua New Guinea. Since then, his work on Papua and
PNG has been aired on programs such as Dateline (SBS), Foreign Correspondent
(ABC) and Hindsight (ABC Radio National), on the UK’s Channel 4
and in publications such as The Australian.
During those years of reporting and recording tumultuous events in Papua,
Mark had been keen to make a documentary film which dealt with the causes
and realities of the continuing troubles in the western half of the island
of New Guinea.
That film, Land of the Morning Star, will have its Australian television
premiere on ABC TV Monday 2 February at 8.30 pm.
Directed by Mark Worth, it was produced for Film Australia by Janet Bell.
“It was my privilege to help Mark bring to fruition the film he’d
been wanting to make for more than a decade – a documentary about
Papua and its epic story; a story taking place on Australia’s doorstep,”
she said today.
“Mark Worth made an enormous contribution to Australians’
knowledge of Papua and PNG. It is tragic that Land of the Morning Star
is his last work, but Film Australia is proud and grateful to have supported
his fine and important documentary,“ said Sharon Connolly.
Film Australia is an Australian Government-owned company, which supports
production and distribution of documentaries in the national interest.
To Order a Copy of "Land
of the Morning Star" see Film
Australia web site.
LAND OF THE MORNING STAR
• Behind the scenes: director's notes
• Back to Indigenous Voices Showcase home
See our program detail page to:
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• find more information (including related links)
• download the press kit (including the production story, filmmaker
biographies and full credits)
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that are downloadable from program detail pages.
MORE ABOUT THE PEOPLE INVOLVED
Land of the Morning Star
Mark Worth
Writer/Director
(22 December 1958 - 15 January 2004)
Mark Worth died on 15 January 2004, less than a month before Land of the
Morning Star had its Australian television premiere on ABC TV.
"Mark Worth made an enormous contribution to Australians' knowledge
of Papua and PNG. It is tragic that Land of the Morning Star is his last
work, but Film Australia is proud and grateful to have supported his fine
and important documentary," said Film Australia CEO Sharon Connolly.
Filmmaker and journalist Mark Worth was born in Papua New Guinea in 1958
on Manus Island, which was at the time an Australian military base. He
had a BA in Media from RMIT and a Graduate Diploma in Film and TV Studies
from Swinburne (1984). Mark began his career as a camera operator at Channel
7, Melbourne and became an independent filmmaker in 1986.
Mark spoke fluent pidgin English, and was a specialist in the region,
having covered conflicts in West Papua, PNG, Solomon Islands, Fiji and
New Caledonia for over 15 years.
He produced and directed documentaries for SBS TV's Masterpiece, Cutting
Edge and Dateline programs, as well as ABC TV's Foreign Correspondent,
Lateline and news programs. Mark also produced five one-hour radio documentaries
for ABC Radio National's Hindsight and Radio Eye, and was a regular contributor
to Asia Pacific current affairs.
One story covered by Mark was the May 1999 Indonesian hostage crisis by
OPM rebels on the PNG border. The hostages were released but Mark's personal
OPM fixer, Max Tago, was caught and executed by the military. Mark also
covered the historic first peaceful flag raising in Jayapura.
Working in the field as a freelance journalist, Mark filed for The Australian
newspaper and wrote for IF and Australian Style magazines.
Mark's work for Dateline (SBS) on West Papua received award nominations
and his films Raskols (about New Guinea's gangs) and Super 8 Soldiers
(Vietnam) were nominated for prestigious awards, including three 1995
AFI Awards for the former.
Janet Bell
Producer
Janet Bell has been in broadcasting since the mid 1970s when she was a
founding member of The Australian Women's Broadcasting Cooperative. In
1981 she moved from ABC Radio to television to produce and direct children's
programs.
From 1981 to 1983 Janet was producer/director on A Big Country, a documentary
series on rural Australia, and in 1984 she was seconded to Film Australia
for 12 months to run the Women's Film Unit. Following this, she produced
and directed the ABC current affairs program Four Corners.
As Executive Producer at Film Australia from 1986 to 1991, Janet oversaw
the production of the documentaries Contradictions, winner of the Reuben
Mamoulian Award 1989, and The Babyboomers Picture Show, the ABC's highest-rating
documentary for 1991.
In the decade since 1993, Janet produced Invisible Enemies (1992) for
Film Australia, Channel 4 and the Discovery Channel, The White Plague
(1993) for ABC's Four Corners, and two episodes of What's Your Poison,
a five- part ABC series on drugs.
Recently, Janet was executive producer on two ABC series, In the Mind
of the Architect (2000), about the architect in modern Australia, and
Australian Dynasties: From Macarthur to Murdoch (2001).
Stewart Young
Editor
During a career of more than 30 years, Stewart has edited the Oscar-nominated
films Frontline, Chile Hasta Cuando and First Contact, and won AFI Awards
for the documentaries Nicaragua No Pasaran, Rocking the Foundations and
Year of the Dogs.
In 2003, Film Australia presented Stewart with the fourth Stanley Hawes
Award at the Australian International Documentary Conference in recognition
of his ongoing contribution to the industry.
David Bridie
Composer
One of Australia's most sought after soundtrack composers, David Bridie
first came to attention as a member of two successful bands.
Between 1984 and 1994, Not Drowning, Waving built a reputation for innovative
music that crossed genre boundaries including world music, neo-classical,
rock and pop. On piano and vocals, David was a strong songwriting force.
After writing a number of songs that didn't fit into the Not Drowning,
Waving style, David and fellow band member Helen Mountfort formed My Friend
The Chocolate Cake, with the intention of playing all acoustic music.
This band emerged as a popular ensemble with a unique sound.
In 1996 Not Drowning, Waving performed as part of the Next Wave Festival,
which brought together indigenous musical culture from across Australia,
Papua New Guinea and the Torres Strait Islands.
In 1990 David was composer on the acclaimed feature film Proof. He has
since composed for seven more films, including What I Have Written (1995),
Idiot Box (1995) and The Man Who Sued God (2001). In 2001 he composed
the soundtrack to a television mini-series, My Brother Jack.
In May 2000, David released his debut solo album, Act of Free Choice,
followed in April 2003 by the release of his second solo effort, Hotel
Radio.
Clemens Runaweri
Former West Papuan Politician
Clemens was born on Seerui Island in North West Papua, and grew up in
a fishing family. He was educated by Dutch missionaries and in 1958 was
chosen by the Dutch to be part of the "Papuanisation" plan for
West Papuan self-government, and groomed to be an international diplomat
for West Papua. He was elected to the original New Guinea Council of 1960-63.
Later he joined the Indonesian Parliament in the belief that he could
ensure that the 1969 referendum elections for the Act of Free Choice would
be fairly conducted.
Clemens spoke out about the fairness of the Act and was put on the Indonesian
"red list". He was voted by 5000 Papuans in May 1969 to travel
to the United Nations and report first-hand that the Act was going to
be a sham. He was arrested before boarding the plane and barely escaped
with his life to Australian New Guinea where he was jailed as a refugee
on Manus Island. The Australian government held Clemens at the behest
of the Indonesian government until the UN had passed the Act. After his
release, he became a UNESCO diplomat in France for PNG in the late 1970s.
He later joined the public service in Port Moresby as a school teacher
and rose to become the head of the PNG Education Department until his
retirement in 1994.
He is 62 years old but hasn't lost his boyish enthusiasm and charm. Despite
the adversity he has experienced, he is a man of great optimism and a
natural storyteller. He has a Masters degree in Linguistics from Monash
University and is fluent in English, Dutch, Indonesian Bahasa, Melanesian
Pidgin and his own language from Serui.
Today he lives in exile in PNG. His wife Maria died of cancer three years
ago and he is raising four children on his own. He sells fish from the
market to Chinese restaurants to support his family.
DIRECTOR'S NOTES
Land of the Morning Star
In 1969, aged 10, I was living on Manus Island, Papua New Guinea when
the United Nations Act of Free Choice took place in West Papua (then called
West Irian). At the time, I knew little of the event but then the refugees
began arriving to be resettled near Lorengau, our local town.
We used to drive past the refugee compound and watch the workers erect
cyclone fencing. These refugees were not village people - many of them
wore shirts, ties, trousers and spoke good English. The memory of that
camp made me want to know more about the history of West Papua and its
people. Little did I know that some of the people behind that cyclone
fence would later become good friends and help me make this film about
their history.
After graduating from Swinburne Film and Television School in 1984, I
began making documentaries in the Asia Pacific region with an emphasis
on my birthplace, Papua New Guinea. By the early 1990s I had travelled
all over PNG and wanted to see what the western half of the island of
New Guinea was like. I knew the history of West Papua from my research
and had heard from travellers that it was very different from PNG, but
when I first travelled there in 1994 I was shocked and excited.
In contrast to PNG, West Papua's capital city Jayapura had law and order,
a strong police presence, and even concrete policemen on street corners.
You could walk around at night feeling safe, the shops were open and the
streets were alive with night markets selling exotic food, vegetables,
smoked fish, clove cigarettes, toys and clothes. Later I travelled up
to Wamena in the snow-clad mountains and was amazed by the sight of naked
Dani men walking around town wearing penis gourds, their hands proudly
folded across their chests.
Since that first trip I have visited West Papua 14 times - filming and
reporting stories for Channel 4 in the UK, SBS TV, ABC Radio and The Australian
newspaper. During that time I discovered I was the only filmmaker reporting
from the region who had a first-hand grasp of the country's history. I
desperately wanted to make a film on West Papua. It seemed important to
tell this great story taking place on Australia's "doorstep".
In 1996 I made a one-hour radio documentary for ABC's Hindsight program
on the history of West Papua titled "The Mountain Is My Mother",
which was re-broadcast on the eve of the elections in East Timor in August
1999. I received good feedback from the ABC who said that a former Film
Australia colleague, Janet Bell, had rung to congratulate me.
I kept writing and pursuing the idea of a documentary as I kept filming
and reporting extraordinary events that were happening in West Papua.
In the year 2000 the reformist Indonesian President Wahid renamed the
country "Papua" and made funds available to hold a congress
to discuss the future of IndonesiaÕs 26th province.
It was at the Papuan Congress in May 2000 that I met Clemens Runaweri
and decided to make a film with him. Clemens was a former West Papuan
politician who had been living in exile in Papua New Guinea for 30 years.
During the Act of Free Choice, Clemens was active as a politician and
had demonstrated against Indonesia's occupation of his country. He had
escaped into PNG where he was imprisoned on Manus Island by Australian
authorities. Clemens was now back in his homeland participating in the
Congress, seeing old friends and enemies. I decided to film him and his
impressions of the country he called home. Together we revisited old parts
of the Dutch capital (Hollandia) and he remarked on how the place had
changed from a neat colonial township to a bustling Asian city.
On my return to Australia, I began work with Janet Bell as a producer
on a historical documentary on West Papua to be produced under Film Australia's
National Interest Program. The project gathered an ominous gravity when
Chief Theys Eluay, who had been voted President of the Congress Presidium,
was found murdered by Indonesian Kopassus soldiers. I began writing the
script in the PNG border town of Vanimo over Christmas, and then returned
to Australia in February for a research trip around NSW and Queensland
with Janet Bell, interviewing subjects for the film.
The first draft of the script was completed with the help of Janet and
script editor Ian David (Blue Murder) in May 2002. In July I went to West
Papua and returned to Sydney only to be hospitalised with dengue fever.
The production commenced in October 2002, with cinematographer Phillip
Bull and sound recordist Grant Roberts for our shoot in Sydney, Brisbane,
Port Moresby and Vanimo in PNG. We then travelled to the PNG-Indonesian
border with Clemens Runaweri and shot sequences of Clemens reminiscing
about his life and his motherland. Fresh advice from Ian David and distinguished
documentary maker Bob Connolly came our way and we finished the film in
June.
As I have often worked as a "one-man-band reporter", this film
is important to me because it was a truly collaborative effort. It was
a great experience to work at Film Australia with the finest practitioners
of the documentary craft, including the production staff who gave their
all to see the film realised to its highest potential.
Mark Worth
Writer/director
(1958-2004)
Land of the Morning Star
Australia 2004, 55 minutes, Director: Mark Worth
For centuries world powers have jostled for control of the rugged, isolated
land of West Papua with its strategic position and abundant natural resources.
This is an epic story of colonial ambitions, cold war sell outs and fervent
nationalism featuring rare archival film and eyewitness accounts.
“…a forceful chronicle of the bastardry and oppression that
the West Papuan people have endured throughout their history…With
its many heartbreaking eyewitness accounts, this is a devastating tale,
told in compelling fashion. Truly not to be missed.” - The Age,
Melbourne
“For those who prefer a well-made documentary to fruity frivolity,
this covers the turbulent colonial history of what is now Papua but has
also been known as Netherlands New Guinea, West Papua and Irian Jaya…
Sadly, Worth died recently in a Papuan hospital aged 45. This documentary
is a tribute to his passion for the region, as well as a compelling overview
of a story very similar to East Timor’s (including Australian involvement).”
- Sydney Morning Herald
“Australian film icon Rachel Griffiths narrates this intriguing
documentary about the western half of the island of New Guinea…
Eyewitness accounts and rare archival footage provide insights into a
place torn between Western power plays and a diverse regional culture.”
- Canberra Times
From Popcorn Tax And Vale Mark Worth
p o p c o r n t a x i m e l b o u r n e
COMING UP SOON Here's a brief list of events that we are planning for
the next two months. Please mark these in your diary if they interest
you and check the popcorn taxi website for more information and updates
as they occur:
6:30pm Saturday 31 January 2004 DOGS IN SPACE with RICHARD LOWENSTEIN
CHAT Once-only retrospective screening of the classic 80's Australian
cult film, DOGS IN SPACE followed by a chat and audience Q&A with
writer/director RICHARD LOWENSTEIN. Also screening is never before seen
on-set interviews with Michael Hutchence and Sam Sejavka. This show is
presented in association with the ACMI "Resistance" season of
Australian Counter-Culture Films. ACMI Cinemas, Australian Centre for
the Moving Image. Admission 18+ $11/$8
7:30pm Tuesday 17 February 2004 ONE PERFECT DAY with FILMMAKER CHAT Preview
of new indie feature film directed by PAUL CURRIE shot amongst Melbourne
rave culture, starring DAN SPIELMAN (Secret Life of Us), LEEANNA WALSMANN
(Star Wars), ABBIE CORNISH (Horseplay), NATHAN PHILLIPS (Australian Rules)
and KERRIE ARMSTRONG (MDA, Lantana). Filmmaker chat after screening with
director, producer and some of the cast. ACMI Cinemas, Australian Centre
for the Moving Image. Admission M15+ $15/$13
7:30pm Tuesday 24 February 2004 CHASING GOD with FILMMAKER Q&A Narrated
by award winning comedian DAWN FRENCH (The Vicar of Dibley), this thought-provoking
film asks: why do humans believe in a higher power? By interviewing scientists,
atheists and religious leaders from diverse faiths, this groundbreaking
local documentary explores the motivations of man to believe in something
bigger and more powerful than himself, today and throughout the ages.
A globetrotting excursion into what people believe in. Post-screening
filmmaker Q&A with directors, LENNY DE VRIES and DYLAN BURTON and
soundtrack composer from UK, Massive Attacks MICHAEL TIMOTHY. ACMI Cinemas,
Australian Centre for the Moving Image. Admission 18+ $13/$11
popcorn taxi melbourne
ACMI Cinemas, Australian Centre for the Moving Image Federation Square,
Flinders St. Melbourne Tickets on sale at ACMI Box Office (Phone: 8663-2583)
Contact: Michael Agar melbourne@popcorntaxi.com.au
popcorn taxi - watch the films, meet their makers
popcorn taxi melbourne is brought to you by the Australian Centre for
the Moving Image (www.acmi.net.au). popcorn taxi acknowledges the financial
assistance of The Australian Film Commission, The City of Melbourne and
is supported by Kodak, The Odyssey Channel, Open Channel, Sony Australia,
ScreenSound Australia and Mount Avoca Wines.
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MARK WORTH - A TRIBUTE
On January 15 2004, filmmaker Mark Worth died in West Papua. He was 45
and had just returned home to his wife and daughter after completing his
latest documentary for Film Australia "The Land of the Morning Star".
popcorn taxi had been in discussion with Film Australia to launch this
film with Mark early in 2004.
Worthy grew up in PNG and Australia and spent a lot of his life in Melbourne,
having studied Media at RMIT and Film & TV at Swinburne in the early
1980's. His infectious spirit touched many people. At that time, he also
made films for the Super 8 Film Group, documented the work of the Roar
artists, did live visual shows, as well as video clips, for bands like
Dorian Gray and Not Drowning Waving. His passion for the Papua region
also inspired the work of musicians like David Bridie and fellow filmmakers
Mark Davis and John Hillcoat.
In the 1990's, he started to focus on documentaries with "Super
8 Soldiers", "Tabaran" and "Revolt into Style".
From there, he learned quickly to adapt his skills into short-form docs
for programs like Foreign Correspondent, Witness and Dateline. Many of
these pieces he also adapted into spectacular ABC Radio documentaries
and pieces for the print media. Too often he risked his life venturing
into dangerous regions to tell stories on cultures that he was passionate
about. As a result, he has left the legacy of a vast body of work spanning
over twenty years.
Mark Worth was a driven man - an artist brimming with creativity, raw
intellect and a fire in his belly - a master of the 3am rant, greatly
generous to his colleagues and with great fury upon mediocrity.
ABC-TV will broadcast "The Land of the Morning Star" on Monday
2 February at 8:30pm. If you knew Mark and would like to join a few of
his mates to watch this broadcast, come to Loop, Meyers Place, Melbourne
from 8pm for a drink. Afterwards, there will be a screening of his near-completed
documentary "Dead Man's Party". This will be a private function
for those who knew Mark or have an interest in his life and work. Bye
Bye, you little Raskol.
In Memory: Mark Worth
Mark Worth
Mark Worth passed away on Thursday in Jayapura, West Papua. He was with
his wife Helen and daughter Inzoraki at the time. He had been ill for
a little while...
However his "Land of the Morning Star" doco on West Papua is
to be screened on February 2nd on the ABC. This film is in many regards
his greatest work and the culmination of his life pursuit. It is a passionate
and intelligent appraisal of why West Papua is an issue of the highest
importance. It's such a shame Worthy won't be around to hear the plaudits
which will no doubt be pured upon him. It is a remarkable film...
Mark was not only one of my closest and greatest mates but also the inspiration
for me going to PNG in the first place,and instilled in me a great sense
of adventure and compassion for Melanesia. This led to the three Telek
records, the Sing Sing and Morning Star concerts and everything else.
Of course he also did live visuals for early Not Drowning, Waving shows
as well as the film clips for The Same Heat, The Kiap Song, Up in the
Mountains, Sing Sing, Blackwater and of course the Tabaran documentary
on NDW's trip to Rabaul. All of us in NDW feel that Mark is an honorary
member. We all feel his loss...
I worked with him on his "Super 8 Soldiers" film about Vietnam
vets with Super 8 cameras, doing the soundtrack with John Phillips as
well as the "Raskols" documentary about crime gangs in the Highlands
of PNG and recently the "Land of the Morning Star" documentary.
Mark did a lot of work with Foreign Correspondent and Radio National
in Melanesia covering the Bougainville crisis, elections in PNG as well
as developments in West Papua. Mark also pioneered live visuals working
with Wild Dog Rodeo and Dorian Grey and the Models in the seminal Melbourne
music industry of the early 80s...
He loved stringband music and Lou Reed. His intelligence and knowledge
was inspiring to listen to. He was a great story teller. He loathed mediocrity,
conservatism and the mainstream film and music industry with a wonderful
vengeance.
He was a one off. Life will be poorer without him.
Please watch the doco on February 2nd and remember him.
David Bridie
January 18, 2004
BARISTA
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February 18, 2004
Mark Worth
The death of Mark Worth, a documentary filmmaker who recently completed
"Land of the Morning Star" broadcast on the ABC, has shaken
his community. We are not used to death and the contemplation of mortality.
It came soon after the loss of activist and filmmaker Andrew McNaughtan.
Carmela Baranowska, who made "Scenes from an Occupation" and
"Welcome to Independence" about East Timor, was a friend and
colleague. I asked her to write a personal meditation on Mark's life in
documentary and the impact of his death. It will also be published in
the print edition of Metro on February 26th.
Perfect Day:
Mark Worth (1958-2004)
January is the hottest month. John Martinkus rings and in his slow and
thoughtful way says, "I have some bad news". It‚s then
that I experience a terrible flashback. It‚s a fortnight earlier
and John is ringing to tell me that Andrew McNaughtan is dead. But this
time it‚s another friend, Mark Worth. Dead. And I ask the automatic
questions we ask of the living: Are you sure? Who told you? How did it
happen? But this time I also say "I don‚t believe it."
Mark Worth. Dead. I can‚t even read what I‚ve just written
without feeling a mixture of stunned disbelief, shock and yes, anger.
"Worthy" was larger than life. And he was unstoppable - as a
person, as a documentary filmmaker and as a friend. Death has made Mark
Worth into a myth. But I want to write about the life - before I can describe
the man.
Andrew and Mark. Two friends in one month. Two friends who also knew
each other; as we all know each other in our small world and in our large
region. Two friends who were Australian, who didn‚t want to be European
or American and who looked outward, to our region, for inspiration. At
a time of growing Australian insularity when both governments and broadcasters
are turning inwards they were the true innovators. They took us along
with them on their journey. They were heroic. And I salute them.
Andrew and East Timor. They will always be linked. Sydney, May 1999:
a long telephone conversation with Andrew. I have just returned from a
two month stay in East Timor. It‚s the time of Kosovo and continuing
international indifference about East Timor. I have filmed some undeniable
evidence that Eurico Guterres, the militias and Indonesian military are
inextricably linked and I can hear down the line that Andrew is happy.
Andrew is also a documentary filmmaker, although history will not accord
him that status. His footage from the Dili Spring of 1998 when university
students took to the villages and the countryside in a spirit of reformasi
is unique. He travels with them, his HI8 camera on his shoulder, always
documenting, always hoping against hope that East Timor will become independent.
Dili: July 1999 in the Hotel Turismo; Andrew, always smiling, both relaxed
and serious in his razor sharp analysis of the worsening situation. When
the UN and NGO workers refuse to let Andrew come on the aid convoy for
fear that an "activist" will jeopardise their operation he simply
decides to hijack another four wheel drive himself. When we return to
Dili we pass burning villages and some militia members at a checkpoint
start waving their handmade guns in our direction. Andrew simply places
his foot on the accelerator and we screech away to safety.
Darwin, September 1999: after we‚re evacuated from the UN Compound
in Dili, Andrew on the telephones at the solidarity group ETISC in an
office above a pizza shop in a bland Australian suburb day and night campaigning,
lobbying, arguing for an international peacekeeping force. In the end
success is ours. East Timor is now independent. Andrew Mcnaughtan elevated
the term "activist" to a position of moral reckoning.
John sighs and says he‚ll ring the others. John has the journalist‚s
ability, responsibility and strength to transmit the bad news in a seemingly
endless spiral of chaos and death. It‚s what I remember best about
John in Dili in 1999 ˆ and what I thank him for now.
He hangs up the phone and I try to think about the narration I am writing
for my documentary. I try to work on the film that I am attempting to
methodically put together while the rest of Australia is on holiday. But
Mark is dead. And I know that I have to start to make sense of everything.
Back in 1998 Catherine Gough-Brady and I had decided to set up Documenter,
an internet magazine on documentary. We‚d just completed the new
Documentary course at VCA SFT and we‚d been taught, in that strange
combination of idealism and naivety, that we could do anything. We looked
around and came across Mark Worth‚s writing in IF Magazine. From
that moment began the cross-city three hour phone conversations. Mark
liked the fact that we had reached out to him. Here we were in our Melbourne
fastness, in that city that he had left behind many years before and which
he‚d always had a love-hate relationship with, as so many of us
do. We were beginning something new.
It was Dennis O‚Rourke‚s films that brought us together as
friends. The ideal was embodied in this philosophy: live every-day in
the tropics, spend years on a film, really get to know the people, the
place, the language. It was Hemingway; yes, but it was also a dream we
hoped to make reality. For Mark filmmaking was really about life. He was
always talking about a film he was going to make, was shooting or editing.
While I mourn a person I also mourn a way of life. It‚s what economic
rationalists and public servants always fail to understand. The director
is the auteur - and not the producer or bureaucrat. Documentaries are
sublime. Documentaries are art. Documentaries help make sense of a world
that is often cruel, unforgiving and yet, sometimes joyous.
Dennis O‚Rourke‚s films had inspired Mark to become a filmmaker
in the early 1980s. We shared a great love for films like Yumi Yet, Ileksen,
Shark Callers of Kontu and Cannibal Tours, all wildly ground-breaking
in the content, form and feeling of both Australian and international
cinema.
All these films were based in Papua New Guinea, where Mark was born.
I see Mark as someone belonging to a great line of filmmakers, stretching
back in time for whom the "personal" was a motivating force
in all that they did. John Cassavetes is my own favourite in the pantheon.
For these filmmakers their own lives were the starting point for all that
came after ˆ the profound to the banal had to be investigated, turned
over and prodded. It was Mark‚s early years in Papua New Guinea
which were the formative and determining influence on his life. He grew
up between the Mornington Peninsula and Manus Island. Even when he was
quite still Mark was always travelling. He fought against the sedentary
lifestyle with great gusto and recklessness. While Mark lived for many
years in Sydney his mind was always in Papua.
Papua. Mark‚s obsession and love, the great island to our north
divided in the middle by both colonialism and stupidity. And as with any
true love it both imprisoned and freed him. Sometimes he would speak with
wonderment and awe and at other times he would rail and rant against the
whole damn thing. Papua also consumed him. Mark‚s long-term project
was the documentary archive. He was an encyclopedic living compendium
of people, news, articles, books, photos, footage, music and sounds.
Land of the Morning Star is a very fine and powerful example of his work.
Mark sensed that he would be criticised for the conventionality of his
narrative and he countered by saying that he simply wanted to tell the
history of West Papua. And his film, amazingly, is the first time that
a documentary has done that. It was more than just jumping on the latest
bandwagon that rolled by for Mark and he had little time for poseurs.
He railed against the cold political indifference of Australian and American
politicians who conveniently looked the other way when West Papua‚s
political fate was decided in the 1960s ˆ and continue to do so today.
But Mark also directed Super 8 Soldiers, Revolt Into Style, Act of No
Choice, Dead Man‚s Party, countless radio documentaries and wrote
many newspaper articles.
The first memorial for Mark is at the beach in Middle Park, opposite
a house where he lived in the 1980s. I know that Mark would have hated
the weather. A cold, very cold Melbourne evening. But it‚s still
a beautiful grey. We gather and suddenly I feel really young. If it were
a film it would be called "The Last Days of Swinburne" and you
would see the joggers in the half-evening light turning their heads at
the small group of mourners in a circle on the beach, listening to Lou
Reed and exchanging reminiscences.
For someone like me and the generation that came after Swinburne in the
mid 80s was all mixed up together: grunge and the avant-garde; Dziga Vertov
and Sam Fuller; memories of Nick Cave and the Crystal Ballroom; art, fashion,
music. Even though Mark and I studied there at different times we were
both taught by Peter Tammer whose own brilliant films are often sadly
forgotten today. The aesthetic was DIY filmmaking and the content was
guerrilla, a no-prisoners, no holds barred approach to documentary.
Mark was one of the first exponents of what is today called the "one-man
band of filmmakers". Often belittled by wannabes or those who are
too disparaging to understand or care, this is a movement that continues
to grow and for those of us involved in it Mark was always extremely supportive.
There are so many of us who became filmmakers, artists, musicians, journalists
who Mark encouraged and then encouraged some more: Mark Davis, David Bridie,
Ben Bohane, Bentley Dean, Marcus Gillezeau, John Martinkus and countless
others. Mark understood where you were going and he accompanied you for
just that extra mile. It was the Jayapura Room and Worthyworld and all
of us were so privileged to have been invited along for the ride.
In a world of growing masculine timidity and fickleness Mark was courageous.
He was one of the last of the "archetypal" Australian men, although,
with a shock, I realise that he was only 45 when he died. It was more
than just a stereotype to say that he believed in mateship and a "fair
go". Mark lived life as he saw it and in that quintessential Australian
sense he hated being told what to do ˆ by anyone. His fights with
some producers were legendary. He did not suffer fools gladly. He never
asked "what‚s the drama" but instead preferred to actively
go "where" it was; to seek out the lessons of every-day life.
All this came at a tremendous cost: the mood swings and the demanding
requests he sometimes expected from his friends and loved ones.
Tullamarine Airport, 9am. The same awful wait at the tarmac. Delta Goodrem
on the TV monitor and the Collingwood Football Club in the seats around
me; a bad cup of hospital strength tea and lemon tart for breakfast. After
ninety minutes we‚re in Sydney and it‚s like arriving in another
country.
Inside the church at La Perouse it‚s so intense, all those unanswered
questions and interrupted conversations hanging in the air. The orations
are unforgettable. Mark Davis is brilliant. Jack Strocchi is dazzling.
David Bridie sings what has now become the Mark Worth anthem, Lou Reed‚s
"Perfect Day". There‚s no-one left who knows so much about
West Papua and I feel deep distress. The world is now more sanitised and
less wild. Arguments and love; vitriol and laughter are now replaced by
quick phone calls or no phone calls at all.
At the Icebergs in Bondi I meet old friends and make new ones. Even in
death Mark is bringing people together. I stand on the balcony and realise
that wherever Mark lived he could always see the horizon. Middle Park,
Bondi, West Papua. The horizon that had formed him and that he always
wanted to document. The horizon that would stretch into infinity.
But in the end there was death and any story about Mark has to stop in
West Papua, where he is now buried. On the winding road from Jayapura
to Abepura in West Papua there is a simple memorial to Theys Eluey, the
independence leader assassinated by the Indonesian military. When West
Papuans pass by in a car you can often see them silently acknowledge Theys‚s
death by a simple expression, glance or look. For West Papua is now a
closed province. Kidnappings, killings, repression and fear are routine.
Foreign journalists are banned.
I know that Mark was especially saddened by Theys's death, a larger-than-life
politician whose journey he had so meticulously documented. But today
let us put grief aside and let the work of Theys and Mark continue to
be an inspiration to all of us not to forget West Papua‚s continuing
demand for independence. For one day West Papua, like East Timor, will
be free. And as for Mark Worth, I shall always miss him.
Mark is survived by his wife Helen, daughter Insoraki and many family
and friends. His death will be mourned and celebrated in Australia, Indonesia,
West Papua and Papua New Guinea.
Posted by barista at February 18, 2004 08:46 PM
PAPUA: Journalist Mark Worth's sudden death shocks
The death of Australian print, radio and film journalist Mark Worth has
shocked Papuans and all those involved in the campaign to free West Papua
from brutal repression by the Indonesian military
Pacific Media Watch
Saturday, January 17, 2004
SENTANI (RW/Pacific Media Watch): The death of Australian print, radio
and film journalist Mark Worth has shocked Papuans and all those involved
in the campaign to free West Papua from brutal repression by the Indonesian
military.
Mark died from unknown causes in a hotel room in Sentani, West Papua,
yesterday, January 15. Mark is survived by his Papuan wife Helen and baby
daughter Insoraki.
Mark was born in PNG and spent most of his life in PNG and West Papua.
He spent most of the last 15 years producing radio programs, writing articles
and producing documentary films about the West Papuan people and their
struggle for self-determination. Mark's influential documentary films
include the 'Act of No Choice'.
His death must be treated as suspicious when recent events in West Papua
are considered, and because it came just two days after the announcement
by ABC television that his latest documentary Land of the Morning Star
would premier on Australian television on Monday 2 February [http://www.pmw.c2o.org/2004/papua4273.html].
Mark described this film as his 'life-time project', and he spent the
best part of the last ten years researching, collecting footage and interviewing
Papuans to make what will be a lasting memorial to this committed journalist.
Recent weeks have seen a major escalation in intimidation and provocation
by Indonesia. In the last few days five Papuans have been sentenced to
between 20 years and life for their alleged involvement in a raid on a
military post in Wamena. By contrast, the nine soldiers also involved
received sentences of just 6 to 14 months. Papuans students are also being
held in prison in Jakarta after a demonstration and face 20 years in jail,
and seven highland leaders are being held in jail in Jayapura.
And this week infamous former police chief of East Timor, Timbul Silaen,
who was charged with gross human rights violations during the 1999 East
Timor atrocities, took up his post as Papuan police chief. And on Monday,
in an act that shows there is no limit to Indonesia's provocation, a small
island off East Timor was bombed by the Indonesian navy.
Mark was widely believed to have been linked to the recent footage, which
featured on SBS Dateline last November, of OPM leaders making appeals
to the international community for help to bring about peaceful dialogue
to solve the problems West Papua. Two days after the footage was screened,
ten Papuans, including one of the leaders who featured in the film, were
shot as they slept in a raid by 200 Indonesian soldiers. Their bodies
were later displayed like hunting trophies.
When Mark's high profile and reputation as an honest and influential
journalist is considered, along with the recent events, is it any wonder
that many view his death as suspicious? It is vital that Mark's death
be fully and independently investigated.
When West Papua finally gains independence, Mark's contribution to that
freedom will long be remembered by Papuans.
Papua merdeka!!
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
- - - - - -
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Date Posted: 1/17/2004
Mark Worth: RIP
By Jake Howard with Adam Pesce and Steve Barilotti
If you've ever taken a hardcore surf trip chances are you've had The
Surf Report stuffed in your back pocket. Sadly, on January 17, 2004 The
Surf Report and the journalism world as a whole suddenly and unexpectedly
lost one of its own. Australian journalist and documentary maker, Mark
Worth, was found dead in a hotel room in Papua New Guinea under extremely
suspicious circumstances. His death is still being investigated at this
time.
Mark spent most of the last 15 years producing radio programs, writing
articles and producing documentary films about the West Papuan people
and their quest for freedom from the Indonesian government. It is believed
that Mark was linked to recent footage that was featured on SBS Dateline
last November in which resistance leaders made appeals to the international
community for help in bringing about a peaceful solution to the problems
between West Papua and the Indonesian government. Tragically, two days
after the footage was shown, ten Papuans, including one of the leaders
seen on tape, were shot in their sleep during a raid by 200 Indonesian
soldiers. Once again demonstrating man's unbelievable ability to be brutally
ruthless towards his fellow man.
Considering the circumstances it is little wonder that Mark's death remains
a "mystery." Knowledge is power. Mark knew and documented a
lot. He was the embodiment of what a journalist should be. He is survived
by his Papuan wife Helen and baby daughter Insoraki.
For more on the life and death of Mark Worth visit this site or this
site.
Sydney Morning Herald/Ben Bohane: 3 February 2004
OBITUARY
A GUERILLA AND A ONE-MAN BAND
Mark Worth, who has died of pneumonia at 45, was one of Australia's finest
frontier cameramen. He aspired to the pantheon of great Australian documentary
filmmakers and conflict cameramen - Frank Hurley, Damien Parer and Neil
Davis - and his contemporary peers included Dennis O'Rourke, Bob Connelly,
Mark Davis and David Brill.
By BEN BOHANE
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Feedback to the Toktok page
Mark Worth, Documentary filmmaker, 1958-2004
In the coastal village of Abepura in West Papua, one of Australia and
the Pacific's great underground artists was recently laid to rest. His
name was Mark Worth, although he went by a variety of nicknames, including
Kurtz, Captain Kino, Captain Kaos and, affectionately, Worthy.
Worth, who died of pneumonia at 45, was one of Australia's finest frontier
cameramen. He aspired to the pantheon of great Australian documentary
filmmakers and conflict cameramen - Frank Hurley, Damien Parer and Neil
Davis - and his contemporary peers included Dennis O'Rourke, Bob Connelly,
Mark Davis and David Brill.
Invariably, the first thing Worth would say when introduced was, "I
was born in New Guinea." In many ways it defined him and he wore
it as a badge. He was spiritually caught between black and white worlds
and his art came out of this tension, which he was never quite able to
reconcile. He had the ability to tell stories at apparently opposite ends
of the spectrum, from social histories of Australia's avant-garde to sober
political documentaries about the region.
One story, in particular, gripped Worth for decades - that of West Papua
and its struggle for independence. Worth believed it to be the great untold
story of injustice in our region and completed his documentary for Film
Australia on the subject, Land of the Morning Star, just months before
he died. It was shown on ABC TV last night.
Worth leaves behind perhaps a dozen other films, from experimental collages
to anthropological documentaries to news and current affairs pieces for
ABC, SBS and the Nine Network.
A whole generation of video journalists have him to thank for opening
the door to the one-man-band style of guerilla filmmaking to be found
today on ABC and SBS current affairs and programs such as Race Around
the World.
Although his life was cut short, Worth packed a lot into it. He lived
his art more than most and was utterly uncompromising in his approach.
At times I see his life as one long performance piece, an epic soliloquy
traversing the whole range of human emotion. While his films will resonate
across time, for those who knew him, his film, radio and writing were
in a way just offshoots of the art of himself, his day-to-day existence
which displayed his generosity and grand storytelling ability in the great
oral tradition of our region.
Storytelling was a compulsion for him, as was his need to argue. It sometimes
made him a cantankerous, stubborn and brittle character and he was capable
of verbal decapitation of the unsuspecting. Yet his rages were more often
than not his way of drawing you closer, to engage with you more deeply.
He would say "I can't live without fighting", and almost daily
attacked a variety of countries, governments and individuals. He could
also be perfectly charming.
His hero was Lou Reed and he retained his punk sensibility until the
day he died. He managed to combine the sensitivity of a Beat poet, the
angry energy of punk and an academic's drive for historical accuracy.
"He was an absolute original," said Mark Davis, the SBS Dateline
presenter and journalist who knew Worth since their days at Swinburne
Film School in Melbourne.
"He was more Papuan than even he realised and he landed, like a
Martian, into the greyness of Melbourne, bursting with stories of other
worlds. There was no art, no music, no political crisis that didn't have
a brilliant parallel in tribal Melanesia. A generation of artists, journalists
and filmmakers were drawn into the region through Mark.
"He was a steam train and a lot of people wanted to get on board.
I certainly did. He changed my life and I will miss him forever."
Worth was born on Manus Island off the mainland of PNG, when it was an
Australian naval base. His father, Geoff, was chief petty officer on the
base and Mark would later describe the idyllic childhood he spent there,
playing around the World War II wrecks, exploring the jungle and cruising
the islands in patrol boats. He was a Scout leader who visualised the
day when perhaps he would be trekking through the rugged interior of PNG
as a kiap (patrol officer), dispensing justice in a "firm but fair"
way. However, there was pressure on Australia at the United Nations to
begin decolonisation and so PNG moved quickly to independence in 1975.
It was time for "the Territorians" to go "home" to
Australia.
"Mark would have made for a good patrol officer," said John
Allen, himself a former kiap and ASIO agent.
"He was a clever bloke who knew the people and was respected there.
But there was a mad dash for independence and a whole generation of white
Aussie kids who'd grown up there had to integrate themselves into Australia,
sometimes not very successfully."
The Worth family moved to the south coast of Victoria, where Mark threw
himself into surfing (a lifelong passion), joined a sharpie gang and discovered
the music of the Velvet Underground, Bowie and the Stooges.
By the late 1970s Melbourne had a lively punk scene and Worth took up
semi-residency at the Chrystal Ballroom, where he hung out with bands
such as the Sacred Cowboys, the Models and Dorian Grey. He did light shows
for Nick Cave and the Birthday Party and Dead Can Dance.
"I first met Worthy around 1980 through the menace that was the
Chrystal Ballroom," said photographer Peter Bainbridge. "People
likened it to Berlin in the 1930s. The list of people who went through
those doors and made it their house of learning is astonishing ... we
made it our second bedroom."
After putting himself through film school at Swinburne, Worth began making
experimental films but was equally inspired to make documentaries with
an anthropological bent.
His first documentary for Film Australia, Super 8 Soldiers, told the
stories of Australian conscripts sent to the Vietnam War through the home
movies they shot there. Home movies would recur in his later films and
he became a master of blending archival footage and music.
In the mid-1980s he came into contact with the Melbourne band Not Drowning
Waving. It became a long collaboration and friendship. Lead singer David
Bridie, who has gone on to become Australia's foremost indigenous and
Pacific Islander music producer and a film score composer, said: "To
all the members of Not Drowning Waving, Worthy was considered its seventh
member. It was he who persuaded us to go to Papua New Guinea, made us
see the history, culture and music of grassroots PNG, which is an intense
experience. He did great live show visuals for us, not to mention the
five PNG-inspired film clips and music documentary Tabaran we did for
SBS."
In 1989 Worth moved back to PNG to run a lodge on the Sepik River. The
tribal art dealer and economist Jim Elmslie hired him and the two became
close friends. "Worth ran a lodge I partly owned on the Sepik ...
By the end we were getting very little communication from him and he got
quite deep into local kastom [custom]," he said. "New Guinea
was his great obsession and he was a living encyclopedia on the place."
Worth's 1995 film Raskols, about raskol gangs operating in the highlands
in the middle of a tribal war, was controversial, not least because he
ended up raskoling his own film - after a disagreement, he pre-empted
his film for SBS with a shorter piece for ABC TV.
For the past decade Worth had based himself in Sydney, working in television
current affairs and making evocative documentaries for Radio National.
His last radio piece was on survivors of the Voyager naval disaster, including
his father.
Worth was haunted and inspired by the plight of the West Papuans for
much of his life. As a young boy on Manus Island he had witnessed the
arrival of refugees from the sham UN-supervised Act of Free Choice which
rubberstamped Indonesia's annexation of West Papua. Since then church
groups estimate 100,000 people have perished under Indonesian rule.
Towards the end of his life Worth became increasingly haunted by the
lives and deaths of two men. One was Errol Flynn, who had been a goldminer,
prize fighter and patrol officer in Papua before he was whisked off to
Hollywood by the filmmaker Charles Chauvel. The other man was Chief Theuys
Eluay, the West Papuan independence leader assassinated by Indonesian
Kompassus soldiers in 2001. Worth had interviewed him at length and felt
that Theuys knew he would soon be martyred.
His ties to West Papua went beyond filmmaking. Some years ago he fell
in love with Hellen, from Biak Island, with whom he had a daughter, Insoraki.Both
survive him.
His burial on the outskirts of Jayapura was attended by hundreds of people,
including local leaders and human rights activists. From Vanuatu, Andy
Ayamiseba, of the West Papuan People's Representative Office, said : "It
is shocking news to all of us in the Pacific and what a disaster to our
own struggle to be missing someone of his calibre."
Worthy was the best natural storyteller I have ever known, in a business
where stories are real currency. In that regard, where it really counts,
he died a wealthy man. He was wanpla Big Man tru.
Ben Bohane
Note:- The WPNGNC does not share Mark Worth's view of Theys
Eulay. He was an Indonesian collaborator. See our section
on the Presidium.
