TV programs worth watching
Sun 24 August — Sat 30 August

Written, directed and produced by Albert Koomen, The Sunshine Club 
(ABC 3.35pm Sunday) is an engaging look at a little seen part of the 
culture of our country.

During the post-war years of the 1940s and '50s, when Aboriginal people and 
"half castes" living in Darwin suffered under curfews and other 
restrictions imposed under the Aboriginals Ordinance, the AHPA (Australian 
Half Caste Progress Association) held weekly fund-raising dances at The 
Sunshine Club in a decommissioned Army barracks.

The many amateur musicians who played for the Sunshine Club blended the 
"Rondalla" tradition of stringed bands from the Philippines with Malay and 
Islander music from the Torres Strait, as well as the popular country blues 
music of the time (a legacy of the many US servicemen in the area during 
the War) that Aboriginal people had readily adopted as their own.

Subtitled Days Of Old Darwin, Koomen's modest little film covers a 
concert during last year's Festival of Darwin that brought together nearly 
70 performers, including musicians and dancers (most well into their 70s), 
to revive the era of The Sunshine Club.

They were watched by an enthusiastic audience of about 9000 people, who saw 
a marvellous fusion of cross-cultural trends (how did the hula come to 
Darwin, for heaven's sake?) and further evidence that racism is not 
inherent in people but has to be taught.

Wildness (ABC 9.25pm Sunday) is a study of the work of two of 
Australia's greatest wilderness photographers, whose work has become 
synonymous with campaigns to protect Tasmania's natural heritage.

Written and directed by Scott Millwood, the program traces the photographic 
campaigns of Olegas Truchanas and Peter Dombrovskis, especially Truchanas' 
unsuccessful efforts to save Lake Pedder and Dombrovskis' magnificent 
photographs of the Franklin River that were used to spearhead the 
successful national campaign to save it from a similar fate.

Their philosophy was simple and remarkably effective — if people could see 
the beauty of Australia's wild places then they may be moved to protect 
them. They may also be encouraged to understand the true value of the world 
around them.

Wildness brings together over 300 of their photographs with archival 
film and stunning contemporary footage.

The Australian-made documentary series A Case For The Coroner, 
screening in the Reality Bites slot (ABC 8.00pm Tuesdays), makes 
police and courtroom drama series look just so phony.

It's not the "plots" or the naturalistic "acting", it's the palpable 
awareness that some of the witnesses are lying, but you can't be sure just 
who and to what extent. You become aware watching the program just what a 
complex task an inquest is, and how much depends on the experience and 
personality of the coroner.

The first two episodes deal with the inquest of State Coroner John 
Abernethy into the death from a heroin overdose of a 14-year-old girl, 
Amber Syewart in Armidale in March 2000.

Watching the questionning of the witnesses, it seems obvious that Amber, an 
angry tearaway who would have been the despair of any parent, was turned 
into a junkie by her 27-year-old "boyfriend" who then pimped her to pay for 
his habit as well as hers.

But the program also makes it clear that suspicion is one thing; certainty 
is another.

This is genuine "reality television" that has been exceptionally well 
photographed and edited. It deserves to be widely seen.

Catalyst (ABC 8.00pm Thursdays) has a couple of interesting items on 
it this week. One of them deals with the dangers inherent in releasing 
genetically engineered viruses out into the environment.

It seems Australian scientists have come up with GM viruses that they 
believe will provide a humane, self spreading means of controlling some of 
our worst pests — mice, foxes and rabbits. The trouble is, Australia isn't 
the only country that's created a GM virus.

In Spain, where they breed rabbits for food, they've also developed a 
rabbit virus — to act as a vaccine against the rabbit killers . In New 
Zealand, they're working on a genetically modified organism to eradicate 
possums.

What if these viruses got here, or our virus got there? Have we tried to 
solve a local problem, only to create a global one?

In the second story, Californian inventor Paul Moller is trying to solve 
the traffic problem, not by developing faster, cheaper more comfortable 
public transport but by developing the flying car.

He's already built a prototype of his Skycar which he's about to put 
through the aviation approval process. He's already taken 90 orders and 
deposits!

Apparently the air-borne traffic jam that opens every episode of Matt 
Groening's cartoon series set in the far future, Futurama, is not that far 
in the future after all!

The Channel 4 documentary Torso In The Thames: Adam's Story, 
screening on True Stories (ABC 10.00pm Thursdays), is another, more 
conventional example of reality television. But its matter-of-fact style 
belies its horrifying subject matter or the implications of its 
investigations.

The torso that was found in the Thames in September 2001 was that of a six-
year-old black boy. His head, arms and legs had been cut off and the blood 
drained from his body. Incongruously, a pair of new shorts had then been 
placed on his body, before it was thrown in the river.

The program follows one of the most challenging murder investigations ever 
mounted by London's Metropolitan Police. The program reveals some 
astonishing scientific skills within forensic research institutes.

By analysing food residues in the child's bones, they are able to tell what 
part of Africa he came from. By analysing his skin, they can tell how 
recently he arrived in Britain.

And by going to Nigeria they discover that Nigerian police investigate 
three ritual slayings of children every week.

In destitute villages, people with neither education nor hope, see little 
advantage in following modern ideas. So although child sacrifice is banned, 
they still look to gods and ancestors for help in their lives.

And to be effective, that process requires blood sacrifice. At the end of 
the program (the case is still continuing) the culture-shocked British 
coppers are still pursuing their leads and hope to arrest the people who 
killed the child the police dubbed Adam (to make the case more personal).

But they are painfully aware now that Adam's death is but a drop in a 
bucket, as poverty and accompanying ignorance and desperation result in the 
murder of hundreds of small children every year.

Be An Animal is introduced and narrated by David Attenborough. The 
ABC is showing it in their Richard Morecroft Goes Wild slot (ABC 
6.30pm Saturdays) so by the time it goes to air it will probably have 
acquired an additional introduction from Morecroft.

How this "doubling up" of presenters helps to improve a wildlife program is 
quite beyond me. Do they really believe that we won't watch wildlife 
programs from other countries unless thay are introduced, however 
cursorilly, by a local "name"?

This one is a disappointing attempt to interest young people in the 
mechanics of wildlife (how do animals escape — or fail to escape — from 
predators) by re-enacting various real life hunts as video games.

It was too gimmicky for me and soon palled, but younger viewers might find 
it more gripping.