This article was originally published in print in the Swan Hill Guardian on August 9, 2019.
BULLYING and booing in sport is never okay, whether it be at a junior or elite level of competition.
Set for release on August 22, documentary The Australian Dream is set to continue the debate surrounding issues concerning former AFL player Adam Goodes during his career.
The issue recently resurfaced in the media with the broadcast of The Final Quarter, followed by a special panel discussion by news program The Project.
The Australian Dream was the opening film of this year’s Melbourne International Film Festival, a leading film festival in Australia.
This was the world premiere of the film, opening up the issue to the world.
At the time that the Sydney Swans player cut short his career due to ongoing racism and booing from fans while on the football field, I didn’t know much about the situation.
This is never a way someone should have to end their career; it should be left up to the person to decide.
I believe at the time I had heard about it on the news but hadn’t looked any deeper into the situation.
It is disheartening to continue to hear how racism and the booing at the hands of fans became too much for Goodes to continue playing the sport he loved.
He is a dual Brownlow Medallist and two-time premiership champion.
According to the film’s official website, The Australian Dream prompts questions about Australia’s relationship with racism and its ability to confront its own past.
“This compelling, provocative and cinematic film uses interviews from both sides of the debate to ask probing and fundamental questions about what it means to be Australian and what it takes for any individual to stand up for what they truly believe in,” the website said.
The film is written by award-winning indigenous Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) journalist Stan Grant.
In May, Mr Grant told The Guardian while in Swan Hill, seeing the film open the 2019 MIFF was a wonderful achievement.
Mr Grant conducted a number of talks with the schools and the community in Swan Hill and Robinvale, brushing on his career and the treaty, among other issues.
“Adam’s a really good guy and the film is really about all the things I’ve talked about (on his Stan Grant tour Respectful and Just Stan Grant Tour during National Reconciliation Week).
“It’s a powerful story, it’s a story of hope, it’s not a story saying look at bad things that happened to Adam Goodes, it’s a story of how we as a country emerged from that stronger.
“And it’s a generous story, it’s a hopeful story, it’s a story that says Australia is a better country than those who just boo at them.”
The trailer for the film begins with some powerful words from Goodes himself:
“Racism has no place in society and it has no place in our industry.”
Lillian Altman 