![]() ![]() The “fog of war” is something few of us will ever experience. Their exposure for long periods, fighting an enemy who is often impossible to identify, must desensitise their judgment and quite clearly their souls. ![]() Nevertheless, these hardened, trained killers are exactly that. The media revelation was appropriate and correct and I am delighted that the truth has been revealed via his ill-conceived defamation trial. I do not support Ben Roberts-Smith, but I still feel some sympathy for him and his colleagues. Julie Carrick, Leopold Condemn our political leaders who took us to war He deserves no recognition at all at the Australian War Memorial. Also the fear he invoked in them when he tried to prevent them from testifying about his violence. Perhaps the testimony of those who served with Ben Roberts-Smith, who had to deal with the treatment he inflicted on Afghan civilians, and who were afraid of him, could be included. Prisoners of war who refuse to answer may not be threatened, insulted or exposed to any unpleasant or disadvantageous treatment of any kind.“ ![]() The point of unearthing this hidden history is not to overturn every stone but to excavate a long-interred sense of possibility, of love and freedom.Kim Beazley, chairman of the War Memorial Council, says: “We are carefully considering the additional content and context to be included in these displays.” Perhaps they should start with these words from the Geneva Convention: “No physical or mental torture, nor any other form of coercion, may be inflicted on prisoners of war. When David reconnects with an old flame, the details of their conversation-like those of their relationship-are allowed to remain vague. But the film also challenges generic conventions of the coming-out narrative: rather than depicting a linear progression from repression to revelation, the Rosses stage a complex pas de deux between trauma and redemption, and, even while celebrating openness and pride, they privilege the right to privacy, to have parts of the self remain reserved or inscrutable. Though colored by loss, regret, and questions of what might have been, the film is ultimately oriented toward joy and liberation, as David-encouraged by Jamie and a queer community of fellow-artists-begins to dance again.Īmid a political landscape in which queer and trans people-and the families and communities who support them-are increasingly under attack, the filmmakers wanted “Dad Can Dance” to be accessible to a wide audience, affirming to those learning to accept themselves and instructive to those learning to accept others. “Dad Can Dance” is about reconciliation between parent and child as much as between past, present, and future selves. In addition to David’s buried creative aspirations, he divulged that he had had an intimate relationship with a man-a fact that seemed significant to withhold, considering his fraught reaction when Jamie, as a teen-ager, came out as queer. “This is a story about secrets,” Jamie proclaims, in voice-over, early in the film. ![]() The work that Ross began that summer culminated in their documentary “Dad Can Dance,” co-directed with David Ross. Reeling, Ross left for the airport, and upon arrival at Banff they headed almost immediately to the archives, seeking photographs from 1973. This felt like a bombshell to Ross: though David, a financial consultant, had shared many memories of his youth, he had never mentioned his former life and dreams as a dancer. He had studied ballet, but he ultimately quit, discouraged by teachers’ criticisms that his body-his instrument-was inadequate. Sitting at the kitchen table, David became unexpectedly emotional he told Ross that he, too, had held a residency at Banff, forty-five years prior. But Ross’s plans changed when they stopped along the way to have lunch with their father, David. In 2018, the artist and filmmaker Jamie Ross was headed to a residency at the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity, where they intended to work on a project about poisonous and aphrodisiac plants. ![]()
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