Our Brother James
- Country
- Australia
- Year
- 2001
- Director
- Jessica Douglas-Henry
- Producer
- Mary-Ellen Mullane
- Finance
- Film Australia National Interest Program
SBS Independent
Australian Film Commission
NSW Film & Television Office - Budget
- AUD 320,000
- Length
- 52 minutes
Synopsis
James Dalmann killed himself in 1996. He was 20. In this very personal film, director Jessica Douglas-Henry returns to Geraldton in Western Australia with her sister Alix to document the impact of her brother' s death. Alix was the person closest to James. She was 17 when he died. In the three years that followed, she lost five other friends to suicide. Although this film is about James, it's also Alix's story. It's about the people left behind, whose lives have been changed forever by the suicide of someone they loved. Retelling the story is one way to reconcile what has happened. It's a difficult but necessary journey, and in the end, a life-affirming one.
Impact
Suicide is a notoriously difficult subject to tackle responsibly in a media context. Youth suicide is even harder.
With its highly sensitive but head-on approach to the issue
Our Brother James has been used extensively as an educational resource in both secondary and tertiary education. (Please see study guide).
The film has also reached many individuals from all walks of life and provided solace, inspiration and hope; young people who have contemplated suicide, young indigenous people who want to help their communities, grieving family members left behind after suicide. Many of these people found ways of contacting me and my sister Alix directly to express how profoundly the film had moved them.
"This is a film which is told with such simplicity and integrity that the effect is quite extraordinary. Films about suicide are hard to make because the loss is often so overwhelming it can be impossible to move beyond that, but through an openness and sensitivity on the part of the director this film succeeds and, by the end, becomes a hymn of love." Anne Deveson
"Stories such as this can be powerful ways of moving community attitudes towards an understanding of mental health, social and mental well-being, and the risks and protective factors in the lives of young people." Professor Ian Webster AO, Chair of the National Advisory Council for Youth Suicide Prevention.
Festivals and Awards
2002 NSW Premier's Literary Awards
Finalist - Script Writing Award
2002 Film Critics Circle of Australia 2001 Awards
Finalist - Best Australian Documentary Critics Jury Panel
2002 Mumbai International Film Festival for Documentary, Short & Animation Films (MIFF)
2001 WOW Film Festival
2001 Cork Film Festival