Adam Goodes, in retrospectives

27 February 2020

Last year, two documentaries regarding the Adam Goodes booing fiasco were released mere weeks apart: Shark Island Productions’ The Final Quarter and Madman Films’ The Australian Dream, anchored by Stan Grant. These two films took different tacts reflecting on this public example of racialised harassment and how it manifested using the power of retrospect. While The Final Quarter relied entirely on archival footage to construct the narrative, The Australian Dream primarily relied upon interviews and talking heads to set the scene.

Both have now aired on Australian television, leading to heightened discussion on racism and the role it plays within the sporting world. Given the topic and timing of both of the films, I couldn’t help but compare the two films as an Aboriginal viewer who spends a lot of time dissecting Australia’s racism in her own analysis. As I watched both of them, my reaction to each was markedly different.

The Australian Dream, through its use of interviews, set the scene with regards to Goodes’ backstory. It gave viewers an insight into how Goodes, a man of humble beginnings, came to be one of the greatest players on the ground. It is inspirational both to watch Goodes’ skills grow but also to see him come into his own identity as an Aboriginal man.

The film also features interviews from past players such as Nicky Winmar and Gilbert McAdam, giving some insight into how racism has manifested on the ground over the years. This was valuable as it showed the 'it’s just because Goodes is a flog; other Aboriginal players didn’t face racism' argument for the complete fallacy it was. These interviews were then interspersed with other talking heads such as family members, conservative commentators and fellow Indigenous sports people.

Rather than gaining insight, however, I found myself perturbed by the interviews. A lot of my reaction has to do with who Stan Grant chose to interview for the film and just how entry level some of the discussion around racism was. It was correctly pointed out to me on social media that as an Aboriginal woman with demonstrated progressive politics, I was not the film’s intended audience, rather it was made to appeal to those who aren’t across the Black history of this country, who don’t find their humanity questioned on a daily basis, and who don’t understand that collectively acting against an Aboriginal man because he dares to not put

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Adam Goodes, in retrospectives

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