TIMOR-LESTE: NATION BUILDING 101

EAST TIMOR: BETRAYAL AND RESURRECTION and the Current Elections

I started work on this film back in January of 2000 as a
television producer for UNTAET. My initial concept was to
make a film which would explain to new UNTAET staffers
why we were there; the film was to be motivational
and informational in the tradition of World War II
Allied propaganda films like the "WHY WE FIGHT" series.
I also thought it was important for the East Timorese to
to have their own historical record for the future.

We got the greenlight from my boss at UNTAET and began shooting.

As the months passed, however, I began to feel that there were
aspects of this story that UNTAET did not want to tell. Some
were obvious, and some not. I soon realized I would have to
make this film on my own and returned to New York in late 2000.

I still thought I had a winner in terms of the story alone, but
I found that the American news black-out on East Timor had been
very effective. There was no media interest in the subject at
all;to this date, my film remains the only film in America
on how the country became a nation.

After year of futile fund-raising, I bought a Final Cut Pro
editing suite and a brilliant former student from F.I.T. named
Jade Anne Benetatos insisted upon serving as my unpaid editor.
We put together the first hour of the film on the history of
of the country through the UNAMET mission of 1999 and the subsequent
destruction of the island by the Indonesian army and their militia
minions, and then showed the cut at the Dag Hammarsjold Auditorium
on May 22, 2002, to help commemorate East Timorese independence.

The audience at this screening was full of UNAMET veterans,
and their response was both very emotional and very rewarding.

I completed the film in 2003, got a distributor in Los Angeles,
(www.seventhart.com), and a website (www.easttimorfilm.com).
The film was entered in festivals from Bangkok to East Hampton,
and there were many positive responses. Then, in December, 2004,
I received the highest award possible for this kind of production -
The United Nations Correspondents Association Ricardo Ortega
Award for Excellence in Broadcast Journalism,awarded by
Secretary General Kofi Annan himself Other recipients included
the BBC, The Wall Street Journal, Nicole Kidman and Hnas Blix.

Needless to say, I was both thrilled and honored.

So, when we had the January 2006 screening for President Gusmao,
the circle was complete. Even my former East Timorese crew was
there, filming for Timor-Leste's only television station TVTL.
I had already sent them tapes in Timor-leste.

When President Gusmao invited me back to Timor-Leste to
make a sequel on the economic development of his country,
I eagerly accepted, my only condition being that the film
be a co-production with TVTL, and that I could use their
name in seeking funding.

A few months later, my wife and I sold our house in Connecticut
and moved to Thailand, undeterred by reports of new violence
in Dili. We soon found a new home, and I immmediately set
We soon found a new home, set up a new Final Cut Pro 5 suite
and invested in a wonderful Sony HD camera. We were ready to
rock and roll, and began adjusting to life in the tropics,
looking for new projects to sustain us while we awaited the
the outcome of the April 2007 presidential elections.

At the moment, all we know is that the first round was
hotly contested, and that a run-off is scheduled between
Prime Minister Jose Ramos Horta and Lu'Olo Guterres, the
candidate of the Fretilin Party. With all due respect to
Senhor Guterres, I sincerely hope that the Nobel Peace
Prize winner Jose Ramos Horta becomes the country's next
president. He is a much-respected international figure,
and has been a master at promoting the cause of his country
in the world for the past 30 years.

I must confess I featured him prominently in my first film
(without his knowledge!) because of his eloquence and wit,
and also because I respected his courage; on more than
one occasion, I filmed him calming down angry mobs intent
upon burning down our UNTAET headquarters in Dili.

Fred Allen, the legendary American curmudgeon, once
described democracy as a " system where the people vote
for what they want, and then get it - good and hard!"

Timor-Leste has already suffered enough, and the country still has a
very, very long way to go. Let us hope that the people of Timor-leste
make a wise choice in this critical election!

TIMOR-LESTE: NATION BUILDING 101

In January of 2006, when President Xanana Gusmao of Timor-Leste
personally invited me to return to his country to make a sequel
to my prize-winning historical documentary EAST TIMOR: BETRAYAL
AND RESURRECTION, I was both thrilled and elated. He had just
seen the first filmwith Prime Minister Jose Ramos Horta at a
screening in New York, and I had no way of knowing how they would
react. Years of wandering through the political minefields
of United Nations Televison had taught me to expect the unexpected
at screenings, so I was ready for anything.

Initially, I had hoped to focus on the economic development of
the country, since my previous film had dealt with East Timor's
amazing struggle for self-determination until independence in
2002. As a television producer for The United Nations Transitional Administration in East Timor in 2000,
I was familiar with many of the basic economic issues, and I
believed the story could be a good case study of nation building.
Much to his credit, President Gusmao did not ask me to paint a
rosy picture, and offered the cooperation of my old friends and
colleagues at TVTL, Timor-Leste's television station
which I helped create back in 2000.

I knew we could expect no financial backing in the United States,
where the mainstream media has shown little or no interest in
the story of Timor-Leste ever since it was illegally annexed by
Indonesia in an American-sponsored invasion in 1975. Whether or
not this media blackout has anything to do with Dick Cheney, Don
Rumsfeld, and Henry Kissenger's involvement in that invasion is
anyone's guess, as is the fact the Timor-Leste sits astride
the strategically important Timor Gap and some major maritime
oil fields. Whatever we have heard about the country has been
due to the heroic efforts of brave independent journalists like
John Pilger, Amy Goodman and Max Stahl - my heros all!

When I was awarded the UN Correspondents' Association Ricardo
Ortega Award for Excellence in Broadcast Journalism for my
East Timor film in December of 2004, I said in my acceptance speech
that the media establishment ought to hang its head in shame for
its collective neglect of the East Timor story, and I stand by that
statement. Attempts are even now being made to rewrite the tragic
history of the country in an effort to exonerate the guilty parties,
and these attempts should be resisted by all those who know the truth
of the destruction of East Timor by the Indonesian army and its militia
minions after the UN run referendum on sefl-determination in 1999
in which the East Timorese voted overwhelmingly (78.5%) to be
independent from Indonesia.

In May of 2006, there was an major outbreak of violence in
the capital of Dili, and I soon realized that the nature of my
story was changing. However,I continued with my preparations, and
moved my production office to Thailand in the summer of 2006.
Since then, I have been seeking funding and getting organized
while adjusting to Thailand, which has not been difficult, thanks
to my wonderful wife. I am now fully operational for HD digital
production here, and am studying Final Cut Pro 5.

In December of 2006, I returned to my native Sweden, where
one of my old teachers from Dramatiska Institutet helped me
develope my project proposal, which now has the working title
TIMOR-LESTE: NATION BUILDING 101. (Nothing like tough feedback
for whipping an idea into shape - thank you Leif Hedman!) I also
received a green light from Professor Erik Hedling of the Film
History Department of the University of Lund for my doctoral thesis on the related subject of DIGITAL FILM IN POST CONFLICT SOCIETIES,
so it was a very rewarding trip on many levels. One of my dreams
is that digital film will enable impoverished countries like
Timor-Leste to make their own films about their reality, and
this thesis is a step in that direction.

So now I am awaiting a visit from my good friend Claudia
Abate from New York, who will arrive in the middle of the insanity
of the Thai New Year celebration of Song Khran. Given the political
situation here, this year's festivities are expected to be particularly intense, but Claudia will be able to relax when
she gets to Dili!

A luta continua...