The Voice of the Barka

PRINCIPLE PHOTOGRAPHY COMPLETE | SEEKING SCREEN PATHWAY

The Barka (Darling River) was once a cornerstone of Australia's cultural and industrial heartland. Now it is a dry, parched and suffocated expanse of empty river beds and struggling communities. A man-made disaster has been quietly killing the creatures, cultures and communities of Australia’s largest river system. With a growing mistrust of government leadership, Australian citizens are being forced to take matters into their own hands to find answers. When a river and its people call for justice, do we listen?

“The Voice Of The Barka” provides the most comprehensive record of human stories on the Darling River disaster to-date. In eight towns from Mildura, Victoria to Walgett in northern NSW, four lawyers conduct an independent Citizens Inquiry into the health of the Darling River, its surrounding ecosystems and communities that rely on it. The result is a shocking and dramatic exposé of a colonial nation’s failing ways, the world’s oldest living culture that’s struggling to be heard, and a new movement of legal practice that’s attempting take hold - 'rights of nature'.

Director/D.O.P: Ryan Jasper

Location Producers: Clare Lewis, Monique Upton

Camera/Editors: Eduard Figueres, Tamia Oticita