Reconciliation Australia chief executive Karen Mundine hopes the release of an Adam Goodes documentary is a catalyst for conversation and change that extends beyond AFL circles.
Ian Darling’s film The Final Quarter, made entirely from archive footage, examines the final three seasons of Goodes’ 372-game career.
It premieres on Friday at the Sydney Film Festival but is expected to air on TV later this year, while there are plans afoot for screenings to take place in schools.
Advanced screenings have prompted emotive responses from AFL club chief executives and players, many of whom were saddened by the league’s inaction in response to the racism Goodes experienced prior to retiring in 2015.
The 2014 Australian of the Year’s championing of issues outside football, such as Indigenous constitutional recognition, and celebration of Indigenous culture in the form of a war cry at the SCG is also documented in the movie.
As is the fiercely negative response from some pundits, booing from fans and the explanations proffered by those insisting their jeers were not race related.
“Adam is such a strong and resilient person,” Mundine told AAP, describing the film as upsetting, uncomfortable and important.
“I was always amazed during that period of time, how he managed to remain true to himself but continued to be vocal. To have an opinion and voice it.
“I really want this film to be a new conversation starter. Not just a rehash … what do we need to change or do differently, so there is no repeat.
“So we don’t have another person driven out of game or somebody in a workplace feeling so isolated and put upon they leave an industry.”
Indigenous AFL players, left feeling angry, ashamed and guilty after watching the film, have urged all Australians to see The Final Quarter.
“We are hopeful that this moment will be remembered as a turning point for Indigenous people,” the AFLPA’s Indigenous Advisory Board, featuring Shaun Burgoyne and other players, said in a statement.
Swans supporter Mundine and Michael O’Loughlin, Goodes’ close friend and former teammate, were among the first to see Darling’s final cut.
“I really hope it starts positive conversations around race relations in this country,” Mundine said, having been involved in reconciliation for more than 20 years.
“What racism looks like, what it feels like.
“I was in tears by the end of it. It was a really emotional reaction … I felt specifically for Adam. The film also felt representative of things that we as Aboriginal people experience on a regular basis as well.
“Most Aboriginal people I know, myself included, have had very small slithers of that. Felt that isolation, not being welcomed.”
