Title: Aleph Melbourne – Celebrating 20 Years Duration: 9:54 (full specs below) Date of completion: 26 July 2016 Place of production: Melbourne, Australia Facebook: aleph20project
Logline
The amazing story of the group that changed the face of LGBTIQ acceptance in Jewish Australia.
Synopsis (25 words)
The amazing story of Aleph Melbourne, the support group that changed the face of LGBTIQ acceptance in Jewish Australia, from inception in 1995 to 2015.
Synopsis (37 words) The amazing story of Aleph Melbourne, the controversial support group that changed the face of LGBTIQ acceptance in Jewish Australia. Rich with archival material, take a captivating and nostalgic journey from inception in 1995 through to 2015.
Synopsis (long) Aleph Melbourne was founded in 1995 as a social and support group for gay Jewish men. Over the next 20 years this tiny organisation would have a huge impact on the Jewish community in Victoria.
Come on a roller-coaster ride and look back on the achievements and set-backs faced by this amazing group that has transformed the level of acceptance of LGBTIQ people in one of Australia’s biggest Jewish communities.
Includes interviews with key members and friends of the group, radio and TV interviews, and a fascinating collection of media and other nostalgic items.
The story is beautifully woven together with the music of Melbourne Klezmer band Klezmania.
A unique view of one of Australia’s most interesting and diverse communities.
Director Biography
Michael Barnett was born in Melbourne in 1969 to English-speaking immigrant parents of Eastern European Jewish tradition. He attended a combination of government and Jewish day schools, attended an orthodox synagogue with his family in Doncaster and was a member of the Jewish scout troop.
At the age of 26 he broke open the closet doors and accepted himself as a gay man, embarking on a journey that would set him up to be a controversial activist. Combining his skills as a photographer, radio announcer, blogger and computer geek he propelled himself head-first into fighting for equal rights for LGBTIQ people, combating youth suicide and challenging religious oppression and influence in government.
He also found himself heading up a social, support and advocacy group for queer Jews in Melbourne. He did this to raise awareness of the marginalisation and vilification he and others faced from within the Jewish community, along with wanting to provide a safe space and a voice for this sub-community.
Director Statement Aleph Melbourne turned 20 in 2015 and it felt appropriate to commemorate this milestone by making a documentary. Having played a pivotal role in much of the group’s history, together with having amassed a huge archive of material about the group I was well placed to coordinate such a project.
Funding a documentary was going to be the first hurdle to cross. We received a small community grant which kicked things off and additional funds were raised through crowd-funding. With finances in the bank I met with YouthWorx Productions, who were very happy to help tell our story.
I had a mammoth job ahead of me, as my archives were all in the one place but not very organised. I meticulously sifted through 20 years of newspaper clippings, photographs, radio and TV interviews and a variety of other miscellaneous items.
Working closely with the production team, we came up with a broad storyline. The frustrating part for me was working out what to include in the short amount of time available to us. We had enough material to fill at least an hour, so it was going to be a case of picking the absolute highlights and being extremely judicious.
It’s not often I was grateful to be unemployed, but this project might not have come to fruition if I hadn’t had the spare time available to commit to it due to having been out work for several months on end. I made the most of this time to coordinate meetings, shoots, working with the editing team and so forth.
As the finished product came together, my dream started taking shape. I wanted to provide the community with a tangible record of our journey, for posterity. I want future generations to be able to see the struggle LGBTIQ people faced in the Jewish community, from being completely taboo to being broadly accepted in the mainstream.
We now have a record of our 20 years, from 1995 to 2015. We’ve unearthed amazing archival material and brought together the people who helped make this journey possible. I’m proud to be part of this story, shared with so many amazing people, each who have made such an important contribution.
Hi-Res Image gallery (Click on individual gallery image and follow link below to hi-res image)
Interactive Online Screener / Hi-Res download (1920×1080 2.25GB MPEG-4 file)
NOTE: This cut is for cinemas that find the 591MB file too compressed (Available on request)
Credits
Director: Michael Barnett Production: YouthWorx Productions & Michael Barnett Cast: Shaun Miller, Michael Barnett, Elizabeth Syber & Dr Maria Pallotta-Chiarolli Music: Klezmania
Under Victoria’s laws, religious schools are allowed to discriminate against students on the basis of their sexual orientation or gender identity.
This means students could be expelled, excluded or otherwise treated unfavourably just for being lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender.
The Victorian Greens Equality for Students Bill will protect students from discrimination by removing the right of religious schools to discriminate against students on the basis of their sexual orientation or gender identity.
All students should be protected from discrimination, regardless of the type of school they attend.
I urge you to support the Victorian Greens Equality for Students Bill.
Download the bill here. Read the second reading speech here.
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On June 27 2016 the Australia/Israel & Jewish Affairs Council (AIJAC) published an article by Ahron Shapiro critical of the Australian Greens entitled “The Greens and Israel“.
The article opened with the following caution:
Pre-election polling and analysis suggests the Australian Greens party is likely to pick up one or more lower house seats this election – on top of retaining the seat of Melbourne. This gives it the potential to not only hold the balance of power in the Senate, but if a hung parliament results from this election, also determine who forms government – with very significant leverage over the minority government thus formed.
and concluded with the following section on domestic policy:
Religious Exemptions
A further issue in the Greens platform likely to concern many in Australia is its policy of removing clauses granting limited exemptions to religious organisations from anti-discrimination laws. This would likely impact significantly on Jewish schools and other communal institutions and concern has been expressed about this policy by Jewish community leaders.
Aleph Melbourne approached AIJAC for clarification of the “significant impact” and the “expressed concern” referred to in the article.
Colin Rubinstein, AIJAC Executive Director, provided the following explanation:
In response to your query I refer you to the story below in the Australian from May 24.
While it may be that there was not much Jewish reaction in the press on the Greens plan, the reaction that was published was top-level.
Peter Wertheim does not comment on every story he is approached for, and his decision to comment here, I would say, well reflected his confidence and our feedback too that he was conveying the community’s sentiment expressed anecdotally behind the scenes.
At any rate, our mention of this plan took up a very small part of our overall report on the Greens, and should be put in proper perspective.
Christian, Jewish and Muslim leaders are objecting to the Greens plan to remove the religious exemptions, saying it could force people to act against their faith.
and:
Executive Council of Australian Jewry director Peter Wertheim said: “It would be wrong and unworkable for the law to compel people to do things that are contrary to their religious beliefs or conscience.’’
Independently, Aleph Melbourne had contacted Peter Wertheim, Executive Director of the Executive Council of Australian Jewry, on May 24 2016 about the aforementioned article, querying if he had been quoted accurately. Peter provided the following response:
Here is the whole quote I gave to The Australian.
It is appropriate for the law to ensure that people are not discriminated against at work or in accessing education, housing and other services, because of their race, gender, sexual preference, age or disability. However, it would be wrong and unworkable for the law to compel people to do things that are contrary to their religious beliefs or conscience.
My comment would therefore not apply to a proposed change to the definition of marriage in section 5[1] of the Marriage Act. But it would apply to a proposed repeal of section 47[2] of the Marriage Act. My understanding is that the proponents of marriage equality are only seeking the former, not the latter. I didn’t refer specifically to the Greens, but given the vagueness and generality of Senator McKimm’s statements I couldn’t work out what he was proposing, and therefore thought it was right to comment.
It is evident that AIJAC was not aware of Peter Wertheim’s full quote supplied to The Australian, and by inference was similarly unaware that Peter was referring to issues relating to the Marriage Act and not anti-discrimination legislation.
AIJAC was lobbying their interest groups to vote unfavourably for the Greens in the July 2 2016 Federal election. Religious exemptions to anti-discrimination legislation directly impact LGBTIQ Australians, some of whom are Jewish, who are employed by Jewish organisations. It is deeply disappointing that AIJAC targeted the Greens anti-discrimination policy based on an unsubstantiated claim, more so when it has the potential to hurt some of the most vulnerable members of society.
It is also deeply disappointing that AIJAC attempted to minimise the significance of mentioning the paragraph about the Greens policy on removal of religious exemptions to anti-discrimination legislation. The damage to people’s lives due to this exemption is amply significant.
An apology from AIJAC to the Greens and to LGBTIQ people for their unfair criticism of the Greens policy would be appreciated.
