Director Anthony ‘Ash’ Brennan
Score 6/6

NYE 2019. Director and film maker Ash Brennan lost his house in the Conjola Park Bushfire which nearly killed his brother and many others who stayed to fight. From a Perth hotel room Ash saw the first image of what used to be his house in the background of a news reporter. After almost being wiped off the map, a traumatised community waited for help. But it never came. Conjola was abandoned and left for dead. Local artists then started creating. They needed to heal. It gave the community hope and solidified their journey to recovery, together.

I went into watching We Are Conjola thinking that it was going to have something to do with First Australians. I was wrong, it was about the impact of the Black Summer bushfires. Yes, I know there are times where I should more about a documentary before watching it. But sometimes (especially with film festivals) it is fun not knowing what a documentary or movie is about before you watch it. I would also like to say that because of how confronting We Are Conjola is in places, this is not a documentary to watch if you are having a bad day. Though it is something everybody needs to watch. Anthony Ash Brennan delivered a beautifully shot documentary with some stunning drone footage. This of course is balanced with some eye-opening file footage from the bushfires.

Watching documentaries that are being screened at the MDFF it is interesting that I have gotten the opportunity to watch documentaries that are about the same topic but how different filmmakers approach that topic. It will not surprise me if a few more documentaries about the Black Summer Bushfires are released next year. With We Are Conjola, what really grabbed my attention was the speech in the first minute of the documentary about fire that ended with the sentence ‘You need to know how to burn.’ Another interesting point that was made later was how First Australians’ cultural burning should be important to Australian Culture.
Peter Dunn made some interesting points about the government’s reaction to bushfires in general. There were also some interesting points made about climate change especially in regards to the increase in temperature over the past ten years.
It is also interesting to note that even with all of the heartbreaking stories from some of the people of Conjola how the community banded together to help each other to recover and how stunning some of the artwork featured in the documentary was.