Billal

Clip 2: Circumstances lead to a car accident

Taken from the documentary Billal (1996)

Original title classification M – this clip chosen to be PG

Curator’s clip description

Young Anglo-Australian Linc talks about how he was escaping from a potential attack when he accidentally ran down a young Australian-Lebanese man. He describes how, although he fears for his life, he sympathises with the Lebanese community’s anger.

Curator’s notes

Remarkably frank material. The director has got right to the heart of the matter with a central participant.

Damien Parer, curator

Teachers’ notes

provided by The Le@rning Federation

This page is printer friendly

This clip shows Linc Beswick explaining what happened when the car he was driving ran over a Lebanese-Australian teenager. Images of the housing estate in south-western Sydney where both live, a damaged house and the accident scene are interspersed with Beswick’s account of how the ‘Lebs’ damaged the house, frightened him off and then, as he was driving away, one ‘came out in front’ of him. Beswick admits he was stoned at the time. The clip concludes with Beswick commenting that he knows that ‘whatever way, I’m going to cop it … it’s only natural’.

Educational value points

Beswick’s comments in the interview almost casually reveal the ethnic stereotypes that shape his thinking and actions. Except for his victim’s family, he denies Lebanese-Australians much individuality, grouping them together as ‘Lebs’ and positioning them as ‘different’ by describing their actions as unintelligible. By exaggerating the numbers of Lebanese-Australians threatening trouble, he tries to convince the audience that Lebanese-Australians are dangerous.

Beswick’s words expose the violence prevalent in the south-western Sydney community where he lives. His comments reveal that he considers taking violent action to avenge harm done to the family to be quite natural – something he would do himself. In explaining why he thought the men coming towards him were carrying weapons, he says ‘anyone would think the worst’ when seeing someone with their hands out of sight.

Filmmaker Tom Zubrycki superimposes images of the damaged house and the street where the accident happened over Beswick’s explanations to allow viewers to compare the two and decide whether Beswick is credible or not. The clip shows the first of two interviews with Beswick in the documentary. The second, made closer to the court case in which he is committed for trial, shows Beswick forgetting some things and exaggerating others.

Cannabis use, rather than racial hatred, is the reason Beswick gives for running over the young Lebanese-Australian, Billal Etter, and there is evidence to show that cannabis is playing an increasing role in road accidents. Depressant drugs such as cannabis tend to slow reactions, reduce concentration and make complex driving situations difficult to negotiate. In 2003, 28 per cent of young men surveyed admitted to driving while under the influence of an illicit drug.

Zubrycki’s decision to film much of the Beswick interview in close-up with the interviewer out of sight creates intimacy between the interviewee and the viewer. Extreme close-ups give viewers the somewhat illusionary sense that they can use the interviewee’s gestures (such as eye shifts and shrugs of the shoulders) to make valid judgements about what he is thinking and feeling.

The clip shows how film can be edited to present a viewpoint that, as in this case, offers the viewer an alternative perspective. Following the extreme-close-up interview in which Beswick expresses remorse and describes the incident, Zubrycki inserts a long shot depicting Beswick alone in a wide open space, facing away from the camera. That and the following two shots put the viewer in Beswick’s shoes and add power to his assertion that he is fearful of reprisal.