New Documentary on East Timor

Almost 20 years ago, Peter Gordon, then working for Yorkshire Television, travelled to East Timor to make a documentary on the occupying Indonesian regime’s atrocities against the local population. The documentary, Cold Blood, was telecast on national television. Something like a third of the East Timorese people were killed by the Indonesians and a reign of terror was suffocating that part of the island. Peter Gordon’s documentary, which captured the infamous cemetery massacre in the capital Dili that year, contributed to the outcry against the Western-backed Indonesian military junta.
Peter Gordon is now making another documentary on the effect the first filming had on the crew. There was Max Stahl, who did most of the filming, especially the cemetery killings when he came close to being killed. Max remains an outspoken critic of the Indonesian role. Kirstie Sword was an Australian researcher who deflected suspicion from the film crew, all posing as tourists. She later married Xanana Gusmao, who is now Prime Minister of East Timor.
Other interesting characters in the documentary include a dying man in the cemetery attack and someone straddling him. The dying man recovered later and his helper is interviewed in much the same spot for the new documentary. Gusmao and others speak at length of their memories and some of the personal and political dilemmas they had to confront in East Timor’s struggle for independence. The documentary is more a look at – the tired jargon be excused – the “human interest” angle than at the overall politics. Peter Gordon organised the screening of this pilot for the Ilkley Documentary Group.