There was a time when Aftermath co-director Jared Nicholson was in a dark place, getting most of his "news" from far-right podcaster and conspiracy theorist Alex Jones.
asserted
Nicholson → be → Jones
"You're in this echo chamber," he says.
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he → say → chamber
"It formed my entire worldview."
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It → form → worldview
It's how he first encountered video footage of the late Wendy Scurr.
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he → encounter → Scurr
She was a first responder during the Port Arthur massacre on April 28, 1996, which remains Australia's worst mass-shooting event in modern Australian history, claiming 35 lives.
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which → remain → lives
Scurr worked at the historic site's information centre.
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Scurr → work → centre
A former St John's ambulance officer, she trained many of the staff in first aid.
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she → train → aid
They fought to save as many people as possible.
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They → fight → people
"She was a hero," Nicholson says.
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Nicholson → say → ?
Taking a dark turn
The event left a long shadow for survivors and those who aided them.
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who → take → them
As the news cycle moved on, Scurr felt abandoned.
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Scurr → move → ?
Suffering from PTSD and unable to work, she campaigned for proper mental health care for her and her fellow first responders.
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she → suffer → her
Tragically, Scurr fell down a rabbit hole, following wildly untrue conspiracy theories that sprung up in the wake of Port Arthur.
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that → fall → Arthur
It was while in a similarly dark online space that Nicholson encountered Scurr.
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Nicholson → encounter → Scurr
"Every time there was a mass-shooting event, people would share this video of Wendy," he says.
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he → be → Wendy
While Scurr was offline, Nicholson managed to track her down.
"
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Nicholson → manage → her
Then began this three-year process of unpicking her story, becoming close and getting lost in everything."
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process → begin → everything
Premiering at the Adelaide Film Festival, the often-confronting Aftermath explores how a stoic, sensible woman like Scurr could find herself believing in such astonishing untruths.
uncertain
herself → premier → untruths
It's equally the story of how Nicholson withdrew from the abyss that threatened to swallow him too.
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that → withdraw → him
Nicholson's parents split when he was three.
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he → split → ?
His father was an evangelical zealot who talked in tongues, filling his young son's head with the terrifying promise of the rapture alongside conspiracy theories about Y2K and 9/11.
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who → talk → Y2
"I've got a son who's five years old," Nicholson says.
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Nicholson → get → son
"Had I said the same stuff to him, I could see how messed up he would be."
In documenting Scurr's story.
uncertain
he → say → story
Nicholson became increasingly troubled by her unfounded beliefs, pulling him deeper into a paranoid quagmire.
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Nicholson → become → quagmire
And then Scurr fell ill.
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Scurr → fall → ?
"I just had this belief that Wendy f***ing survived everything, she's going to survive whatever's next," he says.
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he → have → everything
"Then you get the call saying that she's passed."
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she → get → call
Telling tricky stories
Mourning Scurr and feeling increasingly lost, Nicholson turned inwards, examining his own fraught childhood and experiencing mental health issues.
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Nicholson → tell → issues
"I had my mental reckoning, a year or so after Wendy's passing, and that was when I started to reflect on my own childhood and go, 'Wow'."
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I → have → childhood
He reached out to seasoned documentarian Ben Lawrence (Ithaka, The People vs Robodebt) for help in shaping Aftermath.
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He → reach → Aftermath
"Ben was that person to try to help me make sense of what the hell this thing could be."
uncertain
thing → try → sense
"When Jared first approached me, the story kind of scared me," he says.
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he → approach → me
"I certainly went in thinking this was going to be a really difficult story to tell.
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this → go → ?
But difficult does not equal unworthy.
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difficult → equal → unworthy
"It's critical that we, as filmmakers, tell stories that frighten us," Lawrence says.
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Lawrence → tell → us
While that was a very different scenario from that shown in Aftermath, some of the harm caused has parallels, particularly around what some people feeling the lack of sufficient support.
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some → show → support
"When something like this happens, you need society to be able to rush in and take care of the most vulnerable," Lawrence says.
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Lawrence → happen → vulnerable
When that doesn't happen, otherwise sensible people can find themselves warped by disturbing conspiracy theories that can bend them out of shape.
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that → happen → shape
"It consumed Wendy," Lawrence says.
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Lawrence → consume → Wendy
"And then Jared tells me about his childhood, so you have these two characters in freefall.
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you → tell → freefall
…and 13 more, not listed.
The Aporia
