''The Tall Man'' is a 2011 Australian

documentary film A documentary film (often described simply as a documentary) is a nonfiction Film, motion picture intended to "document reality, primarily for instruction, education or maintaining a Recorded history, historical record". The American author and ...

directed by Tony Krawitz. It is about the death of Cameron "Mulrunji" Doomadgee in police custody on Great Palm Island,

Palm Islands The Palm Islands consist of three artificial island, artificial archipelagos: Palm Jumeirah, Dubai Islands (formerly known as Palm Deira or Deira Islands), and Palm Jebel Ali, off the coast of Dubai, United Arab Emirates. The Palm Islands were ...

Queensland Queensland ( , commonly abbreviated as Qld) is a States and territories of Australia, state in northeastern Australia, and is the second-largest and third-most populous state in Australia. It is bordered by the Northern Territory, South Austr ...

on 19 November 2004. The film premiered at the

2011 Adelaide Film Festival The 5th Adelaide Film Festival took place in Adelaide, Australia, from 24 February to 6 March 2011. Katrina Sedgwick was again Festival Director. Julietta Sichel was the head of the jury for the main competition. Judy Davis received the 2011 Don ...

on 2 March 2011.

Synopsis

''The Tall Man'' explores the community reaction and events surrounding the death of Cameron Doomadgee, a 36-year-old Palm Island man who, while walking home intoxicated singing his favourite song '' Who Let the Dogs Out?'', was arrested for harassing and attacking public bystanders. Doomadgee was arrested by Sergeant Chris Hurley, or 'the tall man', and was 45 minutes later found dead in police custody with his

liver The liver is a major metabolic organ (anatomy), organ exclusively found in vertebrates, which performs many essential biological Function (biology), functions such as detoxification of the organism, and the Protein biosynthesis, synthesis of var ...

almost split in two, four broken

ribs The rib cage or thoracic cage is an endoskeletal enclosure in the thorax of most vertebrates that comprises the ribs, vertebral column and sternum, which protect the vital organs of the thoracic cavity, such as the heart, lungs and great vessels ...

, a

ruptured spleen A splenic injury, which includes a ruptured spleen, is any injury to the spleen. The rupture of a normal spleen can be caused by trauma, such as a traffic collision. Signs and symptoms In minor injuries with little bleeding, there may be abdomi ...

, severe bruising to his head and a torn

portal vein The portal vein or hepatic portal vein (HPV) is a blood vessel that carries blood from the gastrointestinal tract, gallbladder, pancreas and spleen to the liver. This blood contains nutrients and toxins extracted from digested contents. Approxima ...

. The police claimed that his death was caused by him tripping on a step and colluded to protect Chris Hurley from facing any charges over the incident. In response to the news that police were claiming Doomadgee's death was the result of an accidental fall, up to 200 Palm Islanders rioted and burnt down the local police station, adjoining courthouse and police barracks. 80 reinforcement police officers carrying machine guns were flown in by

helicopter A helicopter is a type of rotorcraft in which Lift (force), lift and thrust are supplied by horizontally spinning Helicopter rotor, rotors. This allows the helicopter to VTOL, take off and land vertically, to hover (helicopter), hover, and ...

to the island and 28 locals were arrested. Almost all of the 28 locals served jail sentences. Due to media attention and public protests, manslaughter charges were laid against Chris Hurley, making him the first police officer in Australian history to even have to appear in court for the death of an Aboriginal Australian in police custody. Believing themselves to be above the law and not required to be accountable for their actions, police around Australia staged protests demanding that Chris Hurley should not face prosecution. Although Chris Hurley was found not guilty at his trial, a final inquest by Coroner Brian Hine delivered an open finding, that Doomadgee was assaulted, but police collusion on evidence meant that he could not determine if the death was deliberate or accidental.

Cast

*Tracey Twaddle as herself *Andrew Boe as himself *Murrandoo Yanner as himself *TJ Yanner as himself *Erykah Kyle as herself *Lloyd Doomadgee as himself *Elizabeth Doomadgee as herself *Jane Doomadgee as herself *Tony Koch as himself *Clinton Leahy as himself

Production

Script

The film's script was based on the book '' The Tall Man'' by

Chloe Hooper Chloe Melisande Hooper (born 1973) is an Australian author. Her first novel, '' A Child's Book of True Crime'' (2002), was short-listed for the Orange Prize for Literature and was a ''New York Times'' Notable Book. In 2005, she turned to repo ...

Casting

The film aims to include

Aboriginal Australians Aboriginal Australians are the various indigenous peoples of the Mainland Australia, Australian mainland and many of its islands, excluding the ethnically distinct people of the Torres Strait Islands. Humans first migrated to Australia (co ...

telling their own stories in their own voices, in accordance with

Blackfella Films Blackfella Films is an Australian documentary and narrative film production company headquartered in Sydney, founded in 1992 by Rachel Perkins. The company produces Australian short and feature-length content for film and television with a part ...

's main objective. Despite months of negotiations, the

Queensland Police Service The Queensland Police Service (QPS) is the principal law enforcement agency responsible for policing the Australian state of Queensland. In 1990, the Queensland Police Force was officially renamed the Queensland Police Service and the old motto ...

declined to be involved and no members of the Queensland Police were willing to be interviewed.

Release

The film premiered at the 2011 edition of the

Adelaide Film Festival The Adelaide Film Festival (AFF, formerly ADLFF) is a film festival usually held for two weeks in mid-October in movie theater, cinemas in Adelaide, South Australia. Originally presented wikt:Special:Search/biennial, biennially in March from 2 ...

on 2 March 2011, and was also selected for the

Toronto International Film Festival The Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF, often stylized as tiff) is one of the most prestigious and largest publicly attended film festivals in the world. Founded in 1976, the festival takes place every year in early September. The organi ...

in the same year, before being released in cinemas across Australia by Hopscotch/eOne from 17 November 2011. It was first broadcast on

SBS Television The Special Broadcasting Service (SBS) is an Australian hybrid-funded public service broadcaster. About 80 percent of funding for the company is derived from tax revenue. SBS operates six TV channels ( SBS, SBS Viceland, SBS World Movies, SBS ...

in 2012. It was shown on 1 May 2021 on

NITV National Indigenous Television (NITV) is an Australian free-to-air television channel that broadcasts programming produced and presented largely by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. It includes the six-day-a-week ''NITV News Updat ...

, and thereafter

streaming Streaming media refers to multimedia delivered through a network for playback using a media player. Media is transferred in a ''stream'' of packets from a server to a client and is rendered in real-time; this contrasts with file downl ...

on SBS On Demand.

Reviews

Margaret Pomeranz Margaret Pomeranz (born Margeret Anne Jones-Owen, 15 July 1944) is an Australian film critic, writer, producer, and television personality. Early life Pomeranz was born Margeret Anne Jones-Owen on 15 July 1944 in Waverley, a suburb of Sydney ...

described ''The Tall Man'' as "one of the most explosive stories of our time".

Awards

In 2014 the film was selected by the

Australian Directors Guild The Australian Directors' Guild (ADG) is an industry guild representing the interests of film, television, commercials and digital media directors, including documentary makers and animators, throughout Australia. With its headquarters in Sydney ...

for entry to the

Directors Guild of America The Directors Guild of America (DGA) is an entertainment guild that represents the interests of Film director, film and Television director, television directors in the United States motion picture industry and abroad. Founded as the Screen Dir ...

's Directors Finder Series.

References

External links

*
The critical events of the Mulrunji case on Palm Island
{{DEFAULTSORT:Tall Man, The 2011 films 2011 documentary films Australian documentary films Films set in Queensland Documentary films about crime Documentary films about Aboriginal Australians Documentary films about law enforcement Films about police brutality 2010s English-language films Films scored by Antony Partos 2010s Australian films English-language documentary films