THE BYRON SHIRE
2012 BYRON BAY FILM FESTIVAL LIFTOUT
Volume 26 #37 Tuesday, February 28, 2012 Mullumbimby 02 6684 1777 Byron Bay 02 6685 5222 Fax 02 6684 1719 editor@echo.net.au adcopy@echo.net.au www.echo.net.au 23,200 copies every week
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YO U H AV E T H E R I G H T TO R E M A I N S I L E N T B U T I T ’S N OT R E CO M M E N D E D
CAB AUDIT
Shai pleads Tales of hashish assassins revisited not guilty Hans Lovejoy
Shai Major has pleaded not guilty at the Byron Courthouse for operating a backpackers hostel. The Echo previously reported on December 13, 2011, that the compliance raid on his leased property by Council allegedly found 19 people in the house, including eight schoolies. Council staff told the media at the time the accommodation was unsafe and unsanitary. Mr Major, however, has strenuously denied that, and many of the other claims made against him. ‘At no time anyone ever paid to camp in our backyard or to sleep on a mattress in the garage like the council falsely claimed. Also the claims that the “schoolies” paid $800pw each are over the top and incorrect. Our home is not a slum. It is a friendly and safe share-house of happy and creative people who live, study and work in Byron, and enjoy living together.’ Veteran local filmmaker Richard Mordaunt has just returned from war-torn Syria and will present his doco The
Appalled by reporting
Secret History of the Assassins at the Byron Film Festival on Sunday March 4. Photo Jeff ‘You Can’t Be Syriass’ Dawson
Mr Major told The Echo he was appalled by The Northern Star reports regarding his case, and says the newspaper should issue him a public apology. ‘I have no arguments with anyone’s opinions, only with the falsification of the facts and the derogatory remarks published by The Northern Star and other APN publications. ‘They did not even bother to contact me to comment regarding the claims made by Byron Shire Council.’ Mr Major also sent a parting shot to Council management. ‘We are living in the best part of the world, yet are being treated like little kids by smallminded bureaucrats that waste our money on needless actions, and care nothing for our actual quality of life.’ Mr Major has requested to be given the evidence Council has against him and is representing himself as he says he can’t afford a lawyer. Council has also dropped proceedings against the property’s owner. A new hearing date has been scheduled for April 20.
Luis Feliu
Last week’s targeting and killing of journalists covering the Syrian conflict was a chilling reminder to Byron shire filmmaker Richard Mordaunt of his luck in filming there ‘just before the whole thing exploded’. Richard, whose feature documentary The Secret History of the Assassins is being premiered at the Byron Bay International Film Festival, had returned to Syria and Iran late in 2010 to ‘bookend’ his personal journey of discovery which began there some 50 years earlier. As fresh-faced 20-year-olds, Richard and his filmmaking colleague Michael Oliver were part of an Oxford University expedition sponsored by the British Museum that set out to explore the Castles of the Assassins in northern Persia. They were following in the footsteps of the great English traveller Freya Stark and were among the first western travellers to explore the Val-
ley of the Assassins and the film they made then was shown on David Attenborough’s Travellers Tales in 1961. Fast forward to November 2010 when the now mature-aged filmmakers decided to reunite and revisit the story, spending six weeks in Syria filming for their current documentary and, just before Christmas last year, were able to film the end of their fascinating story in Iran.
Origins of Assassin In their latest film, they explore the ‘origins and history of our word assassin’. The film is also a journey of discovery inside the Islamic world both in northern Iran and modern day Syria. ‘In a certain sort of way, it’s a coming of age story; we had no idea then, we were just kids. We climbed 12,000foot mountains to get to this valley and found things that hadn’t been discovered since the Mongols destroyed the castles in 1256,’ Richard told The Echo. ‘At the time, we had two doctors, both Iranian who spoke Farsi (Per-
New president for Bangalow club A board meeting of the Bangalow Bowling Club last week saw club president Martin Colbert stand aside and the election of Brian Mackney, convener of the Club Rescue Committee, to the position. The change follows on the voluntary administrator returning control of the club to the board of directors. A group of local business and professional people had formed a club rescue committee in an effort to prevent the club going into liquidation. At the meeting the club’s board acknowledged the work of the committee, passing a resolution to consult with it on matters of major significance. In standing aside as president Mr Colbert said, ‘The community has made it clear they want to see change in the club… it is important that the membership and the community now get behind the committee.’ Mr Mackney thanked Mr Colbert for his vote of confidence. ‘There is much to be done, but with the effort of the board working closely with the rescue committee, a much stronger team has been forged.’
sian), which meant we had no problems with the locals, but we had to have permits to go into prohibited areas. There were no sealed roads and we used donkeys and mules to carry all our stuff up the mountains and we had only a small 16mm camera. The footage from that we restored for this new film.’
what’s happening there.’ Their first film revealed a chapter of Middle-Eastern history which had remained largely hidden for 900 years, but their new one developed into a very personal journey for the two inside the Islamic world, exploring the Assassin Legends and present day Islam. The original film, according to Islam denigrated by West Richard, investigates the Ismaili AsThe new film, almost an hour long, sassin story trying to find out who is unusual in that it combines footage were the original Ismailis and ‘how did they get their terrible reputation from both tours 50 years apart. ‘But the important thing about this for assassination?’ more recent one is that it’s also a journey about Islam. Islam has been so Hashish before battle denigrated by the West, which is rac‘It was the Syrian Assassin leader, ist to the core, and that’s the reason Sinan, known as The Old Man of the this film will be shown around the Mountain, who gave his followers world. We were so lucky to film there hashish, before sending them out to before the uprisings tore through the assassinate his enemies. Hence the Middle-East. name hashishin which means users of ‘Syria was very peaceful then; there hashish and hashashin was misprowas no sign of violence before the nounced “assassin” by the Crusaders. uprising. It’s a beautiful place, with ‘I guess you could say they were the wonderful people. It’s very sad to see continued on page 2
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