Themes Worksheet: Power
Questions relating to Power
Identify the individuals who
represent power in the series.
What do we discover about
ourselves and our response to
power from this perspective?
Define the power they have
What can we discover about
power?
Who becomes empowered in
the series? What discoveries
lead to this empowerment?
Who is disenfranchised?
What responsibilities do we
Provide explicit examples from the
text
Dr Corlett
Participants
Government: politicians and military (US and
Malaysia)
Doco makers
UN agencies
Corlett: power through authority (title/role);
he’s the mediator; controlling the experiment
Participants: 1st world free country; power
of freedom of speech; freedom to
move/travel freedom of choice – don’t have
to buy into this experiment; don’t ave to
change their opinions
Government: politicians and military (US
and Malaysia): power to create policies,
legislations, life & death
Doco makers: power to construct response;
manipulate emotions
UN agencies: power to protect, decide the
fate of, control movement/freedom
How does the director reveal this
power through the choice of
techniques
Look at midnight raid
Free to express their opinion – find
QUOTES: body lang, expletives etc
Uniforms – symbol of power
Controlled by hegemonic group  first world
countries
Who holds it
Difficult to shift power balance
Powerful group can disenfranchise others 
they can manipulate and control actions of
others
Someone decides who has power, and what
the nature of it is
Distribution of power is nequitable
External agencies remove power from
people (eg UN remove power of choice of
where ti live  sent to camps)
It is arbitrary: it can be achieved through
random ways (eg BIRTH)
Power gives you freedom, control
Audience: empowered to make more
informed decisions rather than be
manipulated by the media
Participants: empowered by knowledge to
make personal choices rather than those
driven by the audience
Producers: control the response / construct;
their agenda – bring to us the face of the
refugee crisis & Aust’s response to it (which
we see is lacking)
Refugees: attitudinal change
The participants: not very much (taking the
phones and passports)  they do not have
control over their own lives in this
experiment
The refugees: their whole world is
controlled by someone else  those in
limbo, in transit, judged as ‘illegal’, shadow
world, “criminals”
WE HAVE RESPONSIBILITIES:
 vernacular
have if we have power over
others? How is discovery of
responsibility essential to our
becoming fully human?
To care
To protect / support
To empathise
To understand
To contribute
To be advocates
How is it essential: knowledge  emoathy
 transformation
Themes Worksheet: Conflict
Questions relating to
Conflict
Provide explicit examples from the
text
How do the conflicts that arise in
the text lead us to discoveries
about ourselves and the world?
Conflicting perspectives about refugees:
bias, political affiliations  the individual
and social context of the participants
Often manipulated by media
Lack of empathy
War conflict
Who causes the conflict?
Genre of the text & the social experiment 
the constructed nature of the text
Context of the refugees – personal, social,
historical, cultural
External forces: the US/Aust coalition
Media
Because of political agendas
Social stereotyping
Ignorance
Experiences
Why does the conflict exist?
How does the series force us to
recognise the source of conflict?
What challenges are posed in
order to resolve the conflict?
What discoveries need to be
made and realised in order for the
resolution to be effective?
If the conflict is resolved, how?
What discoveries di we need to
make about ourselves and others
in order to be able to negotiate
the challenges to overcoming
conflict?
 relate second part of Q to POWER
How egocentric we are
How manipulated we are by media, political
propaganda,
How uninformed we are
NOT a political issue
How does the director reveal this
conflict through the choice of
techniques
Evident in montage of participants
Themes Worksheet: Change
Questions relating to
Change
Who changes as a result of the
experience and what
discoveries lead or provoke
them to change?
What circumstances bring
about change in the text? Why
are we being exposed to these
ideas? Are we being
manipulated to accept that the
discoveries made by others
should be adapted to our own
life experiences?
What are the consequences of
change expressed in the text?
If we use these consequences
as a source of personal
discovery what do we have to
accept about ourselves and
our place in the world?
What are the benefits of
change? Who embraces
change and who refutes
change? What do we discover
about prejudice and fear,
tolerance and compassion
from examining the benefits of
change?
Provide explicit examples from the
text
How does the director reveal this
power through the choice of
techniques