John Safran: Murder in Mississippi

Overview

Ever since floundering onto Australian screens in Race Around the World, John Safran's established a reputation for daring and provocative comedy. He's been (literally) crucified, gone through Ray Martin's rubbish, set himself on fire in St Kilda (to protest the suspension of Spida Everitt), and got a radical Islamic cleric to put a fatwa on Rove McManus.

But Safran's brand of confrontation has been tempered throughout by a documentarian's eye for the issues, with satire as the framework for serious investigations of religion, race, and social identity. In his talk at the Wheeler Centre, he'll be discussing his newly-launched book, Murder in Mississippi, a hefty tale of true crime in the tradition of In Cold Blood.

The book was spawned from Safran meeting an avowed racist while filming in America's Deep South. After returning to Australia and hearing of the man's death, he began to unravel the rich contradictions at the heart of this character. Guiding us through the making of his book, Safran might just give away his secret — how did he document a story in such a powerful and effective way without sacrificing any part of his own deeply distinctive voice?