The Tall Man

Overview

The Tall Man, first a book by Chloe Hooper and now a documentary by Tony Krawitz, looks into the 2004 death of Cameron Doomadgee, who was arrested on Palm Island while merrily singing 'Who Let the Dogs Out' and found unresponsive in a police cell 40 minutes later. His death sparked a riot on the isolated island; an inquest that concluded his fatal injuries came from a fall; and eventually a trial in which the arresting officer, Senior Sergeant Chris Hurley, was found not guilty of manslaughter. Doomadgee's autopsy revealed multiple injuries, including having had his liver cleaved in two by his spine.

The Tall Man is as good a work of long-form journalism as you're likely to read. Hooper's words are empathetic without being sentimental, evocative without being overwrought, and powerful without losing objectivity. The book won the Queensland, Victorian and NSW Premiers' literary prizes and was talked about for the better parts of 2009 and 2010. So what more is there for a documentary film spin-off to do?

The main benefit is that you get to see the primary source video that made up a lot of the evidence in the inquest. It's incredibly telling — not in the sense that you know the one true, real story of what happened, but that you see the true, real faces of people who were hurt, conflicted by or otherwise entangled in this tragic event. It's a complex single story that shines a light on the pervasiveness of Aboriginal deaths in custody generally and reveals a systemic set of problems that ensnares people who probably mean well.

The documentary also features interviews with Doomadgee's family and friends, Palm Island residents, lawyer Andrew Boe, liaison officers, small-town Queenslanders who knew and admired Hurley, and author Chloe Hooper. These interviews are prettily shot, well edited and develop the story with due depth. Sadly, as with the book, Senior Sergeant Hurley and his colleagues declined to participate. The filmmakers do a good job of outlining both their official line and unofficial motivations, but you do wish we were in a position to hear the side of the story still kept in the shadows by the closed ranks of the police.