Tom's TV picks w/b 24 July

Ronit Elkabetz

Getting in very early this week - something on SUNDAY, and a major editing job on my forthcoming Marxist Left Review article all weekend ...

I'm guessing that most Australians older than about 30 or 40 got their first exposure to the Native Americans through the Westerns directed by John Ford and others. Ford was in some ways a great director but he, like most in the film industry, had shockingly racist attitudes towards the Native Americans. They were either Noble Savages or else just Savages. The white "settlers" and the US Cavalry were essentially carrying out a civilising mission by driving them off the land. Notably, it took an anti-war movement (Vietnam) to see a new "revisionist" approach to film making about Native Americans, starting with Little Big Man (1970) and Soldier Blue (1970). "REEL INJUN" (ABC2 , SUNDAY at 8.30pm), a Canadian documentary in same genre as "Reel Bad Arabs", tracks how Hollywood has depicted Native Americans since the early silent movies.

MONDAY brings a repeat of "NIN'S BROTHER" (SBS2 at 9pm)  about the death of a young Aboriginal man in South Australia in the 1950s, and also "THE INSECT WOMAN" (1963) (SBS2 at 10.30pm) which might sound like a trash sci-fi film but is actually about the struggle of a poor Japanese woman who escapes from rural poverty only to find yet worse in the big city. This is directed by Shohei Imamura, who also directed "Pigs and Battleships" which I recommended a couple of weeks back and which was quite involving. A reviewer on IMDB writes of the heroine in "The Insect Woman": "Tome's struggles are a metaphor for Japan's wartime struggle. Her rural upbringing represents pre-war Japan, mostly rural and agricultural. Her factory work parallels Japan's call to war and subsequent industrialization. Her work in the Japanese-American household could be related to Japan's service to America during the occupation. Finally, her prostitution is a rather harsh analogy to Japan's selling of service to American might." I guess that involves a few spoilers (!) but might help set the woman's story in the wider context.

TUESDAY brings something likely to make your blood boil. SBS1's "INSIGHT" programme at 7.30pm. Theme this week "MIGRATION BOOM". See a whole bunch of "sophisticated" racists pontificating about "cultural cohesion", Australia's "carrying capacity", "human capital" etc. etc. Keep your shoes close to hand. Also on Tuesday, "JAFFA" (2009) on SBS2 at 9.30pm, a film about a "cross-cultural" romance between an Israeli and a Palestinian, set in the Tel Aviv suburb of the same name. Heavy on the family angst and drama, light on on the broader politics of the situation. But featuring the great Ronit Elkabetz who did a really touching performance in "The Band's Visit" two years previously.

Finally, ABC2 brings a new series of the black comedy "THE THICK OF IT" on THURSDAY at 10.30pm. Whitehall politics unvarnished and unexpurgated.