The celebrated journalist is remembered by Christopher Hird and Matt Hird of Dartmouth Films, the producers and distributors of his last four films.
The date was 17 January 2014. The location was a piece of vacant land in the inner-city area of Sydney, Australia, known as The Block. The occasion was the Australian premiere of Utopia — John Pilger’s film about the historic and current treatment of Indigenous Australians by past and modern Australian governments and their agencies.
There was an audience of more than 4,000 people — at least a third of them from Indigenous communities and many of whom had travelled from all over the country to see the film. At the end of the film the audience rose, applauding for five minutes, many holding candles in the air.
Australian-born journalist and film-maker John Pilger was also there. He had never experienced anything like this in his life and was incredibly moved. John was a determined and forceful journalist, capable of rigorous interrogation of those in power, and his films garnered many awards and plaudits, but this was a rare occasion when he could witness for himself both the power of his work and the appreciation of those whose cause he was championing.
It was an aspect of John’s approach to his work that was not always apparent from his on-screen persona: what motivated him was giving a voice to those whose voices are not often heard and making the world better for them. One of his best-known films was the 1979 film Year Zero: the Silent Death of Cambodia, about the murderous Khmer Rouge regime and the failure of the international community to provide aid to support the surviving population. It won many awards, but the aspect of the film that John spoke about most was its impact.
With astonishment he recalled how after its transmission on ITV the telephone switch boards at the broadcaster were jammed by viewers offering money for the people of Cambodia. The mail room was overwhelmed with tens of thousands of letters with cheques and cash: in the first few days £1 million (£5 million in today’s money) came in. The film is credited with raising more than £45 million.`
John knew that he had fans (not a word he would use, by the way) but he didn’t realise the depth of people’s loyalty. After we produced Utopia John wanted to make the film that eventually became The Coming War on China.
After we had committed to production, one of our funders pulled out, leaving a big hole in the budget. We decided a crowdfunding appeal might be a way to fill it. As John could never be considered an early digital adopter (he never had a smartphone, for example), it was with some trepidation that we suggested the crowdfunding appeal. He was persuaded and we launched the appeal. From all over the world, money poured in. John was genuinely humbled: he just didn’t expect people to believe in him in that way.
In 2011 when John won the Trustees Award at the Griersons — probably the highest accolade in the UK documentary world — he quoted the words of Sidney Bernstein, the founder of Granada Television who, in defending one of John’s films from attack, said: “We are not in the business of pleasing the powers that be.” That was part of John’s enduring appeal: everyone knew on whose side he stood.
His last film was The Dirty War on the National Health Service, shown (like all his others, on ITV) in 2019 and was described by him as his homage to his adopted country. It was both a passionate defence of the concept of universal health care for all and a searing indictment of the way it was being undermined by the enthusiasm for privatisation.
Like much of his work, it was also a challenge to the established narratives and ideology that lie behind much of everyday media coverage — a phenomenon against which John urged us all to be on our guard. This also explains why he was so revered — and is part of his legacy.
