The Right of Passage

An experimental documentary on the life and death of Juanita Nielsen in the form of a non-linear video installation.

In Nauruan, Anubumin means "night"—and darkness is what the fourth joint film by Zanny Begg and Oliver Ressler begins with. The small and inconspicuous island of Nauru with close to 10,000 inhabitants lies in the Pacific at a great distance to the mainland. But Nauru is a tragic place steeped in history that has been overwritten by numerous narratives. The film addresses these different narratives, starting with the early exploitation of the island and its calcite and phosphate deposits by the colonial powers in the 19th century. After the golden 1970s, when the "Birdshit island" was flush with money, the phosphate was completely mined and the island state soon became insolvent. Since then, Nauru has turned into a gloomy place: 80% of the area is uninhabitable; the attempt to tap new sources of income led to the wide-scale practice of money laundering.

On July 4th 1975, Juanita Nielsen - style icon, journalist and activist - went to what she thought was a business meeting at The Carousel Club, Kings Cross and vanished, never to be seen again. Juanita was an unforgettable Sydney character with her large beehive hairdo, long false eyelashes and fashionable clothes. Glamorous and well-connected, Juanita built a powerful alliance between construction workers and residents that stopped Sydney's developers in their tracks. With millions of dollars at stake, Juanita's disappearance remained unsolved. Filmmaker and artist Zanny Begg explores this mystery through the eyes of those living in Sydney today. Bringing together a cast of actors, performers, activists, stripers, sex workers and beekeepers, Juanita Nielsen NOW probes what it means to live in a city that killed one of its own.