Dr Caldicott’s crusade to rid the world of nuclear weapons is captured on film by her niece

HELEN’S WAR tracks, through Anna’s eyes, the American launch of Helen’s
latest book, The New Nuclear Danger ­ George W. Bush’s Military
Industrial Complex (which coincided with the 9-11 attacks), and her
fund-raising efforts for the Nuclear Policy Research Institute, a
left-wing Thinktank designed to saturate the mainstream media with
sobering facts about America’s nuclear policy.

Helen help us

Dr Caldicott’s crusade to rid the world of nuclear weapons is captured
on film by her niece, reports Alexa Moses.

Helen’s War: Portrait of a Dissident
http://www.helenswar.com/

Director: Anna Broinowski
Rated: PG
Opens: Sunday

There’s a business adage, as worn as an ancient pair of Blundstones,
that says one should never do business with family. When you piss off
your family, you must live with the repercussions.

Sydney filmmaker Anna Broinowski chose to live with the consequences
when she made her documentary Helen’s War: Portrait of a Dissident. It’s
about her aunt, the tireless Australian anti-nuclear campaigner Dr Helen
Caldicott.

By mixing business and family, the biopic turned into a film as much
about Caldicott’s relationship with her family as her politics.

A scene shows the two pugnacious redheads - one in her 30s, the other in
her 60s - arguing in a hotel room. Broinowski, who looks as if she’s
partly baiting Caldicott for the camera, partly fed up with her aunt’s
stridency, has told Caldicott she’s a bit extreme and that’s why she
loses the media.

Broinowski is lounging sulkily and Caldicott is sitting bolt upright,
but there’s no mistaking their genetic link. Caldicott’s set jaw and
proud nose are mirrored in Broinowski’s face. Then there’s the anger.
Both women are bristling.

But the on-camera fight wasn’t the worst part of making the film. The
worst was when Broinowski showed Caldicott the first cut of Helen’s War.

Caldicott told her niece in no uncertain terms what she thought.

"That cut had evolved after two months of me and my Canadian editor
watching Helen give speeches about the end of the world," says
Broinowski in her inner-city flat, waiting for her tiny daughter to wake.

"We had become pretty jaded and the cut showed that. Helen said, ’Anna,
what have you done? You’ve made me look like an anti-nuclear bag lady!
It doesn’t show everything I’m about!’"

In her definite, intense way, Broinowski stresses Caldicott was right.

"I sat down with another editor and concentrated on warming her up," she
says. "That wasn’t hard. She’s funny and engaging and an affectionate woman.

"When Helen saw the next cut, she said she looked like a dickhead in
some scenes, but to leave the scenes in: ’It helps to convey to the
audience what I’m on about.’ She’s not ashamed or afraid of being angry
in public."

Helen’s War is a Canadian-Australian co-production that follows
Caldicott in the US promoting her book, The New Nuclear Danger, before
and after the Bush Administration declared war on Iraq.

The documentary also covers Caldicott’s anti-nuclear crusade and shows
her with her family. Broinowski made the doco after following her aunt
for a year.

When making the film, Broinowski was forced to balance three competing
interests. Broinowski the Filmmaker had to dissent with the dissident,
and choose the boldest footage, even when her subject objected.
Broinowski the Activist wanted to broadcast Caldicott’s political
message. Meanwhile, Broinowski the Niece was trying to please and
protect someone she loved.

"That was what was hard," she says.

"That line between protecting Helen and what I passionately believe in,
while satisfying the audience’s need to be entertained.

"I only just crossed that line safely. I do think that it’s a loving
portrait of Helen. But I can’t make a film about someone that’s
convincing, without showing them warts and all, and Helen is brave
enough and sophisticated enough to know that I had to show that
cantankerous side."

Balancing those interests was so thorny that Broinowski spiralled into
depression.

"I had sleepless nights, I went into a very black depression when I was
making this film," she says.

"When Helen watched the rough cut, that set me off into this spiral -
’I’ve f---ed up my life and f---ed up my relationship with my aunt.’ I
was willing to walk, to destroy my film career as opposed to put
anything out which would damage her."

But Caldicott intervened.

"I was six months’ pregnant and Helen - she’s a doctor - was demanding I
go on anti-depressants," says Broinowski. "She didn’t care about the
film. She cared about me."

Broinowski didn’t go on anti-depressants in the end.

Caldicott is also balancing competing interests. Caldicott the Activist
wants her message to be taken seriously, Caldicott the Subject doesn’t
want too much of her personal life on display, while Caldicott the Aunt
is fiercely proud.

She was cautious about working with her niece.

"I had mixed feelings," Caldicott says. "I was worried that I would not
be seen to be credible by the American public, and it was a little bit
too revealing about who I was and my family and the like. I felt it
didn’t really put the message out about what I wanted to talk about, it
was more a portrait of me.

"But I’m very proud of Anna and we’re very close, partly as a result of
the film, which is a good one."

Back in the flat, Broinowski has carried her tiny daughter into the
living room. Perhaps the baby is the next in a line of intense,
pugnacious women who speak their mind?

"She’s a fighter," Broinowski says.

Story Picture: Talking head: Helen Caldicott gets on her box.