Between the flags

 “All humans beings belong to a culture and all human beings use symbols and actions to show who they are and what they believe in.” – Wadham et al., 2007

The short film “Between the flags,” was a finalist in the 2008 Tropfest. It tells a story of two men, one stereotype Lebanese and another stereotype Australian, who form a mutual bond during the Cronulla riots, 2005; not because they were civilized men in a place of chaos but because they show up at the wrong beach and didn’t want to look like “two knobs having a punch on.”

Although, the film purposely accentuates the stereotypes of the two men, it is quite reflective of everyday assumptions made to certain categories and how people who find themselves “as being tied to a particular locality cannot escape social reconfigurations caused by globalization. (Rizvi, 2008: 1)"

For example, the ‘Australian’ guy is symbolised by his clothes, (the board shorts with a cross and Australian Flag, and thongs), the fact that he brought a cricket bat to the riots and his naivety to where knuckle-dusters can be purchased. Similarly, a Bulldogs jersey and knuckle-dusters is used to symbolise the Lebanese guy. Although they are two different people representing two different cultural backgrounds, they are unable to escape globalisation, where they both like the same music, phones, play cricket and agree that a riot does not occur with two people.

In a way ironic distance has occurred in this video where it is defined as the “ability to respect others requires a certain distance from one’s own culture (Reid & Spriprakash,2012: 22).” They both showed up at a beach immersed in their own culture and ready to fight for it, but because of an awkward encounter, each of the men had distant themselves from their own culture and find a commonality in order to respect, converse, and play cricket with one another. If they had not distant themselves from their cultural backgrounds, having a two person riot would not have been an issue.

Reid, C. & Sriprakash, A. (2012). The possibility of cosmopolitan learning: Reflecting on future directions for diversity teacher education in Australia. Asia-Pacific Journal of Teacher Education, 40(1), 15-29.

Rizvi, F. (2008). Education and its cosmopolitan possibilities. In B. Lingard, J. Nixon & S. Ranson (Eds.), Transforming learning in schools and communities: The remaking of education for a cosmopolitan society (pp. 101-116). London: Continuum.

Wadham, B. Pudsey, J. & Boyd, R. (2007). Culture and education. Sydney: Pearson Education. Chapter 1: What is culture?

White, J. (2008) In Between the Flags. [video online] Available at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zWLb8d_cxPU [Accessed: 13th October 2012].