THE JAMMED ON ABC RADIO NATIONAL'S MOVIETIME

The Jammed spreads

It's been a big week for producers of a low budget Australian film called The Jammed, about the sex slave business in Australian brothels. This film was passed over by every Australian funding agency and rejected by the Melbourne International Film Festival. It won an Interfaith Jury Award at the Brisbane International Film festival and was set for just a modest ten day season at one cinema in Melbourne, when Margaret Pomeranz and David Stratton gave it a four star rating on their ABC Television show last week. If you're listening to the Sunday morning edition of this show, you may have heard producer Dee McLachlan talking to Amanda Smith about the response to the film.

Now Palace has picked the film up to open in two cinemas in Sydney from next weekend, with sneak previews this weekend. And the filmmakers have bids from most Australian states and New Zealand, so expect the rollout from next weekend.
Listen to the audio over at: http://www.abc.net.au/rn/movietime/stories/2007/2013109.htm

THE SBS MOVIE SHOW REVIEW THE JAMMED

The Jammed is shaping up as the little Aussie movie that could.

Unable to get government funding, writer-producer-director Dee McLachlan forged ahead anyway to dramatise grim stories of sex slavery in Australia.

Distributors weren’t interested in putting The Jammed into cinemas, so the filmmakers paid for a short run on one screen themselves. The response has been so good that their movie is now going into expanded release.

The film is based on true stories and transcripts. It begins with Emma Lung’s Eurasian prostitute Crystal being questioned by immigration officials while Veronica Sywak’s concerned lawyer Ashley tries to prevent her deportation.

We flashback to see how Crystal was lured from China to Australia by men who told her she’d make big money as a dancer.

Ashley, meanwhile, has been drawn into this seedy world after reluctantly helping a Chinese mother track down her missing daughter Rubi, played by Sun Park. We also see the plight of Saskia Burmeister’s Russian sex slave Vanya.

The structure of The Jammed is a little unwieldy. I think I would’ve preferred to see the story unfold chronologically, which might’ve also allowed for rounder characters. But it’s a thought-provoking drama with some exciting thriller moments.

The performances from the up-and-coming young cast are all good and I especially liked the real-world bewilderment of Veronica Sywak’s heroine.

Writer-director Dee McLachlan doesn’t soft-pedal the material. This is gritty stuff but she also draws the line at rubbing our noses in it too graphically.

The Jammed illuminates the deadly catch 22 these women face - liberation from sex slavery means more degradation in the form of a detention centre and deportation.

And it scores points for not serving up neat answers to what is a messy, complex problem.

I’m glad The Jammed has made it against the odds and it rates three stars as a worthy look at a horrific world that’s hidden from most Australians.
Reviewed by Michael Adams

To submit your own review of The Jammed visit the SBS Movie Show website: http://movieshow.sbs.com.au/index.php?pid=movie&cid=16129

HOOPLA REVIEWS THE JAMMED

To look at the bigger picture surrounding The Jammed is to witness the story of an inexorable film. Writer/producer/director Dee McLachlan crafted a feature that by any normal standards shouldn't have been made. With very little in terms of funding, and no one willing to distribute it, it's a wonder that it got released at all. Since several high profile critics gave rave reviews, however, it seems that it will now get the release it deserves.
To read the full review head over to: http://hoopla.nu/films/jammed/jammed.html

THE JAMMED IN BRISABANE'S WESTENDER....

"The Jammed" - Australian Thriller Reveals A Dark Underbelly In Human Trafficking Feedback

One of the Australian films that screened at this year's Brisbane International Film Festival is 'The Jammed', a story set amidst the human trafficking and illegal prostitution that is taking place in our cities

The film begins as Crystal (Emma Lung), a young Indonesian girl, is questioned by immigration officials and about to be sent to a detention centre. It then shifts back three weeks, as insurance clerk Ashley Hudson (Veronica Sywak) is drawn into Melbourne's sinister underworld when she reluctantly agrees to help a Thai woman Sunee (Amanda Ma) find her daughter Rubi (Sun Park).

Speaking at the BIFF screening of 'The Jammed', writer and director Dee McLachlan said that her film presents a "huge cultural calamity" currently taking place in Australia. "This is about displaced people," she said, referring to the victims of human trafficking - 30% of whom have no idea they will be working as prostitutes.

"They work for nothing, and then get deported," she said. Ms McLachlan said that the inspiration for 'The Jammed' came from a series of court cases, in particular the case of Gary Glasner who in the late 1990s, was found guilty of violations of the Victorian Prostitution Control Act (the federal slavery and sexual servitude legislation had not been introduced at that stage). Glazner received a penalty of 18 months imprisonment (fully suspended for two years) and a $31,000 fine.

According to Ms McLachlan, one criticism of the film, put to her by a human rights advocate was that the girls should have been shown working in a legal brothel, because in reality, that's where they are. Actress Veronica Sywak (who had initially auditioned for the role of Vanya - played by Saskia Burmesiter) also spoke at the screening. Of her role as Ashley, Ms Sywak said she had to "plumb the depths of human debauchery and sadness." "It was an incredibly emotionally charged set," she said. Ms McLachlan said that such was the potency of the subject matter, on difficult days the assistance of a "talent alignment" person was sought for counselling purposes.

“The Jammed' is a powerful piece of cinema that delves into Australia's dark underbelly - a confronting and unpleasant place - that like Ashley Hudson, many of us would prefer to turn our back on. It was interesting to see Debra Lawrence (Pippa from 'Home & Away') in the role of the heartless DIMIA Case Officer, and Kate Atkinson ('Seachange's' Constable Karen Miller) as Ashley's detached, middle class friend Gabi.

'The Jammed' screens exclusively in Brisbane at the Dendy from August 30.

JAMMED REVIEW FROM CINEPHILIA.NET.AU..

The Jammed (Dee McLachlan, 2007, Australia)
Rating TBA Running time 89 minutes

Review by Bernard Hemingway

Synopsis: When insurance agent, Ashley Hudson (Veronica Sywak), goes to the airport to collect someone as a favour for a friend she finds herself reluctantly led into the world of sex trafficking.
The Jammed is a hard-hitting action drama with a compassionate heart. Written and directed by Dee McLachlan, a South African-born director making her first feature in Australia, it is a worthy addition to the catalogue of “social issue” films, works which address real life injustices via the format of cinematic fiction (the opening titles tell us that the story was inspired by court transcripts and actual events). Made by women, including, besides McLachlan, who also co-produced with Sally Ayre-Smith and co-edited with Anne Carter, Andrea Buck (who writes for this website) as executive producer, it is all the stronger for that fact as this brings to its subject matter, the brutal exploitation of women by men for commercial gain, the values of commitment, credibility and empathy in equal measure.
The script, with its well-developed array of characters, gives the film its solid foundation. Here the device of making the main character an ordinary young woman with a certain amount of emotional baggage is particularly effective as, in its contrast to the young women she tries to help, it both grounds the story in the everyday and brings home the message of injustice which is at the heart of the film. Also effective is the film’s narrative structure which in demanding the audience’s close attention to track events keeps our attention focused on the collision of worlds as officialdom, the workaday and the underworld interpenetrate.
Veronica Sywak is a strong presence at the epicentre of the story, playing the part with the kind of level-headed tenacity that actresses like Toni Collette and Cate Blanchett have made so typical of their screen personae. No doubt credit here also goes to McLachlan who judiciously keeps the film well clear of the strident or crusading. In this respect, the film’s score by the director’s brother, Grant McLachlan, has an important role, the simple and subdued music underlying the broader sense of human tragedy underpinning the specifics of this tale. Impressively shot by Peter Falk, Melbourne, particularly at night, has rarely looked better. Indeed it might be argued that a grittier visual style would have been more appropriate to the subject matter but the upside to this is that the film has more appeal as a cinematic experience. The Jammed is not without it flaws, notably in the casting of Emma Lung and a somewhat provocative but under-developed sub-story involving the laundering of dirty money in the galleries of high art, but overall it is an impressively well-made film that commendably throws light into a dark corner of our society

JAMMED REVIEW ON SBS RADIO LISTEN HERE..

SBS film critic, Tim Hunter, reviews, The Jammed. He's with host Greg Dyett listen here:

http://www.radio.sbs.com.au/index.php?page=wv&newsID=161279

THE JAMMED BREAKS BOX OFFICE RECORDS!

THE JAMMED is confirmed as the HIGHEST weekly opening SCREEN AVERAGE for an independent Australian film and FOURTH highest for all Australian films on record after Lantana, Crocodile Dundee II & I.....Just a few weeks ago this film was going to be released straight to DVD, how things change!