Battleground Melbourne Review
On the Opening Night of the 2022 Melbourne Underground Film Festival, I viewed for the first time Topher Field’s first full feature documentary Battleground Melbourne. I had deferred watching until now as having lived through Melbourne’s brutal police state 6 lockdowns which lasted 262 total in 2020-21. I wasn’t sure I was ready to relive the trauma that the Dan Andrews Government had inflicted on me and others.
After viewing it, my immediate reaction was how insane the Melbourne lockdowns were and what extreme and violent lengths Victoria Police went to in enforcing Dan Andrews lockdowns. This crushing of freedom and human rights was done in an attempt to achieve the foolish goal of Covid zero. A goal now even the Chinese Communist Party has given up on.
Battleground Melbourne tells the story of those who defied Dan Andrews’ lockdowns and took the streets to protest. As the film progresses we see the Victoria Police response to street protests escalates which culminated in the use of rubber bullets against protestors.
The film’s events conclude at the end of 2021 when the lockdowns transitioned into lockouts of those who didn’t want to take the covid vaccines and the passing of the Victorian Pandemic Management Bill. The film concludes with a call to action by Director Topher Field to take back the city of Melbourne which Dan Andrews turned from the world’s most livable city to the world’s most lockdown city.
After viewing Battleground Melbourne I spoke with the man himself Director Topher Field about the effort that went into making the film and how it has been received around the world. This was a week after Dan Andrews easily won the 2022 Victorian state election with his Labor Government re-elected for a third consecutive term. I ask Topher what we can expect from a re-elected Dan Andrews with the powers he has at his disposal.
At the conclusion of the 2022 Melbourne Underground Film Festival, Battleground Melbourne won Best Film. You can view the film for yourself for free at battlegroundmelbourne.com or even on YouTube.