Some local Rotary Club members met Tom with Sudanese refugee Zacharia and his teacher Janet when they called in to Taree on their walk down the coast back in 2014.

Various Rotary groups including Taree on Manning, Byron Bay and Sydney contributed to the funds raised towards building a school and hosted the walkers on their journey. Rotary has continued to give support.

The story of the walk, the ongoing Hope Road Project and Zac’s life is told in the film, Hope Road. The film screened at the Sydney and Melbourne Film Festivals in 2017.

Tom Zubrycki is an Australian filmmaker whose award winning documentaries have earned an international reputation for their truthfulness, realism and humanity.

Tom has for the last 38 years mapped Australia’s changing social and political landscape. He has directed 15 documentaries, many of them feature-length, and produced another 19 with mostly early career filmmakers.  

In August 2018 Tom visited Taree for the premiere of the documentary Teach a Man to Fish which he produced with local Biripi man Grant Leigh Saunders as director.

Tom will be back in Taree for the Taree screening of Hope Road. He will be introduced on stage before the film, and will answer questions from the audience afterwards.

Funds raised from the screening will be shared between the Hope Road Project and Manning Rural Australians for Refugees.

Brief synopsis of Hope Road:

A refugee from the Sudanese civil war, Zacharia (one of the ‘lost boys’ of Sudan) lives in Sydney, Australia, with his wife and children. He desperately wants to do something for his Sudanese village, now in the newly created nation of South Sudan. His dream is to build a much-needed primary school for girls. He enlists the backing of numerous well-intentioned Australians. Janet, a dedicated supporter, joins him on a charity walk of 810 kilometres from the Queensland border to Sydney to raise funds for this venture. The walk takes 42 days. Over that time they raise $20,000 – mostly through small donations. They visit schools, indigenous Land Councils, and local Rotary Club branches, including Taree’s Rotary on Manning – with cameo appearances!

Will the funds be sufficient for the project? Thwarted by escalating conflict back in South Sudan, and shocked by a broken relationship, Zac must decide what’s important in his life.

Taree Film Society welcomes visitors. Tickets are $16, including nibbles, cake, coffee and chatting – so come early and stay awhile after the film.

For further details or subscriptions, visit www.tareefilmsociety.org.au or call Mark on 0439 903477 or Lesley on 0439 814616.

 “Inspiring, eye-opening… a captivating and necessary contribution to our refugee debate from one of Australian cinema’s most humane storytellers.”  (Melbourne International Film Festival Program)