Who takes care of the emotionally scarred survivors of an atrocity after everyone else moves on? This sobering and insightful documentary bears witness to trauma's harrowing effects and the seductive pull of alternative facts — where even the unlikeliest of people can be ensnared.

2026
Aftermath
Aftermath
World Premiere.
Guest in attendance.
Director
Runtime
98 Minutes
Country
Australia
Classification
Unclassified 18+
For many years after the Port Arthur massacre and the trail of unimaginable devastation that left 35 locals and tourists dead, information officer Wendy Scurr battled for proper support for herself and the fellow first responders who saved innumerable lives in the bloody aftermath.
As the politicians of the day steadfastly refused to open a public enquiry, conspiracy theories took hold in the vacuum that followed, as Wendy and others began to question what little was made available by the official narrative.
Years later, emerging documentary filmmaker Jared Nicholson met Wendy, trying to understand how survivors are reshaped by such monstrosity. When her understandable paranoia began to bleed into his own investigation, reopening old wounds of his own, Jared reached out to Ithaka (2021) filmmaker Ben Lawrence for a fresh perspective on the quagmire surrounding the unbearable tragedy.
More than a documentary, the astonishing Aftermath is a reckoning with truth itself.

Film Credits
Director
Jared Nicholson & Ben Lawrence
Year
2026
Country
Australia
Language
English
Type
Feature Documentary
Program Strand
Adelaide Film Festival Investment Fund
Producer
Rebecca Barry, Scott Baskett, Chris Kamen, Madeleine-Hetherton Miau & Deanne Weir
Writer
Jared Nicholson & Ben Lawrence
Cinematographer
Nick Frayne
Editor
David Scarborough
Cast
Wendy Scurr
Music
Luke Altmann
Film Source
Bonsai Films
Genre
Crime, Documentary, Drama & Psychological
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