1 x 60' Chemical Media

Provocateur John Safran has built a career on crossing the line—now he sets out to find where that line should be drawn. In the wake of a shocking terror attack in Bondi, fault lines have deepened between those who defend free expression at all costs and those who argue that harmful speech must be curbed to protect vulnerable communities.

In this bold and deeply personal one-hour special, Safran embeds himself on both sides of the debate, meeting an eclectic mix of voices navigating the tensions of modern multicultural life.

With his trademark mix of humour, discomfort and confrontation, he interrogates the limits of satire, the cost of offence, and the responsibilities that come with speaking freely.

As the conversation around free speech intensifies worldwide, this timely film asks a question every society must answer: in trying to protect each other, how much are we willing to silence ourselves?

ABOUT JOHN SAFRAN

John Safran is a fearless Jewish-Australian writer, filmmaker and provocateur who makes big juicy contemporary issues – religion, political extremism, racism, free speech – personal, funny and thought-provoking by sidling up to them in an unthreatening manner and prodding them with a very pointy stick.

Instinctively drawn to the messiest parts of a story – the intersections that everyone avoids and the people that no-one wants to talk to – John has always been fascinated by people who test the limits of what is deemed offensive.

His internationally recognised television work (John Safran v God; John Safran’s Race Relations et al) has delivered a long list of iconic and highly offensive screen moments, including John being crucified in the Philippines; John successfully convincing an imam to place a fatwa on rival TV presenter Rove McManus; and John trying to join the Ku Klux Klan by arguing to the Grand Dragon that even though he was Jewish, his skin was whiter than Hitler’s.

John notoriously squatted in one of Kanye West’s unused mansions in Los Angeles to write his most recent book Squat; he won a Ned Kelly Award for his true crime story Murder in Mississippi; and immersed himself in a mad world of misfits, white nationalists, ISIS supporters and anarchists to write Depends What You Mean By Extremist.

Like his professional doppelgangers Jon Ronson and Louis Theroux, Safran has a gift for eliciting information from his subjects.

“Forever pushing the boundaries” - Jon Ronson

“Deplorable in the best sense” - Louis Theroux

“What a f##king nut!” - Joe Rogan