Constance on the Edge

Constance on the Edge is a film about the courage and resilience of refugee women, striving to reconstruct their own lives and enrich others along the way. Constance and her family arrived in Australia almost 10 years ago. The film’s director, Belinda Mason, met Constance and her 6 children in 2006 as they negotiated the realities of their new home. She started chronicling their story in the documentary I’ll Call Australia Home. Constance on the Edge, explores where the family are now, nine years later, capturing their struggles, experiences, and their efforts to feel at home and accepted in their town. The result promises to be an intimate portrait of belonging and wellbeing, of healing and inclusion. Constance’s children are facing new challenges. Vicky, her eldest daughter is studying for her HSC with an ambition to become a nurse. Meanwhile, her son, Charles struggles with depression and drug addiction. We will witness Constance and her women friends conspiring to change perceptions about refugees in their town - with African humour and rhythm. Through Constance, we also encounter a group of local women who are supporting her and other refugees living in Wagga Wagga – the policewoman, the ‘refugee doctor’, the trauma counsellor, and the multicultural resource centre manager. Together these women provide a network of support. Constance on the Edge is especially poignant at another level: we hear the determined voices of African women from a culture where women are rarely able to speak out. Constance and her community of refugee women have something deeply personal to say about their childhoods in Africa, their perceptions of what family means, and the lasting legacy of their refugee trauma.