Jared Nicholson and Ben Lawrence’s fascinating documentary Aftermath is a unique and powerfully convincing meditation on how vulnerability can become gullibility leading to those who were directly impacted upon during a national tragedy become prey to bad actors and conspiracy theories.
Initially Jared wanted to focus on people who were frontline witnesses or workers to the Port Arthur massacre in Tasmania on April 28, 1996. Jared’s interest was primarily in the lack of psychological care provided by the government. He formed a long and close relationship with Wendy Scurr who was both a tour guide and St John’s Ambulance volunteer who was on the grounds of the tourist site the day Martin Bryant opened fire on those in and around the Broad Arrow Café. Wendy became a national hero for her skills in triaging and assisting the wounded. She also developed intense PTSD which led to a life of isolation with her husband Graeme as she became increasingly paranoid and suffered several breakdowns.
Jared’s interactions with Wendy (who passed away in 2018) were always conducted in good faith and with great compassion by the documentarian. Wendy Scurr was a victim of the shootings in that her life was profoundly and painfully changed on that day. Initially she begged people to talk to her and others who had been there and had seen the carnage. She tried to explain how she wanted to cut her head open and remove those memories. She held out her hand asking for help, but little none was forthcoming.
Wendy existing in a permanent state of distress made it easy for her to be manipulated by organisations such as the Inverell Forum, a highly conservative gathering that paired her with a retired police officer from Melbourne as a key speaker on Port Arthur in 2001. Enter deep conspiracy theorist Andrew MacGregor who was just one of many who became obsessive about the massacre being a “false flag” operation conducted to force gun control on Australia and part of a New World Order tactic to disenfranchise the population.
Jared Nicholson himself was pre-disposed to following the conspiracy theory logic. He regularly used Alex Jones’ Info Wars as his primary news source, but that was far from the beginning of his induction into the “alternative facts” world. As Jared became increasingly embedded in that world, he began to realise what had led him there, the extreme toll on his mental health, and his descent into alcoholism.
When Jared reached out to Ithaka director Ben Lawrence he began to understand the through line that takes advantage of genuine victims and the extreme grifting of others who attach themselves to undeniable and heartbreaking events. Jared himself had unwittingly become a primary subject of Aftermath with his eyes being cleared of the scales of mis/disinformation.
In the following interview Nadine Whitney speaks with both Jared Nicholson and Ben Lawrence about the known and unknowable and how terrible events lead to destructive paranoia and the re-victimisation of survivors.
Aftermath screens at the Adelaide Film Festival on 18 & 24 October 2026. Filmmakers will be in attendance for both screenings. Tickets are available via the website here:
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