"The measure of any society is how it treats its most vulnerable members" ...children.
FORTHCOMING PROJECT

"HOSTAGE OF THE STATE is the follow up to THE JAMMED."

In 2007, The Jammed exposed the trafficking of women and girls, some as young as fourteen, into Melbourne's sex industry.

Nearly twenty years later, writer-director Dee McLachlan turns her attention to another hidden tragedy. Inspired by true accounts of children forcibly removed from their parents, Hostage of the State is the powerful and more confronting companion to her acclaimed earlier film.

A Film to change a Nation

In 2018, while filming a documentary in South Australia, writer-director Dee McLachlan met a mother whose story would change the course of her life.  Dee sidelined her film career and began working almost entirely on a voluntary basis—advocating for families and children across Australia. Along the way, she published over 120 investigative articles, produced a video series, and wrote The Child Protection Racket.

Through this work, Dee came to believe Australia was witnessing a modern revival of the Stolen Generations—children separated from their loving families by systems that operate beyond public scrutiny.

After eight years of investigation, advocacy and lived experience, she has returned to cinema to distil what she has witnessed into a feature film inspired by the true accounts of three families.