Writer/Director Pene Patrick feels that truth should be at the heart of good Australian cinema.  Her debut film, Playing for Charlie , delves into the life of working-class Melbourne teenager, Tony Hobbs, as he struggles to find a balance between caring for his dependent family, and pursuing a rare opportunity for personal triumph.

An important new voice has emerged in the Australian film industry – one that looks poised to tear apart the current model of chasing the next blockbuster and set about creating a culturally-enriching body of work.

Two Flat Whites chats with Pene Patrick…

TFW:  Playing for Charlie is a humble film but it’s very strong in heart.  This is your directorial debut for a feature-length film.  You also wrote the screenplay.  Have you always written from such raw emotional territory?

Pene Patrick:  Well I think I’ll always go to the heart of a character.  That’s when I most lose interest in a film, when they haven’t gone to the heart of a character, and instead they’re being used to comment on something.

TFW:  How did you develop your writing?

Well it developed through my acting training which involved a very intense and serious training period in New York.  I was taught to look for the truth of humanity and the truth of the character in a situation.

TFW:  The actor who plays Tony Hobbs, Jared Daperis, resonates on the screen.  He seems an odd choice for the part, but it really pays off.  Was this intentional?

I think I cast him because he’s not a stereotype.  I see a lot of stereotypes in Australian films.  He has an international universality about him.  The thing that really excited me is that he has a boy / man quality: a wisdom.  He was an embodiment of everything I was trying to do in the film.

TFW:  I think his performance guides the wonderful score, written by Lisa Gerrard.

Yes her score is a character in the film, that’s what I love about it.  She’s brought another level to the narrative.  She’s come in and given a lovely river for everything to flow.

TFW:  It reminded me of Jane Campion’s ‘Bright Star’ in that respect.

Oh lovely, thank you.

TFW:  Audiences for Playing for Charlie are responding positively to the optimism in the film.  I did too, although I found some elements melancholic, particularly the Thomas Gray poetry whispered at one point; “Full many a flower is born to blush unseen”.  I felt this line reflected the fate of many disadvantaged young Australians: kids who don’t have the full opportunities to explore their talents.

Yes that was the core note from which the film sprung from.  But I also want the audience to see that it’s not always the case and that it is possible to move forward.  Tony is so certain and has a solid rock faith which I attribute to his upbringing and his relationship with his father.  These are good elements in this boy from a working-class background.  It’s actually a very positive statement about working-class values, so it’s very uplifting in that way.

TFW:  Producer Jan Chapman recently encouraged Australian film-makers to be “courageous and challenging,” and to “keep an Australian national spirit whilst appealing to an international audience.”  Do you agree with her?

Yes, and I think the issues in Playing for Charlie are universal.  It transcends race, class, and spirituality.  Tony’s boy to man journey is everyone’s journey.  It’s such a crucial time, the boy to man phase.  Playing for Charlie is about the struggle to protect that which is really vulnerable in us – whether that is our sex, or our race, or our art.

TFW:  Do you think films can make a difference?

Yes they get the issues out there.  Playing for Charlie explores the difficulties relating to young carers.  Since the film opened we have had a letter from the Minister for Health’s office – two years ago they provided a lot more resources and money to aid young carers.  Radio National has done a program on young carers.  There are thousands of people in Tony Hobbs’ situation in Australia so it’s important to tell these honest stories and bring greater awareness.

Playing for Charlie is in limited theatrical release at the Cinema Nova in Carlton, Melbourne.

Interview by Ryan Nance.

Writer/Director Warwick Thornton is from the Katej people of Central Australia and grew up in Alice Springs.  His passion is to document his people’s stories and share them on a big screen.  He makes movies about his community, for his community.  While Thornton’s short-films have received numerous accolades from international film festivals, ‘Samson & Delilah’ is his debut feature-length film.

‘Samson & Delilah’ follows a straight narrative, with a beginning, middle, and end – or three acts.  The first shots of the film are centred on an adolescent Aboriginal boy, Samson (played by first-time actor Rowan McNamara), as he wakes up in his makeshift single-mattress bed.  The blazing Central Australian sun is streaming into his room, and his radio, tuned to an Indigenous country music station, is bursting with song praising the beautiful new day.  Samson adorns himself in a radiant yellow checked shirt, sweeps his sun-bleached matted hair from his face, and reaches for his morning mug.  These images are all quite delightful, so when we then see Samson engulf his entire mouth and nose in the mug, and inhale deeply, the depressing reality shatters this illusion.  Inside the mug is not freshly brewed coffee, as one may have thought, but greasy, grotty petroleum.  This opening montage sets the tone for the film, and informs the audience that there will be no rose-coloured glasses approach.

Despite this grim introduction, Thornton’s film is still best labeled as a (very raw) love story.  Samson’s clumsy and juvenile displays of affection are directed towards Delilah (also a first-time acting performance, played by Marrisa Gibson) – a girl around the same age, who lives with and cares for her elderly grandmother (Mitjili Naparangka Gibson).  At first, Delilah shrugs off Samson’s persistent advances, although her grandmother cackles at what she sees as an inevitable romance.  It is not until Delilah by chance spots Samson dancing in the middle of the night that she sees something in him that sparks an unconditional love.  Even as a voyeuristic audience member, there is a real feeling of intimacy in watching the half-naked young man express himself free of all inhibition.  Perhaps this outpouring of pure freedom is what ignites Delilah’s senses, and gives her a vision of hope for a brighter future.  In any case, it is a really profound moment and one that will be forever etched into the history of memorable scenes from great Australian films.

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The really wonderful thing about film is that it can be open for anyone and everyone to participate.  All that is required is a video camera and an idea – whether you’re making a movie in Hollywood, in Bollywood, or…in Glebe.

Indeed, there I was – just five days after Hollywood’s night of nights, the Oscars – strolling through the gritty streets of Glebe on my way to a community cinema event put on by Glebe Youth Service.  One of the primary goals of the Youth Service has been to help guide the young (and often disadvantaged) people of Glebe to a positive future.  The youth workers firmly believe that this can be achieved by working with the youth on activities that bring the community together.  Tonight’s event was coordinated by one of their tireless workers, Keiran Kevans.  Keiran is surely one of the most selfless people you’re likely to meet in the welfare industry – and that’s saying something!

One of the movies screened – a short-film called The Badge – was produced by Short Black Films.  Short Black Films is an initiative funded by the City of Sydney Council and run by Australian actor Vincent McManus.  The idea behind Short Black Films is that they go into various inner-west suburbs and work with the local Aboriginal youth to put together short-films.  The young people are involved in all aspects of the process.  This includes initial brainstorming and discussion of themes, through to writing the script, acting in the film, and even producing music for the sound track.  It is through this open collaboration that the great success of Short Black Films reveals itself.  Show me a teenager who wouldn’t be excited to see him/herself in a movie.  Or be thrilled to hear their music accompany a movie.  Or revel in hearing a crowd laugh at a joke they had written.  As soon as any form of ownership is associated with a project, there comes a feeling of pride, worth, and ultimately, inspiration.

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Two of Australia’s most widely recognised and respected film critics are undoubtedly David Stratton and Margaret Pomeranz .  Both have a long-standing, often symbiotic, relationship with the Australian film industry, and both are as supportive as they are critical towards any new release film produced by our nation.  Like most others with an interest in quality adult cinema, it is with great pleasure that I tune into their weekly film review TV show, ‘ At The Movies ‘.  Mostly I agree with their opinions.  However, while discussing the 2008 Australian film, ‘ Ten Empty ‘, a bemused David pondered, “what audience the film is targeting?”  Margaret hummed in agreement.  This comment has been floating around in my head whenever I think about the state of the Australian film industry.

Having seen, and really enjoyed “ Ten Empty ”, I struggled to understand this somewhat dismissive remark from such highly influential reviewers.  The film is basically a winter version of the comparatively sun-tanned Australian production ‘ The Black Balloon ‘ (a film which was both critically and commercially well received).  Both films centre around the son in a disadvantaged family and his journey to find his position within the family. The films are thematically similar, though the tone is much bleaker and more realistic in ‘ Ten Empty ‘.  Both are very powerful films, and both are superb representations of Australian filmmakers exploring meaningful social realism.

What audience does it target?  My immediate reaction was “anyone and everyone”.  Whether or not you personally relate to the situations in the film, there is still a great deal of empathy one can gain through the shared experiences of others – on and/or off screen.  However, I understand where David and Margaret were coming from: both are well aware of the dire state of the general public’s attitude towards Australian films.  Over the last 10 years an average of just 4.3% of box office revenue in Australia has come from Australian films.  American films swallow up a greedy 82%.

Should this mean that we gear our movies towards a more US-centric audience?  Well, they would probably be more profitable (‘ The Black Balloon ‘ focused its marketing campaign around its tabloid magazine co-star, Gemma Ward ), but would they remain an honest and credible reflection of Australian culture and values? ( Baz Luhrmann’s ‘Australia ‘, for all its joy and heart, is still very much tailored to an American mythology of Australian life).

And since when does the notion of profitability act as any kind of barometer of the success or relevance of a film?  That in itself is an Imperialist American theology. Discussing his most recent film, 2007’s ‘ The Diving Bell & The Butterfly ‘, artist/director Julian Schnabel scoffed at the question of how profitable the film would be:  “I make money from selling my paintings, I don’t expect to make any money from my films, I make them because they are stories I want to tell”.  If one were to judge the success of  “ The Diving Bell & The Butterfly ” by how it affected people, then it wouldn’t be off the mark to label it as one of the most successful films ever made.  The film, based on the real-life story of a man with a severe disability conveying his memoirs to a nurse, was screened in hundreds of hospitals around Europe, inspiring patients who were uplifted by the brave and determined tale.

Filmmaking coming from this ethos – of giving rather than taking – is what makes cinema, as an art form, so wonderful.  “Film should act as a mirror to society, it should make people think”, declared Greek director Costa Gavros .  Australian cinema has a long, proud history of making good quality Australian stories.  Whilst the general public’s apathy towards our industry is an issue that needs to be addressed, I don’t think that compromising to cater for their current tastes is in any way helpful.

Finally, a quote from James Jupp (author of ‘From White Australia To Woomera, The Story Of Australian Immigration’), which I believe can be aptly applied to the future of the Australian film industry –  “I accept that politicians must work within limits set by public opinion.  But I do not accept that majority opinion is always right.  Changing public opinion is a necessary feature of democracy and, in this area, often essential”.

Article written by Ryan Nance.

Ryan’s passion for good adult cinema has really blossomed, and shows no sign of waning. Check out some of his other reviews right here .