A WEEKLY FILM NEWSLETTER PROMOTING ARTHOUSE, REPERTORY, ART, SHORT FORM AND EXPERIMENTAL CINEMA SCREENING IN THE CITY OF MELBOURNE

8 June 2023

An interview with Paddy Hay ahead of the Artist Film Workshop’s screening of Denise White, Peter Gailey and Pat Fiske’s Woolloomooloo (1977)

Screening at the Singapore Theatre in Melbourne University June 8 @ 7pm

16mm Print Courtesy: National Film and Sound Archive

Interview conducted by Digby Houghton

Paddy Hay is one of a legion of members who comprise the Artist Film Workshop (AFW), an organisation devoted to experimental film production, exhibition, and an important piece within the complex puzzle of the Melbourne film community. I caught up with him ahead of the AFW’s screening of Pat Fiske, Denise White, and Peter Gailey’s film Woolloomooloo on Thursday June 8 at the Singapore Theatre in Melbourne University.

I enter AFW’s headquarters’ modest, but cavernous processing lab located in Brunswick with Hay as he explains to me the importance of the AFW as a space for experimentation using film. The lab is located within a complex of other artists’ studios and communal spaces, and as we enter, the predominantly obsolescent history of film is omnipresent around me. I can see the old projectors and film hanging container as well as a whiteboard with some kind of loose concept written across it in green marker. There’s an old edition of David Bordwell and Kristen Thompson’s seminal textbook Film Art: An Introduction and before long I’m flicking through old editions of Arthur and Corrine Cantrill’s Film Notes which are stacked in a folder; some article by Paul Cox about his trip to Italy piques my interest before Hay shows me the 16mm contact printer, an enormous device which is used for making prints. Members of the AFW have access to all this material for the price of a bi-annual fee and can hone their craft as well as seek advice from other members. This is living proof of film cultures survival and as Hay puts it the National Film and Sound Archive (NFSA) was throwing equipment like this out for one dollar recently. I feel this studio tour assisted my understanding of the AFW’s DIY approach because the methods of the organisation are clear.  

When Hay and I sit down to chat the first question I ask him is around the topic of AFW’s history to which he narrates a loose account of AFW which began with the couple, and founding members, Richard Tuohy and Dianna Barrie who run Nanolab which is, “Australia’s only commercial lab for processing super eight film.” Soon after running Nanolab in Daylesford (country Victoria) for a while a workshop was held during one of the Melbourne International Film Festivals in 2011. The Melbourne connection was made and exhibition spaces for the organisation have since been moved around, signalling a sense of displacement for the collective. These have included Good Times in Carlton opposite Melbourne University, the Arena publishing space in Kerr St Fitzroy and now The Brunswick Green where recently a series of 16mm films by Gregory Markopoulos from the NFSA were projected.

I first came to know of Hay as a director in 2019 when a friend took me along to a special screening of Dogmilk films at the Astor in which Hay’s 16mm short film Cuckoo Roller, without dialogue and featuring a pulsating soundtrack courtesy of Louis Marlo, entranced me. It was also the short film which launched Hay into MIFF Accelerator Lab’s 2019 program. Dogmilk initially began as a way for a collective of friends that were John Hewison, Chris Cochrane-Friedrich and Fraser Pemberton to “start a company through which to try and legitimise what they were doing,” as Hay puts it to me. However, they have since expanded their membership, which includes Hay now, and regularly screen films in the city at the nightclub Miscellenia called Dogmilk Degustations.

The importance of Dogmilk is paramount in discussing the AFW as both collectives put an onus on exhibiting rare and hard to find material in their respective exhibition spaces. Hay explains that “so many of these Australian films (like Woolloomooloo and others) that we want to see, you have to get access via NFSA because they are not accessible on DVD… the screenings are all pretty much on 16mm and we’ve got to pay for the rental fee for NFSA.” Hay emphasises that for the AFW these screenings are “a way of seeing stuff.” Perhaps the languishing VHS ripped edition of Woolloomooloo on YouTube isn’t the most ideal place to view the original film but seeing a 16mm copy holds a special place for cinephiles in Melbourne. It also provides an excuse for the Melbourne film community to “get out and do something… and showing stuff you can’t see otherwise you create community because you’re creating a reason for people to leave the house,” which is precisely the way in which film culture survives.

Woolloomooloo strikes me as a film that is topical in Australia given the current housing and rental crisis that we are facing driven by a tight vacancy rate and a large number of people moving to cities like Melbourne. The film traces the urban redevelopment of the titular inner-city Sydney suburb and touches on the importance of the integral Builders Labourers’ Federation in challenging these decisions. This history isn’t foreign to producer Pat Fiske who would proceed to make Rocking the Foundations in 1985, a key documentary about the Green Bans in Sydney. Hay draws attention to contemporary issues of redevelopment, noting that, “I just wanted to see this film… because it’s very relevant with [the] Preston development and other things.” Tenants of the Preston market have been given notices that their leases will not be renewed after January next year sparking fury amongst the community. Again, corporate greed over community interest is the central issue and it’s clear that AFW is an important space because it creates a DIY environment for the members.

Hay uses the words punk rock to describe AFW frequently throughout our conversation. It’s this same spirit which he believes underpins experimental film production. Hay mentions that “there’s something of resistance about it... I can fuckin’ do this myself,” which is an integral component of the collective. The resistance which Hay speaks about stems from a rejection of the status quo, or the big ugly mainstream (as Adrian Martin has explicated here) which as Hay puts it, “Screen Australia is so conservative now they don’t hand these [development grants of $15,000] out… there was way more money in the past. Short films don’t get funded really unless they have proof of commercial viability.” This is precisely what makes the AFW an important collective within the fabric of Melbourne and further abroad because, “that’s almost the pragmatism of [experimental filmmaking] because you’re saying I don’t know how to find 2 million dollars to fund a movie and go through all these bureaucratic loopholes.” Instead, you’re left with members using a few rolls of film and a Bolex camera.

This attitude of resistance and rejection needs to be highlighted, more importantly, because Woolloomooloo also lends itself to these approaches. The right to unionise, protest and counteract the interests of developers is one of the central concerns of the documentary. Hay prefers to characterise Super-8 filmmaking as an “underground” movement, specifying “If you’re making a[n] [experimental] film… you might be your own cinematographer [or] your own editor [and] having this attention to technique it can often lead to a film that is more about optics or sound.” This DIY spirit is integral to AFW’s ethos and spirit as well the programming of the films they screen. The stark parallel with director Fiske is pervasive, herself a member of the Sydney Filmmaker’s Cooperative which was built on members’ support and sought an alternative to the prevailing modes of production.

 Further Viewing

Rocking the Foundations (Pat Fiske, 1985) - Available to rent for 48 hours for $5.28 here

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WEEKLY FILM LISTINGS

June 8 - 15

ACMI

Because We Have Each Other

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Matinee screening Daily

Niagara

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Screening Sunday 11 June as part of Goddess Sundays

ARTIST FILM WORKSHOP

Woolloomooloo

Denise White, Pat Fiske and Peter Gailey, 1978

7pm Thursday June 8 at the Singapore Theatre, The University of Melbourne

ASTOR CINEMA

St Kilda Film Festival

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Under the Radar - Thursday June 8

Australian Cinematic Visions Part 2 - Friday June 9

Two of a Kind: Tandem Tales - Friday 9 June

International Family Animation Explosion #2 - Saturday 10 June

Acoustics, Abstractions & Esoterics - Saturday June 10

Shifting the Gaze - Saturday June 10

Australian Drama Showcase Part 2 - Saturday June 10

Tales of Mystery and Imagination - Saturday June 10

Australian Animation Showcase - Sunday June 11

Made in VIC - Part 1 - Sunday June 11

Made in VIC - Part 2 - Sunday June 11

Awards Ceremony - Sunday June 11

Long Story Short: Willie Nelson 90

Gregg Gelfand, 2023

Screening Monday 12 June

Intersteller

Christopher Nolan, 2014

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Forbidden Planet

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Bottle Rocket

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The Last Picture Show
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Double Feature Screening Tuesday 13 June

BBBC CINEMA (GALLERYGALLERY BRUNSWICK)

Closed until summer

THE CAPITOL

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CHINATOWN CINEMA

Journey to the West
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The Procurator

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Godspeed
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Yesterday Once More

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CINÉ-CLUB (Carlton)

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CINEMANIACS (ACMI)

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CINEMA NOVA

In the Mood For Wong Kar-wai Season

Happy Together,

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Fallen Angels
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Chungking Express
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One Fine Morning

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Happy 50

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Merkel
Eva Weber, 2022
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Sweet As
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Saint Omer

Alice Diop, 2022

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Blue Caftan
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Limbo

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Marlowe

Neil Jordan, 2023

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November
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The Giants

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Suzume

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EO

Jerzy Skolimowski, 2022

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Broker

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Of An Age

Goran Stolevski, 2022

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Aftersun

Charlotte Wells, 2023

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Triangle of Sadness

Ruben Östlund, 2022

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DOGMILK DEGUSTATIONS: Season Two @ Miscellenia

Season 2 just finished. Stay tuned for details on details Season 3.

FRENCH FILM CLUB

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GAY24

Shinjuku Boys

Kim Longinotto & Jano Williams, 1995

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Hookers on Davie

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HITLIST (9 Gurtrude St, Fitzroy)

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LIDO / CLASSIC / CAMEO

Children’s International Film Festival (CHIFF)

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Program Here

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Wes Craven’s New Nightmare
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Calamity Jane

David Butler, 1953

Screening Sunday June 11 at Classic, Ritz and Cameo

Sweet As
Jub Clerc, 2022
Screening Daily

Blue Caftan
Maryam Touzani, 2022
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EO

Jerzy Skolimowski, 2022

Screening Daily at Classic

Limbo

Ivan Sen, 2023

Screening Daily

Polite Society

Nida Manzoor, 2023

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Beau is Afraid

Ari Aster, 2023

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Aftersun

Charlotte Wells, 2022

Screening Daily

THE MELBOURNE CINÉMATHÈQUE (ACMI)

The River
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Screening Wednesday 14 June 9 7pm
+
Days
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MELBOURNE HORROR FILM SOCIETY

Creepers (Phenomena)

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Saturday June 10 at True North 2A Munro St Coburb

PALACE BALWYN / BRIGHTON /COMO / KINO / PENTRIDGE / WESTGARTH

One Fine Morning

Mia Hansen-Løve, 2022

Screening Daily

Happy 50

Éric Lavaine, 2022
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Merkel
Eva Weber, 2022
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Saint Omer

Alice Diop, 2022

Screening Daily

Blue Caftan
Maryam Touzani, 2022
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Limbo

Ivan Sen, 2023

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Marlowe

Neil Jordan, 2023

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Quant

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Saint Omer

Alice Diop, 2022

Previewing over the weekend

November
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Beau is Afraid

Ari Aster, 2023

Screening Daily

The Innocent

Louis Garrel, 2022

Screening Daily

SUN CINEMAS YARRAVILLE

Sweet As
Jub Clerc
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Limbo

Ivan Sen, 2023

Screening Daily

Marlowe

Neil Jordan, 2023

Screening Daily

Infinity Pool
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THORNBURY PICTURE HOUSE

Cleo from 5 to 7

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Limbo

Ivan Sen, 2023

Final Screening June 8

We Were Once Kids

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Screening Friday 9 June

Return to Seoul

Davy Chou, 2022

Screening 10, 11 and 14 June

Long Story Short: Willie Nelson 90

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Screening Sat 11 and Sun 12 June

Sweet As
Jub Clerc, 2022
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The Giants

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Withnail and I

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