Australian
Screen

Teacher’s notes

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This clip shows a group of men sitting around a table in a park on Christmas Day, drinking and smoking as they listen to previously recorded interviews with themselves on the radio. The men’s voices are heard as they talk about a variety of issues, including the meaning of Christmas and their relationships with their families. The voices overlap and Christmas carols play as the men are filmed from a variety of different angles and distances.

Educational value points

• The clip illustrates the effects of alcohol addiction. The camera dwells on the lined faces and restless hands of the men as they reach for bottles, draw on cigarettes and talk about the emptiness of their lives, with the Christmas theme giving the scene extra poignancy.

• Alcoholism is a major public health problem in Australia and affects more men than women, with 33 per cent of men suffering symptoms at some point in their lives, compared to 3 per cent of women. In 2005 alcohol was the second major cause of drug-related deaths. Alcohol abuse is closely linked with other substance abuse, suicide, domestic violence, drink driving and serious health problems.

• A major international cinema movement is exemplified by this Australian footage. Cinéma-vérité was originally developed by French filmmakers in the 1960s and the term translates literally as 'true film’, which is an accurate reflection of the intentions of this style’s followers. Cinéma-vérité aims to show the real world through conventions including the use of non-professional actors, minimal or no rehearsal, genuine locations rather than studios, natural sound, handheld cameras and limited manipulation of footage in post-production. A key facilitator of this movement was the development of smaller, quieter and less obtrusive cameras.

• The clip exposes the questionable realism of cinéma-vérité. While following the conventions of cinéma-vérité, this is clearly a constructed reality. The filmmaker has made important and subjective choices, for example choosing which men to focus on, where to position the cameras, which parts of their bodies to show in close-up and how deep each shot should be.

• Cinéma-vérité is not a mirror of reality, although when it was first developed in the 1960s, its contrast to other cinematic styles was so great that it appeared to show the 'truth’. This truth is, however, ultimately always the truth as the director sees it and the viewer interprets it.

• The style of the clip offers a contrast to the Australian feature films with which audiences are more familiar. Feature films usually use sets, props, costumes, locations and extensive manipulation of images and sound through editing with the intention of creating an artificial reality. This clip, on the other hand, intends to show real people as naturally as possible, to allow them to tell their own stories, albeit previously recorded and to withhold editorial judgement so that audiences can draw their own conclusions.

• The clip introduces the work of Australian documentary filmmaker Brian McKenzie. McKenzie has been active as a director and producer in the Australian film industry for decades and in 2001 was Executive Producer, Documentaries at the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.

This clip starts approximately 44 minutes into the documentary.

This clip shows a group of men sitting around a table in a park on Christmas Day, drinking and smoking as they listen to previously recorded interviews with themselves on the radio. The men’s voices are heard as they talk about a variety of issues, including the meaning of Christmas and their relationships with their families. The voices overlap and Christmas carols play as the men are filmed from a variety of different angles and distances.

Man Only because of my family. They’re over in England. They’re in Cambridge.

Paul Makin Really? There’s nothing for you to look forward to?

Man Make sure we’ve got our flagons for Christmas Day. They’ve just lost everything and they’ve got nothing to live for. They’ve got nothing to live for, nothing whatsoever.

Paul Makin Have you got anything to live for?

Man Not now, no.

Paul Makin Don’t you think life’s precious?

Man No, not now. No. I was going to drink meself – wherever they bury me, I don’t know whether they’ll bury me or throw me in the pigsty or anywhere, but as long as they throw the flagon on top of me.

Paul Makin Fair enough.

Man 2 Well, Christmas means just another day to me, but for the kids, it’s great.

Paul Makin Do you believe there’s a God up there?

Man 2 Yes, I do.

Paul Makin Does it bring back memories to you about something?

Man 3 Yeah. A poem.

Paul Makin Back in Ireland?

Man 3 Yeah. Yeah. Sentimental time of the year, isn’t it.

Paul Makin Why would you – why would that break you up? Obviously something was pretty close to you back in Ireland to do with that.

Man 3 Oh, shut up. Christmas – the poem is something unbelievable always. Cuts me up a little bit. I’m sure you can understand that.

Paul Makin I can understand it and I can see your eyes getting a little watery as I speak to you. I don’t want to upset you. But from what you’ve told me, you don’t like it to happen.

Man 3 Say a couple of prayers on Christmas Day and go back to the flagon and, uh…

Man 4 Back to the flagon. Sounds good, doesn’t it.

Paul Makin So you say a couple of prayers on Christmas Day. What sort of prayers would you say?

Man 3 Oh, the rosary, a couple of things like that.

Paul Makin You remember the rosary?

Man 3 The rosary? Yeah.

Paul Makin How’s it go?

Man 3 Well, that’d be the Glorious Mysteries.

Man 5 Do you know that one?

Man 6 Glorious what?

Man 3 Mysteries.

Man 7 Oh, yeah. No.

Man 6 How about Doris Day?

Man 7 Oh, she was beautiful. Doris Day.

Man 6 I can imagine what (inaudible) would be singing. “I’ve got my tweeds for you, a-ra-pa-pum-pum.

Man 5 I went to see my daughter the other day. She’s 28.

Man 6 Yeah, well, mine’s only 3 years of age.

Man 7 Your daughter is?

Man 5 I said, 'I’ve got nothing to give you.’ You know what she said to me? 'You’re the best present I’ve had all day.’ She said – she said to me…

Man 7 Oh, beautiful, yes.

Man 5 That was the present, me. Just – she got a handful of presents and she said, 'You’re the best present I’ve had all day’, and I thought of her on 19 November. It was her birthday. She knows I’m an alci. For me to think it was her birthday, to her, that was a good present to her, that a dickhead like me…

Man 7 Did you turn up sober?

Man 5 Yeah, course I did.

Man 7 Goodo.