Share
Clip description
This clip re-creates scenes of 1930s Depression-era life and the hardships experienced by the city’s poor and unemployed. In a dramatised scene, a father and son busk for money in the streets. A sign at the boy’s feet reads 'Father out of work. Spare a coin. Thank you’. Their music fades out and is replaced by an orchestral score. Children play in the dust surrounding tin-roofed houses where families live in poverty. A man sits at a table with an empty plate and spoon. Men queue for unemployment benefits and walk along the waterfront.
Curator’s notes
The barefooted young boy busking in the street and the children running through backyards in this clip are used by the filmmakers to place the unemployment of the 1930s within a broader context of family relationships and social welfare. The men in the dole queue at the end of the clip were waterside workers and the nature of their hard lives is clearly inscribed in the lines on their faces. The filmmakers’ strong visual language and aesthetic sensibility contribute to the emotional impact of these scenes and the commanding voice of Leonard Teale makes us believe their struggles are real.
