Australian
Screen

Clip description

Violence erupts in the playground as new Vietnamese student Jack (Tai Nguyen) gets unintentionally involved in the ongoing tensions between ‘Aussie’ Rivers (Scott Major) and his gang and ‘Wog’ Nick (Alex Dimitriades) and his friends. Meanwhile in the staffroom the principal introduces new teacher Christina Milano (Sarah Lambert) to the staff before being interrupted by the sounds of brawling outside. While teacher Bill Southgate (Tony Martin) exits to break up the fight, Christina looks out of the window and is introduced by school counsellor Yola (Doris Younane) to her future English class.

Curator’s notes

Executive Producer Ben Gannon comments in an interview on the Heartbreak High website that, despite early support from broadcaster the Ten Network following the success of The Heartbreak Kid (1993) and the star power of Alex Dimitriades, ‘the network was forever trying to get us to water the show down – the issues and the grittiness of it. We were constantly at loggerheads with them about that’.

This clip demonstrates how the episode and series as a whole dealt with tough issues in a realistic style not often seen on prime-time television for young people. This scene, in an episode which deals with the reality of racial tension at a multicultural inner-city school, demonstrates Gannon’s point that Heartbreak 'had many of the usual things you would see in a show for teenagers such as romance, sex, and so on. But it was also trying to deal with other issues, which other shows weren’t really looking at.’

Dynamic direction, including the creation of strong, realistic characters and performances, the use of hand-held camera, fast-paced editing and a powerful soundtrack reflect the talents of Michael Jenkins whose other directing credits include Blue Murder (1995) and The Leaving of Liverpool (1992).