DOGS IN SPACE   1986
Directed by Richard Lowenstein
105 minutes
In English with English subtitles

This Australian cult flick drifts, wanders around a bit, and then begins to zoom in on its main target - a squatted communal household full of musicians, outsiders and rejects, reflecting the vibrant counterculture scene in Melbourne back in 1978. The way this film slowly eases into this chaos is both gentle and beautiful. The camera is often gliding gracefully, as it moves from room to room. Therefore, although it is a fiction film that is full of surrealism and dreams, in its own way it is also an incredible documentary capturing the alternative Australian underworld. This was as punk was bursting out, and it was the intensely creative scene that gave rise to musicians like Nick Cave and all its splinter groups. It was a wild, drug-fueled movement, and of course it was infused with music. Anyone who has lived in such a mess - hanging out in the risky edges of society, crashing on couches, trying to sleep while ten things are happening all at the same time - will recognize the very special mood that this film captures perfectly. It beautifully portrays all the passions, all the contradictions. The soundtrack of course also reflects the particular moment in history, and sets the vibe of the film.... Iggy Pop, The Gang of Four, Brian Eno, and The Birthday Party.

This is a movie about artists who decided not to go to university. Some of them refused because they were actually too smart. Upstairs is a communal livingroom that's being used as a rehearsal space for a band called Dogs in Space. All these creatures of the night have at least one shared habit: waking up whenever the band starts playing in the middle of the afternoon. As the story unfolds, every once in a while it's punctuated by documentary fragments charting the history of Laika, the first Soviet dog sent into space. Michael Hutchence, who later became the famous singer of the band INXS, portrays one of the main characters. Hutchence would end up dying young in a Sydney hotel room just over a decade after the film was made.

Much like the transitory temperament of this monumental film, once the movie was finished, it drifted into the Australian cinemas, and was then totally forgotten about. It never received much distribution outside its home country. Soon after it was made - zap - it was written out of the history books and vanished. When seen today it is a gem-like ghost film.

This will be a high-definition screening