Shirley Barrett on South Solitary

Well done Shirley, its now on the big screen
I am going to see it with the Friends Of Maatsuyker on the (th August.
You must be very pleased.

Hope to hear from you some time.

John
The Light House Keeper

A message to Shirley. I just saw South Solitary, found it very moving and beautiful. I’m an actor and a maker of theatre as an independent artist, and became interested in lighthouse life after researching for a performance at the launch of an exhibition at the National Archives in Canberra :”Beacons by the Sea’. This was in 2002. I got a grant to further the research, stayed on Swan and Bruny Islands with the caretakers of the lighthouses there, gathered many stories, delved into archives, and eventually there are two shows as a result. ‘Flotsam and Jetsam’ (2003 the first production. There have been 3 versions) is for children, about lighthouse life for kids in the 1950s (based mostly on Tasman Island stories) and ‘The Keeper: a Gothic Tale of Light and Dark’ for adults. In 2008 it had its first season in Canberra, a performance in a marquee at Cape Otway Lightstation as well. It was on at La Mama in Melbourne 2009, and one of the central themes of the story is the man in the bath on Deal Island, Thomas Haigh. I toured both shows in Victoria in May this year and am about to tour with these shows to coastal towns in NSW, including the National Maritime Museum in Sydney (August/September). I would so love to have a contact with you, and invite you to see a performance. I’ll be touring Victoria again next year (May/June). There is info about the shows on my website. It’d be an honour to hear from you…there were so many resonances in your film to the images and events in my show…even to the girl touching the shoes on the dead lightkeeper…I know the subject matter is full of these images, but I was very impressed and moved by the film. I hope you have a moment to contact me.

Yours,
Chrissie Shaw

Dear Shirley,

Along with two friends, one of whom has now seen “South Solitary” twice, I wanted to congratulate you on a truly beautiful and memorable movie. I admit I was hesitant, when a friend asked me along, on the basis that I “would just love it”. Much as I was surprised by her enthusiasm, (she’s not one to go overboard over movies at the best of times), I was also loathe to see it after the very tepid reviews it received from both David and Margaret on “The Movie Show”. Margaret was insistent that the film wasn’t really about anything – ie, there was no real story to hang it on, and said the audience would lose sympathy, as she did, once the heroine did something so unspeakably awful you could never like her again. This was in fact one of the main reasons I didn’t want to see it. By the time it was too late and I was in the audience, I confess, I was dreading some future hideous deed – perhaps the torture of the lovely Lucille, or the boiling of the baby birds in the chimney, as I sat nervously in the audience, waiting to hate my heroine.

When I discovered the act to be something so simple and oddly innocent as a young woman’s acceptance of sex from a married man, I was astounded. What a puritanical attitude from Pomeranz – who after all has in the past defended the rights of freedom of cinema in a way I actually find morally bankrupt. (That French cinema verite film she fought to have screened, which included a real rape scene immediately springs to mind). And to judge a character so beautifully, exquisitely drawn by both script and acting presence, so harshly…? Shirley, as a screenwriting graduate and would-be film director (who turned to the relative safety of the playwriting out of sheer frustration with the industry), and as a lover of good acting performances, I commend your writing and directing. This is a film that will stay in the hearts and minds of your audience for a long time to come. Much the way “Love Serenade” did, all those years ago. Don’t let the narrow minded peculiar attitudes of our resident critics, and the resultant fairly average response nationwide, put you off making more films. You are the next generation’s Paul Cox – and your films will be greeted with the same fervent passionate responses – both negative and positive – as a result. We need your films. They give us guide posts, both visually and viscerally, to who we are. From three people who loved your film, and who will talk about it for a long time yet, THANK YOU. We look forward to many more to come.

To Shirley,
You had me at Lighthouse !
A beautifully told story.