June 2004

Sittin’ in the morning sun, sittin’ when the evening come

By Sue Preston

One wintry day last June, up-and-coming independent film-maker Genevieve Bailey chanced on a group of friends on St Kilda Pier.

A graduate of the School of Creative Arts at the University of Melbourne with a major in media arts, Genevieve, 23, was looking for a story.

The Pier Boys, as Genevieve called them—Tony, Harry, Martin, Avi—were engaged in their daily ritual.

On a large wooden seat they had commandeered and made homely with towels, drink bottles, a guitar, a newspaper and a magazine or two, they whiled away the hours.

They talked, laughed and joked in English or Italian, sometimes French or German—between them they speak eight languages—among themselves or with passers-by.

Genevieve and the Pier Boys clicked and she has spent the last few months video-taping their stories—how they came to Melbourne, their families, their cultural and social influences and, of course, how they met and became friends.

Thanks to a $5,000 grant through the Office of Senior Victorian’s Images of Age program, the Pier Boys’ story will be turned into a 26-minute documentary about friendship, health, age and happiness.

Pier Boys is one of 10 new film, theatre and television productions sharing Victorian Government funding of $50,000 to promote a positive view of ageing.

Minister for Aged Care Gavin Jennings said the grants had been awarded to projects which challenged outmoded concepts of ageing and older people and provided an opportunity for refreshing new images to be brought to screen and stage.

‘Each of these new projects will promote older people and their stories to the Victorian community in an interesting and artistic way,’ Mr Jennings said.

The funded Images of Age projects include:

• Script development for three innovative feature/telemovies by industry professionals;

• A community arts animation project by members of a small rural community aged five to 87;

• Two short documentaries by well-credentialled young film-makers destined for local and international documentary film festivals;

• A regional community theatre project and a touring theatre production;

• A video production of the lives of older women who spearheaded the women’s liberation movement and remain activists today;

• A television pilot production which places some of Australia’s best thinkers at a dinner table to answer life’s most complex questions.