EAGLEHAWK

Eaglehawk is a unique project commissioned for performances exclusive to the 2003 Melbourne international Film Festival. The event serves as a cinematic and performance precursor to a feature film script. The project had its genesis in a story of disaffected rural youth living in a small, isolated, once thriving Victorian country town. In the face of unemployment, domestic disruptions and drug use, a group of teens take to nomadic living, solely on the roofs of Eaglehawk village.

Eaglehawk posits that in an attempt to escape such grim everyday reality, the group retreats in a fantasy realm - heightened by their covert trips to a local cinema - that nonetheless has its own dark corners. Design, images and music for Eaglehawk lean heavily upon Gothic horror elements. Images of the town where the fictional narrative is set, the surrounds, characters and events will be presented, not in a traditional narrative form, but as digitally treated and enhanced video projection accompanied by a live score and soundscaping.

Vincent Giarrusso has pulled together the many strands of the Eaglehawk project. A prolific performer, filmmaker, writer and composer, Giarrusso was also director of MIFF 2000 Closing Night film, Mallboy. In addition, he was a founding member of seminal Melbourne band undergroundLOVERS, whose ARIA Award winning career spanned nine albums and a decade from 1989 to 2000.