“In an urban society, everything connects. Each person's needs are fed by the skills of many others. Our lives are woven together in a fabric. But the connections that make society strong also make it vulnerable.”

– Narrator

“On Saturday 14th February 1900, a party of schoolgirls from Appleyard College picnicked at Hanging Rock near Mt. Macedon in the state of Victoria. During the afternoon, several members of the party disappeared without trace.”

Oz artist and Tiny Tim aficionado Martin Sharp explores Tiny's 1979 world record singing attempt at Sydney Luna Park and the devastating Ghost Train Fire a few months later on June 9. Sadly, Sharp never managed to complete his vision. The sole reason Street of Dreams is out there as a rough VHS bootleg is thanks to Tiny's custodian spirit. “I know Mr Sharp believes in me so much — and I praise the Lord for that — and maybe he's made a cult movie which at the very least will survive as a museum piece.”, he said, insisting that Sharp would release a rough cut for the Brighton Festival.

“I'm right here to stay, When I'm old and gray, I'll be right in my prime, Living in the sunlight, Loving in the moonlight, Having a wonderful time!”

– Tiny Tim, Livin' In The Sunlight, Lovin' In The Moonlight (God Bless Tiny Tim, 1968)

Very much like Mr Tim and a carnival ride ablaze, Street of Dreams is its own beast. Growling, off, unpolished, a blaze – ablaze – out of control. Satanic panic that for once feels truthful, cheery almost. Hallelujah, and God bless Tiny Tim!

A theme park*, or in this case, amusement park.

“Just take it from me I'm just as free as any daughter I do what I like Just what I like and how I love it

I'm right here to stay when I'm old and gray I'll be right in my prime Living in the sunlight, loving in the moonlight Having a wonderful time”

– Tiny Tim, Livin' in the Sunlight, Lovin' in the Moonlight (Al Sherman & Al Lewis, 1930), from God Bless Tiny Tim (1968)

Tiny Tim is a personal hero of mine. A decade after his mainstream TV debut, Tiny's career had taken a tumble but he still was – God bless him – Tiny Tim, and he performed a two-hour-and-seventeen-minute singing marathon at Luna Park Sydney. Just months after that, tragedy hit the park's Ghost Train ride. A fire, arson as it was determined decades later, killed seven. Fellow Tiny-aficionado and OZ artist Don Lane saw a connection between these two events and spend years cutting and editing the musical marathon, nude drunken interview and disaster footage, and Tiny wandering around a mirror maze into a narrative.

 

Lane passed in 2013 and, in respect of his family's wishes, Street of Dreams remains unfinished.

 

* the Bales 2025 Film Challenge for December has a few dateless themes. This is one of them.

“This we do for pleasure, so that we may shortly be at the mercy of venomous snakes and poisonous ants. How foolish can human creatures be.”

– Miss McCraw

A koala for World Lewis Day

 

It's not possible to be in nature, one can only be absorbed by it.

“The vicinity is reknowned for its venomous snakes and poisonous ants of various species. It is, however, a geological marvel.”

– Mrs. Appleyard

Short in gorgeous Technicolor, Muloorina tells about a small, arid town in Australia that one day finds itself on the world's stage. Kati Thanda–Lake Eyre, a local salt lake that hasn't seen a drop of rain in nine years, is the perfect spot for a landspeed record attempt by British daredevil Donald Campbell and his Bluebird.

 

A play of contrasts. The supersonic blue machine on the ancient white riverbed and the slowness of the eternal landscape versus something faster than should be possible. And meanwhile, the locals care for their land and animals, and wait for rain.

John Hillcoat's deeply unpleasant debut is based on In the Belly of the Beast (1981), a collection of excerpts of letters between prisoner Jack Henry Abbott and author Norman Mailer. True to the book's format, Ghosts consists of disjointed vignettes of monologues, #CCTV footage, title cards, and prisoners' phone calls.

 

For the last 37 months, these filters inform the observer, the hypermodern #supermax Central Industrial Prison has been in permanent lockdown. The cast, a mix of professional actors and ex-cons, and the location, a clean factory-style hangar in the middle of the Australian desert, underscore the underlying raw brutality of the unfolding events.

 

“Officer, come here. I wanna spit in your fucking eye!”

– Maynard

The #industrial soundtrack is by Bad Seed Nick Cave (co-writer and starring as Maynard), Mick Harvey, and Blixa Bargeld from when they were still closer to being birthday boys than morose crooners.