Nadine Williams

Love,Lust and Lies

Little did the working class girls know when they made the young film-maker welcome so many years ago that and their adult lives would make the big screen.

 “I was chosen at film school to do a short film on what it was like to be 14 because I looked 14,’’ said Gillian Armstrong.  “We had interviewed hundreds of girls and someone suggested the Thebarton Drop-in Centre.

“We walked into the door of the Drop-In Centre in Thebarton… there were 30 or 40 Italian or Greek background boys, and three girls.

“They were very lively and they were Kerry, Josie and Diana and the year was 1976.’’

 At the premier, Gillian introduced three middle-aged women to the audience, who had just watched 33 years of their eclectic lives portrayed in their own words on the screen.

The women had allowed Gillian Armstrong to film their lives in five different stages over 33 years at the ages of 14, 18, 26, 32 and lastly when they were 47 years old.

“You were really brave to put yourselves out there in film,’’ said Gillian.

Of the three women, only Kerry was still married to her first husband, while Josie and Diana had re-partnered.

“The film was never meant to go on  this long,’’ Gillian told the audience. “It began as a  personal study of what it was like to be a 14-year-old, half adult, half child.

“The girls talked about being 18 as the perfect age and the age to be married. It was not until I was cutting the two films together the 14 and 18-year-olds that I thought how special it was to see people growing up.

“It was fascinating even to see how their faces changed. I thought I absolutely have to go back and see them again… to jump the years and film them again to see what is happening in their lives.’’

Gillian, who was fresh out of film school, was looking to discover the impact of feminism in the young teenagers’ lives. Instead they were wound up in boys, quitting school and getting married and having babies. Josie had her first at age 15 and all of the women married young. 

Their individual stories (Josie and Diana had four children each, while Kerry had two) unveiled each woman’s lot through the impact of choices about relationships and the march of time.  Despite a revolving door of relationships in Josie’s life and a startling twist in Diana’s love life, the women’s basic personalities remain unchanged over those 33 years.  Josie’s stoicism sees her and husband running the Tunkillo pub in her 30s and a bus driver in her 40s, Diana’s somewhat erratic nature spells troubled relationships and Kerry’s quiet, stable manner  is the backbone of her stable marriage.

Although Gillian fails to hit the women with the hard questions on how they coped with the ebb and flow of life’s circumstances, Love, Lust and Lies successfully hooks us as voyeurs and we do, indeed, gasp at Diana’s revellations.

Afterwards Richard Harris, head of the SA Film Corporation interviewed Gillian and invited questions from the audience.

Although, a tad too long, the revelations of the last of the five films

when the women were 47, captured how the women’s lives had unfolded – and included the fortunes of their three oldest children, now adults themselves.

The final chapter revealed shocking facts about Diana’s life and she had been “amazingly honest’’ revealing the truth about her son, Beauh.  “We talked about things that happened in the past that we couldn’t talk about back then,’’ said Gillian. “

Afterwards Richard Harris, head of the SA Film Corporation interviewed Gillian and invited questions from the audience.

“It’s a film about growing up and in each age what is it like… now being 32…and this is about being in your late 40s,” says Gillian.

“It struck me that I am only 10 years older than them and getting further down the (age) line myself.’’

Both Josie and Diana were raised without mothers, who left them in the care of their fathers when they were very young. The impact of their loss is also a rivetting revellation in the final chapter.  

“You know I have always tried to tell the truth about what you are saying,’’ Gillian told the women in front of the audience. “It’s quite tricky to cut down footage to keep the truth.

 “This is the story of the lives of people that I care about and that they trust me. It’s a delicate balance. You want to do the right thing by them. Hopefully, they don’t have any regrets.’’

 Adelaide film director, Scott Hicks told the audience he found the film was “profoundly moving’’.

 “This is an absolutely unique sharing, (showing) the film with the people who are also in the room,’’ he said.

He told Gillian Armstrong he found the film “a combination of your film-making and (watching) home movies and capturing very personal experiences. It is profoundly moving and it stands as a testament to all of you in the film”.

 “You are making very personal revelations and you must make choices  what impact it will have  on people’s lives, but also your integrity as the film maker,” he says.

“When you know the things they are saying today will be on television tomorrow and be discussed sometimes by insensitive journalists, it is a terrible moral dilemma.’’  

Gillian Armstrong said one of the challenges at 32 years, after the 14/18 and 26, years was introducing the teenage daughters, Amy, Rebecca and Wendy. “There were now six characters. It was a huge thing to cut down the other films.

“There were hours and hours of footage and out of that we need to find the story.’’

Kerry and Josie were “very reluctant’’ to continue with the last film at age 47.

 “But I think they understand.. the films have become completely unique because anybody’s lives which have been followed this long reveals incredibly unique things in their lives, but  they are also part of a society,” said Gillian. “This film is about growing up and growing older…being in your late 40s, dealing with teenage kids, the history of  Australia, how our attitudes have changed… Our clothes, food, cars have changed. The girls have realised very generously the film is much larger than their own lives. It is a social work and I thank them for that.’’

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