Setting Sun Film Festival 2019 – Ladies' Lounge
In 1965 rural Victoria, a woman risks domestic security when she chains herself to the foot rail of her local pub to protest gender segregation laws.
Interview with Writer/Director Monique S Bettello
Congratulations! Why did you make your film?
Ladies' Lounge was my graduate film from SAE Melbourne. I originally wasn't going to write and direct for our final films, I wanted to shoot. However during the pitching process, my DOP Lucy Campbell, and I were both concerned by the number of heterosexual cis male stories being heard. None of these stories evoked much response from either of us so we decided to pitch our own idea. So really, Ladies' Lounge was a protest itself!
Imagine I’m a member of the audience. Why should I watch this film?
I think what makes Ladies' Lounge interesting is that it's based on a true story. In 1965 Brisbane, Australia, two women chained themselves to the foot rail of the Regatta Hotel to protest the gender segregation laws of pubs at the time. I'd never heard of these women until I was deep into researching the women's liberation movement in Australia and so I think it's an important watch in that respect, no one knows about it!
How do personal and universal themes work in your film?
The LGBTQ+ and feminist themes are essentially the backbones of the film but I think the main idea I wanted to explore was a risk. Eleanor (Janine Atwill) willingly puts herself forward for public scrutiny and therefore risks losing her 'normal' life with her husband (Paul Canlan) as well as her secret affair with Joan (Grace Lowry) in order to stand up for what she believes in and spoiler alert, she does, in fact, lose both of them. So the dilemma of knowing how much of your personal comfort and security to jeopardise for your beliefs is what I was thinking about whilst creating Ladies' Lounge and I think that's a pretty universal struggle.
How have the script and film evolved over the course of their development?
The film evolved a lot over the entire process, from script development to the sound mix. A number of these changes were due to budget restrictions and setting it in 1965 rural Victoria was daring considering how tight our budget was! So there were a number of compromises I had to make regarding production design and location, however, the story itself never changed. I was lucky enough to have the incredibly talented Janine Atwill and Grace Lowry as my two spearhead actors and we worked intensely to really flesh their characters out and get them in the 1965 headspace.
What type of feedback have you received so far?
We've got a lot of very encouraging feedback thus far! We've been in 8 festivals, both nationally and internationally and won a number of awards and I'm extremely proud considering it was my graduating film from uni. Everyone comments on Janine's performance and our gorgeous 1965 Chevrolet Bel Air, so I think we've done pretty well considering our crew was 95% university students with no money!
Has the feedback surprised or challenged your point of view?
The feedback surprised me honestly. We got a lot of praise from our university but I boiled that down to being relative to other university films but somehow we've managed to stand up pretty well amongst more experienced filmmakers.
What are you looking to achieve by having your film more visible on www.wearemovingstories.com?
First and foremost, we just want more people to see Ladies' Lounge.
Who do you need to come on board (producers, sales agents, buyers, distributors, film festival directors, journalists) to amplify this film’s message?
Distributors.
What type of impact and/or reception would you like this film to have?
I want Ladies' Lounge to make people think about how much (or little) has changed for female-identifying people in Australia since 1965. Whilst a number of laws have progressed to be more inclusive, I believe there is still deep-rooted misogyny and homophobia in our society today so even though a lot of things have evolved, there are still more obstacles and barriers for anyone who's not a straight, white cis-gendered male in Australia and that's what I want people to reflect upon.
Interview: May 2019
We Are Moving Stories embraces new voices in drama, documentary, animation, TV, web series, music video, women's films, LGBTQIA+, POC, First Nations, scifi, supernatural, horror, world cinema. If you have just made a film - we'd love to hear from you. Or if you know a filmmaker - can you recommend us? More info: Carmela
Ladies' Lounge
In 1965 rural Victoria, a woman risks domestic security when she chains herself to the foot rail of her local pub to protest gender segregation laws.
Length: 8:34
Director: Monique Bettello
Producer: Gokce Sel
Writer: Monique Bettello
About the writer, director and producer:
Upon discovering the 1965 archival news footage of Merle Thornton and Rosalie Bogner, MONIQUE BETTELLO was instantly inspired to pay homage to their incredible feminist protest by way of an original screenplay. Throughout her time at film school, Monique directed a number of projects and she is extremely proud that Ladies’ Lounge is her first writer/director credit. Monique prides herself on collaborating with a mostly female and LGBTQ+ identifying crew on this project, particularly as she feels that the film industry, for the most part, continue to leave the stories of these people behind. Monique hopes that Ladies’ Lounge will not only share with its audiences a compelling story of feminist Australian history but also inspire other female and LGBTQ+ filmmakers.
A writer, director, producer, GOKCE SEL currently works predominately in the narrative short format. With her previous work exploring the politics of gender and identity, Gokce was naturally drawn to the project, Ladies’ Lounge. She plans to continue working in a similar vein and helping to create opportunities for women and minorities within the film industry in order to guide those stories to the silver screen that reflect the true diversity of the Australian people.
Key cast: Janine Atwill (Eleanor), Grace Lowry (Joan), Matthew Moloney (Bartender), Drew Sargent (John), Paul Canlan (Richard)
Looking for: distributors
Facebook: Ladies' Lounge
Instagram: @ladiesloungefilm
Hashtags used: #ladieslounge #ladiesloungefilm
Funders: Self-funded, Pozible
Where can I watch it next and in the coming month? Setting Sun Film Festival, Yarraville, Melbourne