City Crush

“the ordinary is not ordinary; it is extra-ordinary, uncanny"
- Martin Heidegger

City Crush aims to subvert the ordinarity and mundane that historically defines suburban culture, in an attempt to uncover the extraordinary and uncanny, and re-evaluate the once idyllic suburban dream. In effect, this expose’ has the power to undermine the social and cultural prohibitions that create order and stability of everyday life. In blatantly presenting the ordinary, there is a magic window to discover an absurd and gritting humour that exists under the veil of the Ordinary.

After driving through the outskirts of my home city, Brisbane, I found myself time-and-time-again to be intrigued by the desolate forgotten areas: abandoned factories; empty car yards; brutalist cement structures underneath disused train bridges with layers of graffiti. In these seemingly dead spaces, there was a detail that wrote itself into the film; I saw the devious thug waiting in his car at the speedway racetrack dust bowl in Archerfield, the half inflated flailing plastic tubes in the corner of an empty sale yards that once had a job to command the attention of drivers passing through Moorooka. I heard the yelling advertising television from the white-picket-fence-brick-home with an ordinary front fence in Brendale - all of these observations make an appearance in some way City Crush. This is extra-ordinary, the uncanny, beneath a seemingly banal and ordinary environment.

As a film without dialogue, City Crush relies on suggestive character behaviours, bodies, and mise en scene to tell the unusual tale of suburban living. Gregory Crewdson’s photography partially inspired this approach, as I felt his conceptual photographs transmitted rich and mysterious narratives. I therefore envisioned the film to be composed exclusively in wide, static, long shots. By composing shots this way, I felt it was unobtrusive and would position the audience as an voyeuristic observer to the slow action, a state of mind that I find to be a rewarding experience when watching films.

Director’s such as Ulrich Seidl (Paradise Liebe), Lars Von Trier (Gerry), Todd Solondz (Happiness, Welcome to the Dollhouse), and Harmony Korine (Gummo, Trash Humpers) often depict marginalized societies, with bold and complex character behaviours, which greatly inspired my character taste and tone. In casting for the City Crush, I wanted to steer away from overt drama actors and attract regular people who are blesse’d with strangeness.

The film depicts a simple narrative; it’s meaning is open to interpretation.