Hear My Eyes: Wake in Fright at Hamer Hall

Hear My Eyes brings its sonic reinterpretation services to MIFF24, presenting the classic Australian film Wake In Fright.

Local soul seekers Surprise Chef will take the stage, writing and performing an all new live score for the 4K restoration world premiere.

Occupying a dark cupboard of the white Australian psyche, the 1971 film Wake In Fright hardly needs introduction. Canadian director Ted Kotcheff captured an uneasy version of the interior of this country that is as hard to look away from as it is to watch. The claustrophobia of endless open space and small town minds serves as backdrop for a film coated in a slick of sweat and stink of stale beer. It tracks an outsider’s tightrope walk on razor-thin divides: between urban/rural, hypermasculinity/homosexuality, larrikin/brute, human/animal. The descent into chaos is paved with green and gold....

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Hear My Eyes brings its sonic reinterpretation services to MIFF24, presenting the classic Australian film Wake In Fright.

Local soul seekers Surprise Chef will take the stage, writing and performing an all new live score for the 4K restoration world premiere.

Occupying a dark cupboard of the white Australian psyche, the 1971 film Wake In Fright hardly needs introduction. Canadian director Ted Kotcheff captured an uneasy version of the interior of this country that is as hard to look away from as it is to watch. The claustrophobia of endless open space and small town minds serves as backdrop for a film coated in a slick of sweat and stink of stale beer. It tracks an outsider’s tightrope walk on razor-thin divides: between urban/rural, hypermasculinity/homosexuality, larrikin/brute, human/animal. The descent into chaos is paved with green and gold.

Taking their cues from 70s film scores, Coburg’s best loved five-piece Surprise Chef are a cinematic-soul-super-group. They are the obvious choice to lend Wake In Fright some new suede loafers. Don’t expect to know what to expect- this groovy ensemble is huddled in their soul kitchen week-in-week-out, cooking up soundscapes in response to the surreal swill of Wake In Fright.

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