Travelling Light

Synopsis: It’s Adelaide, 1971. Leanne (Pia Miranda) is in her early twenties and, despite being passionate about photography, finds herself doing a teaching degree she hates whilst her sister Bronwyn (Sacha Horler) loves teaching but is forbidden to keep working by a well-meaning, but over-protective husband. One day a charismatic young beat-poet by the name of Lou (Brett Stiller) enters their lives, leading them to experience new things and question where their lives are going.

Like Leanne, writer-director of Travelling Light Kathryn Millard began her career in the visual arts in photography and very soon this led to work in film. She’s made a documentary, Light Years, that was nominated for an ATOM award. This soon led to her first drama, the hour long film Parklands, which starred Cate Blanchett and Tony Martin (not the D-Generation Tony Martin, the Wildside one). All this culminated in the script for this, Millard’s first feature.

The result is a film that gives a charming, somewhat satirical look at life in suburban Adelaide during the early 1970s. This is a more authentic, less stylised looking 1970s than we have seen in other films set in the period (notably Muriel's Wedding, 1995). As Millard herself says: “We very much wanted to make an emotional portrait of the period, not for it to be a '70s nostalgia kind of kitsch thing.” The cast, comprised of some of the most talented young actors working in Australia, is led by Pia Miranda (best known for Looking for Alibrandi (2000) and Garage Days, 2002) whilst as the older sister, Sacha Horler plays a character she is not usually seen portraying, a housewife in total denial. As a charismatic visiting American "Beat" poet, Lou, is newcomer (and rarely seen again) Brett Stiller and Tamblyn Lord who played a similar character (complete with tight shorts and walk socks) in Davida Allen's similarly themed Feeling Sexy (1999).

Taking five years from initial concept to getting onto the big screen Travelling Light was a mammoth effort for this first time feature writer/director. The end result is a film that is likeable, albeit dramatically vague, particularly with respect to Lou) and with some rather underwhelming moments, notably Leanne's LSD trip. However reflecting Millard's love of the photographic image the film is a delight to the eye both in terms of composition and formal execution.

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