In Sundowners, Dan and his teenage brother find themselves living out of a car as they struggle to find a permanent home in the midst of a nation-wide housing crisis.
Sundowners, now in its finished form and set to premiere at the St. Kilda Film Festival next week, has been a year-long low-budget labour of love to shine a light on the perilous state of the national housing crisis, through the story of two brothers forced to live from their car as they desperately try to find a permanent home.
The narrative was conceived by writer/co-director Jay Peardon after a year abroad in the United States and Europe, where he was struck by the sight and stories of people doing it tough on the streets, unable to find consistent living arrangements. With a burning desire to empathetically express the glowing humanity of those who are falling by the societal wayside back here at home, Peardon returned to Perth, Western Australia with the script ready to go, and enlisted co-director and best friend Bailey Parkinson to helm the production with him.
Sundowners cast:
- Jay Peardon [peanut]
- Austin Delaney
- Alexandria Steffnesen [Talk To Me]
- Emma Jackson [How To Please A Woman]
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“This story has grown from my own lived experience and the stories of many people I sat down and spoke to, facing harsh living conditions on a day-to-day, night-to-night basis; where they may not know when they will find safe shelter again,” Peardon said.
Produced for less than one thousand dollars over four days and crewed by friends around town, including cinematographer and co-editor Toby Bajrovic, Sundowners was captured in a grounded, no-frills documentary style that felt realistically present to the plight of its central characters: the endlessly-optimistic Dan and his fast-maturing younger brother Jessie.
Co-directors Jay and Bailey hope that Sundowners will generate new empathy in their audience towards the difficulties so many individuals within local communities face when it comes to simply having a roof over their heads, and to encourage resilience and optimism in the face of such adversity.
Sundowners is one of many creative collaborations from KIDFLO in the past 12 months. A partnership between three young men from small-town suburbs who all dream of something bigger. A dream to tell stories. Stories from their world. Stories that excite them but will undoubtedly ring true for others.
Watch it at St Kilda Film Festival’s Tandem Tales on June 7 at 7pm. Book here.
