Bluebirds of Peace and Destruction (2006)

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Director:

Andrew Leavold

Writer:

Andrew Leavold (writer)

Genre:

Short | Horror

Cast

Leah Fischle	...	Leah
Chloe Cogle	...	Chloe
Dutch Holland	...	Family Man
Jean Nicotine	...	Hostile Prostitute
Terry Coker	...	Interested Jogger
Matthew Wood	...	Body Double

Runtime:

Australia:20 min

Country:

Australia

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Filming Locations:

Brisbane, Queensland, Australia

Company:

Turkeyshoot Productions

Satire reflecting the media mythology of a 1989 Australian murder

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

In 1989, in Brisbane's Orleigh Park in the suburb of West End, Tracy Wigginton murdered an inebriated male. Wigginton is currently incarcerated in Brisbane's Women's Correctional Centre at Wacol and nicknamed 'Fred' by fellow inmates. At the time of her arrest the media dubbed Wigginton a 'vampire lesbian' and her murder of the inebriated male was reported in embellished gory detail making her legendary (to the extent that 'Fred' has been unwilling to take advantage of early release due to good behaviour because the infamy of the murder is inescapable). Like many 'long-termers' life outside would be a drastic change in environment and routine and this would be incredibly difficult to re-adapt to, especially if under the pressure of intense media scrutiny. The murder and the mythology surrounding the infamous 'vampire lesbian' are undoubtedly the inspiration for this chilling short film. However writer/director Andrew Leavold, the owner/operator of Trash Video (Australia's unique and largest cult video store of rare and underground cinema), opens his film by both acknowledging the murder and stating that this film is not Wigginton's story.

In concordance with the genre of disaster and horror, we know a violent act is inevitable, and the film starts slow and silently, which unnerves the viewer and builds their anticipation. Leavold confessed to me that rather than tightly scripting the film he simply gave the actors a brief paragraph to follow, in the style of Dogme. The resulting action is reminiscent of Harmony Korine's 1997 'Gummo', yet the direction and editing is far more stylised, not to the extent of it being surrealist or pretentious, but instead evoking an immediacy of panic and desperation which expertly sets the mood and establishes the mental state of the soon-to-be murderers.

The opening scene of the inner city Fortitude Valley train station is iconic and recalls countless art-house films that use the crowded and alienating city places of public transport as sites of desolation. The women (soon-to-be-murderers)'s apartment is a messy cosy affair, not as seedy as a junkies' flat, but imbued with a sense of carelessness and apathy. A simple scene of one disenchanted, chain-smoking woman clumsily frying eggs for breakfast is expertly inter-cut with the protagonist (the alpha female who later leads the murder) making faces in the mirror and fantasising about the power inherent in human blood and having the power of life and death over another human being.

The silence and quick cuts of the opening scenes depict the women as having a disjointed and disturbed psyche (ironically, this is best illustrated by the neat and tight editing, and the methodical daily practices of the characters, which demonstrate a compulsion for order and control although chaos surrounds them). The night scenes in a Valley club show the women much more alive and excited, than they were earlier in the gaudily lit daylight moments where they are only half-awake and barely half-alive. The pick-up of the drunken man is terrifying in its relaxed and casual nature: the man is your typical drunk, an on-the-make sleaze bag and it is not hard to empathise with the women – because what woman has not been harassed (or assaulted) by a creep like him on a girls' night out? Although Leavold professes an interest in the trashier and tackier sides of cinema and local history, his film picks up on the political heart of the actual 'vampire lesbian' murders: the women were fighting back at every man who had assaulted, raped and victimised them in the past, and the murder was symbolic, even though atrocious. The work of the women prisoner's advocacy group Sisters Inside (which Tracy Wigginton participates in) has brought more information into the public sphere about the backgrounds of women prior to their incarceration. An overwhelming majority of female prisoners, especially those incarcerated for murder, are survivors of sexual abuse and the crimes they committed were often desperate attempts at regaining power over their lives.

'Bluebirds of Peace and Destruction' plays into all the motifs of exploitation cinema, yet offers an unexpected depth and empathy with the characters as they catapult from egomania to nervous breakdown. In our patriarchally structured society when women commit violent acts they are not only breaching the legal and social rules of conduct but they are also transgressing their role as the 'nurturing' and 'gentle' gender (women also only make up less than 5% of incarcerated prisoners – more than 95% of prisoners are male). Male violence towards women is alarmingly commonplace, with both male spouses and male strangers being potential abusers. Women live their lives in full knowledge that almost every male is potentially violent and learn to guard against being in a position of vulnerability. Men, on the other hand, do not have to fear women on a daily basis, and instead enjoy the privileges of power and an unearned higher status. When a woman commits a violent act towards a man, she disrupts male power and essentially 'feminises' the man by victimising him.

Director of 1998's 'Head On', Ana Kokkinos recently adapted the novel 'The Book of Revelations' to the screen. 2006's 'The Book of Revelations' deals with similar subject matter, namely the kidnap and rape of a man by a group of women. The 'Book of Revelations' focuses on the victim's story and how the man copes after the assault by becoming promiscuous and eventually dangerous towards women. In contrast, 'Bluebirds' dehumanises the male victim into a piece of meat that the women attack meanwhile hinting that this act is revenge towards the more commonplace victimisation of women. 'Bluebirds', while not consciously touching on the ethical and political dimensions around women's criminality, or the prevalence of violence against women conducted by men, does, at the very least, satirise the popular imagination and mythology that has grown up around the murder committed by the 'vampire lesbian' Tracy Wigginton, 'Fred', in 1989.