Helen Bowden Movies
- 2003
Australian writer/director Kathryn Millard makes her feature-length debut with the drama Travelling Light. Set in the Southern Australian town of Adelaide during the 1970s, the film is concerned with a group of bored teenagers. Leanne Ferris (Pia Miranda) lives in the suburbs with her parents, Betty (Heather Mitchell) and Don (Marshall Napier), while her sister Bronwyn (Sacha Horler) has already gotten married. Leanne spends her time with aspiring actress Debra (Anna Torv) and next-door neighbor Gary (Tim Draxl). The friends are soon introduced to a different lifestyle when stranger Lou Bonetti (Brett Stiller) blows into town claiming to be an American beat poet. ~ Andrea LeVasseur, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Pia Miranda, Sacha Horler, (more)
- 1999
- R
An Australian family with more than its share of eccentricities comes together and tries to set aside their differences in the comic drama Soft Fruit. Patsy (Jeannie Drynan) is the mother of four grown children who has learned she's dying of cancer. While her husband Vic (Linal Haft) is ambivalent about Patsy's condition, her kids are concerned enough to all visit her, marking the first time in 15 years the entire family has been under one roof. Josie (Genevieve Lemon) arrives from the United States with her Australian accent gone and two children in tow. Nadia (Sacha Horler), a single mother since her recent divorce, comes by with her son, but keeps sneaking off for assignations with her ex-husband. Vera (Alicia Talbot), who lives close by, is a nurse who is more single than she'd like to be. And Bo (Russell Dykstra) hangs out with a biker gang when he's not in jail; he's been released on special parole to visit his mother due to her condition. With the family together for a change, the sisters look after their mother, Bo sleeps in a storage shed, and Vic uses the fruit trees in the yard for target practice. Mom, however, has some ideas of her own about how she'd like to spend her final days. Soft Fruit marked the directorial debut of Christina Andreef, who previously served as an assistant to Jane Campion; Campion was executive producer for this project. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jeanie Drynan, Linal Haft, (more)
- 1996
This is a quite short independently produced film about a homecoming. Rosie (Cate Blanchett) returns to Adelaide for her father Cliff's funeral. Some of the wry humor in this drama is underscored by the use of Chamber of Commerce-type promotional films about Adelaide, made in the '50s and '60s. Cliff (Tony Martin) left Rosie's mother some time before the story begins, and in the intervening years she hasn't spent much time with him. Cliff's mistress (Carmel Johnson) invites Rosie to stick around a while. She does and begins investigating his life during the time they were apart. There are hints that though he was a policeman, he was somehow involved in the drug trade. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
The different stages of Alzheimer's disease are illustrated in You Must Remember This: Inside Alzheimer's Disease, as several patients are seen coping with their illness. Their stories are seen from the perspectives of the patients, their caregivers, and physicians. One man has only mild symptoms and can still perform his daily activities, although he is aware of a difference. A woman plays her favorite game of tennis, but will forget what to bring to a game, while another gentleman does not remember his wife's face. The program discusses the daily challenges faced by caregivers. ~ Alice Day, All Movie Guide
