At Eltham

A sombre and despairing bush film, made after the untimely death of the poet Charles Buckmaster (1951-72), to whom the film is dedicated, and shortly before the Cantrills’ move to the USA in 1973. Slow and somnambulant where Bouddi had been piquant and energised, it observes a classic but despoiled bush scene (eucalypts, acacia, melaleuca shrubs) in Eltham, an outer suburb of Melbourne. The film is haunted by a sense that they “could no longer work as filmmakers in Australia” (Corinne Cantrill).