BOOK CLUB: MONKEY GRIP
Sunday 18 August 2024, 1:00–3:00pm
ARC Cinema
McCoy Cct, Acton ACT 2601
Australian author Helen Garner was the first woman to receive the National Book Council’s Book of the Year Award, for her debut novel Monkey Grip. Now considered a modern classic, this early example of Australian grunge literature explores the tense relationship between a single mother and her heroin-addicted lover.
Ken Cameron’s film offers a nuanced reflection on the complexity of love, set against the realities of inner-city sex, drugs and rock‘n’roll in 1970s Australia. A young Noni Hazlehurst won an AFI Award for her sensitive portrayal of conflicted protagonist Nora, giving voice to a character more-oft reduced to sensationalist headlines. The film features an original soundtrack of contemporary rock music performed by Divinyls.
‘Few Australian films are as evocative of the time and place of their production – or of the period in which they are set – as Ken Cameron’s adaptation of Helen Garner’s award-winning novel Monkey Grip… Its atmospheric re-creation of a bohemian phase in Melbourne suburban life… has not been superseded’ – Metro Magazine
Presented on 35mm film prints from the NFSA collection.
A discounted triple film pass is available to see Richard Lowenstein’s He Died with a Felafel in His Hand (11 August), Ken Cameron's Monkey Grip (18 August) and Ana Kokkinos’ Head On (25 August). The 25 August event will be followed by a discussion of the films and Australian grunge lit. Learn more
A discounted season pass is available for the Book Club at the NFSA program. Learn more