https://vimeo.com/874050343?share=copy#t=0

“No religion wants us. We’re going to have to invent our own.” 

Larry Kramer, Faggots

“No sleep, bus, club, another club, another club, plane, next place, no sleep, no fear, no one believed in me.” 

Lady Gaga

 

The gay scene in Melbourne, and much of the world, is typified by nightclubs and sex-on-premises venues. Poof Doof, Sircuit, The Peel, Wet on Wellington, Trough- places where we lower our inhibitions (with the aid of alcohol, amyl, MDMA, etc. etc.), where we live under our own sexual morality, and where we find solace in the friendships and fucks of people like us. 

Making Saturday Service, a portrait of this aspect of gay life, left me (in the words of RuPaul) gooped, gagged and stripped raw. Using a plethora of interviews, I detail the sex-and-drug-fueled highs and lows of these much-contested sites. Ending on an interview, we can finally individualise what we’ve heard. Is this the gay church? Should it be?

Collecting a range of interview material was a real challenge. I had to devise questions that would prompt my subjects to speak frankly and naturally, and go through the ideas I wanted to explore. As well, I experimented with extreme and exaggerated colour grading to emulate not merely the literal sight of a nightclub, but what it feels like to be lost within one. Putting this together in editing, I was inspired by a number of different essayistic works, especially those by Godard. Putting all of this together greatly challenged my editing skills, as I was layering both sounds and images and attempting to find a rhythm and organise my varied footage and recordings.