Shirley Barrett

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Shirley Barrett
Born1961 (1961)
Melbourne, Australia
Died (aged 61)
Sydney, Australia
Occupation(s)Film director, screenwriter, novelist
Years active1988–2021
SpouseChris Norris
Children2

Shirley Barrett (1961 – 3 August 2022) was an Australian film director, screenwriter, and novelist. Initially Barrett was a singer in the band Fruit Pastilles from 1981-83. After ending her time in the band, Barrett went on to write for films. Her first film Love Serenade won the Caméra d'Or at the 1996 Cannes Film Festival.[1] She wrote and directed two other feature films Walk the Talk (2000) and South Solitary (2010). Barrett's script for South Solitary was awarded multiple prizes, including the Queensland Premier's Prize and the West Australian Premier's Prize.[2] Her first novel Rush Oh! (2016) was shortlisted for the 2016 Indie Awards for Debut Fiction and the 2016 Nita May Dobbie Award, and long-listed for the 2016 Baileys Women's Prize for Fiction. Her second novel The Bus on Thursday was released in 2018.

Early life and education

Barrett was born in Melbourne in 1961.[3] In 1985, she moved to Sydney, where she studied screenwriting at the Australian Film, Television and Radio School (AFTRS).[3] In 1988, during her final year at the AFTRS she made a short film entitled Cherith which won the Australian Film Institute Award for Best Short Fiction.[4]

Television

Barrett began her career in television “with production work on the Logies.”[4] After meeting Verity Lambert, she was given the opportunity to direct for a television series The Boys From the Bush.[3] She continued working in television during the 1990s and 2000s, directing episodes for various television series including Love My Way, Wild Boys, Offspring, and A Place to Call Home.

Film

Love Serenade

Barrett's first feature

Robinvale, Victoria. The story concerns two young sisters who develop a fierce and competitive crush on their neighbour, a brooding and self-centred radio personality. The film humorously incorporates "small town constrictions with visual flights of fancy".[4] The sisters are played by Miranda Otto and Rebecca Frith and George Shevtsov stars as the washed up deejay.[5] The film was generally well-received, with Variety describing it as “one of the most striking, fully formed and assured debuts in years.”[3]
It won the Camera D'Or (Best First Feature) at Cannes film Festival 1996, and Barrett was awarded Best New Director at the Vallodolid International Film Festival in 1996.

Walk the Talk

Her second feature

paraplegic, Joey starts a talent agency hoping to "make his mark on the world".[4] Joey encounters Nikki Raye (Nikki Bennett), “a variety club singer”[4] and decides to represent her as an agent in attempts to thrust her, and himself into the limelight. The characters that Shirley Barrett created in Walk the Talk are "relegated to the fringes of a hero's journey".[4] The comedic effect of the film emerges through the "desperation of these people living on the margins".[4] Variety described it as "a bitingly funny, hard-hitting and yet compassionate examination of a bunch of losers on the fringe of showbiz."[7]

South Solitary

Barrett's third feature

First World War soldier recovering form shell shock".[5] Meredith is searching and longing for companionship while Fleet "shies away from the confusion and misunderstandings of human contact".[5]
Despite this tension between the characters, they develop affections for one another.

Novels

Rush Oh!

Barrett's first novel Rush Oh! (2015) is set in

killer whales
. It is based on a true story.

The Bus on Thursday

Barrett's second novel The Bus on Thursday (2018) tells the story of a young woman recently recovering from

demons
.

Personal life

Barrett was married to Chris Norris.[8] They had two daughters. She lived in Sydney.[4] In March 2022, she wrote about her battle with terminal cancer.[9] She died in Sydney on 3 August 2022, aged 61.[10]

Filmography

As writer

As director

Other writings

  • 2015 — Rush Oh! (novel)
  • 2018 — The Bus On Thursday (novel)

Awards

Won

Nominated

Shortlisted

  • 2016 Indie Awards for Debut Fiction Rush Oh!
  • 2016 Nita May Dobbie Literary Award Rush Oh!

Long-listed

  • 2016 Baileys Women's Prize for Fiction Rush Oh!

References

  1. ^ "Festival de Cannes: Love Serenade". festival-cannes.com. Retrieved 20 September 2009.
  2. ^ a b c d "Curtis Brown". curtisbrown.co.uk. Retrieved 5 October 2015.
  3. ^ a b c d e Elley, Derek (15 January 1997). "Shirley Barrett". Retrieved 5 October 2015.
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Engall, Priscella (2002). "Shirley Barrett Thinks Positive Thoughts About Delusion". Metro. Retrieved 20 September 2015.
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h i Krauth, Kristen (2010). "Meredith Had a Little Lamb". Metro. Retrieved 20 September 2015.
  6. ^ Engall, Priscella (2002). "Shirley Barrett". Metro. Retrieved 20 September 2015.
  7. ^ Stratton, David (21 August 2000). "Walk the Talk". Variety. Retrieved 27 November 2018.
  8. ^ Caroline Baum, "Shirley Barrett", The Age, 19 September 2015, Spectrum, p. 24
  9. ^ Shirley Barrett (2022) Notes on dying: ‘It occurred to me that this is my last lychee season’. The Guardian, 5 March 2022.
  10. ^ Salusinszky, Irne (5 August 2022). "Shirley Barrett obituary: 'She never stopped being the life of the party'". The Guardian. Retrieved 5 August 2022.
  11. ^ "1996 Cannes Film Festival". www.infoplease.com. Retrieved 10 December 2017.
  12. ^ "41th Valladolid International Film Festival — Seminci 1996 — FilmAffinity". FilmAffinity. Retrieved 10 December 2017.

External links

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