MovieDatabase(IMDb)lists fourteendirectorialcreditsfor
the thirty-year-oldPastor,who proveshimselfever prolific
in the pace of his creativeoutput.The titles of some of his
earlierfilms – the featureMadein Australia(2013),the shorts
Dinky-DiAussie(2014)andDownUnder(2015)– suggest
a thematiccontinuitysharedwith his more recentwork.
AndMelodrama/ Random/ Melbourne!itself is, as Pastor
explainedat AFF, the secondinstalmentin an already-
completedthematictrilogy.^5 The first entry,I AmJUPITER
I Am the BIGGESTPLANET(2016)– his VictorianCollege
of the Arts graduatefilm – was shot in Manilaand deals with
sex work on its streets.The third,MAGANDA!PinoyBoy vs
MilkMan(2018),premieredat Melbourne’scult film event
MonsterFest last year, and extendsthe sinisterelements
ofMelodrama/ Random/ Melbourne!by featuringa serial
killer preyingon Asian womenin Melbourne.MAGANDA!
also pays homageto the Philippines’grindhousecinematic
past,^6 while Pastorhimselfappearson screenas a neurotic
film director,much as he also featuresbrieflyinMelodrama
/ Random/ Melbourne!as one of thetMdpick-upartists.
Pastor’sunmistakableself-insertioninto his own work
evokesa RainerWernerFassbinder–liketotalisingcrea
tive presence,and the recurringcastingof performerslike
O’Brien,Javierand Matt Furlanisuggeststhat he is building
a companyof like-mindedcollaborators.All three return
fromMelodrama/ Random/ Melbourne!for Pastor’srecently
completedRepentor Perish!(2018),whichhad the work
ing title ‘A Prayerfor the FilipinoFamily’.Thesetitles hint at
anotherdimensionof Pastor’swork, glimpsedin the interac
tions of the Santosclan seen in the final act ofMelodrama
/ Random/ Melbourne!: the spectreof Catholicism,and the
familialties that both bind and restrictwhen an adopted
nationalismfails to embrace.The importanceof family and
religion,as well as the pressuresthey can imbue,were
addressedby both Pastorand Yuen at AFF. In his intro
ductionto the screening,Pastorconfidedthat his mother
doesn’tlike his films, then clarifiedin the post-screening
Q&A that she wouldpreferthat he make ‘less confronting’
work, whichhe considersfundamentallyat odds with his
‘responsibility’as an artist.^7 Yuen went further,describing
Filipinoparents’tendencyto ‘hide behindtheir kindness’
while hopingfor ‘conservative’work from their children,
something‘romanticised[...] lovelyand kind’.^8
Happily,even if these distinctivenew talentsmay not
yet have achievedparentalapproval,they have found some
prominentchampions–Melodrama/ Random/ Melbourne!
was programmedat AFF by fellowindependentfilmmaker
Bill Mousoulis,who was responsiblefor curatinga numberof
new micro-budgetAustralianfilms made withoutinstitutional
support.Mousoulishas subsequentlyscreenedMelodrama
/ Random/ Melbourne!at the LongPlayvenuein inner-city
Melbournewhile continuingto espousehis ‘Australiannew
wave’ – in whichhe includesPastor’sfilms – on his website
Pure Shit: AustralianCinema.^9 The worksmade by the film
makersMousoulisidentifiesare in dialoguewith one another
in interestingways:Angie Black’sThe Five Provocations
(2018)also looks,with wry irony, at intersectinglives in
Melbourne,while SaidinSalkiccasts joy (The Arrivalof a
Phoenix, 2018) and abjectterror (Silence’sCrescendo, 2018)
in similarlyabstract,stylisticallyunifiedterms.
But perhapsthe most telling inclusionin Mousoulis’new
wave is the short that accompaniedMelodrama / Random /
Melbourne!at its AFF screening:AllisonChhorn’sLast
Time(2018).It seemssignificantthat Chhorn,Pastorand
Brisbane’sAudreyLam are emergingas three of our most
arrestingup-and-comingfilmmakers.Thesethree Asian-
Australiansuse cinemato exploreaspectsof migrant
identityin distinctiveways:Pastor’srelentlessurgency
and continualstylisticreinvention;Lam’simpressionistic
documentary-fictionhybridityacrossmixedmedia;and
Chhorn’spreciseformalminimalism, which arrives at its
own place of interiority.
Whereasthe poeticsof Chhornand Lam are delivered
in hushedtones,however,the stylisticallymaximalPastor
prefersto put his pointsacrosswith an exclamationmark.
And the questionsthat he asks of his audiencecarry great
weight,unflinchinglyhighlightingthe vulnerablestatusof
internationalstudentsin Australiancities.He also draws,
in very personalways, on the lives of second-generation
Asian-Australians– peoplewho were born in Australia,have
lived their entire lives in Australia,speakwith Australianac
cents and identifyas Australian,yet are still indeliblymarked
as ‘Other’in this migrantnation.Pastorinvitesus to inter
rogatethe constructionof Australianness,what culturesand
identitiesthat term encompasses,and who gets to decide
who is in and who is out. We would do well to pay attention.NicholasGodfreyis a lecturerin screenandmediaat Flinders
University,andtheauthorofTheLimitsof Auteurism:Case
Studies in the Critically Constructed New Hollywood. mEndnotes(^1) The‘alienationeffect’,asconceptualisedbydramatistBertolt
Brecht,refersto in-texttechniquesemployedto preventthe
audiencefrominvestingtooemotionallyin thetextand,thus,
actasremindersof thetext’sconstructedness;see‘Alienation
Effect’,EncyclopædiaBritannica, https://www.britannica.
com/art/alienation-effect, accessed10 May 2019.
(^2) MatthewVictorPastor,CelinaYuen& RachelE Javier,
Melodrama/ Random/ Melbourne!post-screening Q&A,
AdelaideFilm Festival, 14 October 2018.
(^3) Pastor,ibid.
(^4) See, for example,Julie Hare,‘We Needto MakeSure the
InternationalStudentBoomIs Sustainable’,TheConversation,
3 November2017,https://theconversation.com/we-need-to
-make-sure-the-international-student-boom-is-sustainable-863
94; and John Ferguson,‘EducationBoomChangingthe Face
of Cities’Centres’,TheAustralian, 28 August2017,https://
[http://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/education/education-boom](http://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/education/education-boom)
-changing-the-face-of-cities-centres/news-story/4f1554c168
7aacc99382a085895980bf, both accessed10 May 2019.
(^5) Pastor,Melodrama / Random / Melbourne!post-screening
Q&A,op. cit.
(^6) See ChristopherPuhm,‘The Wild East: Whenthe Philippines
Was AmericanCinema’sFinal Frontier’,Esquire, 21 April 2017,
https://www.esquiremag.ph/culture/arts-and-entertainment/
exploitation-films-philippine-b-movies, accessed12 May 2019.
(^7) Pastor,Melodrama/ Random/ Melbourne!pre-screening
introductionand post-screeningQ&A,op. cit.
(^8) Yuen,Melodrama / Random / Melbourne!post-screening
Q&A,ibid.
(^9) Bill Mousoulis,‘The AustralianNew Wave’,PureShit:Australian
Cinema, 2019,http://www.pureshitauscinema.com/new_
wave.html, accessed 12 May 2019.
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