Forty-three years ago, at a pub in Brisbane, Merle Thornton chained
her ankle tothebar andkickstarted amovement. Nowknown as the
Regatta Pub Chain-In, this action was in protest of the Queensland
law prohibiting women from drinking in public bars. When a minister
laughed them out of his office the day before, Merle and her friend
Rosalie Bogner took matters into their own hands. And feet.
“That was the first time Australian women took a militant action
by being confrontational and risking arrest – it was inspired by
what the British suffragettes had done,” explains Catherine
Dwyer, a Melbourne-based documentary filmmaker whose debut
feature,Brazen Hussies, will explore a decade of formative action
inAustralia’s women’s liberation and feministmovements.And it
all begins with that Brisbane pub in 1965.
This wasn’t, of course, the origin of women’s rights movements
in Australia – that can be traced back to what we now call the
FirstWave, when suffragettes around the world campaigned for
the right to vote. In 1894, the colony of South Australia became the
first anywhere in the world to grant women this essential right, with
the rest of the country following suit. But 70 years later, things still
weren’t exactly equal.
“Women couldn’t get bank loans; they couldn’t get credit cards in
their name; they couldn’tget abortions,” Catherine says. “Marital
rape was legal. Domestic violence was rife, but just not talked about.”
She ticks off a list from the top of her head, capturing just some of
the inequalities and injustices women of the Second Wave sought to
correct.“One of the most interesting things women did for themselves- without any support from ourgovernment – was starting women’s
shelters for victims of domestic violence,” Catherine explains.“That
was a grassroots thing women did just for them.”
The movement here mirrored those that had gained steam
around the world a couple of years earlier. Catherine found
herself becoming incredibly familiar with the feminist movement
in the United States while working on the 2014 documentary
She’s Beautiful When She’s Angry. Directed by Mary Dore, the
feature- length film chronicled the birth and legacy of the women’s
liberation movement. Catherine was living in Brooklyn, New York
when she became aware of a fundraising campaign to aid in
producing the flick,andimmediately wrote to the team, offering
her services. As an intern, she undertook research and organised
photographsand archival material,all thewhilewondering what
was going on closer to home during that period. “I thought, ‘There’s
probably just as good a story,’but I didn’t know any ofit.”
Back on home soil,whereShe’s Beautiful When She’s Angryyplayed
at the Melbourne International Film Festival in 2015, Catherine
summoned the courage to approach stalwart producer Sue Maslin
(known for flicks likeJapanese StoryyandThe Dressmakerr). “I told
her myidea and shetook me seriously. After that it was like,
now I’ve got to do it!” Catherine says. “She’s really supportive of
a bit of history