Attend any LGBTQIA+ film festival and you’ll soon see many queer filmmakers launch careers with Coming Out stories.
It’s a crowded sub-genre in the rainbow pantheon which, like the right of passage itself, is unique and valid in its own way. The key is to make it different enough from those that have come before, as well as bringing an authentic voice to the storytelling.
Filmmaker Jessica Smith, who completed traineeships on Neighbours and Ricky Stanicky, has already had impact with Videoland, 6 short episodes which won Best Series in the Comedy Competition at the prestigious Series Mania festival in France.
Netflix has now acquired the series (total running time 48 mins) for Australia / NZ, which centres around a conflicted 1990s video shop assistant, Hayley (Emmanuelle Mattana) who has a crush on customer Jennifer (Tahlee Fereday).
As Hayley tells bestie Tanya (Chi Nguyen), while she knows what she likes she hasn’t quite learned how to act lesbian. But she has a long list of movies which will hopefully offer enough self-help tips. They include Hope Floats, Higher Learning, and the mother of them all, Bound.
It’s a comedy of errors for Hayley, in between the demands of boss Mel (Smith), desires of hapless co-worker Daniel (Toby Blome) and encounters with Jennifer in the corner of the Action VHS rentals. Is it any wonder she struggles for role models when lesbians in Heavenly Creatures, The Hunger, Poison Ivy aren’t exactly ideal?
“I just need to see real women who are really into women, allowed to be into women, aren’t complete arseholes disguised as something else, trying to kill someone or dead!” she insists. “Is it too much to ask?”
Emmanuelle Mattana is sweet and persistent as Hayley, aided by a lively performance from Nguyen as best friend, Tanya.
The small ensemble, filmed entirely in one location except for one scene, are all in sync for the central girl-meets-girl narrative.
The production design by Shannon Biviano perfectly brings to life ’90s memories of Blockbuster, Video Ezy and aisle after aisle of plastic VHS cases (where did they source all the props?).
Smith’s script makes some cute cinema and video references, if taking a little long to reach its final act.
Videoland starts with heart and wraps as a promising start to an emerging screen career for Jessica Smith. Hit Rewind before returning.
Videoland premieres Sunday September 1 on Netflix.
links to content on ABC
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