Visually lush, depicting a world all too infrequently the subject of films, Floodhouse is a striking and fiercely moving drama about one young woman’s journey into adulthood. When Mara (15)and her little sister move into their hippy Dad's shotgun shack in remote river country of northeastern Austrailia, she is effectively marooned in a strange and vivid land. There is little comfort taken in her haughty artist mother who lives at the top of the valley. Then Herringbone John, a wanderer, visits. Their encounter is a trip through the ecstasy and agony of romantic love, wherein Mara just may find the tools she needs to set herself free. Miro Bilbrough has crafted a stunning visual catalogue of the life of Northwestern Austrailia that balances the human and inhuman elements of that world with a sensitivity reminiscent of Imamura’s Ballad of Narayama.Since her remarkable debut as a filmmaker in 1995, Miro Bilbrough has had something of a charmed career as both a writer and director. From the cine-poem form of Urn to the literary adaptation of Herman Melville’s classic story Bartleby, Miro has developed a solid body of work that is at once lyrical, literate and individual. Preceeded by short film ContingentA beautifully filmed portrait of a young woman trying to make sense out of her relationships, Directed by Nick Peterson.

	Sponsored by: ST. MARY’S