Documentary Hotel Coolgardie looks at female experience in outback pubs

Documentary Hotel Coolgardie, set at a pub of the same name in the mining town Coolgardie, 560km inland from Perth, will screen in Alice Springs at the Travelling Film Festival this weekend.

Director Pete Gleeson previously worked in the town and often saw a cycle of foreign women backpacking through Australia work at the pub to make some cash.

“I knew it was a colourful bar with colourful characters, and I knew I was interested in seeing what that outback pub culture looked like through foreign eyes and foreign female eyes,” he said.

Gleeson was interested in looking at the adaptation that was required to survive working in an isolated, male-dominated town.

Gleeson followed the experience of Lina and Steph, two Finns who were after the authentic outback experience.

Unlike the previous bartenders who embraced the challenging aspects of the job, Lina and Steph drew boundaries and found the experience far more challenging.

“Some people have a really good time, it all depends on their ability to adapt and embrace the existing culture,” Gleeson said.

By following the experience of two young women who did not simply smile and nod at the catcalls of the locals, Gleeson said they captured a contrast to the typical jovial outback pub portrayed in Australian film.

“We learned much more about the female experience and when somebody’s off-colour comment here, or an insensitivity there becomes someone’s 24/7 experience,” Gleeson said. “That was interesting, especially from a blokes perspective. We might have a few drinks, get a bit loose and make a comment which on its own is considered fairly harmless, but when that is aggregated it compounds into somebody’s entire experience.”

Gleeson said the enjoyment of the experience boiled down to a willingness to adapt.

“A lot of the time the people on the bar or the girls you’re projecting this stuff towards will appear to be enjoying it and would be laughing at it, but what I discovered here is sometimes you have to enjoy it as a woman otherwise it just becomes too difficult,” he said.

Gleeson will be in Alice Springs for the screening on Saturday, February 18 at 12.30pm.

For more information visit sff.org.au.