This Feral Life
By
Melissa Anastasi & Julia-Rose Lewis
THE VOICES PROJECT: THIS FERAL LIFE V7, 2014
1.
EXT.
UNDERPASS.
DAY.
A curved underpass covered in graffiti. Mia, 17, in hoody, school uniform, backpack, walks along the underpass, the sound of her footsteps reverberating. 2.
EXT.
CEMETARY HILL.
DAY.
Long orange grasses and wildflowers through cracked concrete – worn tombstones in haphazard rows along a hillside. Montage of different tombstones, weeds, cracks in the concrete, fresh flowers and photographs on tombstones, graffiti on the cemetery fence, dried dead flowers stuffed into a garbage bin. Mia appears at the top of the hill – wearing headphones, she walks amongst the tombstones. MIA (V/O) Always wag down here, no-one looks in the graveyard. The sun shines brighter, best spot for sunbaking. Mia runs her hand over the smooth stone, reads inscriptions as she passes them. MIA (V/O) Come when shit gets lame at school. 3.
EXT.
CEMETERY.
DAY.
Mia walks through the cemetery, alongside old graves. MIA She kept saying “Nurse? Psychologist?, Teacher?”- as if!… annoying. Want to drink more, dance more, sleep more. “photography is not a stable career” that bitch told me. (Stands up, takes a long drag, looking back up the hill) She said, “what about journalism instead?” I said, I don't give 2
THE VOICES PROJECT: THIS FERAL LIFE
a shit about the news.
4.
EXT.
FAMILY VAULTS.
CONTINUES.
Mia walks through streets of family vaults, smoking; looking at the pictures on the doors of the vaults. MIA She said, “don't swear Mia.” I said, rack off! She said, “Mia? Is this about your dad?, It’s ok to feel angry.” Her face. She had that look on her face. Don’t look at me with that face! I stood up, pushed a chair over and left. Had to get out. Didn’t actually mean to push the chair over, but didn’t bother pickin’ it up. Mia walks on the edge of raised stone graves. MIA (V/O) I think pretty loud thoughts but they all call me quiet. At school the girls whisper about me being quiet. Not talking. I’m actually not though.
She continues, balancing along the edge of raised concrete around the edges of graves as she walks, occasionally glancing at the camera. As she walks, she picks a flower whenever she sees a good one. MIA (V/O) That stupid counsellor bitch at school would have something to say about me coming here if she knew she’d say that I was “grieving”, ‘not coping”. I’m sure she would have some bullshit to share. MIA (to (Mia mimics “His light brightly in What a load
grave/herself) the counsellor) will always shine your soul Mia.” of wank. He’s dead 3
THE VOICES PROJECT: THIS FERAL LIFE
lady. He’s not embalmed, he’s actually in this ground, been here for 3 months. Rotting. He has. No light. He didn’t even have one when he was alive dumbass. He’s just dead.
Mia looks out over the horizon. 5.
EXT. KILLA BURGER.
AFTERNOON.
A Killa Burger chain-store, on the side of a desolate outer suburban highway. Mia wears a Killa Burger uniform. Mia’s face appears in a little window where burgers are placed, she grabs one and appears in the drive thru window. We cut between Mia in the box-like drive through window, her face illuminated by fluro down-lighting, and the crackling red drive through speaker. MIA (into her headset) Welcome to Killa Burger, can I take your order please… Mia takes off her head-set, we see her walking away out of the store through the drive through window. Montage of the kitchen and store. Mia wiping tables. MIA (V/O) I work drive through, that's a big deal you know. A melted ice-cream on concrete, a pigeon eating discarded fries. The crackling speakers at the drive through. A half eaten burger, party balloons, employee of the month sign, frying meat and bubbling oil, hands wrapping burgers, cutaways of the back of the store. MIA (V/O) Only the chicks who take smoke breaks with Ted our boss get asked to do drive through. So I started. Smoking I mean. It 6. EXT.
BACK OF KILLA BURGER.
DAY. 4
THE VOICES PROJECT: THIS FERAL LIFE
Out the back against a brick wall, amongst bins and graffiti, Mia smokes with TED, 30. They smoke, flirt. Ted laughs, is waiting for a response. Mia smiles shyly, shrugs – MIA Time’s up. Ted smiles, clearly into her. He leans notices the charm bracelet on her wrist, reaches over, touches it gently examining the love-heart charm. Mia notices the touch, looks at him.
7. OVERHEAD BRIDGE.
LATE AFTERNOON.
Mia stands on an overpass watching the sitting sun. MIA (V/O) I’m not planning on working weekend shifts for the rest of eternity like some of those moles will. Never get out. I’m not gonna make-manager, buy a fucking restaurant, become a fat lard who’s been flipping patties for 40 years and never seen the world. Na, I’ll get out. 8.
INT.
MIA’S HOUSE.
DAY.
Mia’s FATHER smokes on the outdoor step, Mia watches him through the screen door, carefully slipping some of his cigarettes out of the packet on the table. MIA (V/O) Stole the durries from dad, Winny Reds, 16mils, fuck me. Nearly died. MIA (To dad/herself) Watched the way you held the cigarette in your mouth. Mia walks down the corridor in slow-motion, towards her father’s bedroom door and stops, the camera stops behind her, we see her ill father lying in the bed. 9.
INT.
FATHER’S ROOM.
NIGHT. 5
THE VOICES PROJECT: THIS FERAL LIFE
Mia smokes in her Father’s room, backlight by the streetlight outside. The smoke streams out of her mouth in slow motion. MIA (V/O) Inhale, say something, hold it in. Exhale…I was a natural. Mia looking out the window, silhouetted. 10.
INT.
CAR.
AFTERNOON.
Mia in Ted’s car, staring out the window as it moves past rows and rows of squat red brick suburban houses, out west, along a highway, huge, endless sky, endless suburban sprawl. Cut between this and endless cemetery, also shot through car window. Slow motion as we move past kids playing, people mowing lawns, sprinklers shooting out jets of water. Trucks and fast-food chains along the highway. MIA (V/O) Dad was stoked when I got drive through. Went got takeaway to celebrate. No big deal, but he was full proud. 11.
INT. KITCHEN/DINING.
AFTERNOON.
Details of a run-down kitchen – leaky tap, Styrofoam containers line the faded linoleum counter, an overfilled ashtray. Mia sits across from her Father in the run down kitchen of their house. Mia gulps down the last of her food whilst her father eats slowly, methodically. He pauses, takes a small wrapped gift from his pocket, slides it across the table. Mia takes it, opens it – it is a vintage charm bracelet. She puts it on, beaming, leans over, kisses her dad on the cheek, taking the opportunity to have a sip of his beer, which he grabs back off her, after allowing her to have a bit. Mia walks over to the kitchen counter, looks into the camera, whilst her father continues eating in the background. Close ups of Mia’s father pushing his plate away, staring 6
THE VOICES PROJECT: THIS FERAL LIFE
off sadly, as he gets out a cigarette, strikes a match, lights it, inhaling deeply. He looks distant, distracted. He leaves the room. Mia slowly walks down hallway and out the front door. 12.
EXT.
CEMETARY.
AFTERNOON.
Mia walks through the cemetery, up the steep hill, stopping to pick flowers picking flowers from other graves, making a little bouquet. Mia throws pebbles at the two huge electricity towers at the top of the cemetery hill. MIA (V/O) I’ll get out. Gonna buy a camera. Photograph people that have a good story in their wrinkles. Sell them, make a book. Art galleries you know… success. 12b. MIA’S BEDROOM.
TWILIGHT.
Mia applies makeup at her dressing table, the mirror obscured by the strange quality of light in the room. She stands, looking out the window in complete silhouette. 13.
INT/EXT.
CARPARK/TED’S CAR.
NIGHT.
Killa Burger carpark. Night. Trucks hurtle by in the background along the highway, a blur of headlights. Mia sits beside Ted in his old Kingswood. A crucifix dangling from Ted’s rear-vision mirror swings back and forth. Mia sits beside Ted, smoking a joint, passing it back to Ted, who takes a drag, coughs on the exhale, laughing, Mia laughs to. Ted leans over, kisses Mia, slowly at first, then move fervently when she doesn’t pull away. As the kissing intensifies, Ted gets on top of Mia. Ted pulls the seat release, and Mia goes down on her back, as Ted, on top of her now, kisses her neck and O/S starts getting heavier with her. After it is over, she reaches out to him, he pushes her 7
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hand away, clearly a rejection. 14.
EXT.
UNDERPASS.
NIGHT.
Mia, crossing her arms and pulling her jacket tight to keep warm, walks alone in the underpass, her footsteps echoing. A car speeds by in the other direction. She leaves the orange glow of the underpass, into the blackness of the night. 15.
EXT.
MISC.
FACES MONTAGE
Montage of faces staring at camera – girls from Mia’s school in schoolyard, an older counsellor type, Ted by his car in the killa burger carpark, the face of Mia’s father in his room staring at the camera, Mia staring at the camera against he wallpapered wall of her house. MIA (V/O) I’m actually OK. I’m not messed. This shit just happens. I’m sick of that face. That ‘Oh, so sorry for your shitty life’ face. Hate that face. Want to smash that face when I see it. The chicks at school and that counsellor have it, wear it all day long looking at me. Moles. Just look at me! Just look at me normal! Just talk to me normal! I’m not a fuck up! Stop waiting for me to break. Stop waiting for me to break up into little pieces and blow away. I’ve got this one. (Pause) I’m actually ok.
17.
INT.
MIA’S HOUSE.
AFTERNOON.
Mia sits in an armchair smoking. MIA (to herself) They don’t know what’s coming to them those girls. I think about it, not in a sick way, but I think about all the fucked up shit that’s gonna happen in their lives. And 8
THE VOICES PROJECT: THIS FERAL LIFE
they have no idea what’s coming. Yeah I can see it, I can see it all…I can see their parents dying, teenagers drunk in cars dying, heart attacks, strokes,…I feel like I can see it all. It’s why I don’t hate them. I know what’s coming. It’s totally unavoidable though, all that shit. I actually feel pretty wrecked for them. 19.
EXT.
HOME VIDEO FOOTAGE.
Montage of archival family video footage, Mia as a baby, playing with her Dad, blowing out birthday candles, chasing a chicken in the backyard, being carried on her father’s shoulders up high in the air. 21.EXT.VIEW FROM CAR WINDOW:HOUSES & GRAVES. Shots from a car window – rows of rows of suburban houses, intercut with rows and rows of graves. MIA (V/O) All these graves, all these people. All these lives, these broken lives. These feral lives. Hundreds and hundreds of them. 20.
EXT.
CEMETARY/HILL.
AFTERNOON.
Mia sits on top of a hill, looking out over the bleak wide view of the cemetery and the traffic beyond. The wind blowing her clothes, and tall grasses around her. She lights a cigarette, smokes. Her shadow is cast on the tombstone before her. The sun flares. Mia’s frayed uniform, hole in shirt, a faded phone number written on her hand. For a moment we look down on Mia from above, floating above her. Mia absently moves her hand over the dirt, half lying in it, nails painted sky blue, bracelet like a delicate shackle tinkling. She leans on her elbow thoughtfully. Mia plays with white pebbles around the grave, stacking them up one on top of another until they fall over. Mia plays with her lighter, idly burns leaves. The ash of 9
THE VOICES PROJECT: THIS FERAL LIFE
her cigarette. MIA (V/O) The people in these holes… their bodies would just be earth. Just rock and dust and bone and just ground, all mixed in. Did you know when your body is embalmed, like the people in those big above ground graves over there, you last for ages apparently. You last forever, but if they open it up, the coffin, if they have to open it up for whatever reason, the second the air hits you, the oxygen, the particles or whatever you just turn to dust. Just like that… BAM! Dust. Mia propped up on her elbows absentmindedly picks a wild dandelion flower, blows it apart. MIA (V/O) I’ve got a double drive through shift this weekend. I’ll get a pay rise when I graduate. Over 18’s get a pay rise. Awesome. Save to buy a camera. A good one. Gonna buy a plane ticket, get my tattoo, yeah, double shifts are rad. It is dark. Mia solemly kneels at her fathers grave. She lights a candle, watches the delicate, flickering flame dancing, illuminating the photograph of her smiling father. MIA (whispers to herself) “I carry your heart with me, I carry it in my heart…” 21. EXT.
CEMETERY HILLSIDE.
NIGHT.
We are behind Mia walking through the towards the totemic electricity towers.
cemetery,
up
Mia looks out over the hill, as the sky turns a deep violet.
10
THE VOICES PROJECT: THIS FERAL LIFE
A wide view of the cemetery; Mia is small within the landscape, silhouetted, as she walks away.
11