A SELF-imposed Australian exile will make his return to Melbourne — albeit on the screen.
These Heathen Dreams, from director Anne Tsoulis and Bundeena-based film producer Georgia Wallace-Crabbe, premieres at the Melbourne International Film Festival on Tuesday, August 5.
The documentary follows Australian poet and playwright Christopher Barnett.
An Adelaide rabble-rouser who shifted to Melbourne in the 1980s and produced confrontational work, Barnett alienated the critics and the establishment.
But he found acceptance overseas.
For the past 18 years he has lived in Nantes, France, where his creative work with the most marginalised of the city has been applauded.
These Heathen Dreams will see his return to Melbourne, but only in spirit; he is too ill to attend.
Wallace-Crabbe said she and Tsoulis were thrilled the film was accepted in the festival. "[Melbourne] is the natural home for the film," she said.
"The film has made a natural return to the city where both Anne and I, and Christopher lived in the 80s."
Tsoulis and Wallace-Crabbe came into contact with Barnett in 2012 through Facebook.
The journey to create the film, which was partly funded through a Pozible campaign, kept unfolding throughout production.
"The French, who know one side of his story, didn't know his background and didn't know his past and were missing half the story," Wallace-Crabbe said.
"Anne was researching and filming interviews and discovering things along the way, so we always called the film a journey," she said.
Sydneysiders will have to wait until October to see These Heathen Dreams which will screen during the Antenna Film Festival.
