Colin Friels as Javo and Noni Hazlehurst as Nora

Monkey Grip (1982), directed by Ken Cameron

Based on the novel of the same name by Helen Garner, Monkey Grip is a portrayal of a segment of inner-city Melbourne group houses in the 1980s. It provides a candid portrayal of a single mother carving out a career in the music industry, and the friendships, relationships and betrayals that are a consequence of the sexual freedoms of the era. This image is one of a series of large transparencies taken to experiment with setting, location, colour contrasts and costume textures. Noni Hazlehurst's free-spirted character Nora is seen struggling with Friels's feckless character Javo as he swirls in a miasma of drug addiction and frustrated ambitions as an actor.