There are cool directors, and then there are directors as cool as Soda Jerk, whose films are almost like forbidden fruits – never coming to your favourite streaming platform and very rarely screened in a cinema near you. The reason the work of this highly distinctive film-making duo (Sydney-born siblings Dan and Dominique Angeloro) has the ephemeral vibes of theatre – available only for a brief window of time – is because they’re almost entirely comprised of pre-existing materials. Clips are liberated from their sources and reassembled for a Frankensteinian afterlife, without the permission of copyright holders, making any kind of traditional distribution impossible.
I included their previous production, Terror Nullius, on my list of the best Australian films from the previous decade partly because it’s an amazing exercise in deconstruction, ripping classics apart from their seams and ideologically reconfiguring them to reflect contemporary cultural mores. Terror Nullius for instance includes a wild #MeToo moment, jamming together images from various Australian titles to depict a group of furious women – including Lucy Fry from the Wolf Creek TV show and Jacqueline McKenzie from Romper Stomper – destroying a car from Mad Max, with Essie Davis from The Babadook lighting it on fire and Toni Collette from Muriel’s Wedding laughing as it erupts.
