When I was young love was an enticing elusive strange and fragile thing. Now I am a wise old crone love surrounds me, embraces me, holds me strong. When I first heard the song ‘The Ballad of Miss Audrey Dash’ by Patrick McCabe my heart melted and hurt at the lyrics.

I sang it endlessly feeling the hurt everytime. About unrequited love, one lover tells the other its over, her reason she says is that she found stars on the floor. Those lines resonate and remain as evocative as seven words could ever be.

I made a short silent film in homage. Patrick McCabe stars in the film as a musician who loves a woman (played by Amanda Lines) since childhood, yet from afar, she doesn’t recognise him though he feels he has loved her forever.

The film also features the ‘music fence’, an icon in Ballarat East. The home was owned by Emily Eeles, a music teacher (previously a BTV6 dancer the local tele channel). She told me her husband had it made for her because she loved the film series called Tammy. The first film in the series was ‘Tammy and the Bachelor’ starring Debbie Reynolds released in 1957. The notes on the fence are musically correct and play out the song ‘Tammy’ made famous by Debbie Reynolds.

This film was made in 1999 as a ‘shoot-to-show’ (no editing) on Super 8 cine film for ‘Enigma 99’. This event was part of a series of screenings called ‘Enigmatique’ a festival and celebration of Super 8 film in Ballarat in the 90s. Part of the challenge was to include a pair of scissors.

Shot on Super 8, transferred to digital video, exported to VHS, found in a file of VHS tapes years later, imported to digital edit suite exported as HD mp4. Saved. Patrick McCabe has promised to record an acoustic version of ‘The Ballad of Miss Audrey Dash’ for adding to the film.