I/V w/ Pete Gleeson: June 20, 2017

Pete Gleeson talks to us about his first feature length documentary, Hotel Coolgardie, playing in Rialto Cinemas from this Thursday. Eliciting both laughter and gasps from its 2016 NZIFF audiences, the doco is a portrait of a remote Australian mining town as it welcomes two female Finnish backpackers to work in its main centre - the pub. Sure, the interplay between incoming female outsiders and the existing population of characters "shaped by the forces of isolation, masculinity, hard work, no work, alcohol, and various twists of fate and fortune" provides a compelling depiction of human nature... but, Pete, what was it like to film?