A rockumentary following Melbourne rock dogs, Wet Lips, Chelsea Bleach and Shrimpwitch, reflecting Wetfest, playing gigs, breaking the mould and creating their own.
Synopsis
The garage scene in Melbourne is evolving to include a greater diversity of identities. The three-piece band Wet Lips consists of three non-cis males and inspired the formation of bands such as Shrimpwitch and Chelsea Bleach who had no prior musical experience. The blossoming scene echoes a strong sense of shared core values, of inclusion, empowerment and support. Following each of these three band’s journeys from first picking up their instruments, to their first performances and onwards, Wet Is Best captures a vibrant scene and what it means to make a space for yourself doing something you love.
Director’s Statement
Our desire to make this documentary was born out of a mutual love of intersectional feminism, our mates and garage punk. We made this documentary in hope of empowering non cis-het and non-men people to start a band by showing them that there is a space for them in a typically straight-male dominated scene.
By following the stories of the three bands, from teaching themselves to play their instruments, to the stress of their first gigs and finding and creating a scene for themselves we hoped to inspire non cis-het and non-men people to tackle these patriarchal systems that tell us we can’t do it.
To show these passionate people talk about doing something they love while surrounded by their friends, both as band mates and behind the camera, was crucial to the feel of the documentary. As Grace from Wet Lips states, “it’s a really participatory scene … people aren’t separated into fans and artists, some people just make music and other’s do different types of art.” Our aim was to capture this notion on screen.
It was so difficult trying to cut out and keep parts of the documentary, as there was so much content. We have condensed it down to this as it carries on with our original message, which was to inspire others, particularly non-men out there to pick up an instrument and finally start that garage punk band!
We really enjoyed making this documentary and hope to make more of a similar style in the future. We have learnt so many technical and artistic skills over this semester and gained a lot of confidence in our own ability.
Director’s Biography
A cooker and a goonie met one day at Femmo Club and knew it was their destiny to make a modern Melbourne Rockumentary, combining the legendary forces of rock-dogdem and non-male participation.