Hotel Coolgardie

I was born in Melbourne, Australia, and I'm glad that I was, because, to think that I may have ended up as one of these vile rubes is worrying. I really wish these poor girls had taken bar jobs closer to the cities, away from Australia's worst-case scenario situation.

It's the same old story; Employer seems nice to begin with, rolls out the welcome mat. Quickly turns terrible from there. Bigotry, misogyny and bullying follow on a regular basis. I was a bartender for four years. I had one employer who was a sleazebag with the ladies but was never abusive to his employees. I really just wish the girls had left on the first night. There are civilised places in Australia where people don't treat foreigners like they're garbage.

I can't fault the movie. It is what it is. It depicts exactly why I don't go too far out into the boonies anymore because they live fifty years in the past. I would love to see the owner show up at a bar in Melbourne spouting that garbage to the girls. Somebody would break his jaw in a second.

Incredible documentary. Extremely interesting slice of life from a very different culture. The filmmakers were incredibly good at staying out of the way of the film, and portraying the gritty culture of the location. I didn't expect such realistic, brutally honest interactions, and I absolutely wish more docs were like this one!

The 2 Finnish women at the center of the film were resilient, sweet, and remarkably strong. Most of the bar patrons, on the other hand, were pretty damn awful. I wouldn't think most people from areas such as these are like this. But the when a bar owner is a horrible as this guy was, the atmosphere of that establishment tends to follow suit. At times this documentary is heart-wrenching, and at others it is truly frightening.

Hotel Coolgardie which is directed, shot and edited by Pete Gleeson is a fish out of water tale which shines a light on the attitudes of Australian men albeit in the Australian outback. Two young Finnish girls try their luck when they take a job working as barmaids at a pub called Hotel Denver City, in a remote mining town named Coolgardie, in the Australian outback. Although they are forewarned by the female recruiting agent in Perth that they are going to a somewhat isolated mining town and will be dealing with a lot of male attention, Lina and Stephanie take the job regardless, out of economic necessity.

Like clockwork, every quarter a new batch of girls arrive to work the bar at Hotel Denver City. Lina and Stephanie are replacing Becky and Clio who are wrapping up their three month contract. Interviews with the male regulars of Hotel Denver City reveal that they view the girls as the only game in town, and their is a race to bed them. Their employer, Pete, announces their pending arrival, on the sandwich board outside the bar with the words, "New Girls Tonite". The film documents Lina and Stephanie's attempts to see through their contract and hold it together while they fend off the unrelenting male attention. Gleeson creates intimate portraits of these two young women struggling to maintain their dignity in a sexually charged atmosphere. You not only feel their discomfort and alienation but are worried about their mental health. They are subjected to rude and insulting language and behaviour not just from the blokes but from their boss, Pete, who does nothing to stop it but adds insult to injury by belittling them in public. I was thankful for the presence of John, aka "The Canman", one of the few nice male characters in the film, who presents a different male perspective. I was touched by John's story and his benevolence and friendship with Lina and Stephanie. The dramatic tension in the film doesn't let up and if you want to find out what happens to Lina and Stephanie, well, you've got to see the documentary.

I found Hotel Coolgardie a fascinating documentary. Gleeson has done an excellent job editing his film as it moves fluidly between Lina and Stephanie allowing for two different perspectives, and by interspersing the entire film with day and night shots of Coolgardie and the Australian outback which situates their story in a cultural context. The film not only shines a light on shared attitudes prevalent among Australian men albeit in the Australian outback, but, is a metaphor for the outsider, the migrant, who far away from home, most often alone, must learn an unfamiliar language and navigate and adapt to new cultural contexts to eke out a precarious economic living.

Oz band Men At Work once wrote a song about a land down under, "where women glow and men plunder". They obviously weren't singing about Coolgardie, where the women are every bit as vile and repugnant as the men. The last time I heard the phrase "bar girl' was back in the 70s in a town in a third-world country, and even back then the term was considered derogatory. But it is still gleefully used by a bar called The Swan in Coolgardie, in the new millennium! The reason why I watched this till the end (and might watch again) is because of my fascination with rural Australia, facets of which were well served by movies like Priscilla, Queen of the Desert and the remake of Wake in Fright. So yes, I found this movie downright unpleasant, yet fascinating to watch, if only to tell myself how lucky I am not to be living there :) !!

Very good filming where you forget there is a camera and it is quite clear the people in this documentary forgot the camera quickly as well.

It shows a rough brutal way that a hotel owner treats temporary employees and how a small mining town looks forward to greeting new staff.

Some characters come off ok, some clearly are lonely and welcome the chance to get to know new faces and take a trip with them to relieve the boredom of the town but others clearly have other ideas.

Shocking to see how an employer reacts to illness, to know what I mean watch the movie.