By Callum Ludwig
A film made by a pair of Warburton locals has taken out the Best Melbourne Documentary award at the 2024 Melbourne Documentary Film Festival.
Belinda Lloyd and Larry Lawson’s ‘To Thank The Room’, which captured the last 100 days of the much-loved Brooklyn Arts Hotel in Fitzroy and followed its effervescent owner Maggie Fooke, was completed last year and has now been given an extended run at Cinema Nova in Carlton.
Ms Lloyd said winning the award was an extraordinary experience.
“After so long loving, holding and believing in the project (we started shooting in December 2019), to have won this award means it has wind under its wings, and many more people will see it, which is just fantastic and what you always hope will justify the time and energy we dedicated to it,” she said.
The film was screened at the Warburton Arts Centre in October last year, having initially be intended to screen with a live Q&A with Ms Fooke herself in September but was foiled by a broken projector.
Ms Lloyd said it’s hard to say what made the film stand out for the award, as there are so many elements that need to work well together to create a film people enjoy and can connect with.
“I think our tiny team did a great job of weaving a heartful and interesting story in such a way as to be moving, inspiring and relatable, and of course, it’s a very Melbourne story and Maggie – the ’star’ is an extraordinary and inspiring woman,” she said.
“As screen guru Robert McKee all but yells – story is everything – people I think appreciate the film for its preservation of a colourful and fascinating part of ‘old Fitzroy’, and intimate portrait of a woman who if you don’t know her, you’ll probably want to.”
When the Star Mail spoke to Ms Lloyd ahead of the Warburton screening in 2023, she described Ms Fooke as a ‘Cannes-screening filmmaker, a polymath, landscape architect and a cultural activist’ and whose hotel was a ‘funky, quirky, unusual’ destination for artists and art-lovers staying in town.
Ms Lloyd said the central theme of the film is really Ms Fooke’s navigation of her major life transition.
“Who can’t relate to that, and in contemplating such a process, it’s always good to have a few tears and some real belly laughs, which this film offers.,” she said.
“Sitting in Cinema Nova with a full house, hearing people laugh ‘in all the right places’ and speaking with people after the film about how genuinely moved they were, the parts they related to and the memories and inspiration that arose for them is priceless, and exactly why I want to make films.”
Ms Lloyd also extended her appreciation for Emily-Rose Sarkova who composed and performed an ‘exquisite’ original score for the film to make up what was ‘truly a dream team.’
Cinema Nova added further screenings on Friday 9 August at 3.50pm, Saturday 10 August at 10.45am/12.25pm/6.45pm, Sunday 11 August at 10.45am/12.25pm/6.45pm, Monday 12 August at 10.45am, Tuesday 13 August at 3.30pm, Wednesday 14 August at 3.30pm, Saturday 17 August at 11.40am and Sunday 18 August at 11.40am.
