Homelessness, alcoholism, dreams and despair. Five men tell their story.

This documentary is a about a group of men in inner Melbourne who are lacking a home. They are also, as they say of themselves, in the grip of the grape. Filmed over in the early 1980’s this lengthy study presents its outcast figures as warm hearted, funny and a close knit caring group of men who have lost their families, lost their foothold and exist on the periphery of the modern bustling city awkwardly confronting its sense of purpose and propriety.

Winner of the Eucumenical award at Nyon International Documentary Festival and finalist in the AFI awards.

No, dead set we enjoy ourselves, at least we’ve got freedom. We can sit in the park, have a drink, lay down here, do what we want to do, run our own race...we enjoy ourselves, dead set. I love it. – Trevor Wilson

The film enjoyed a cinema release in Melbourne, Sydney, Hobart, Adelaide and Canberra and was a finalist in the AFI awards.

Finalist AFI awards. Cinema release: The Opera House cinema in Sydney, the State Film Centre in Melbourne and the state cinemas in other states. Produced with the assistance of the Creative Development Branch of The Australian Film Commission.

When released the film was reviewed extensively and I have a collection of newspaper cuttings, which are sometimes complementary and sometimes critical, however nowhere within them is there a mention of what triggered the film. One hot day I arrived home after the long dusty walk from school to find a strange man lying on the couch. He was the classic derelict figure with an unkempt beard stained by tobacco and rheumy eyes that would not return my gaze. He coughed and spat and stayed a few nights never to be seen or heard of again. He was my father’s younger brother, Lenny. I never talked to him and always wished that I had.