Melbourne International Film Festival

St Kilda based singer / songwriter / musician Mick Moriarty, brother Phil Moriarty and fellow long time minstrels Elmo Reid and Pete Velzen filled The Spotted Mallard with cellular enhancing original music at the launch of their new album LOVE AND DESPAIR.

Born from the politically abrasive backdrop of Canberra The Gadflys have been producing albums and touring the world for 15 years.

Mick coined the term Mongrel Jazz to describe their blend of blues, klezmer, skiffle and cool jazz, underpinned by righteously rootsy grooves, which has formed the Gadflys sound.

With resonating consciousness from Socrates being a gadfly to Athens so too The Gadflys spring fourth creative fervor in music and lyrics that prick and stir the soul.

As Phil made mention to the audience, all the band members are fathers to girls. Perhaps to give explanation to their somewhat piecing magical Elvin harmonies. An extraordinary blend considering who was performing on stage.

Just to digress a little from the Album launch it is worth mentioning that whilst on tour in Edinburgh 20 years ago Mick met his wife Susan Provan who has been the Director/CEO of the Melbourne International Comedy Festival for over 20 years. Another exceptionally productive union.

Playing the room with their haunting music, I could not but think it is musicians like these that made the descent of the Titanic seem less despairing and final and perhaps that spirit lives on in the souls of musicians of this calibre.

To purchase Love & Despair by The Gadflys

by Kerrie Pacholli

I had no idea what to expect from the premier screening of Ecco Homo at ACMI as part of the 2015 Melbourne International Film Festival.

Strongly feeling the six degrees of separation that bind us all, I was hooked from the very beginning of this touching, revealing, voyeuristic and transforming film.

Unlike many other viewers in that packed cinema, to my knowledge I had not personally encountered Peter Vanessa Troy Davies during his life, nor was I aware of being familiar with his work or influence. Yet, within minutes his direct influence on my life became clear, beaming into me from the screen.

**Archival photographs of Peter Vanessa Troy Davies**

Ecco Homo is a beautifully crafted collaborative work of cinematic art, lovingly pieced together and co-edited by filmmakers’ Lynn-Maree Milburn, Andrew de Groot and Richard Lowenstein from Ghost Pictures.

The film is a collage of interconnected stories and haunting myths reflecting the life and times of Peter Vanessa Troy Davies (1960 – 2007).

Through intimate interviews from family, friends and artists including Bono from U2, Nick Cave, Tim Mckew and Anne Harding to name a few. And through a collection of still photographs spanning over 30 years, along with biographical and auto biographical film footage shot by a variety of cameras and people over a period of ten years; Peter Vanessa Troy Davies came to life, piercing through time and space and permeating the theatre with a high voltage electric charge.

For a man who fell victim to a melting pot of addictions, in life as in death, Peter Vanessa Troy Davies, artist and provocateur has bequeathed to us a powerful message of love, art and transformation. An expansive creative mojo that continues to circle the globe.