
This is a clip from the short film Joy, which portrays an evening in the life of a teenage girl (Joy Clay), set in the neon world of a late-night shopping centre in Sydney.
Director Cate Shortland defltly creates an intense and complex portrait of the title character and her world. In some ways the short feels like a study for her first feature film, Somersault (2004).
Like Somersault the film is suffused with a stunning, saturated-colour aesthetic and explores themes of family breakdown, coming-of-age, love and sexual relationships.
Cate made Joy (2000) while she was a directing student at the Australian Film Television and Radio School. The film stars Joy Clay and features Barbara Gouskos as a shop owner.
Joy won awards for best student film at Aspen Shortsfest, Melbourne International Film Festival and WOW: Women on Women Film Festival.
The National Film and Sound Archive of Australia acknowledges Australia’s Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples as the Traditional Custodians of the land on which we work and live and gives respect to their Elders both past and present.