By Charlene Gatt
IT’S the documentary filmed at the height of attacks against Indian students.
Documentary maker William Head spent months gaining the trust of a group of Indian taxi drivers for his work Night Fare, which follows Melbourne’s Punjabi taxi drivers as they meet after their shifts at the Red Pepper Indian Restaurant.
Outsiders in a foreign land, they find solidarity and companionship by sharing the food, language, music and culture of their homeland.
“I was in the city one night looking for a taxi, and was walking up Bourke St and there was all these taxis there, but no taxi drivers in them,” Mr Head said.
“I walked past the Red Pepper restaurant and I saw that the place was totally full of Indian guys in taxi shirts and was fascinated by that location and wanted to know more.
“It was a part of Melbourne that I didn’t know about and yes, there was the context of everything that was happening at the time, and that inspired me to make the film.
“They were concerned that they’d been represented poorly in the past or had their stories taken out of context, so it took me a few months of hanging out there and eating the food and meeting as many of the guys as I could to allay a lot of those fears.”
The film also doubles as an online documentary, with more interviews and information about taxi drivers on the Night Fare website.
Night Fare was selected for the F4 First Factual Film Festival, and has screened at a number of other national and international film festivals.
Night Fare will screen at the Footscray Community Arts Centre this Saturday as part of the Colourfest Film Festival.
