Update

It really does feel like we’re taking a few bigger steps and moving ahead with our production project. We finally went down as a foursome to tiny Russell’s cafe and met with George. The difficult part was putting the question forward – “George, can we do a documentary on you and your family history?” Which we did, and there was a very awkward 5 to 8 minutes, before his reply, where George left us (our table) to speak with someone. And between that lapse of time I’m sure Gloria and I wondered then if we’d bruised the friendship we took some weeks to build. But George, proves to be a generous gentleman and he might be old but still very sharp and alert. He used to teach workshop theatre at RMIT, and still being an active playwright and director, his clause to his agreement was that we had to show him our script.

Today Jenny suggested we visited the Melbourne Barber Shop tucked very inconspicuously along La Trobe St. We spoke with a middle-aged George (yea another George) the barber and talked a little with him about his job and his really big hobby – motorbikes. His place isn’t super old as compared to Russell’s but you could tell just by talking to him he could open doors to a lot more history than his barber place could afford.

Then I took Jenny down to Pellegrini’s espresso bar, and we met with the owner whom at first hand turned down our offer to feature his place. But we told him our intention to interview him, not so much just his Pellegrini’s, but to find out his history. He gave us his number and his name and then a timeslot to visit him if we wanted to interview. This guy’s done many interviews in his time and I suspect he has been frustrated with all that’s been asked again and again. The tough part with Pellegrini’s is building the friendship with the owner and getting him comfortable with us and around the camera.

Can’t wait to get this show on the roll..