There's a beautiful charm that resides at the core of Alfie Faber's invitational and heartwarming documentary Old Habits. It's a charm that encompasses and overwhelms the impact of decades of bigotry and hatred, smothering that toxicity in a chorus of queer joy, bright colours, and toilet seat habits. These are the Sisters of the Sydney Order of Perpetual Indulgence, a community of queer Sisters who exist to make the world a better place to live; where equality, respect, patience and tolerance is the norm.
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It's hard not to smile when you first meet the Sisters of the Sydney Order of Perpetual Indulgence, and it's even harder to not break out in a little bit of wild laughter when you hear their names too: There's Sister Salomé of the 9th Mystic Rhinestone or Sister Rowena Keeper of the Holy Doyley, and of course Sister Ophelia Ring. These are just a few of the souls we meet along the way, with Alfie's camera taking us into the Orders history and their place in the legacy of GLBTQI lives in Sydney.
In its current form, Old Habits is part of the ABC Compass series, but as you'll hear in this interview with Alfie Faber, he's working on expanding the short into a feature length documentary. And gosh, what a film it will be if he gets it to a feature length. Old Habits is a delight, utilising the charm and vibrancy of the Sisters to expand upon a hidden part of Australian queer history.
Watching Old Habits reminded me of my conversation with Julie Peters about her documentary The Accidental Archivist. In that film, Julie talks about the self-documentation of queer history in Australia and discovering her place in the LGBTIQA+ community. Old Habits acts as an extension of the opening of queer history archives, ensuring that Australian queer history is accessible to future generations.
To find out more about the Order of Perpetual Indulgence and its Sydney members, visit UniversalJoy.com.au.
After discussing Old Habits, Alfie also talks about his podcast series Sound Perspective, an in depth series featuring interviews with creatives about the role of sound in films. I highly recommend listening to it. Make sure to also check out Final_Final_Locked from the Australian Screen Editors.
Watch Old Habits on ABC iView here. Note: This series is only available to Australian residents.
Follow Alfie Faber on Instagram here and The Sydney Order of Perpetual Indulgence here.