Stayin’ Alive in Channel Country

Two friends set out to find a worthy photo-project and story in the absurdity of a camel race in Boulia, Channel Country, deep in the Australian desert of South West Queensland. They fly there unknowingly on the cusp of Victoria's fifth lockdown. With no set plans, only a loose awareness of the mystical Min Min lights reported to flash and fly across the sky at night, they boldly figure the narrative and aesthetic direction will simply find them. In a haze of alcoholism and ravenous gambling the two realise the camel racing itself holds no interest for them, instead the people, the vastness of the outback, and their own existential crises take heed and saturate every interaction. The vulgarity of the event becomes overwhelming and they find themselves engulfed in an evening of debauched homophobia and repressed sexual predation. The two must face up to the truth; that the magic and mystical folklore of the Min Min is fake, that nothing miraculous will happen to them, that meaning and purpose are not given, but instead arduously fought for. Their pursuits of writing a book and curating a photo-project become increasingly reflective of their inner anguish and alienation. Nothing belongs in Boulia, especially them.