by Alexander Lloyd and Claire Hannon
A fever dream of female consciousness and desire, Farrah stars Anderson as the titular character, William McKenna (The Messenger, Queen of Oz) as her insufferable love interest Luca, and Alexander Lloyd (La Brea, Five Bedrooms) as the enigmatic therapist Dr Shannon, with a melodious voiceover from Cazz Bainbridge (The Clearing) as Venus, the Goddess of love.
Farrah’s journey from Adelaide to Melbourne mirrors that of Anderson, Lloyd, and the short film’s co-writer Claire Hannon. School friends from Adelaide, Anderson and Hannon came up with the idea for Farrah during Melbourne’s 2020 lockdown. On a wintry walk through Carlton Gardens, the pair dissected Hannon’s recent whirlwind romance and subsequent heartbreak. They dialled the story up to eleven, combined it with Anderson’s obsession with new-age cults, and The Unrequited Life of Farrah Bruce was born. The pair enlisted another Melbourne-based school friend, Alexander Lloyd, to produce and co-star along with Anderson. The short then returned home to Adelaide to be led by a local team, headed by producer Sarah Wormald.
Anderson, Lloyd and Wormald formed a close bond in 2015, taking evening classes at Ann Peters School of Acting from 2015 to 2017. The trio were committed to careers in front of the camera, dedicated to developing their craft as actors. They became close friends, often meeting out of hours to produce their own showreel scenes to use as calling cards for agents and casting directors. The last thing they expected was to collaborate behind the camera.
“If you asked me six years ago where we would be now, I would have hoped that we would all be acting alongside each other, but to have split into our respective fields then reunite in roles that complement each other so completely is the actual dream,” Alexander Lloyd says.
“I’m so grateful for the deep connections we built early on as actors and friends,” says Daisy Anderson. “It offered us a foundation of genuine trust from which we could grow and explore new elements of our creativity.”
Upon completing the acting course, Sarah Wormald began working at SA-based production company Closer Productions, while Anderson and Lloyd moved to Melbourne to pursue writing/directing and acting respectively. This is where Anderson reunited with Hannon, who had recently returned from a year-long exchange in California, and their writing partnership was born.
“At first glance, the world of Farrah seems so far from 2020 Melbourne – all that colour, intimacy, and fantasy,” says Hannon. “The film was shot in Adelaide by a talented local crew, capitalising on features of the city’s climate and geography that evoke a Californian aesthetic. “But it was inside our Melbourne homes – often dark, cold – that Farrah’s vivid hopes and dreams were born,” Hannon continues.
In 2023, Anderson lived out her own Californian dreams by moving to Los Angeles to study screenwriting at the prestigious American Film Institute, whose alumni include David Lynch, Ari Aster and Darren Aronofsky.
After a warm hometown premiere at AFF in October, Anderson is thrilled to have her directorial debut included in the St Kilda Film Festival program of Australia’s Top Short Films. “Screening Farrah in the city that helped it grow is a dream come true, and to do it at such an esteemed festival is an incredible honour,” says Anderson.
