Dogs in Space

INXS frontman Michael Hutchence stars in Richard Lowenstein’s Melbourne-set directorial debut, where Jill Bilcock’s immersive, rhythm-led editing shapes the film’s portrait of 1970s sharehouse life.

It's Melbourne, 1978. In the inner-city suburb of Richmond, a group of young musicians, misfits and lovers navigate life inside a chaotic sharehouse at the centre of the city’s emerging Little Band punk scene. Richard Lowenstein’s Dogs in Space blends fiction and lived experience to capture a world of drugs, sex, music and collapse, built around a fictional punk group inspired by the underground movement of the late 1970s. Set against a backdrop of Cold War anxiety and cultural rebellion, the film reimagines the domestic space as a site of noise, intimacy and disorder with Michael Hutchence in his only feature film role, at its centre.

Curator's note
The second collaboration between director Richard Lowenstein and editor Jill Bilcock following Strikebound, Dogs in Space occupies a distinctive place in both their filmographies for its semi-observational, immersive style. Featuring INXS frontman Michael Hutchence in his only feature film performance, Dogs in Space has become a cult Australian film for its raw portrayal of Melbourne’s 1970s punk underground.

Bilcock’s editing style in Dogs in Space marks a clear departure from her more overtly kinetic work, instead shaping rhythm through atmosphere, duration and sound. Long takes and extended tracking shots allow scenes to breathe, while overlapping dialogue and fragmented interactions create the sensation of moving through crowded rooms and shifting social spaces. Rather than driving energy through rapid cutting, the film builds intensity through sound, movement and performance, often cutting within musical phrases or emotional shifts rather than strict visual continuity.

This is particularly evident in sequences such as the performance of Shivers, where Bilcock interweaves music, rupture and intimacy, moving between close observation and emotional fragmentation. The result is an editing approach that is at once observational and unstable, mirroring the disoriented rhythms of the punk scene while translating Lowenstein's raw material into a coherent yet deliberately fluid cinematic experience.