Eternity

For 40 years, the word "Eternity" would appear on the streets and sidewalks of Sydney, written in chalk in elegant copperplate script. Always written under cover of darkness, the word would last for days, weeks or months, depending on the weather. Eventually it was washed away by the rain, or blown away by the wind, but its memory lingered in the minds of people all over Sydney. It was a common experience that bound the city's citizens together. But who wrote it, and what did it mean? In 1956, 20 years after "Eternity" first began mysteriously appearing all over the city, the writer was discovered. His name was Arthur Stace, but he was immediately christened "Mr. Eternity." Some saw him as a great writer or the original graffiti artist, while others denounced him as simply an eccentric. He had lived a life of poverty, drunkenness and degradation before his conversion to Christianity. One evening, in utter despair, he decided to go to church. The Reverend's words rang clearly in his head: "I wish I could shout eternity through the streets of Sydney." As Stace left the church, he began to cry and felt a powerful call to write "Eternity." He could barely write his own name but, by the time of his death in 1967 at age 83, he had written "Eternity" on the streets of Sydney half a million times.

ETERNITY transcends the traditional form of a portrait documentary, combining interviews with witnesses, archival film clips and poetic re-creations of Stace's life. In the dramatic segments--shot in sublimely beautiful black and white--Arthur Stace (Les Foxcroft) walks through the film like a ghost, just as he walked through the lives of Sydney's inhabitants. ETERNITY tries to unlock both the mystery of Arthur Stace's life project and its impact on the city. While the character of Stace remains as elusive as ever, Johnston's ETERNITY does successfully portray Sydney as a city with an eerie, surreal, dark beauty; a view counter to its stereotypical image as bright, light, and easygoing. leave a comment