FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
19 September 2022
Local Artists will take to the streets armed with sticks of chalk during UCI to scrawl the word ETERNITY along the Road World Championship course this week.
ETERNITY was made famous by eccentric Aussie, Arthur Stace, who worked in the Port Kembla coal mines as a teenager in the early 1900s.
Stace returned from WW1 in the 1920s and found himself drunk and homeless. He turned his life around and went on to write ETERNITY more than 500 000 times over 35 years from 1932-1967 in Sydney, Newcastle and Wollongong.
The chalkings along the Championship course this week will coincide with the world-premiere of a new documentary called Written in Chalk: the echo of Arthur Stace.
Written in Chalk: the echo of Arthur Stace is the next chapter of the Eternity story, looking at how the word continues to be embraced, celebrated and adapted since appearing on the Sydney Harbour Bridge at the turn of the millennium, and also in the opening ceremony of the 2000 Sydney Olympic Games.
The cast of the film includes Eddie McGuire, Ignatius Jones, Ric Birch, Sulari Gentil and Ruth Ridley, and was co-executive produced by Wollongong local, Josh Reid.
Eternity is expected to be written 5000 times this week, and the film will screen at least 10 times at various venues and church buildings along the Championship route.
The mutli-award winning producer and director, Richard Attieh, says he is thrilled that the film will premiere in the city which was an important part of Arthur Stace’s formative years.
“Arthur Stace came to the Illawarra as a ward of the state at 14 years of age and learned a work ethic which contributed to the longevity of his successful chalkings later in life,” says Attieh.
“Stace saw the value of hard work and perseverance in the Port Kembla mines, and returned to the Illawarra a number of times in the 1940s, 50 and 60s to chalk Eternity on the streets.”
More information about the film, screening time and venues are available on the film website – www.writteninchalk.com
More information about the chalkings, and for comment, contact Richard Attieh, richard@tvgroup.com.au and 0407 708 466.
** promotional stills of the film are available on request.
ENDS.
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Media Contacts:
Richard Attieh
Executive Producer and Director
Australian Television & Media Group
02 9966 9596 / 0407 708 466
richard@tvgroup.com.au