The first feature film by Jim Jarmusch, Permanent Vacation lays out the blueprint for the kind of vibes-based practice he would return to through his decades-long career. Teenage Aloysious "Allie" Parker is alone in the world, living on the margins of a 1980s Manhattan where you and your chain-smoking girlfriend could still afford a lousy apartment on an income of $0.00. He wanders and dances along the backstreets, cinemas and rooftops looking for...something, anything. Allie encounters mostly-kind strangers, finding a zen-like peace in the pleasure of conversation and simply riding the currents of life.

Sometimes described as a "student film" this was actually made after Jarmusch dropped out of the New York University’s School of the Arts, financed by a scholarship mistakenly sent to him and a fraudulent car loan. For the central character Jim drew on his own experiences in New York and that of actor Chris Parker who was living a life very much like Allie, in the same locations. A bildungsroman for a kind of down-and-out masculinity that's only romantic at a distance, this is one for all the vagabonds and dreamers out there drifting through life, "a tourist that’s on permanent vacation.”

This screening will be presented by our friends at Paramount House Hotel (located directly above our little cinema). Amid a suite of heritage buildings in Sydney’s Surry Hills, Paramount House Hotel signals the completion of a long-running restoration and reformation of what was once the former warehouse and offices of Paramount Pictures Studios. The hotel’s 29 rooms and atrium-style lobby blend heritage with new—restored ceilings, windows and old brick walls are complemented by fresh timber floors and terrazzo-tiled bathrooms. The hotel's "Permanent Vacation" slogan was inspired initially by the title of Jim Jarmusch’s debut film and the punky-ness of 80s New York— a base to wander the city and a place to meet strangers and locals alike.