Peter McDonald's 9-minute film "Harvey" tells a story of loneliness and obsessions. While using references to Alfred Hitchcock's masterpiece "Psycho", he not only conveys this story with the means and possibilities of our times, he also transposes it into the social reality of our day.


"Harvey" continues a line of sad, dark, short films aimed to shock and offend.
A dark tale of obsession and loneliness about a man searching for physical and emotional completeness. It is only when he thinks he has achieved this goal through the unwilling coalescence of his neighbour that he begins to understand the painful, irresolvable nature of his obsession.

On a technical level "Harvey" was always going to be a challenge. The hero exists only as half a man with a gory wound running from head to groin where the left side of his body should be. There is shot after shot of the half man walking around and sitting down - then it gets really complicated when he stitches himself to half a woman. But despite these technical impossibilities, what interested me as a film maker was the challenge of putting together a story that an audience would accept. Creating empathetic characters is a hard enough challenge in a standard dramatic vehicle, but in "Harvey" we had to make the surreal imagery tell the story and making the special effects work required stringent planning. Technically it was a once-in-a-lifetime experience I never plan to be part of again ...

What of the result? Did I achieve that elusive balance of technical accomplishment and honest story telling? All I can really gauge is the reaction the film gets from absolute strangers. Sitting in the cinema, listening to the nervous, disbelieving laughter and squirming bodies writhing around in the darkness, I can only conclude I have succeeded on at least some level. If I can give the audience a thrill and something to talk about afterwards, I figure I have given something back to the world.”

Peter McDonald (AUS) has a varied past ranging from a stint as a gravel quality control officer at Melton Quarry to a high flying animation director in the heart of London's decadent Soho scene. Peter graduates from the Australian Film Television and Radio School with a Masters of Arts (Honours) in Digital Media.