The Beehive, header image

The
Beehive

A cold crime that has haunted Sydney for decades is explored in an astonishingly original narrative form that combines scripted fictions, interviews and performance. A non-linear documentary and art installation with multiple algorithmic versions all of varying duration.

The Beehive first screened at ACMI, September -November 2018 and the Sydney Festival 2019. It was re-cut as a linear feature documentary, Juanita Nielsen NOW which premiered at Antenna Film Festival 2022.
YEAR
2018/9
CREDITS:
An Enigma Machine Production,
Director: Zanny Begg; producer/script editor/stills: Philippa Bateman; Featured Cast: Pamela Rabe, Maria Tran, Nicolas HopE, Emma Jackson, Taylor Weise
INTERVIEWEES:
Julie Bates, Meredith Burghmann, Tyson Koh, David Farrell, Imogen Kelly, Ian Millis
COMMISSIONED BY:
ACMI & Artbank; Held in the collections of: ACMI (Museum) & Artbank; acquired by City of Sydney for the Permanent Art Collection; 120 MIN
AVAILABLE:
to rent at Artbank

The lady vanishes: ‘The Beehive’ at Sydney Festival

STEVE DOW
THE MONTHLY
The Beehive, lady in red
About

38-year-old publisher, activist and heiress Juanita Nielsen was known for her towering beehive, style, and above all else – her courage. Undaunted by power, Juanita campaigned against real estate development in her beautiful and dangerous inner-city neighbourhood of Kings Cross, Sydney. She took on wealthy and powerful and fought for the right of low-income people to live on Victoria Street when their homes and lives were threatened by violence and greed. She was never seen again. Her ‘disappearance’ in 1975 has forever haunted Sydney. She is believed to have been murdered but no-one close to the crime has talked. Beyond a journey into who Juanita was, as told to us by her former lover and people who knew her, as well as the editorials she wrote in her newspaper NOW, the work speaks to the enduring issues of housing affordability and development in Sydney, corruption, crime, violence against women, clubs, performers, trade union activism and policing sex work.

The Beehive, Kings Cross dive
PHOTOS BY
PHILIPPA BATEMAN