‘No Time For Quiet’ Takes Us Inside A Teenage Rock Revolution

Sally Balhorn has sung in bands all her life, but never thought she could play the electric guitar.

An itch to write songs initially led her to the acoustic guitar, but at a friends suggestion, she made a cautious leap to electric. “I was like, oh I don’t know it’s so loud,’ Balhorn tells Junkee, “Anyway, I had a go, and I was like, wow, this made me feel powerful. This was a noise I was really comfortable with making.”

Empowered by her guitar, Balhorn’s life changed when she answered an ad for an all-female garage band. “I’d never had the experience of playing music or doing something just creative with other women before,” Balhorn says. “It transformed the way I felt about myself; I had this new-found confidence and felt tougher and stronger.”

Balhorn then saw a doco: Girls Rock!, which focused on an all-female band camp in America established to address the gender gap in the music industry.

“As soon as I saw that film I was like: I want that in Melbourne,” Balhorn says. “That would give other people the experience I had…[that] you’re not alone and there’s other people out there like you and it’s okay to be who you are, you don’t have to be this idealised version of a young girl to even be allowed on stage, or be allowed to hold a microphone, or be allowed to be heard.”

Balhorn jumped on a plane to attend the Girls Rock! conference in the U.S. and suddenly had a new title: co-founder and program director of Girls Rock! Melbourne. At the same time, filmmakers Hylton Shaw and Samantha Dinning read an article about how musicians Jen Cloher, Steph Hughes and Courtney Barnett went to an all-girl band camp in Canberra. The movement had begun. Shaw and Dinning called the band camp founder, Chiara Grassia, who had been in touch with Balhorn who was planning to start the first Girls Rock! camp in Melbourne.

The rock gods had brought them all together and set the stage for No Time for Quiet, a documentary that follows participants at the first Girls Rock! Melbourne camp.

“We saw there was a lot of potential for transformation throughout a camp such as this,” says Dinning. “We were also intrigued by the ethos of the camp as well; it was all D.I.Y; it was all volunteers, all women.”

During the week-long school holiday program participants form bands and must write and compose a song. Most of the teens in attendance have never played an instrument before, and the camp ends with a showcase for the bands to perform their tracks. The observational approach of the doco allows you to witness how each participant navigates the unique space — there’s nerves and anxiety, but ultimately relief. By the end of the doco, you’ll be happy Girls Rock! exists.

There’s nerves and anxiety, but ultimately: relief. By the end of the doco you’ll be glad Girls Rock! exists.

Interviews with the participants are eye-opening because of their honesty and self-awareness. The film never feels like it’s interrogating the private lives of teenagers because each participant is so open to talk about their experience. The contrast of camp life and normal life highlights how special these community spaces are for teenagers — seeing them step out into the real world after the comfort of camp is frightening.

It’s striking how well the camp’s leaders created a safe space that encourages collaboration. “We were intrigued that it was open to trans and gender diverse young people,” says Shaw. “Outwardly they’re stating: this is a camp that’s open and accepting. That drew me to it cause I was intrigued as to what that might look like for young people today.”

Even though No Time for Quiet captures the inaugural camp, it feels like Balhorn and her team of mentors have been running it for years. Courtney Barnett shows up for an exclusive gig and answers questions from the attendees. Barnett doesn’t talk down to them from a chair on a stage like most awkward event Q&As, she talks to them like peers and spends time mingling for selfies.

Early in the making of No Time for Quiet, there was a hint of worry as to whether the teenagers would ever be able to act naturally around a camera crew because they were so used to sharing their lives via social media. But Dinning says it worked to their advantage: “We did notice that they were all very confident and savvy in front of the camera…we realised it was because they were documenting their lives the whole time.

“In some ways it worked to our advantage because they’re so used to recording themselves on their phones and distributing it, it sort of made getting access to their emotional life a bit easier because they didn’t have a guard up as you may have had 20 years ago where people’s lives felt a little bit more private.”

No Time for Quiet goes beyond the day-to-day camp activities to examine the lives of a few key participants — with a major talking point being mental health.

“They are finding life difficult, but they are owning up to the fact that they’re finding it difficult and I feel like as a society we haven’t done that very well,” says Balhorn. “Life is really hard, and when you don’t acknowledge that and don’t be open and embrace all the parts of yourself that are awkward and sticky and ugly, you’re hiding them away, and they’re going to come out in much worse ways.”

“The film gives you a window into a world that you don’t often see and that’s the head of a teenager, and parents and teacher aren’t often privy to that world.”

The filmmakers were blown away by the self-awareness of the participants and their willingness to talk about their challenges with mental health.

“There’s a massive conversation about mental health at the moment,” says Dinning. “And collectively it says a lot about what young women and gender diverse people are experiencing and what their concerns are…the film actually does give you a window into a world that you don’t often see, and that’s the head of a teenager, and parents and teacher aren’t often privy to that world.”

A feature of the doco is the visualisation of what each teenager is experiencing, which the filmmakers worked hard to create. “Often see young people talking about what that feels like or what that looks like on the screen…we tried to use animation to show the inner world of the participants, and it’s really powerful when it comes to raising awareness about what mental health looks like for people nowadays,” says Shaw.

The participants even collaborated with an animator to visualise what was going on inside their heads. “Our animator was all about that authorship,” says Shaw. “For about a month, all of them were in-and-out of the studio, working together, and they became close because when you’re talking about the demons in your head look like with someone and trying to draw them, it turns into this beautiful collaborative experience.”

The participants and volunteers do experience post-camp blues, and Balhorn says the organisation is working hard to make sure the teenagers are supported beyond their time at the camp. The filmmakers felt it was important to show life after the camp. “We want to be able to create impact with the film,” says Shaw. “And we’re trying to show these spaces are really special and there’s got to be more of these spaces to have young people creating music or art, but I think it was important to show there’s a crash after.”

It’s only the beginning for Girls Rock! Melbourne — Balhorn is currently looking at ways to keep the camps running while dealing with the increasing demand to places.

“We have a sliding scale fee structure, and we are really proud of the fact that we’ve never turned anyone away because they can’t afford the fee,” says Ballhorn, “we believe it’s the kids who can’t afford it least that benefit the most from the camp, and we are non-negotiable about keeping it like that.”

The whole No Time For Quiet experience impacted everyone involved, and it is infectious in the film.

“To be a young person in today’s world is pretty much without comparison.”

“We learnt a lot about gender identity throughout the camp in terms of gender fluidity and non-binary,” Shaw says. “We learnt a lot about that from Zero, the non-binary participant in the film…learning about how important it is for them to find people within a community that they can connect with, that are going to identify the same way they do is so important for them to feel confident and validated in who they are.”

Ballhorn says her time running Girls Rock! Melbourne has made her optimistic about the future.

“I don’t like it when people are negative about young people because to be a young person in today’s world is pretty much without comparison,” says Ballhorn. “I feel tremendously proud of them, and I feel we need to counteract constant bombardment of negative talk about how crap the youth of today are. Because I challenge anyone to come to Rock Camp and watch what these kids are capable of, and how willingly they are to put themselves outside of their comfort zone, and not be impressed.”

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For girls about to rock, we salute you. MIFF will host the world premiere of No Time For Quiet, 15 August 2019. Directors Hylton Shaw and Samantha Dinning in attendance with the film’s subjects for a post-screening Q&A and live performance.

Cameron Williams is a writer and film critic based in Melbourne who occasionally blabs about movies on ABC radio. He has a slight Twitter addiction: @MrCamW.