“The story begins in 1949. Rosaleen and her young lover, the poet Gavin Greenlees, hitchhike from Sydney to Melbourne for her first solo art exhibition. Police raid the exhibition, confiscate paintings and charge Rosaleen with obscenity. The incident makes national headlines and marks a turning point in Australian art history.
“Rosaleen returns to bohemian Kings Cross, the red-light district of Sydney. She scandalizes Australia with her occult art, brazen sex life and dangerous mind. She practices trance art, painting the images of Gods she meets on the ‘astral plane’. She worships the God Pan, is an avid reader of Carl Jung and Aleister Crowley. She practices sex magic rituals. Her message to conservative Australia is simple: worship nature not the dollar.
“Tabloid tales of sex orgies, satanic rituals, bizarre deaths and the constant arrests don’t deter Rosaleen from her bohemian lifestyle. Instead, Rosaleen takes control of the media by embracing the role of ‘The Witch’. Unfortunately, her lover, the famous conductor Sir Eugene Goossens’ career is destroyed in the crossfire between a cop intent on jailing her and a journalist desperate for a scoop. Before long she becomes a celebrity witch, titillating the public by writing her own stories… But was her public witch persona a performance?
“The Witch of Kings Cross explores the dark side of the collective unconscious. At the vanguard of feminism and the counter-culture revolution, Rosaleen Norton was persecuted for her sexuality and refusal to conform to Christian values. Today there is a resurgence of interest in her art, particularly in Europe and the USA. Mythic in proportions, this is the extraordinary true story of a rebellious woman outlaw and an insight into the work of an uncelebrated genius. “
