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Monday
Jan132020

WILDCAT! THE RESURRECTION OF THE FILMS OF MARJOE GORTNER

‘Marjoe Gortner’ is not a name often mentioned when the Hollywood A-list of the swingin’ ‘70s and ‘80s is recalled, but at the time, the Californian native was very much part of the scene. Having soared to notoriety/fame in the wake of the Oscar-winning documentary Marjoe (1972), the gripping expose of the boy-preacher whose name is an amalgam of ‘Mary’ and ‘Joseph’, the charismatic showman turned to acting. His golden mane and pearly whites were seen in Earthquake (1974), Bobbie Jo and the Outlaw (1976), Food of The Gods (1976) and Viva Knievel! (1977); in 1978, he made his worst film, the now infamous Star Wars rip-off, Starcrash, and his best, When You Comin’ Back, Red Ryder? The enigmatic star then spent three decades guest-starring in episodic television and riding the home video boom years with bit parts in B-movies with names like Mausoleum (1983), Jungle Warriors (1984), Hellhole (1985) and American Ninja 3: Blood Hunt (1989).

John Harrison has been intrigued by the larger-than-life presence of the child-evangelist-turned-movie star for all of those decades. The Melbourne-based author, whose encyclopaedic knowledge of and passion for the pulp extrtemiries of society has made him one of the most respected figures in Australia’s counter-culture community, examines the actor’s early life and filmography in his recently-published book, WILDCAT! The Films of Marjoe Gortner. “His story is a unique one,” Harrison (pictured, below) told SCREEN-SPACE, “so he will endure.”

SCREEN-SPACE:  Why does Marjoe Gortner hold such a fascination for you?

JOHN: I guess my fascination with Marjoe Gortner began from the first time I saw him, when I snuck off into the city as a kid to see a double-bill of Squirm (1976) and Food of the Gods (1976). Marjoe’s leading role in the later really appealed to me, as did his striking looks and rather exotic name. There just seemed to be a unique air that surrounded him on screen, and whenever I saw his name show up on a movie poster or as a guest star in the opening credits of a TV show, I always made it a point to watch it, even if it was something I wouldn’t normally have much interest in.

However, it wasn’t until I accidently caught a late-night TV screening of When You Comin’ Back, Red Ryder? (1979) in the late-80s that I really began to investigate Marjoe’s career further. That film had such an impact on me, I was working part-time at a video store in St. Kilda at the time, and when I went in to work the next day and discovered we had the Roadshow VHS of When You Comin’ Back, Red Ryder? on the shelf, I pretty much played it on the shop’s TV constantly, and took it home at least once a week to watch and study it properly. When the video store eventually closed its doors, the owner said I could take any five VHS tapes from the shelves, so of course Red Ryder was the first tape I went for, and still have it in the collection today.

Marjoe was still just an actor in my head at this point. It was in the early-90s that I first became aware of his past as a child preacher and evangelist, which naturally only made him more interesting to study, since acting and preaching both involve performance and playing a character and convincing people you are something or someone that you really aren’t.

SCREEN-SPACE:  Was he an actor? An opportunist? A businessman, supremely skilled at selling himself? How does he fit in the landscape of 70s/80s Hollywood?

JOHN: I think the most accurate answer would be that he was a combination of these things. He was certainly an opportunist, using his notoriety as a child preacher and the success of the 1972 documentary about him as a springboard to Hollywood. But it certainly wasn’t just a chance thing, he had been taking acting and singing lessons well before the documentary hit. He was also definitely a businessman, and a pretty good one. After seeing none of the untold sums of money that he brought in during his child preaching days (most of which was taken by his father after he spilt), Marjoe made sure people never took financial advantage of him ever again.  Bobbie Bresse, the actress he starred opposite in Mausoleum (1983), once relayed in an issue of Famous Monsters of Filmland that Marjoe told her to always get the money up front, and said every week a long black limo would pull up onto the set and two guys would step out and deliver a big black bag, filled with what she assumed was money, directly to Marjoe’s trailer! (Pictured, above; Gortner as 'Jody' in Earthquake)

As for how he fits into the overall landscape of the Hollywood of his era, I would say that he has definitely earned his place in pop culture. His early years were well documented on film, in print and on record albums, and a lot of the films and television shows he worked on have become cult classics of a kind. He was definitely of his time, and the fact that he completely turned his back on performing in the late-90s and now refuses to talk about or even acknowledge his past as either a preacher or an actor, only adds to his mystique.

SCREEN-SPACE:  For those new to the Greatness of Gortner, which film should be the entry point?

JOHN: I would have to go with When You Comin’ Back, Red Ryder (1979; pictured, right, Gortner with co-stars Hal Linden and Lee Grant). It is easily his best onscreen performance and it’s such a galvanizing film. Marjoe is truly terrifying in it, and he is surrounded by a great ensemble cast that really breathe life and tension into the characters and story, which was adapted by Mark Medoff from his stage play.

Of course, the Oscar-winning documentary Marjoe (1972) is also essential viewing for anyone wanting to understand the Marjoe mythos, and if you want to see him in something that is just plain 70s genre fun you can’t go past watching him fend off giant chickens with a pitchfork in Food of the Gods (1976).

SCREEN-SPACE:  If there is a perception of Marjoe that you hope people take from your book, what would it be?

JOHN: While my book naturally covers Marjoe’s childhood and days as a child preacher, I wasn’t interested in writing some tell-all about his private life. Wildcat! is an examination of his filmography, so I hope it will give readers an appreciation of his work and just how prolific and diverse he was during his time in Hollywood. I hope people will use it in the same way that I used books like The Psychotronic Encyclopedia of Film and Incredibly Strange Films in the 80s, as a roadmap to seek out some films or TV shows they may not have been aware of, or completely forgotten about. And to discover a new appreciation for them, and in turn, Marjoe.

 

WILDCAT! The Films of Marjoe Gortner is available via its publisher, BearManor Media, Amazon, and wherever all good books are sold.

Thursday
Jan022020

PREVIEW: 2020 SCREENWAVE INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL

The pure love for the magic of cinema with which the Screenwave International Film Festival (SWIFF) has always been curated is more evident than ever in 2020. Launching January 9 in Coffs Harbour and Bellingen on the New South Wales’ mid north coast, the 5th annual SWIFF will present 72 feature films from 20 countries over 15 days in a program that solidifies the regional community’s film celebration as one of Australia’s most important cultural events.

“For as long as I can remember, I’ve been in love with films,” says Festival Co-director Kate Howat who, with partner and fellow co-director Dave Horsley (pictured, below; left, with Howat) handling logistics, spends the best part of her year sourcing acclaimed local and international works. “This is a festival by film lovers for film lovers. Even if you don’t know it yet, I guarantee there’s something here just for you.”

Adds Horsley, “In an ever-shifting cinemascape, [with] lots of interesting conversations going on between streaming services and cinemas, one thing is clear - films are playing a bigger role in our lives.” He cites the year-to-year growth of attendance numbers as evidence of just how crucial film festival culture is to the diverse demographics of the region. “To see the festival turn such a significant corner – with over 70% of all weekend sessions sold out last year – gives the greenlight for the boldest and biggest SWIFF line-up yet.”

That bold approach can be seen in the films chosen to top and tail this year’s roster. Opening Night honours have gone to Taika Waititi’s Jojo Rabbit, a sweet natured if occasionally caustic coming-of-age tale set in Nazi Germany, featuring Der Führer (played with typical satirical verve by the director) as the buffoonish imaginary friend of an impressionable, nationalistic Aryan boy (Roman Griffin Davis).

Closing out the festival will be one of the few big screen sessions afforded Justin Kurzel’s hotly-anticipated, critically-lauded True History of the Kelly Gang, starring George McKay, Essie Davis, Nicholas Hoult, Charlie Hunnam and Russell Crowe. Festivalgoers will join the growing legion of fans of Thomasin McKenzie, with the New Zealand actress playing key roles in both films.

The World Premiere of Ryan Jasper’s debut feature doc Monks of The Sacred Valley emerges as the centerpiece film in SWIFF’s Australian film strand, which features twelve of the year’s most acclaimed domestic efforts. Set to unspool are Josephine Macerras’ festival-circuit hit, Alice; Jennifer Kent’s brutal revenge thriller, The Nightingale; the human-trafficking saga Bouyancy, with director Rodd Rathjen attending to discuss the making of his Berlinale award winner; and, Maya Newell’s In My Blood it Runs (pictured, right), an intimate study of 10 year-old indigenous boy Dujuan’s struggle to reconcile his heritage and contemporary culture.

Earning its stripes as a global film event, SWIFF will screen new works from such revered auteurs as Terrence Malick (A Hidden Life); Francois Ozon (By The Grace of God); Olivier Assayas (Non-Fiction, with Juliette Binoche); Pedro Almodovar (Pain and Glory, with Antonio Banderas and Penelope Cruz); and, Ken Loach (Sorry We Missed You). Anticipating huge demand amongst local cinephiles, three sessions have been locked in for Celine Sciamma’s Portrait of a Lady on Fire, the moment’s most talked-about arthouse hit and winner of the Cannes’ Best Screenplay and Queer Palm honours in 2019. Says Howat, “[It’s] a burning testament to love and friendship with an ecstatic ending for the ages.”

There is a darker hue to the SWIFF 2020 line-up with some of the year’s most challenging works playing in strands designed for the more fearless filmgoer. The weird and wonderful films in the ‘Wild Side’ line-up include Nicholas Cage and Joely Richardson in renegade director Richard Stanley’s adaptation of H.P. Lovecraft’s parasitic alien invasion head trip, Colour Out of Space and wild and crazy director Gaspar Noe’s reverse-cut re-edit of his shocking masterwork, now titled Irreversible: Inversion Integrale. The strand ‘Let’s Talk About Sects’ will feature director Ari Aster’s cut of Midsommar, with a whopping 22-minutes of flowers, folk music and full-daylight gore reinstated into the wildly-divisive original version. Also slated is Australian Pia Borg’s short Demonic, a look back at the Satanic Panic hysteria of the 1980s, set to play in a double-feature session with co-directors Britt Poulton and Dan Madison Savage’s cult-commune drama, Them That Follow, starring Australian actress Alice Englert; pictured, above).

Two very different takes on ‘Classic Cinema’ will highlight the Retrospective sessions at SWIFF 2020. The brilliance of Italian film maestro Frederico Fellini will be celebrated with screenings of his classics 8½ (1983) and La Dolce Vita (1960), while arguably the greatest silly comedy of all time, Airplane! (aka Flying High!) from the twisted minds of the Zucker/Abrahams team, will be celebrated with a one-off 40th anniversary screening.

The 2020 Screenwave International Film Festival runs January 9-24 at the Jetty Memorial Theatre, Coffs Harbour, and the Bellingen Memorial Hall, Bellingen. Full program details, session times and ticketing information can be found on the official website.

Friday
Dec132019

THE SCREEN-SPACE BEST (AND WORST) FILMS OF 2019

Takeaways from the year in cinema include the forced retirement of some once-glorious franchise friends (Terminator Dark Fate; X-Men Dark Phoenix; Rambo Last Blood); the resounding indifference to remakes/reboots/rehashes (Charlie’s Angels; Pet Semetary; Hellboy; Shaft); and, the struggle faced by marketers when selling specialised content (despite pre-release hype and critical buzz, Midsommar sputtered to US$43million globally). Australia produced a legitimate homegrown hit with Ride Like a Girl (US$8.5million), but otherwise found the marketplace tough (Storm Boy, US$4million; Danger Close, US$2million; The Nightingale, a paltry US$0.5million, despite critical acclaim).

But there was much to feel optimistic about. Despite what the HFPA would have you believe, women directors have made some of the year’s best films (40% of my Top 30 are female helmed); Oscars 2019 recognised diversity (in their own baby-step way) when handing out the Golden Guy, even if Best Picture winner, Green Book, carried with it some ugly baggage; and, quite hilariously, the young, white male web-overlords freaked the f*** out when the CATS trailer dropped (apparently, if you’re going to prance around in tights and makeup, you better be in a Marvel movie). Anyway, here are our favourites of 2019 (with their Rotten Tomatoes % included, to show how much we really run with the pack on this stuff)…

10. KNIVES OUT (Dir: Rian Johnson; 130 mins; USA; 97%) Starved of ol’ fashioned star-driven ensemble romps, audiences and critics alike reacted to Rian Johnson’s ripping murder/mystery yarn as if a genre had been borne. Knives Out isn’t new cinema (seek out Sidney Lumet’s Deathtrap, from 1982, for starters), but it pulsed with a crisp freshness and giddy sense of fun the likes of which rarely survive studio suits interference.

9. HOMECOMING: A FILM BY BEYONCE (Dir: Beyoncé Knowles-Carter; 137 mins; USA; 98%) The vivacity and vision that Beyoncé displayed in staging her Coachella 2018 set is captured with a potency that leaves the viewer breathless in Homecoming. Her music, her motives, her motherhood – the icon stamps this moment in her country’s history as her own in a behind-the-scenes concert film that ranks amongst the best ever.

8. WORKING WOMAN (ISHA OVEDET) (Dir: Michal Aviad; 93 mins; Israel; 97%) “The piercing humanistic precision that Michal Aviad honed with her decades as one of the world’s finest documentarians serves her well..” Read the SCREEN-SPACE review here.

7. COLOR OUT OF SPACE (Dir: Richard Stanley; 110 mins; USA; 87%) The combination of talents is irresistible to the cult cinema crowd – be he brilliant or barmy, director Richard Stanley; author of the alien invasion source story, H.P Lovecraft; and the mad maestro himself, Nicholas Cage. The finished product is a B-movie fever-dream; a twisted, terrifying, exhilarating nightmare of family angst and parasitic world domination.

6. BOOKSMART (Dir: Olivia Wilde; 101 mins; USA; 97%) A coming-of-age teen comedy with heavy doses of blue humour shouldn’t feel so fresh, be so funny, or pack an emotional punch like Olivia Wilde’s directorial debut managed. With Beanie Feldstein and Kaitlyn Dever (pictured, top; far left) inhabiting their co-lead roles and a thematic through-line in acceptance tugging at the heartstrings, Booksmart is so much more than the Superbad-for-girls the trailer promised.

5. WILD ROSE (Dir: Tom Harper; 101 mins; UK; 93%) The balance between dreams, talent and the roots that give them meaning have rarely been so acutely portrayed as in Tom Harper’s Wild Rose. As Rose-Lynn Harlan, the Glaswegian ex-con with a voice that fills the room and raises the roof, Jessie Buckley is a revelation; by the time she belts out ‘No Place Like Home’, her tears and triumphs bring emotions that only great rags-to-riches-to-rags stories deliver.  

4. ALICE (Dir: Josephine Mackerras; 103 mins; UK | France | Australia; 100%) In this story of a French woman cocooned by the façade of a dishonest marriage and her rise to independence, Josephine Mackerras has crafted a moving, funny, immediate #MeToo superheroine. As Alice, Emilie Piponnier (pictured, right, and top right) is the Australian director’s perfect foil; her emergence on-screen as a self-reliant, sexually energised woman in charge of her own destiny is the character arc of the year.

3. AD ASTRA (Dir: James Gray; 124 mins; USA; 84%) ‘Mr Serious Filmmaker’ James Gray tackling a science-fiction story (essentially Conrad’s Heart of Darkness, with added daddy issues) had us all intrigued; most critics liked it, audiences not so much (tapped out at US$130million globally). A dark reflection on legacy, masculinity and the pain of truthful self-discovery meant Gray was in his high-minded element, but he didn’t skimp on genre prerequisites (the year’s best VFX) and a subversive ‘movie star’ presence in Brad Pitt’s nuanced performance.

2. PORTRAIT OF A LADY ON FIRE (PORTRAIT DE LA JEUNE FILLE EN FEU) (Dir: Céline Sciamma; 121 mins; France; 97%) How does the artist capture a subject who refuses to be observed, who refutes closeness of any kind? Writer/director Céline Sciamma painstakingly unravels the constraints of 18th decorum and privilege to capture a physical and spiritual connection between two women, alone on an isolated Brittany island. Embodying the soaring, doomed romantic liaison are actresses Noémie Merlant and Adèle Haenel, whose performances connect as only the greatest of screen lovers can.

1. ONCE UPON A TIME IN HOLLYWOOD (Dir: Quentin Tarantino; 161 mins; USA; 85%) “[Tarantino’s] heart is in this film, for the first time afforded as much input as his fan-boy passion and film culture knowledge…” Read the SCREEN-SPACE review here.

The next 20 (in no particular order; with their Rotten Tomatoes %, where possible) are also great, so please seek them out…:
REPOSSESSION (Dirs: Ming Siu Goh, Scott C. Hillyard; 96 mins; Singapore; N/A)
LITTLE WOMEN (Dir: Greta Gerwig; 134 mins; USA; 96%)
KNIVES AND SKINS (Dir: Jennifer Reeder; 112 mins; USA; 72%)
ROMANTIC COMEDY (Dir: Elizabeth Sankey; 78 mins; UK; 100%)
THE PEANUT BUTTER FALCON (Dirs: Tyler Nilson, Michael Schwartz; 97 mins; USA; 95%)
ATLANTICS (Dir: Mati Diop; 106 mins; France | Senegal | Belgium; 95%)
THE GOLD-LADEN SHEEP AND THE SACRED MOUNTAIN (SONA DHWANDI BHED TE SUCHHA PAHAD (Dir: Ridham Janve; 97 mins; India; N/A)
UNDER THE SILVER LAKE (Dir: David Robert Mitchell; 139 mins; USA; 58%)
READY OR NOT (Dir: Matt Bettinelli-Olpin, Tyler Gillett; 95 mins; USA; 88%)
KLAUS (Dirs: Sergio Pablos, Carlos Martínez López; 96 mins; Spain | UK; 92%
THE BEACH BUM (Dir: Harmony Korine; 95 mins; USA; 55%)
HUSTLERS (Dir: Lorene Scafaria; 107 mins; USA; 88%)
CAPTAIN MARVEL (Dir: Anna Boden, Ryan Fleck; 123 mins; USA; 78%)
PARASITE (GISAENGCHUNG) (Dir: Boon Jong Ho; 132 mins; Korea; 99%)
TOY STORY 4 (Dir: Josh Cooley; 90 mins; USA; 97%)
THE REPORT (Dir: Scott Z. Burns; 119 mins; USA; 82%)
APOLLO 11 (Dir: Todd Douglas Miller; 93 mins; USA; 99%)
THE FURIES (Dir: Tony D’Aquino; 82 mins; Australia; 60%)
JOJO RABBIT (Dir: Taika Waititi; 108 mins; New Zealand | Czech Republic; 79%)
MOSLEY (Dir: Kirby Atkins; 96 mins; New Zealand | China; N/A) 

THE WORST FILMS OF 2019:
Todd Phillip’s Joker was a puerile, garish, tone-deaf shout-out to angry white males who responded en masse, as was the plan.
Disney plundered its vaults and manufactured a series of awful live-action/CGI abominations that reeked of cash-grab cynicism and stockholder pandering - the hideous Mary Poppins Returns and unnecessarily mean-spirited Dumbo; The Lion King was ok, but ‘not as bad as we expected’ is faint praise.
A lot of critics played the ‘its big, dumb, fun card’ in cutting slack to the idiotic brand-extension film, Fast & Furious Present: Hobbs & Shaw, while the more mature filmgoer had to contend with their own dire movie moments, in grotesque melodrama (Isabelle Huppert in Greta) and boomer privilege fantasy (director Rachel Ward’s insufferable Palm Beach).
The Worst Film of 2019, and by some measure, is Sony’s risible attempt to rekindle the MIB franchise, MEN IN BLACK: INTERNATIONAL. Directed by the utterly disinterested F. Gary Gray, this mish-mash of poor effects and grab-bag plotting hoped to exploit the chemistry generated by Thor Ragnarok co-stars Tessa Thompson and Chris Hemsworth, but the film leaves Thompson clutching at thin air character-wise and Hemsworth…well, he’s no Will Smith. Handing this horror-show over to Kumail Nanjiani’s comic-relief CGI alien to salvage at the midway mark is testament to the vacuum of creativity on show.  

Friday
Nov292019

THE PUBLIC LIFE OF EMILIO ESTEVEZ

Emilio Estevez remains one of the biggest movie stars of his generation, adored by Gen-Xers for The Outsiders, Repo Man, The Breakfast Club, Stakeout, St Elmo’s Fire and Young Guns and by their kids for the Mighty Ducks franchise. Twenty years ago, he cashed in his stardom to forge a career making a rare kind of modern film – the heartfelt, humanistic drama, once common amongst Hollywood’s output but now too indie-minded for corporate L.A. Bobby (2006), The Way (2010) and his latest, a crowd-pleasing study in civil disobedience called The Public, are the works of…well, an outsider. He has never been to Australia, much to his regret (“Every time I get invited, it's work-related and they want to get you in and out quickly”) but he was happy to phone in to talk at length with SCREEN-SPACE about his latest film, it’s depiction of America’s homeless population and the changing role that public librarians play in maintaining his homeland’s fragile democracy…

SCREEN-SPACE: You excel at directing the socially conscious film, like Bobby, The Way and now The Public. Cinema is still a very important forum, an important art form, for you, isn’t it?

ESTEVEZ: It is. It has the ability to change minds and hearts and educate, as well as entertain. What other venue can you sit in the dark for two hours and ask to have your attention be held? Great leaders and speakers can barely do that. I think that film is an art form that is under siege right now, especially independent film. It's trying to find its way again, and I believe it will. I just think that there's so many different delivery systems now that filmmakers are having to adapt to and [they] may not like how they're having to adapt to it. We all come from a generation where seeing your movie on the big screen was the ultimate prize for a filmmaker and that may not be the case anymore, right? I'm not big on sitting in front of a small screen and watching much these days. I love the theatre experience. I love going to the movies and sitting in the dark with a bunch of strangers. There's nothing like it.

SCREEN-SPACE: You grew up alongside artists and storytellers and activists that the rest of us look to; your father, of course, and the likes of Mr. Coppola and Mr. Hughes. Who have been the storytellers that inspire you today?

ESTEVEZ: I love the films of Paul Thomas Anderson. I think he's a terrific storyteller. He always puts characters and people first, and the bulk of my work in the last 20 years has been all about that. Character-driven, actor-driven. I respond to filmmakers who haven't lost that sense of humanity, haven't lost their sense of storytelling. So I'm drawn to actors' directors. Scorsese is still somebody who I think makes extraordinary films and movies that I want to see. (Pictured above; Estevez as librarian Stuart Goodson in The Public)

SCREEN-SPACE: The Way came out at the height of an America that was full of Obama-inspired hope and optimism. In 2019, things such as understanding and empathy aren't…on-trend, let's say, under the current administration. Has selling a film like The Public been tougher this time around?

ESTEVEZ: Yeah. It's a film that's decidedly uncynical, that speaks to a gentler pace, to compassion. And it has come out in a very noisy world, a confusing time, [that] we've not seen in this country in over 150 years. So to make a movie that is about hope and compassion was, yeah, I think it's a tough sell. Unfortunately. Sadly.

SCREEN-SPACE: What did you have to get right about your depiction of civil disobedience?

ESTEVEZ: I grew up under a roof with somebody who is very, very active. My father's been arrested 68 times. And all for acts of civil disobedience - anti-nuclear rallies, immigration rallies, issues regarding homelessness and the environment. While I was exposed to it, I didn't fully understand what he was doing, spiritually, until I started working on The Public. And then it all started to make sense to me as to why he was doing what he was doing and why he couldn't say no. Why he couldn't be complicit in the policies that were cruel. I understood it on a much deeper, more spiritual level after getting involved in the film. Which is why that act of civil disobedience at the end of the film, is such an unexpected moment. And as we've screened the film here in the States so many times ... I went on a 35-city tour of the film. The audience never sees the end coming. Ever. They anticipate that it's going to end up in a bloodbath, but, in fact, it ends with an act of love. (Pictured, above; Alec Baldwin as Det Ramstead in The Public)

SCREEN-SPACE: And what needed to be most honest about the way homeless life was portrayed?

ESTEVEZ: It was important not to stereotype them, to give them a depth and a character and make sure that they were humanized. In my research, there was a self-effacing nature to many of the homeless that I talked to, who said, "This is where I am in my life, and I have hope that it will turn around, and here's how I arrived here, and I'm not proud of it." They were very honest and truthful in sharing their personal stories.

SCREEN-SPACE: You draw extraordinary performances from Michael K. Williams (pictured, above; with Estevez), Alec Baldwin and my favourite actress, Jena Malone. Your entire ensemble is remarkably natural…

ESTEVEZ: Thank you. What's interesting is a lot of these actors were not friends of mine before starting the film, so they weren't in my Rolodex. And often times, we would meet on the day, on the set. And that's very ... it's a little unsettling. You're hoping that your conversations on the phone have landed, that you see eye-to-eye on the character, and you're not going to be spending a whole lot of time rewriting the scenes on the day, because that eats up your time. So for us, we were very fortunate that all of the pieces of the puzzle fit together beautifully, because we shot the film in 22 days.

SCREEN-SPACE: How do the added duties of the indie filmmaker sit with you - finding financing, traveling with the film, having to talk to people like me in Sydney?

ESTEVEZ: I think that these days, there is so much noise and so much competition for people's attention. And with a film that didn't have a hundred-million-dollar budget or a big studio behind it needed as much advocacy as possible. And by going out and screening the film, not only to librarians but to homeless advocacy groups, at film festivals, and stopping in those regions, as we travelled around and across the country, where people from Hollywood don't normally stop, and bringing the movie to the people. And that was in the spirit of the film, but also necessary. (Pictured, above; Jena Malone as Myra in The Public)

THE PUBLIC premieres on DVD/Blu-ray and digital platforms in Australia this week via Rialto Distribution; check local schedules for release details in other territories.

Wednesday
Oct302019

THE FURIES' FINAL GIRL: THE AIRLIE DODDS INTERVIEW

FANGORIA X MONSTER FEST 2019: The well-trodden road to overnight bigscreen success began for Airlie Dodds in 2010 with the short film, Purple Flowers. Nearly two decades later, after 10 more short films, a healthy live theatre resume and a stint on the iconic TV series Neighbours, her lead performance as the blood-splattered heroine Kayla in Tony D’Aquino’s The Furies is generating career-defining buzz. Only her third feature film role, the tough 20-day shoot in the wilds outside of Canberra required a physical commitment she was not entirely ready for. The acclaim coming her way, that, she’s ready for…

“I do a lot of short films and TV, so I turn up, do a little bit and go home,” said Dodds, addressing the Monster Fest crowd in Melbourne at a Q&A appearance hosted by SCREEN-SPACE’s Simon Foster. “So, by the second week of the shoot, I was like ‘Tony, I’m so tired!’ And he said, ‘Yeah, me too.’ But we were fine. It was exhilarating, even euphoric running through this bush location.”

Dodds came to the audition process with a strong sense of her character, a young woman thrust into a brutal bushland game of survival when pitted against five merciless monsters. “It was pretty much all on the page, nothing really changed,” she says, recalling that moment when she had to stand before her somewhat offbeat writer/director and weigh up her career choice. “When I did the audition, it was the big scene at the end just after a key character had died. I looked down, towards Tony, and he was watching the monitor wearing purple socks and an avocado T-shirt and I’m thinking, ‘Well, this is my life’ (laughs).”

Making his feature film directorial debut, Tony D’Aquino presents as a pure gentleman, softly spoken and unassuming. Yet he has delivered a horror opus that harkens back to the most gruesome examples of the slasher genre; no surprise his favourite film is The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. For Dodds, that dichotomy of character helped her build trust with her director. “He’s very gentle and quite meek,” she recalls fondly. “You might think that in a performative sense he would be pushing for intensity, but his gentleness can ground you at times, which felt very nurturing.” (Pictured, left; D'Aquino, left, with DOP Garry Richards)

The complex psychology of Kayla was key to the actress going after the role. She had played lauded support parts in Damian Power’s acclaimed thriller Killing Ground and Heath Davis’ comedy/drama Book Week, and was ready to graduate to a multi-dimensional lead role. “The main thing about Kayla within this type of genre film is that it helps her emerge, really weaves out her inner strength,” says Dodds, who responded to the convincing character arc in D’Aquino’s script. “When you meet her, you’re not inclined to think her very strong, and she doesn’t really know herself until the circumstances force her to. It was less about the idea of the character and more about her immediate actions that ultimately define her.”

High on the actress’ list of positives was that Kayla has to interact with several female characters to survive. Actresses Linda Ngo, Taylor Ferguson, Ebony Vagulans, Danielle Horvat, Jessica Baker, Harriet Davies and Kaitlyn Boyé are granted as much complexity, if not screen time, as Dodds’ Kayla. For the actress, it was central to the story’s appeal. “There are so many stories about men being cunning and violent and manipulative and crazy, so one of the great things about this film is that it shows those complex elements being explored with women characters,” she opines. “The characters [who survive], do so because of their light, feminine value; they use compassion to get ahead. It is still a tactic, a survival tactic, but it is genuine. They all represent aspects of femininity, the resourcefulness or the vindictiveness, and I like that they are as complex as any male character.” (Pictured, above; from left, Linda Ngo, Dodds and Ebony Vagulans)

THE FURIES director Tony D’Aquino will be present for a Q&A following the Fangoria x Monster Fest session on October 31 at Event Cinemas George Street, Sydney. Check the official website for further information.