Film Find – Bastardy, The Life And Times Of Jack Charles
Quite frankly, I know very few Aboriginal performers. The only Indigenous Australian actor that immediately comes to mind is David Gulpilil, whom many of you would be familiar with from films like Rabbit Proof Fence, The Tracker, The Proposition, and most recently, Baz Lurhman’s epic Australia. I had to do a little digging to find the name of another who’s just as prominent. Maybe you folks can enlighten me on that…
Below is a trailer for a film called Bastardy – a documentary about Aboriginal actor and self-proclaimed fringe dweller, Jack Charles (pictured above) – described also as a cat burglar, junkie and gay, as well as a man of “irrepressible contradictions and conflicting personas.”
Over a period of seven years, the filmmakers of Bastardy followed Jack Charles around and documented his every step and word, as he traversed the criminal underworld to support his “raging heroin habit,” all the while performing on the stages and film sets of some of Australia’s most renowned films and film directors.
Charles founded the first Aboriginal theatre company in the 1970’s, and has performed with some of Australia’s most renowned actors (Geoffrey Rush, David Gulpilil, and Bill Hunter), as well as directors in feature films (The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith, Bedevil and others) none of which I’m at all familiar with. He’s also appeared in several local TV series, and hundreds of plays!
Jack was awarded the prestigious Tudawali Award at the Message Sticks Festival in 2009, honoring his lifetime contribution to Indigenous media.
Described as “provocative, funny and profoundly moving,” Bastardy is the inspirational story of a self proclaimed “Robin Hood of the streets.”
For Forty years, with infectious humor and optimism, Jack Charles has juggled a life of crime with another successful career – acting. However the law finally catches up with Jack; and when he faces a jail sentence he might not survive, he is forced to make some life-altering decisions.
Sounds and looks intriguing, and I hope it comes my way eventually. To my knowledge it’s only screened in Australia .
The film’s website can be found HERE.
Below is its trailer:
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Director’s Statement – Amiel Courtin-Wilson
As soon as I met Jack Charles I knew I had to make a film about him. BASTARDY is the culmination of seven transformative years of hard work researching, following and filming one of Australia’s near-forgotten treasures. The title of our film comes from a play written in 1972 by playwright John Romeril – “Bastardy” – based on the life story of Jack Charles, and performed by him in Melbourne.
During those seven years, 120 hours were captured on camera and condensed into a feature film that presents the many incarnations of Jack: drug addict, critically acclaimed actor, cat burglar and Aboriginal elder. What also formed was a deep friendship between Jack and myself. Like my previous documentaries, this film came about through a personal connection with Jack that grew into an insatiable curiosity about his life. Jack Charles is an old family friend and I had grown up hearing stories about his escapades as both an actor and cat burglar.
In 2001 I had just finished my second documentary and was back in Australia when I heard Jack was also in Melbourne after completing a performance of Marriage of Figaro with Geoffrey Rush at Belvoir Street Theatre. Soon after that performance I met Jack for the first time to talk about the possibility of making a film together. I was taken by his infectious optimism from the moment I sat down. Jack lead the way from the outset – asking me where my camera was and suggesting we start shooting straight away. Within two minutes I was filming Jack at the café table and I didn’t stop shooting for over six years.
When I started making BASTARDY in 2001, I had no idea where Jack’s journey was going to take me. From the beginning, researching Jack’s childhood and making the film was an amazing education for me as I had come from a place of total naivety about Koorie culture – urban or otherwise. Like my previous documentaries I assumed that I would shoot with him for several months, edit the film and that would be it. But as Jack’s story began to unfold and I witnessed the reality of his lifestyle as a homeless man and a heroin addict, I started seeing him more and more regularly until it was normal for Jack to visit my house every day.
As Jack and I became closer, he effectively moved into my house several times and there were periods of months where the filmmaking paled in comparison to the increasingly profound friendship we developed. This intimacy finally culminated in becoming embroiled in Jack’s criminal activities to the point where I was unsure if what I was doing was legal anymore.
Structure & Visual Style
A mesmerizing, kaleidoscopic story of one man’s life, BASTARDY is cyclical in structure – beginning and ending in vérité style with Jack roaming the streets of Melbourne in the present day. In this way he is seen as an almost anonymous character coming to the fore for the duration of the film and then remerging with the landscape again at the film’s conclusion.
Visually, BASTARDY is a rich patchwork, delicately stitched together to include dramatic recreations, archival and observational material shot on a variety of Super 8, 16mm, DVCAM and HDV.
This visual approach also reflects Jack’s personality. Jack tells his stories in fragments of images that dovetail into other stories from his life and the film’s structure mirrors this, in that it is made up of a kaleidoscope of dream-like images and sounds – utilising repetition of various motifs throughout.
The more transgressive elements of Jack’s life are gradually revealed throughout the documentary – his current day story unfolding concurrently with his history – layer upon layer of his identity unfolding before us.
By telling Jack’s story this way, he is humanised as a character from the outset. I wanted to let the audience establish a relationship with Jack without thinking in terms of neat packages and easy labels. We have structured the film so the audience discovers his character in slow release: just as the audience feels as though they have a hold on Jack, the prism through which they are viewing him is rotated and another element of his personality is revealed.
Sound Track & Sound Design
I wanted the soundtrack for BASTARDY to also be a rich sonic experience and I spent several years collecting and sourcing a very particular type of music to reflect Jack’s bowerbird-esque character. Like the visual style for the film, the soundtrack is extremely diverse yet unified in its organic intimacy and handmade charm. Alongside the personal and raw songs Jack Charles sings as a busker on the streets, the soundtrack for BASTARDY comprises tracks from an array of international musical artists: including a haunting solo violin piece from Warren Ellis from the Dirty Three, Huddie Ledbetter’s classic Black Girl, and a variety of pieces by Jackie-O Motherfucker, Oren Ambarchi, Jennifer Gentle and Islaja- all book-ended by several delicate melancholic tracks from Brooklyn psych-folk sisters CocoRosie.
Sydney painter and composer Steve Benwell composed the original music for the film in a single intensive recording session and his sparse yet evocative guitar and piano based score provides the sonic spine of the documentary – underpinning and unifying Jack’s story and its many elements. BASTARDY is also graced with the organic, beautifully restrained sound design of Melbourne composer Rob MacKenzie who recently completed Wong Kar Wai’s ASHES OF TIME REDUX.
Themes
“The artist, like the criminal is a social explorer.”
- Marshall McLuhan
Since my first feature documentary Chasing Buddha I have developed a fascination with how people maintain a sense of hope in the face of adversity and how they manage to transform themselves for the better when faced with crushing circumstances.
Another reoccurring theme I am drawn to is solitude and how people deal with loneliness in the atomised nature of modern existence. Again and again I seem to gravitate towards people who have always felt innately different to the rest of society. In Jack Charles’ case I was awestruck by his ability to maintain a reputable career in acting while also living in the throes of a seemingly unbreakable cycle of crime and incarceration.
Despite his circumstances as a homeless heroin addict, Jack’s personal philosophy is so life affirming, infectious and effervescent that it is a pure pleasure to be around him.
What particularly interested me about Jack was his totally unique artist’s vision of the world – a poetic and beautiful sense of wonderment that has actually intensified over the years. Jack’s own sense of otherness is also intrinsically linked his identity as a criminal.
“When I first started robbing people I put it under the classification of “collecting the rent”
I justified myself as a hunter gatherer, going onto prime Aboriginal land.” – Jack Charles
Jack’s identity as an actor, elder, potter and musician on the streets of Melbourne means he is constantly speaking through his art – reaffirming himself in the world around him. His need to create and perform drives Jack in life; whether on the streets, in jail, or working in film or theatre. He is constantly crossing borders; adapting and moving between the worlds of the criminal underworld, high theatre, intellectual bohemia and the broader Aboriginal community. As in his acting, creating various parts in theatre and film, Jack has also had to create himself in life.
“It’s double jeopardy when you’re black and you’re homosexual mate – and you’re a bloody thief and a thespian too.” – Jack Charles
Jack recently told me that the process of making this film together over nearly a decade actually helped him change his life for the better. I was moved to tears by this comment as I could never have dreamed that this documentary would have such a positive impact when I started filming back in 2001.
I want to thank Jack Charles for sticking it out with me over the years and as I come to the end of the production of Bastardy seven years after our first meeting, I know more than ever that making this film together has fundamentally enriched and changed my life.
Amiel Courtin-Wilson, August 2008
Director’s Biography – Amiel Courtin-Wilson
Combining visceral imagery with highly personal stories, Amiel Courtin-Wilson’s unique directorial style has evolved from working in documentary and drama over the last thirteen years.
After making his first film at age 9, Amiel’s short film CHARLIE’S TOY MEETS MADELINE MORITZ won the Longford Nova Award at the 1996 St Kilda Film Festival when he was 17 years old.
In 1998, Amiel directed and produced the feature documentary CHASING BUDDHA which premiered at Sundance in 2000 and was nominated for an AFI for best direction. “Chasing Buddha” also had a successful theatrical season in both Sydney and Melbourne and went on to win a string of awards including Best Documentary at both the 2000 Dendy Awards and the 2000 IF Awards.
In 2000, Amiel co-directed the docu-drama ISLANDS which won the Documentary Excellence Award at the “Real Life on Film” Festival (2001), Best Short form Documentary at the 2001 ATOM Awards and went on to tour the U.S. for a year in 2002 as part of the Margaret Mead International Documentary festival.
After collaborating with Opera Australia and the ‘Chunky Move’ contemporary dance company, producing a series of music clips for SBS and Film Victoria and directing several successful music clips of his own, in 2003 Amiel directed the short film ADOLESCENT which premiered at the Melbourne International Film Festival. As a result of this screening, Amiel participated in the inaugural Accelerator program as part of the Melbourne International Film Festival in 2004.
Amiel’s latest film CICADA is a short which screened in the prestigious Director’s Fortnight program in the 2009 Cannes Film Festival and Amiel is currently financing his first dramatic feature film HAIL and editing his next feature length documentary CATCH MY DISEASE about renowned Australian pop singer Ben Lee.
Amiel has also worked as a freelance journalist for Inside Film and Metro Magazine, exhibited his video installation work internationally and lectured at institutions, conferences and festivals including VCA, Australian Film Television & Radio School, and the University of California Los Angeles.
www.amielcourtin-wilson.com
Producers’s Biography – Philippa Campey
Philippa Campey produced Van Sowerwine’s CLARA (2004) a 7-minute stop motion animated film that won a Special Mention from the Palme d’Or Jury at Cannes 2005, the Gold Hugo for Best Animated Film at Chicago Film Festival 2005, and then screened in competition at Sundance 2006. In 2004 Philippa also produced IRAQ, MY COUNTRY, a 1-hour documentary nominated for an AFI Award in 2005 and which screened at festivals around the world and continues to sell all around the world.
In 2007 Philippa produced WORDS FROM THE CITY a feature documentary about hip hop MCs in Australia co-written & directed by Rhys Graham and Natasha Gadd, which premiered at the Adelaide Film Festival and screened at every Australian Festival and many overseas festivals. The film has been successfully distributed by Madman and screened on ABC TV’s JTV. It was nominated for 5 AFI Awards including Best Documentary. That year she also produced THE FIBROS AND THE SILVERTAILS by Paul Oliver – a TV documentary that screened to sold-out sessions at the Sydney Film Festival and was broadcast on ABC and distributed by Film Camp.
Philippa is currently developing DETACHABLE, a short animated series by Van Sowerwine, the writer/director of CLARA; GALORE a debut feature film with writer/director Rhys Graham; THE WARMTH, also by Rhys Graham; and UNDERTOW, by Natasha Gadd, co-director with Rhys Graham on WORDS FROM THE CITY.
As well as producing her own projects, Philippa has produced work for many years for Early Works, written & directed by John Hughes. Most recently they produced THE ARCHIVE PROJECT (2006, feature documentary); and Betty Churcher’s art series HIDDEN TREASURES (2006, 15 x 5mins series); and THE ART OF WAR. Philippa has previously worked with the Australian Centre for the Moving Image, producing ARTV, 16 video works by some of Australia’s best contemporary visual artists. In 2005 Philippa was the Short Film and Accelerator Coordinator at the Melbourne International Film Festival, returning to the role of Accelerator Coordinator again in 2006. She has also published articles in IF, Senses of Cinema and Metro industry journals and has been a judge of the Sydney Film Festival Dendy Awards and AFI Awards.
In November 2008 Philippa was awarded the SPAA Independent Documentary Producer of the Year.
Editors’ Biographies
JACK HUTCHINGS
Jack cut his first short film CRACKER BAG, written and directed by Glendyn Ivin in 2003. The film won the Palme d’Or, at one of the most prestigious festivals in the world, the Cannes Film Festival. In addition to the wide audiences CRACKER BAG also garnered Jack a nomination for Best Editing at the Australian Film Institute awards.
Adding to Jack’s Cannes success, his next short film NATURE’S WAY directed by Jane Shearer was selected to premiere at the 2006 Cannes Film Festival. This film won the Jury Prize for best short film at the 2007 Paris Film Festival, and also won best short film at the New Zealand Film Awards.
In April 2008 Jack’s third consecutive short film JERRYCAN, directed by Julius Avery, was again selected for in-competition screening at Cannes. This marked a trifecta of short films edited by Jack to compete in this esteemed film arena. JERRYCAN went on to win the Cannes short film Jury Prize.
Jack has been editing film for a decade and besides working on short films cuts television commercials working from Melbourne, Sydney, Auckland, London and the USA.
BILL MURPHY
Bill Murphy’s editing work encompasses award winning films across many genres. His credits include the Oscar winning animation HARVIE KRUMPET, the Emmy Award winning feature documentary EXILE IN SAREJEVO, the AFI Award winning television documentary WILDNESS, the multi award winning drama STRANDED, and the feature films ROMPER STOMPER starring Russell Crowe, AMY starring Rachel Griffiths, TILL HUMAN VOICES WAKE US starring Guy Pearce and Helena Bonham-Carter and HALF LIGHT starring Demi Moore.
In 2000 Bill edited an innovative, two hour film, EL NIÑO which accompanied the John Adams oratorio “El Niño”, directed by Peter Sellars, which premiered at the Théâtre du Chatelet, Paris in December of that year.
Other significant works include Amiel Courtin-Wilson’s award winning documentary films CHASING BUDDHA and ISLANDS, Lawrence Johnston’s NIGHT, Scott Millwood’s recently completed WHATEVER HAPPENED TO BRENDA HEAN? and the MIFF Grand Prix winner DOUGLAS MAWSON: THE SURVIVOR by David Parer.
He has just completed editing Adam Elliot’s feature animation MARY AND MAX.
In 2003 Bill was accredited as a member of the Australian Screen Editors, in recognition of his screen editing and his outstanding contribution to Australian screen culture.
RICHARD LOWENSTEIN
Richard Lowenstein has written, directed and produced five feature films including the acclaimed STRIKEBOUND and the seminal Australian feature film DOGS IN SPACE starring Michael Hutchence and Saskia Post.
Richard also wrote and directed SAY A LITTLE PRAYER (1992) and GHOST STORY (1995), and wrote, directed and edited HE DIED WITH A FELAFEL IN HIS HAND which won the Grand Jury Prize for Best Feature, the Best Actor In A Feature Film, and Best Supporting Actress In A Feature Film at the New York International Independent Film & Video Festival 2001.
He is also the director and editor of numerous award-winning commercials and music videos for the likes of U2, INXS, Pete Townshend, Hunters & Collectors and Crowded House and is a producer of both JOHN SAFRAN’S MUSIC JAMBOREE and JOHN SAFRAN VERSUS GOD – a satirical eight-part half-hour series about religion, for SBS Television.
Richard is a founding partner in the renowned Melbourne-based production company, GHOST and an active partner alongside Domenico Procacci, Sue Murray, Bryce Menzies & Rolf de Heer in the feature film production company Fandango Australia Pty Ltd.
Richard is currently preparing his feature film project NEIL, NEIL, ORANGE PEEL and is developing numerous other projects with GHOST.
Cinematographer’s Biography – Germain McMicking
Germain McMicking is a Melbourne born cinematographer and photographer. His credits include numerous award winning music videos, high-end television commercials and feature documentary and television projects. Germain also works in stills, shooting fashion editorial, portraiture and other artwork.
Germain has established a number of long standing working relationships, most notably as a co-director with Ben Saunders in a creative partnership known as Nice Trees. Nice Trees has produced a large body of work of the past eight years including the Aria award winning video for Eskimo Joe’s “Wake Up” in 2001, a Best Music Video award from the St Kilda Film festival in 2004 for Augie March’s “Little Wonder”, and a Golden Guitar award in 2006 for Paul Kelly’s “Song of The Old Rake”.
BASTARDY is Germain’s fourth collaboration with filmmaker Amiel Courtin-Wilson. Previous collaborations include ADOLESCENT (2003), ON THE OTHER OCEAN (2006), and CICADA (2008). Germain is also attached to two of Amiel’s dramatic feature projects in development.
Germain also recently completed work on another feature documentary project LIONEL (2008) directed by Eddie Martin. This film intertwines archival footage with beautiful observational footage of the world champion boxer today.
Other credits include the two AFI award-winning SBS television programs JOHN SAFRAN’S MUSIC JAMBOREE and JOHN SAFRAN VERSUS GOD. Another documentary contribution is a three-hour interview recorded with Quentin Tarantino for Mark Hartley’s feature documentary NOT QUITE HOLLYWOOD.
Composer’s Biography – Steve Benwell
Born in Hong Kong, Steve Benwell is a Sydney-based artist and musician who most recently composed the original score for Amiel Courtin-Wilson’s latest short CICADA which had its international premiere at the 2009 Cannes Film Festival as part of the Directors’ Fortnight program. His sound has emerged from a variety of influences: minimalist electro-drone, avant garde jazz and folk/blues psychedelia. Steve is currently collaborating with Sydney sound artist Nathan Pyewacket.
He has also widely exhibited his paintings throughout Australia and was a finalist in the 2008 Metro 5 Art Award, Australia’s wealthiest prize for painters under 35 years of age.