Film set in WA heads to Sundance festival
A scene from Mad Bastards. Photo: Keith Saunders
A film set in the Kimberley has been chosen to take part in the Sundance Film Festival next month.
Mad Bastards is one of two films to have been selected to compete at Robert Redford's showcase for independent cinema.
Mad Bastards will take part in the world drama section of the competition and will have its world premiere at the festival.
Director Brendan Fletcher's film tells the story of an urban street warrior who meets his match in the form of a local police officer.
Sydney-based Fletcher "almost dropped on the floor with excitement" when he found out that his film had been accepted into the Sundance festival.
"We've been making this film for so long — we received our first grant from ScreenWest in 2003 — so to be selected for competition in the highest-profile indie film festival in the world is wonderfully gratifying," Fletcher said.
Fletcher was also quick to credit his Kimberley community who contributed so much to the making of Mad Bastards.
"I drove the bus but they built it," he said.
The film also weaves performances and music from real people from the Kimberley through the music of Broome musicians the Pigram Brothers.
Mad Bastards is a result of Fletcher's long collaboration with Kimberley music legends Alan and Stephen Pigram, who are co-producers of the film and make a big contribution to the soundtrack. They also perform on camera.
They are joined by Alex Lloyd, who collaborated with them on the soundtrack as a composer and performer. He also appears on screen.
Although Fletcher is listed as the screenwriter, Mad Bastards was written in collaboration with the three main actors: Dean Daley-Jones, Greg Tait and John Watson.
This occurred both during the last few years of development for the script and during filming.
The selection of Mad Bastards for Sundance is another victory for ScreenWest, which backed the film with development and production money, and the WA film industry, which is becoming of the most energetic and acclaimed in the country.
The Australian premiere for Mad Bastards is taking place as part of the Sydney Festival on January 18 ahead of its national release in May.
In the documentary section of the competition the Australia/American co-production Shut Up Little Man! An Audio Misadventure has been selected and will also have its world premiere at the festival.
Directed by Matthew Bate the film follows the story of two friends living in San Francisco who created one of the world's first viral pop sensations when they tape-recorded the fights of their violently noisy neighbours.
The recordings inspired comic illustrations, plays and songs such as Nirvana's Dough, Ray and Me and Devo's Shut Up Little Man!
Well-known stars appearing in premieres at the festival include Al Pacino, Katie Holmes, Channing Tatum, Pierce Brosnan, Jennifer Connelly, Kevin Spacey, Tobey Maguire, Paul Giamatti and Amy Ryan.
Pacino, Holmes and Tatum star in The Son of No One, a drama set in post-9/11 New York that will close the festival, which runs January 20-30 in Park City, Utah.
Among other premieres: the evangelical tale Salvation Boulevard, with Brosnan and Connelly; the economic-crisis drama Margin Call, starring Spacey; the domestic romp The Details, featuring Maguire and Elizabeth Banks; and the wrestling comedy Win Win, with Giamatti and Ryan.
