Tina ArenaA half-dozen upcoming Australian entertainment documentaries showcase the sector's diversity, highlighting its highs and lows.
The six announced this week are among 44 given funding by Screen Australia, sharing $5.6 million.
Howzat! The Story Of Sherbet
90 mins
Beyond Productions
Director: Paul Clarke
Writers: Paul Clarke, Angela Downing
Producer: Angela Downing
Executive Producer: Mikael Borglund
International Sales: Bonsai Films Pty Ltd
Made to coincide with the 50th anniversary of their global hit Howzat!, Sherbet emerged in the early ‘70s, with catchy pop songs such as Summer Love, You’ve Got The Gun and Slipstream.
Under the guidance of manager Roger Davies, they embarked on massive regional tours, which gave them the biggest fan club in the country. They had 20 singles in the Top 40 and cut ten studio albums.
Sherbet were first to make substantial revenue from merchandising. An in-house book, Sherbet On Tour, was published in a first run of 55,000 copies, expected to last a year. It sold out first week.
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At one point, guitarist and songwriter Clive Shakespeare wanted to test their popularity by releasing two singles at the same time. Their record company would only agree if the second single was a solo by singer Daryl Braithwaite. The strategy worked.
Howzat! topped the charts in New Zealand, South Africa and Israel, reached #2 in Britain, and went Top 10 throughout Europe, where local acts covered it in different languages.
Cracking the American market was problematic. Power struggle within their US label meant they slipped down the marketing priority list. They were rebranded as Highway and foisted with a slick new-wave look, which proved a disaster.
Tina Arena: Unravel Me
90 mins
Helium Pictures Pty Ltd
Director: Adrian Russell Wills
Writer/Producer: Jessica Carrera
Executive Producer: Mark Fennessey
Broadcaster: Network 7
Tina Arena: From Young Talent Time, where producers told her to change her name from Filippina, to a ho-hum period as disco-pop singer in her late teens, to a total rebranding as an adult contemporary singer-songwriter who sold 10 million worldwide.
She attained icon status throughout Europe and was awarded a knighthood of the French National Order of National Merit.
In a remarkable BIGSOUND keynote in 2017, Arena outlined how opportunities got squeezed when she had the temerity to become a woman turning 40 and to launch an independent route.
Commercial radio ghosted her, Sony Music dropped her after three albums, and writing collaborations were limited as "my former publishing company did not reply to my manager’s emails in four years."
But, she noted, "Each low can lead to a high if you're strong and you navigate it properly."
Unravel Me will look at her career through the prism of her as an icon and a woman, with candid new interviews, rare archives, and appearances from friends, family, and collaborators.
This Is Amy Taylor
90 mins
6 Seasons Productions Pty Ltd
Writer/Director: Eddie Martin
Producer: Shannon Swan
Executive Producer: Cody Greenwood
"I was in LA shaking my shit / While you were down in Melbourne saying, 'Fuck that bitch'," goes U Should Not Be Doing That. Writer/director Eddie Martin followed the source of that counter-strike, Amyl And The Sniffers’ Amy Taylor, at a significant period in her life and career.
From working at a local supermarket to dressing up to swagger across the stages of Aussie pubs to be introduced to the hallways of European modelling agencies to Grammyland to their insistence that international success should only come without losing their Aussie sound.
Screen Australia’s development funding for This Is Amy Taylor comes ten years after Martin won the AACTA Award for Best Direction In A Documentary for his feature All This Mayhem, which also won accolades in the UK.
Dance For Your Life
100 mins
Dance Documentary Pty Ltd
Writer/Director: Luke Cornish
Producer: Jade Barnes
Executive Producer: David Alrich
Local Distributor: Mushroom Entertainment
International Distributor: Perpetual Entertainment Rights
UK choreographer Dean Lee has worked with Kylie Minogue, Janet Jackson, The Pussycat Dolls, Eve, Chaka Khan, Shania Twain, The Jacksons and Leona Lewis.
He’s a central figure in Dance For Your Life, where Australian dancers vie for a career boost.
According to the promo blurb: “An intimate portrait into the highly competitive world of the commercial back-up dancer — where chances are few, and even your best friends are your competition,” the official synopsis reads.
Ten students from Sydney dance and performing arts school, Brent School, have the chance to go to London to audition for Lee’s Shapehaus Dance Theatre. The doco screens in cinemas in the autumn.
We Are The Ones
90 mins
Walking Fish Rights Pty Ltd
Director: Lachlan McLeod
Producers: Naomi Ball, Lachlan McLeod
Executive Producers: David Elliot-Jones, Sean Kenny, Tom Richardson
In a nutshell, “the world’s largest accessible choir prepares for their most ambitious act to date: An original concert accompanied by Australia’s premier orchestra.”
Director Lachlan McLeod has won awards for his sharp approach to storytelling. His recent Clean looked at the life of Sandra Pankhurst and the compassionate yet challenging realm of trauma cleaning.
Previous works, Big In Japan (2018) was a comedic exploration of fame through foreign celebrities in Japan, and Convenient Education (SBS, 2012) investigated the struggles of student migrants in Australia.
Rolf Harris: Primetime Predator
2 x 52 mins
Northern Pictures Pty Ltd
Director: Nick Sweeney
Producer: Kerri Ritchie
Executive Producers: Karina Holden, John Smithson
After huge success from the 1950s in Australia and the UK, Rolf Harris’ tumble from grace was rapid. He was arrested in 2013 over historical allegations of sexual offences.
His victims were aged between 8 (an autograph hunter at a community centre in 1968) and 19 (a friend of his daughter’s), and the public was enraged by how his celebrity masked his bad behaviour.
A TV interviewer said he assaulted her while she was interviewing him live on the bed on the British TV show The Big Breakfast. Linda Nolan of singing group The Nolan Sisters alleged he groped her in 1975, when she was 15, on a South African tour with her siblings.
In July 2014, he was sentenced to five years and nine months in prison after being convicted on twelve counts. He was released after three years, and the conviction against the 8-year old overturned because it was “unsafe”.
Most of his awards and honours were revoked. These included his MBE and OBE Order of Australia medals, the ARIA Hall of Fame and his BAFTA lifetime achievement award.
A two-part documentary, Rolf Harris: Hiding in Plain Sight, interviewing his victims and police, was screened in May 2023.
Harris died that month, aged 93, after suffering from neck cancer and needing 24-hour care. His death was hushed up for a fortnight.
This article mentions sexual assault, harassment, and abuse. If you or someone you know is affected by these experiences and needs to contact someone, please contact 1800RESPECT on 1800 737 732 or visit 1800RESPECT.org.au.
This piece of content has been assisted by the Australian Government through Music Australia and Creative Australia, its arts funding and advisory body
