PRESSPRESS KITKIT THE PRODUCTION: A feature documentary written & directed by KRIV STENDERS EXECUTIVE PRODUCERS David Alrich & Chris Hilton PRODUCER Joe Weatherstone CO-PRODUCER Kriv Stenders ASSOCIATE PRODUCER Penelope Jope EDITOR Karryn de Cinque DOP Mark Broadbent PRODUCTION COMPANY Essential Media and Entertainment DISTRIBUTOR Umbrella Entertainment DURATION 90 - 95 mins (TBC) CLASSIFICATION TBC RELEASE DATE 2017 WORLD PREMIERE Sydney Film Festival 2017 The Go-Betweens: Part CompanyScreen NSW – ABC TV Arts Documentary Feature Fund. Screen Australia © 2017 Essential Media and Entertainment 1 ONE LINE SYNOPSIS The Go-Betweens: Part Company uncovers the intensely passionate, creative and fraught relationships behind one of the most loved and influential bands in Australian rock history. SYNOPSIS The Go-Betweens : Part Company is the feature length documentary about the people who created the seminal rock band the Go-Betweens. © JEREMY BANNISTER It is a heartfelt story of discovery, uncovering the intensely passionate, creative and fraught relationships that formed one of the most loved and influential bands in Australian rock history. It is also the universal story of a great creative adventure that spanned three decades, through countless successes, failures, romances, break-ups, betrayals, triumphs and tragedies. The Go-Betweens: Part Company is a compelling investigation into the exhilarating, unpredict- able, and precarious lives of musicians, that reveals the true price paid by them to pursue their art. Directed by Kriv Stenders. The Go-Betweens: Part Company doesn’t assume knowledge of the band or their music, rather it offers an evolving revelation of them that truthfully exposes all the highs, the lows, the joy, the pain, the sorrow, and the beauty of being in a cult band and of trying to survive the harsh and brutal realities of an exploitative music industry. Unflinching, insightful and at times painfully honest, the film tells the story of The Go-Betweens from the inside out, from the people who lived it, and from those whose lives were trans- formed by it. “ Our confidence in what we could do was amazing. Being in The Go-Betweens gave us an invisible shield, allowing us to believe that nothing could knock us out. “ © 2017 Essential Media and Entertainment 2 BRIEF HISTORY The Go-Betweens were an indie rock band formed in Brisbane, Australia in 1977 by singer-songwriters and guitarists Robert Forster and Grant McLen- nan. They were later joined by Lindy Morrison on drums, Robert Vickers on bass guitar, and Amanda Brown on violin, oboe, guitar, and backing vocals, The Go-Betweens albums include: before disbanding in late 1989. Forster and McLennan reformed the band in 2000 and produced three more albums. McLennan died on 6 May 2006 of a 1981 Send Me a Lullaby heart attack and The Go-Betweens disbanded for good. 1983 Before Hollywood 1984 Spring Hill Fair They have a cult following despite never really having a hit. In 1988, 1986 Liberty Belle and the Black "Streets of Your Town", the first single from 16 Lovers Lane, became the Diamond Express band's biggest charting song in both Australia and the United Kingdom 1987 Tallulah (UK). The follow-up single "Was There Anything I Could Do?" reached No. 16 1988 16 Lovers Lane on the Billboard Modern Rock Tracks chart in the United States. In May 2001 2000 The Friends of Rachel Worth "Cattle and Cane", from 1983's Before Hollywood album was selected by 2003 Bright Yellow Orange the Australasian Performing Right Association (APRA) as one of the Top 30 2005 Oceans Apart Australian songs of all time. © 2017 Essential Media and Entertainment 3 DIRECTOR’S NOTES On May 6th 2006, on a Saturday afternoon while preparing a housewarming party,singer/songwriter Grant McLennan died of a heart attack. He was 48 years old. His tragic death also brought an end to one of Australia’s greatest musical partnerships. Grant McLennan and Robert Forster, the founding members of seminal Brisbane band The Go-Betweens, had been close friends and collaborators for 30 years. Their body of work across countless group and solo albums is now recognised around the world as some of the greatest ever created in this country. They are Australia’s own “Lennon and McCartney” and the legacy they and their fellow band members forged through the late 70s, 80s and into the 2000s has now become the stuff of rock music legend. This is a story of high drama, conflict and passion and as it unfolds, we discover how relationships - both creative and romantic - are continually tested, challenged, remolded and some cases destroyed. In Robert we reveal a man who finally learns how to survive and reconcile himself with the ephemeral nature of fame and success, whilst in Grant we discover a man with a ferocious talent, who struggles with inner demons and emotions that eventually begin to consume him. And in Lindy Morrison and Amanda Brown - who were both also in romantic relationships with Robert and Grant respectively - we get a profoundly moving insight into their, as yet never told, side of the story, and of their fight to be recognised as musicians in their own right. My ambition was to make an emotionally immersive documentary that explored the nature of memory, recollec- tion and the past, and how we all remember in our own uniquely personal ways. While the band members guide us through an intimate and cinematic journey into their pasts, running in parallel and woven within these at times provocative and contradictory accounts, are conversations and interviews with various friends, collaborators and contemporaries of the band. These openly candid interviews, along with rare archival photographs, film, music recordings and impressionistic reenactments combine to create a rich, continually evolving collage of image, sound and emotion. Rather than shooting straight “on camera” interviews as per standard documentary convention, I chose to shoot the interviews as a series of intimate conversations, or dialogues where the subjects talk, exchange and express themselves like characters in a film, dramatically interacting with and reacting to each other. This evolving gallery of characters draws out candid responses that examine, question and reflect how each of them fit into the story of the band and how their relationships formed, developed and in come cases ended. The cast of characters in this evolving “court of inquiry”includes original band members Peter Milton Walsh, Lindy Morrison, Robert Vickers, Amanda Brown and John Willsteed, as well as artists Steve Kilby, Paul Kelly, Ed Kuepper, Dave Graney and Mick Harvey - musicians who have all collaborated, played with or worked along side the band across their 30 year career. A series of recurring locations that echo or are inspired by imagery and elements from iconic Go-Betweens songs and album covers were used to stage these conversations as a framing device. Some of these exchanges are © ESSENTIAL MEDIA & ENTERTAINMENT confessional, some anecdotal, others nostalgic, some candid, some even confrontational. In fact these are perfor- mances of a kind, in which stories are told, lies and truths revealed, and differing perspectives and opinions argued as they are continually juxtaposed. - Kriv Stenders, April 2017 © 2017 Essential Media and Entertainment 4 KEY CREATIVE BIOS KRIV STENDERS Kriv Stenders is one of Australia’s most renowned and respected film directors with numerous critically acclaimed and award winning shorts, documentaries, music videos, television series and feature films to his credit. His feature films include Blacktown, The Illustrated Family Doctor, Boxing Day, and Lucky Country all of which have screened in major local and international film festivals. His fifth feature, Red Dog (2011) has now earned over $22 million at the box office, making it the ninth highest grossing Australian film of all time. It has also become the highest selling Australian DVD of all time. Red Dog won both Best Director and Best Film at the 2011 IF Awards and the Best Film Award at the inaugural 2012 ACCTA Awards. His feature film Kill Me Three Times which stars Simon Pegg, Alice Braga, Teresa Palmer, Sullivan Stapleton and Bryan Brown, was released in the U.S. and Australia in 2015. That same year he directed the four part crime drama series The Principal, starring Alex Dimitriades and Aden Young, as well as the feature- length documentary Why Anzac with Sam Neill. Red Dog: True Blue (the sequel to Red Dog) released theatrically in December 2016. Recently singled out in the media as “the busiest director in Australia”, Kriv has © ESSENTIAL MEDIA & ENTERTAINMENT completed his next feature film, Australia Day, due for release in 2017 and is in Kriv Stenders (C) with the Go-Betweens’ Amanda Brown (L) and Lindy Morrison (R) production on several TV series both scripted and unscripted including a new mini TV series adaptation of Kenneth Cook’s13 seminal novel, Wake In Fright, and a blue-chip factual series hosted by Sam Neill, Uncharted. © 2017 Essential Media and Entertainment 5 DAVID ALRICH CHRIS HILTON David Alrich is an Executive Producer/show runner with more than 25 Chris Hilton is one of Australia's most prolific and award winning years experience in the industry, having created and produced factual producer/ directors who has made unscripted films across a broad and live programs for all the major TV networks in Australia, as well as spectrum of subjects for international audiences. He is CEO and found- for Discovery Channel, National Geographic Channel, TruTV and Travel ing partner of Essential Media and Entertainment, a multi award- Channel in the US. winning Sydney-based production company with a track record in blue-chip factual, lifestyle, television drama, feature films and As Head of Factual at Essential Media and Entertainment, he oversees children’s animation. He is also a founding partner of the North Ameri- the factual production and development slate.