Face to Face September 2012 www.FilmFestivalFlix.com Press Kit -- Draft #22A Press contact: Linda Brown / [email protected] 1 Synopsis Ten Australians from diverse backgrounds sit down to determine the fate of a violent young man. From Australia’s most acclaimed playwright, David Williamson, a moving and powerful film about lies, betrayal, sex and bullying in the workplace. A young construction worker rams into the back of his boss’s Jaguar in a fit of anger at being sacked. Rather than fronting court, he’s given the chance to explain his actions in a community conference. This face-to-face confrontation between the young man, his boss, his boss's wife, coworkers, best mate and mother, lifts the lid not only on his dysfunctional life but also on their workplace dirty laundry, turning all of their lives upside down. Face To Face stars a stellar ensemble cast led by Vince Colosimo, Sigrid Thornton and Luke Ford and is directed by Michael Rymer (Angel Baby). 2 DIRECTOR’S STATEMENT - Michael Rymer Be warned, this is a little movie, with big ideas. With all the strife in the world, human nature being what it is, and history not really offering any positive examples, I’ve often wondered if there’s any way out. When I see the terrible violence that’s inflicted on one generation against their enemies, ensuring the next generation will dish out the same in kind. I just look at neighbors and work colleagues and wonder, “If we can’t get past these smaller grudges and animosities, what hope do we have for the bigger ones?” I came upon this when an old friend was trying to explain this revolutionary work he was doing – he then emailed me a copy of a play that David Williamson had written on this very material. When I read the play, I laughed, I cried – I couldn’t believe that I could ever care so much about such an ordinary scenario. I said to my friend “This is really amazing, but the ending’s a bit hard to believe. There’s no way these things work out so... completely.” My friend responded, “Actually, they almost always do. And if not so completely, at least the individuals take away some new personal skills and understanding”. “But if this really works, then you’ve cracked the way to solve global conflicts.” My friend shrugged humbly, “That’s what we’re hoping, yes.” Here is a system that actually works. By systematically exposing each person to one other and forcing them to see the consequences and effects of their actions, the characters are able to transcend their own subjective view, and understand that they are part of a “tribe” where everyone’s actions affect everyone else. I grew up watching David Williamson movies, Don’s Party, The Club, Traveling North, Gallipoli, Emerald City, and this particular play, Face to Face, I believe, is one of his best. Using real cases, David somehow transmuted this wonderfully raw, real material into an almost perfectly structured play that unfolds with enough twists, reversals, and surprises to fill three movies. He has created a gallery of characters that are so real, so recognizable, yet never stereotypical or pat. The paradigm for a picture like this is Twelve Angry Men: a film I first saw in high school. Twelve guys in a room, but with some great, great acting and blocking, you never feel claustrophobic, because you’re seeing a great story unfold, well told. We’ve opened up the play, with flashbacks to the key events – but we want to keep the focus on what’s happening psychologically. But I’ve resisted going too far, because I want to preserve the pressure-cooker intensity necessary for these characters to open up. This is a film that demands the camera go from face to face – the landscapes of this film are the actor’s faces – the special effects are the emotions rippling across their eyes and mouths. Not all films have to be the 3 same – there’s room for very visual films and there’s room for films like this. If I do my job right, no one will even notice. The people who showed up for Kenny and The Castle will come to see an Australian film about authentic Australians. In the international market, I see round the festivals, markets and art houses, that there’s an increasing appetite for stories that don’t rely on sensationalism, prurient excesses and gimmicks. But our real hope for this film is that, like Twelve Angry Men, Face to Face will have a long life in Law Schools, Civics Classes, high schools and community centers around the world. And who knows? Maybe a small movie can change big things. 4 IN THE NEWS FILM REVIEW: Santa Barbara Festival Winner 'Face to Face' Is Feisty, Engaging By Todd McCarthy The Bottom Line Feisty and engaging Australian indie will win over virtually all audiences it will find. The Australian indie -- which starts out as a simple case of a wild youth's violence but soon reveals a far deeper set of ills -- grabs the audience's attention at the outset and never lets up. Everyone's dirty laundry gets raised up the flagpole in Face to Face, a bristling little Australian indie that lands its many punches with pungent power. Within the format of a community conference -- an Australian technique of airing differences with the hope that reconciliation can avoid official legal proceedings -- what seems like a simple case of a wild youth's violence fans out to expose a far deeper and comprehensive set of ills. Winner of the Santa Barbara Film Festival's independent feature award, this smartly enacted issues drama snaps the audience to attention from the outset and never lets up, suggesting that an enterprising distributor could make this click in a variety of formats, from limited theatrical runs to VOD and cable. International festivals, especially those partial to low-budget independent fare and cater to local more than industry audiences, should take note. Originally written as a play "based on actual case notes" by Oz's top veteran dramatist and screenwriter, David Williamson (Gallipoli, Don's Party, The Year of Living Dangerously), Face to Face gathers 10 people in a single room to consider the fate of Wayne (Luke Ford), a volatile working class kid who, as the first of a series of flashbacks reveals, recently followed his boss Greg (Vince Colosimo) up the latter's 5 driveway and deliberately rammed his pickup into the rear of Greg's Jag, doing damage to both the car and man. That Greg, who runs a scaffolding construction company, had just sacked the Wayne may be the reason but it is no excuse for the mayhem, and the fact that Wayne seems like an impulsive dolt from the start makes the case look pretty simple. However, it doesn't take long for the deceptively mild-mannered mediator, Jack (Matthew Newton), to coax Greg's employes Richard (Christopher Connelly), Hakim (Robert Rabiah), Julie (Laura Gordon) and Therese (Ra Chapman) to reveal the nasty ways they had all been toying with the gullible guy, which in turn opens the floodgates for them to spill a litany of workplace grievances about Greg, who suddenly seems to be the one on trial, not Wayne. This pivot, taking place in close quarters with the opposing parties sitting across from one another, reminds of the classic of this format devoted to revealing different perspectives within a group proceeding, Twelve Angry Men. At the point when Greg is bombarded from all sides, it seems that the piece's motivations have switched rails from the strictly dramatic to a lynch-the-rich exercise in class warfare, especially when he's attacked for running a non-union shop. But while a current of anti-capitalist bile runs underneath the entire proceedings, Williamson's text, neatly adapted by director Michael Rymer (Angel Baby, In Too Deep), spares no one, from the attractive secretary Julie, who has strung Wayne along as a gag enjoyed by everyone else, to Wayne's supportive mate Barry (Josh Saks), who is reprimanded for doing his buddy no favors for standing up for no matter what idiocy his friend might perpetrate. Greg's wife (Sigrid Thornton) and Wayne's mum (Lauren Clair) also get pulled far deeper into the muck than they would have imagined. In some ways, the resolution conference resembles a more polite and constructive form of Court TV or The Jerry Springer Show, in which the participants are encouraged to let it all out. The real-life hope here is that everyone will kiss and make up, figuratively speaking, and it's to Rymer's credit that he makes the repeated apologies and conciliatory hugs as funny as they are. One wonders how often this sort of conference actually works and whether it would be possible in a more polarized and socially and racially mixed society such as the U.S. But it is eye-opening and has here been made the stuff of very lively drama. Performances are sharp down the line and the film, which was shot in 12 days with the new DSLR camera equipment, has a bold look and is never claustrophobic. 6 Interviews with Director Michael Rymer YouTube – On camera interview and feature on Michael Rymer http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QjnbD-O5UgQ Inside Film Magazine – Feature on Michael Rymer http://if.com.au/2011/07/27/article/HQZJJMZAFC.html Inside Reel - Feature on Michael Rymer from SBIFF http://insidereel.com/2011/03/09/ir-raw-interview-rymer-face-to-face-2011-santa- barbara-intl-film-festival/ Film Reviews – Feature on Michael Rymer http://www.filmreviews.net.au/2011/09/face-to-face-%E2%80%93michael-rymer- interview/ The FACE TO FACE Characters Greg Baldoni (Vince Colosimo) - Runs the Baldoni scaffolding/construction company.