JJ ~ The Lithgow Legend
Documentary on my late FIL produced in 1998, together with Michelle Moo & Sam Hughes.
My FIL was quite the story teller, so it was very difficult for us to summarise him into “3 minutes”. As he talked so much, we felt it was necessary to exceed the time-limit set by Kate Richards and did our best to try and squeeze the bastard into 8 minutes. It was the equivalent of trying to sit on top of an excessively over-stuffed luggage bag and trying to zip it shut.
Very experimental in our apporach, that’s how we liked it ~ always, unconventional and baring the brunt of profuse criticism by many over whether or not this could actually be classified as a documentary. Funny how in the now of life, it’s summarised the late John James Smith’s life rather well.
We travelled by train, and had a big drama on the way up because the train got on fire. Had to take a bus up into Lithgow for the remainder of the journey.
As for the very bizzare scenes along the lines of nuking veggies in microwave ovens and getting murdered, a very natural consequence that results from when you drink far too much beer and are cooped up together with an old fart who doesn’t shut the fuck up. I speak like this as a term of endearment btw, because as i said ~ he was quite the story teller. One of his stories was almost something like 1.5 hours long until he delivered the punch line. Perhaps the longest running joke in history? ~ who knows, for now ~ it will never fit on a single stream via You Tube.
Ah… my late FIL. *sighs* Will i ever get around to the ‘directors cut’ that includes the hilarious funeral he always dreamed of? One day ~ I’m sure.
Going through a bit of a journey down memory lane with my old films. I stopped producing them shortly after The Child arrived. I get the feeling that life is telling me that…. hmm ~
No ~ I will just let life move forward, in the way it will go forward. In the meanwhile, a taste of Australiyarna for my international friends out there to enjoy ~ JJ style.
Like, my son is related to Captain Cook & Bob Hawke… hehehehe (yeah seriously, it’s TRUE!)
