Set in the world of tent-boxing, Paul Goldman‘s (Australian Rules, Suburban Mayhem, Ego: The Michael Gudinski Story) latest film, KID SNOW, is coming to cinemas September 12. A moving drama about family bonds and escaping past demons, it’s a nostalgic and entertaining drama with heart and humour. A lively carnivalesque setting, stunning outback landscapes and an evocative score from composters Peter Knight & Warren Ellis (The Dirty Three, Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds) round out this rich cinematic experience.
Filmed in the beautiful Western Australian outback and set in the 1970s, KID SNOW follows a washed-up Irish fighter (Billy Howle) in a raucous travelling tent-boxing show who is offered a rematch against the man he fought ten years ago. It’s his chance to turn the page on a tragedy that changed his life forever. But when feisty single mother Sunny (Phoebe Tonkin) crosses Snow’s path, he is forced to contemplate a future beyond life on the road.
After a successful run on the film festival circuit, Kid Snow is heading to Aussie cinemas on September 12. In the lead up to it’s release, Nick L’Barrow spoke with the film’s director, Paul Goldman, about the 100 year old boxing tent they found for this film, the similarities between filming Kylie Minogue music videos and boxing scenes, and the importance of strong relationships between characters.
Paul Goldman: I have an enormous fondness for boxing films. The first film I made, Australian Rules, is not about football, but it’s actually about racism and domestic violence, and life in a small rural town. But I always think sporting films, when they get it right, are great microcosms. And I do have a huge fondness for boxing films, as a genre.
I mean, whether it’s Raging Bull, which of course is about two brothers and a woman who comes between them. Or whether it’s John Huston’s film, Fat City, which was certainly a huge influence on this project.
For me, the boxing scenes were so important, and I had wondered all through my lifetime as to whether anyone had made a film about tent boxing? It’s such a rich vein of Australian folklore and mythology! If you’re over 50 years old, and you grew up in this country, you probably happened up boxing tents.
But really for me, the key to the film was always going to be the relationship between the brothers. I will say that I’ve always had a fascination for the damage that men do to each other. That was kind of the attraction of this, as well. A sibling rivalry. Brothers who have got deep, dark secrets. Guilt and shame, and have to sort that out.
And a woman has to step between them so they can sort that out. That was what really captivated me. I love the boxing. But it was the intricacies of those relationships that I thought were really going to propel the film.
Nick: What was the journey then for you in finding the allegorical similarities between boxing as a sport, and the relationships in the film?
Paul Goldman: That was always going to be difficult to juggle. We all recognise that sporting films, particularly boxing films, they’re lovely microcosms of society. About the corruption. Because boxing, at every level, is pretty corrupt, and it’s very brutal.
So, I love the idea that these two brothers were caught up in a world where they’re guilt and shame, and dark secrets, mean they’re also “punching” each other. I think that’s a wonderful metaphor for the way they’re treating life.
One of them seems to have kind of thrown in the towel when we meet him. He’s so bruised and damaged and beaten up, and there seems to be almost no life. And then this woman comes in and ignites all these dreams, and fears. The movie is about what the emotional resonance of all of these things is.
Some people have told me that maybe I could have tightened the movie up. I react to that by saying if you’ve watched too much TV, you expect a film to move at a very different speed. But I wanted to tease out those relationships, and to see how they grow. I think there’s enough things here that are unexpected, and there are so many story lines to juggle as well.
Nick: It aligns with what you’ve said previously about the film, in that it is epic in nature. Was the epic nature something you always found was within the script, or did it more so come alive during the filming process?
Paul Goldman: It was always there in John Brumpton’s original script. We certainly did years of work—I mean, developing Australian feature films is a long process. The development phase and financing phase. But it was there inherently in John’s vision.
But, when you step into that landscape, I love the idea that the indigenous characters are so at ease, and all the white guys look sweaty. It looks like it’s killing them! Of course, they’re foreigners. And I love that landscape in Western Australia. It was something I had visited in my childhood and been over there often enough during development.
Clayton Jauncey, the production designer, and I were heading off into the horizon many, many times to kind of explore. I wonder if people will notice that the boxing trip looked like they’re going around and around in circles. Or the fact that Kid Snow meets a woman whose name is Sunny.
Nick: When you read the script, how much of the visual language did you already have figured out, and how much did it evolve during those visits out to Western Australian before filming?
Paul Goldman: Yeah, I had a strong idea of the landscape. And then even if I hadn’t of been there, you have a wonderful vision every time you read the script. So, there’s no doubt that as you’re developing a project, you are kind of making the film in your head. Especially as a director! You’re doing that visually in your head. You’re also casting the film many, many, many times over.
And when you walk into that landscape, of course, things change. I mean, when you’re developing a project, the options are limitless. They’re infinite. Then as soon as you get into production, there’s that finality of time, schedules, and money.
So, for me, the film just kept getting richer and richer, because you bring people on, a production designer and a director of photography. I always wanted to make a film there.
Nick: The movie is visually amazing, and I think a big part of that is how you present such an authentic aesthetic of the 1970s. Shaka [Cook] mentioned in our chat the other day that you managed to obtain a real-life boxing tent for the film. How much does a physical, authentic object like that help you bring a certain time period to life on camera?
Paul Goldman: When you’re writing the script, of course, you’re very worried about finding a boxing tent! There’s such an enormous archive of photographs and memoirs about tent boxing, and once you’ve seen these photos, you understand that there is an enormous challenge ahead of you.
Clayton Jauncey [production designer] and myself scratched our heads many times wondering how we were going to pull this off! Then we met a couple of people in Western Australia who alerted us to the fact that outside Dubbo, in western New South Wales, there was a guy called Michael Karaitiana, who was related to Roy Bell, by marriage into the family.
Roy Bell and Jimmy Sharman would be the two most famous boxing tents in Australian boxing tent history. So, we rang Michael up, and I got on a plane and arrived at this field where he’d set the boxing tent up, which had been in mothballs for years! This boxing tent was over 100 years old. It’s the real deal that’s travelled across Australia. North, south, east to west. It’s soaked in blood, beer, dust and sweat. It was just magical to have that tent.
So, Michael drove that tent across the Nullarbor to Western Australia, and he was actually in the film himself. He was a very important advisor to us on tent boxing. And he’s a remarkable character. His own story is quite remarkable. But to have that kind of authenticity, to be able to step inside that tent, something magic is happening there. It was a godsend for us.
Nick: The authenticity also lies in the camaraderie of the supporting characters in this story, and I think the characters played by Mark Coles Smith, Hunter Page-Lochard, Shaka Cook, and Nathan Phillips really round out this world. How important is it to have such a rich story and characters happening outside of the main narrative for you?
Paul Goldman: I’d certainly seen the work that Mark and Hunter had been doing, and I think they have an amazing screen presence, enormously charismatic, and just occupy the screen in the most compelling way. I didn’t know Shaka, but when we met, I was totally taken.
I think what was important was that these characters felt real, rather than just ciphers for indigenous tent boxers. People inevitably ask me why there aren’t more scenes with them, because they’re just so enjoyable. But that would’ve been a different film. To have Nathan Phillips, who I’d worked with before was great too.
We spent a lot of time in rehearsals. I mean, I conduct a pretty torrid rehearsal room. I went to NIDA myself, so I know a little bit about how actors really enjoy that process. And my good friend, David Field, someone I trust implicitly and is a wonderful actor himself, worked with me in the rehearsal room setting things up. He was incredibly generous.
But also, just being stuck out in Kalgoorlie, for all the problems that it causes, it’s also a beautiful bonding experience for the actors. That was really enjoyable. There’s a goodbye scene at the end of the film, and that was pretty emotional for the cast and crew. I think there was quite a few tears shed that night.
And you know, it has been my experience that those scenes at the end of the film are deeply affecting for a lot of men. I’ve been in enough screenings of the film now and heard a few grown men crying!
Nick: I love talking about the filmmaking process, and watching the boxing scenes, and being aware of your prolific career as a music video director, it made me curious as to whether you’ve discovered any unique similarities between choreographing and blocking a music video and a boxing scene?
Paul Goldman: I mean, I’ve made over 200 music videos. I’ve worked with people like Kylie Minogue, and her sister, Danni. And lots of other dance videos. And there’s definitely lots of similarities. I mean, at least in dance scenes, there’s a lot less of a chance someone will get hurt!
Billy [Howle] insisted on no stunt double. He wanted to do the boxing scenes himself and spent months training. And the difference when choreographing a boxing scene is that if you move 10 centimetres closer, the glove hits them genuinely in the face, which happened many, many times. Billy took some pretty savage blows to the face.
I think every actor wants to do a boxing film sometime in their career. De Niro’s set the bar so high in Raging Bull!
But there are similarities because it’s all about timing, whether it’s dancing or boxing. It’s about the precision of timing and the trust the two people need to have in one another to be able to pull those things off.
Thank you to Paul for taking the time to chat, and to Madman Films and NixCo PR for organising the interview. Kid Snow is in Australian cinemas September 12.
