ScreenWize

It’s a long way from New Castle Delaware – a tiny river town on the eastern side of the USA - to Newcastle, NSW, on Australia’s eastern seaboard. Yet it’s a journey that has paid off for writer/director Dan Castle, who is counting down the days to New York’s prestigious TriBeCa Film Festival which opens later this month. On show amongst the 120 films selected from more than 2000 entries will be the Australian film Newcastle, a teen surfing drama written and directed by Castle. “Our world premiere at TriBeCa is on Australia day and it’s also our lead actor’s 21st birthday on the same day,” Castle says. “It’s going to be a big night for us – most of the cast and crew will be making the trip to New York.”

Castle grew up in New Castle, Delaware, but moved to California in the 1990s. He says wryly that he only learned to surf as part of his research for a film idea he was developing: a short film that he had originally intended to shoot on the beaches of La Jolla. He changed his mind about the location after a visit to Australia in 2001. “A friend took me to the beach at Tamarama,” he says. “She was renting a house there and I took one look at the beach and said ‘Oh my God, this is the best place I can imagine’. I decided that I had to set the film there rather than in California, so I did the research, found a team and cast Barry Otto in the lead role.”

The 30 minute film - called The Visitor - was nominated for an AFI award in 2003 and kept Castle in Australia for longer than he had imagined. “I had anticipated editing the film back in the States, but I stayed for nine months and did it all in Australia. It was at this time that the idea for Newcastle began to emerge. While I was finishing The Visitor, I mentioned to my assistant director that I had always wanted to make a teen surf film, and he said that I had to visit Newcastle. I agreed because I thought it would be interesting research, but once I got there, I fell in love with the place.”

For Castle it was the town famous for its coal exports that inspired the story. “It wasn’t like I had a script and a character that I planted there - it was the reverse. I had no knowledge of the town, no history, and so I could look at it fresh and find the drama in it. I fell in love with the juxtaposition of an industrial town with a surf beach town and it seemed like a perfect venue for a story about surfing and a young man and a class struggle.”

Script to screen took Castle more than five years. As an American he had difficulty convincing Australian funding authorities of the validity of the project. “Understandably there is a process that has to be followed for all government sponsored arts activities, and I respect that,” he says. “The initial reaction by the funding bodies was ‘no’. We had to prove that Newcastle was an Australian story, not an American story set in Australia. Eventually everyone realised that the themes and the journey in the film were 100 per cent Australian.”

There are some very Australian names on the cast list, too. Barry Otto, a Newcastle resident, agreed to work with Castle again. “I actually wrote the role of Gramps for him,” Castle says. Then there’s Shane Jacobson, better known as the star of Kenny, and rugby league legend Andrew Johns. With these well-known names is the 20-year-old lead of the film Lachlan Buchanan, playing a 17-year-old surfer called Jesse who treads the line between success and self-destruction. “I think the film will stir up some interest,” Castle says, “because of its themes of teen sexuality. But it also has some wonderful imagery and music.” The cinematographer is Canberran Richard Michalak, who also shot The Visitor, and who will be in New York for the TriBeCa premiere.

TriBeCa (which gets its name from the district in Manhattan that is the Triangle Below Canal Street), has become - in only six years - become one of the most prestigious and well-known film festivals in the world. It was the brainchild of film producer Jane Rosenthal and actor Robert De Niro. The pair has worked together for many years - including on A Bronx Tale, Analyse This, Flawless and more recently, Meet The Fockers. De Niro and Rosenthal were concerned about the destruction of Lower Manhattan’s nightlife after the collapse of the World Trade Centre in 2001, and established the festival with the help of thousands of volunteers. Last year there were more than 1000 screenings at TriBeCa, and the Jury for the World Narrative Feature Competition included Australian actress Toni Collette.

The US$50,000 ($A54,000) top prize went to the Israeli film My Father My Lord, directed by David Volach. It’s this prize that Newcastle will be eligible for this year, although Dan Castle is happy just to be there. “What’s great about TriBeCa is that it’s New York City, and it’s springtime. There’s a whole other energy and exposure that we can get for the film there.” He means, of course, those millions of New Yorkers who live far from the waves. Lower Manhattan is a long way from the salty air and the sublime surf breaks of Newcastle.

Filed Under: Interviews by Simon