Local Hero: Victoria Waghorn

Following my chat with filmmakers Eamonn Miller and Keith Loutit, here's the third in my series of interviews with local heroes, individuals whose contribution to enhancing Australian screen culture makes them true stars in my eyes.

This one is rather epic, but each passion-soaked word is worth your precious time - so do yourself a favour, take your laptop to your favourite easychair, pour yourself a finger of two of single malt and read on...


What’s up?

I’ve just arrived back in Sydney after being away on and off for a couple of months on the arguably B side of the film festival circuit (no Harry Winston diamonds or red carpets in sight) and trying to settle into whatever routine I ever had.


What are you working on right this minute?

A number of different projects but the most pressing is a one minute silent sex film which is a challenge project for Sydney's Possible Worlds Film Festival. There’s a bunch of films being contributed by other Sydney filmmakers and I’m not sure mine will make the grade…

It was shot last week on a freezing afternoon with my mobile phone (Nokia N95) in the Bavarian Forest with a couple of adventurous film students I met at the Amberg Horror Film Fest where two PUNK MONK PROPAGANDA films were playing. The forest footage didn’t quite turn out as planned but that’s half of the adventure. I only wrote the idea out the night before on a restaurant napkin whilst trying to single-handedly work through the German beer menu. No easy task!

The project is actually a lot more challenging than it sounds… A one minute film in many ways is as difficult if not more so as a ten or sixty minute one. To share a story effectively within those parameters one has to be terribly succinct – I’m not sure I qualify; it’s a continual work in progress.

After that, feature development mode with a light smattering of exquisite short projects in between. As an additional spanner in the works, it looks like Punk Monk will be collaborating with a successful US film production company for short horror films to play in conjunction with their features so I have inadvertently fallen into that genre…

Separate to all this is Part One of a found footage doco to be completed by the end of the year which will hopefully grow to be something even more extensive for Part Two... It’s a very special project.

Then there’s the experimental mobile development content with the rest of the talented Punk Monk team… Diversity is the spice, I need to be doing more than one thing at once otherwise I’ll be tempted to go back to video games which I’ve already arguably wasted years on.

I’m currently working on two different feature length scripts and have been lucky enough to attract some US based interest so essentially it’s bum up/head down with lashings of elbow grease mode right now. The plan is to be in feature pre-production mode by 2010. Although we’re developing a reputation for guerrilla bare-bones styled productions which is almost a ubiquitous phenomena borne out of necessity in independent film anyway, there are some things you just possibly shouldn’t do overnight. A magnum opus requires at least a few weeks…


What is Punk Monk Propaganda?

Punk Monk Propaganda was an idea I had when still at film school in 2005. Every other film student starts their own branding device… It’s not particularly original but I’ve always been interested by collective anarchic organizations especially those operating on the political or creative realm.

Andy Warhol’s Factory has been a life long inspiration. Over the years I’ve dabbled with incorporated societies and different company structures delving into the creative/entertainment zone and experienced the mixed success stories which come from those. I learnt that no matter how freeform and blur-edged you are, you just can’t govern by committee. Someone has to take responsibility for providing leadership, otherwise frustration inevitably ensues and nothing happens. I’ve seen a lot of that.

Hopefully Punk Monk will serve that purpose and from the seemingly random chaos will come growth and order. It’s just a construct: still very much infantile finding its own legs but it’s about working with and giving ownership to like-minded thinkers/filmmakers to create media which matters. We have and hope to will continue to attract exceptional dynamic talent. I am humbled to call them my friends and colleagues and at times feel like a terrific sponge and hope that the process isn’t one-way.

An individual person may achieve much but ultimately there are limitations; however systems can be beaten and overcome when people unite forces and leave their egos at home. The secret is creating the model framework so that the hive can hum. We’re still working on the recipe and hope newcomers will help bring their own unique flavored ingredients. To make this work requires a complete gamut of skills. I am not and never will be business-minded: It’s a gene deficiency: I just don’t care. We need people that do. My vision is something very organic, self-sustaining and supportive of collective yet independent think/do-tanking spirit (I’m ultimately an undercover Gen X hippie).



You've enjoyed quite a bit of international success with your short film When Sally Met Frank. What's it about?

Another idea which was forced to escalate perhaps before it’s time but I’m thankful to the process which made it to happen…

When Sally Met Frank is a love story of cosmetic proportions. In my view, an extremely subtle response to a number of easily identifiable issues in our society: the most obvious being the beauty myth. I didn’t mean to make a horror film. It’s just the way it happened.

I’m not actually anti-plastic surgery per se, what I do have a problem with is the abject slavery humanity places itself under at the whim of cruelly crafted marketing campaigns to consolidate lack of thought and insecurity about superficial physicality: Consumerism and personal brand identity at it’s worst. My favorite cyberpunk author Neal Stephenson captures this mentality beautifully in his Metaverse reflections: The Brandys and Clints are commodified off-the-rack avatars. Just add your credit card and stir. Brandy probably looks like Pamela Anderson.

Fact is it’s really not that hard to get laid and that’s why we originally started covering ourselves in various mud palettes way back when in the Cradle of Civilization anyway. The argument would be that we do it to artificially elevate our chances and ladder jump… to what? As Orwell’s Napoleon said “some animals are more equal than others”. This doesn’t have to be a bad thing. Obviously we don’t all have to look like Angelina Jolie.

Fashion is evil. Anything that promotes slavery is in the wrong hands. The horror comes from people buying into one particular template of beauty and then jumping onto a production line to achieve that effect in all its variants. There’s nothing uglier than a person who spends too much time on their appearance sans consideration to what lies beneath.

I’ve learnt to accept that When Sally Met Frank is a horror film. Certainly I have a fairly analytical view of the world, arguably a negative one despite being an ardent lover of beauty. Fact is, real life more often than not can be horror. In its many guises it is comedy, horror, science-fiction, fantasy, experimentation, drama, a love story - all these things. A powerful documentary can encompass all or just one of these factors.

When Sally Met Frank is just a tiny poignant commentary dressed up as fiction – it’s still only the tip of the iceberg which is why it might become a feature film next…


Can you tell us about the genesis of When Sally Met Frank?

Yes! It’s another love affair of sorts.

When Sally Met Frank was my initiation rite into the wonderful underground movement which is KINO. KINO is not a neo-Nazi terrorist cell, it is an incredible fluid concept which was born in Montreal over 10 years ago which has spawned an international film phenomena fuelled with an active philosophy of fighting the status quo which confounds most artists: money. Kino mentality is not to sit around and wait for the funding but do it regardless. The motto, “don’t think, just shoot,” was what attracted me to the Sydney KINO cell late 2007.

An urban guerrilla at heart, this manifesto of what is essentially cine anarchy is my modus operandi. “When I grow up I want to be a film terrorist, Daddy”. When I was younger being the quintessential bookish geek girl, I desperately wanted to be a hacker or phreaker, you know with phones, but I hate C++ and the phone thing is so terribly old school and impractical now that GPS, PDAs and mobile phones rule the world. I’m excited to have found the perfect avenue where I actually have some skills to head in the desired direction using the appropriate-for-me brain hemisphere. I don’t think story-telling will ever be outdated.

So I was the same as everyone else, I needed a kick up the ass to force myself to not make excuses why I couldn’t make my film: the script’s not ready, I don’t have money to pay for crew, etc. KINO helped eject me out of that wasteland, fast. Almost like a religious experience on amphetamines.

When Sally Met Frank was written, shot, edited, sound designed and mixed in five days as part of a KINO KABARET challenge. On day one I didn’t know I was going to be making this film. It was an idea in my head, but I considered it impossible to do in the time-frame involved at that particular moment. I went to what I thought was a brainstorm meeting to meet a bunch of other Sydney and Canadian based filmmakers involved in this crazy scheme thinking we were going to collaborate on ONE project. I was hoping to perhaps do some production design which is an area as a visual artist I have an affinity with.

The penny dropped when I coyly alluded to the idea and was sent packing along with everyone else on their own projects with instructions to return with the finished product in six days time to screen at the Possible Worlds Film Festival as a special closing programme adjunct. Panic ensued!

I was the new kid on the block and I couldn’t bear to deliver shit… Being an overachiever is highly overrated: I didn’t sleep for the next five days trying to pull it off. Thankfully due to the combined talents of some incredible people including two (Kate Taylor and Dermot McGuire) who I met in a park later that day who quickly became ingratiated into the Punk Monk family a little KINO magic was created.

There were some wonderful accidents which helped pull it all together. We were lucky enough to gain the services of lovely KINO supplied Marc Tawil from Canada (who’s actually a sound guy) when we lost co-director James McIntyre to a funeral. Catherine Davies (who plays the nurse) the breath-taking universal muse is an incredibly adaptive intuitive actress and led the charge which helped deliver the performance we needed from Ray McMillan who plays Frank.



Where have you shown the film?

Surprisingly not just my daughter wanted to see this film: it’s been lucky enough to generate some interest worldwide. It’s certainly not for everyone and is what it is in all its humble glory: A no-budget film made in five days, but I am proud of it and in terms of production value the sum is greater than it’s parts. Greater than this, it has spawned invaluable relationships and opportunities.

We were very lucky to have been adopted by A Night of Horror International Film Festival which is the leading genre festival in Australia and surprisingly won Best Australian Film. I was just excited that someone wanted to screen it and didn’t have me committed. People still ask me how I got those special effects…

Since then it’s been a wonderful abstract journey. We’ve played something like 18 film festivals around the world. I’ve been over in France speaking at the networking hub of Strasbourg International Film Festival where we screened amongst some of the best film I’ve ever seen. I’ve traveled throughout Europe and the States and I have to pinch myself in the middle of that dark theatre to check it’s not really a dream.

We enjoyed a New York premiere in mid-town Manhattan at the very shiny Sony Technology Wonder Lab as part of the 9th HD FEST (US based high definition film festival) which was sold out. The festival continues onto LA and I just received notification this week that we are nominated for three DEFFIE awards: Best Cinematography in a Short Film, Best Foreign Film and Best Experimental Film! I’ve been networking with Academy Award winners at the Claw Awards (horror film industry event) and receiving congratulations en masse from people who’ve been out there doing it forever and it’s exceptionally surreal.

In my last week in New York I was offered two music videos to direct… I was surprised there was room to move over there. From afar it seemed like such an impenetrable monstrous fortress. I come from a small town in New Zealand, it’s a long way from my first pencils and instamatic camera. Without getting too Tyler Durden: there’s the all pervasive element of the blogging revolution that’s increasing momentum right now of the expectation of international fame: Popular small town reality TV styled heroism. I didn’t ever expect recognition. I’m not sure it’s still not all in my head. We could be in the middle of a Salvador Dali painting for all I know now.

When Sally Met Frank has been an incredible calling card which says: “This is what I can do in five days with no money, imagine what I can do with my friends with several million and a year or two.” But you know what: it’s possible not much more because with financial investment comes lack of control, the freedom to smash boundaries and make mistakes: the ubiquitous double-edged sword which is the short film condition.

Short films have been traditionally only thought of as a stepping stone that a filmmaker does before they move on to bigger and better things. I question that as a given. Also clothes do not maketh the man. As we know, more budget does not equal better story which is what it will always come down to, or should.

In the meantime on a personal level there’s the issue of financial autonomy and being in a position to continue to share stories and develop my craft. You can only wait for the model to catch up for so long… I’m too old to wait tables or walk the street. I’ve always glamorized the idea of a bag-lady; operating within the Australian film industry paradigm I could easily have my wish.

What does Australia’s film culture need most right now?

Decentralization. People with their brains switched on: who aren’t afraid to make mistakes and to share stories which are not the status-quo. Technically, Einstein’s Theory of Relativity is a mistake but it sets an enviable precedent. We need people to go out and fuck up without the fear of being watched, judged and found wanting. So many eyes everywhere, people are afraid to reveal their humanity which is the essence of culture.

Turn off your television. Turn off your computer. Turn off your iPod. Go outside. Ask questions. Watch cloud patterns form in the sky and ants building a hill, jaywalk, skinny-dip, trace the lines on your neighbour’s hand and recite a tale for each one, fall in love, write bad poetry, look for Orion’s Belt, take pictures on a film camera and make each one count, have your heart broken, cry and bleed everywhere… all that obvious stuff. Interact beyond your virtual persona. It’s impossible to tell, share or appreciate stories without living them. Then go plug back in. They are instruments to serve you not the other way round.

With information was supposed to come power but we ended up with a ADHD Generation Y. I’m not sure who is supposed to be watching feature films in ten years time because they may as well just be corporate sponsored porn-filled pyrotechnics drip-fed in sequential 3 minute long music video length blips. This can work for and against us as filmmakers of course. Yet another crack to in the marketer’s wall: like selling cigarettes to obese kids: “here smoke yourself thin…”

Break up the hegemony and homogeny. Let’s raise the signal-to-noise ratio on YouTube, take over the airwaves from mafia-run music labels, unit obsessed franchised film houses and the Googlezons of this world and keep the small galleries & places alive which represent resistance to the NWO virus which is McDonaldization.


What about Australia's film industry?

To be honest I pay less attention than I arguably should despite the fact that one of my former incarnations, I was a permaculture designer: thinking global, acting local is inherent within that paradigm. I don’t think of myself as an Australian filmmaker. Boxes vex me. Boundaries bring limits.

We’ve had a lot more success with our film overseas than here at home. We were screened at Sydney and Melbourne Underground Film Festivals which I’m really happy about but no-one else was interested. I’m not sure I’ll even bother chasing money through the standard channels here… It’s just too incestuous and the pie to hand around is incredibly small.

For the most part my perspective is: recycled stories, recycled personalities, recycled cock-sucking. I think all industry outside of ants is baloney. Industry means money. Money is more often than not the enemy of creativity. It impedes more than it unleashes. Tokenism is rife. Two-dimension glitter abounds and the need to create celebrity is paramount. How else will those trash magazines sell next week and render our population into incapacity?

Probably the person I admire the most who has been able to work within the industry here is Rolf de Heer. In typical Regurgitator style, I like his old stuff better than his new stuff but that always happens after you have to share. He’s a creative genius and industry stalwart and probably finding the path of least resistance to government funding right now in an environment of band-aided political correctness is the telling of epic stories featuring the Aboriginal people. He is a true poet.

Undoubtedly the Australian Government will be jumping all over such projects as unique branding opportunity to wipe away their sins and increase the tourism dollar. Rolf probably got his dick sucked for telling the story except of course everyone knows that the SBS hasn’t got any money. The Howard Government made sure of it. They probably couldn’t afford light-bulbs for several years after commissioning The Tracker. Of course such trivialities are surely not Rolf’s motivation, he is a master in his own right, but it would’ve hurt having the path paved with faux apology blood.

For someone without de Heer’s proven history who doesn’t want to tell indigenous stories (or others that serve the subliminal political motivation), where to next? Even without car chases, the film creation process gets expensive fast. There’s only so many different versions of the Vagina Monologues one can write set in the confines of your or your ever obliging friends’ walls.

There’s a mass population pontificating on their increasingly rotund asses waiting for the living the world allegedly owes them to make its scheduled arrival. You have to go out and make your own destiny, over and over again. Filmmakers included. Period. If you’re good enough, eventually someone will notice. Ignore the poppy choppers and keep carving. Traditional routes aren’t always the best way.

I worked in advertising for a number of years; I’m not afraid to pitch people ideas and ask for money. Private investment offset by tax-breaks is definitely one answer. There are others too.


Do you make films for the cinema screen or for other media?

I make films for people to see. I don’t care what medium they use. Mostly I don’t think my craft is up to speed yet, but hell if I waited to look like Elle McPherson in a bathing costume, I’d never make it to the beach. There’s a whole ocean out there waiting to be plunged into. There’s no spoon in my mouth demanding silver exclusivity rights. If the story is powerful enough, I want to make films which could be played from your iPod through to live projections on the side of the moon. My diverse media background draws on print, web, mobile phones, PC based gaming and film so I’m flexible.

Beauty and the storytelling tradition are universal. Combine those two elements and theoretically you have gold: at least metaphorically. It’s like a recipe for love, it often flourishes in the most unlikely places.

When I was in New York I ran around Lower Manhattan the week before Halloween talking to galleries, cafes, bars anyone to see if they were interested in screening When Sally Met Frank. I just went and talked to people, much like a politician on the campaign trail which was funny because it was just a week out from Obama’s win. You would never have known. There was barely a sniff of a pending election in that city.

One of the first things that happened is that whilst waiting for the proprietor of an adjacent theatre I went into this classic OTT punk pub, the Double Down Bar on Lower East Side where I encountered two expressions of interest. One was from a guy who was something of an underground celebrity on the make holding up the bar. He asked if I was interested in being on television. He took away the film to his studio to watch, returned with an offer, and I ended up with a spot on his show.

Right now the Punk Monk team is in development mode for a mobile content series. We have our Nokias firmly planted in right hands and we’ll see where that takes us. We’re being fairly low key about our plans for world domination. It’s still early days. Perhaps we can push back the iPhone hysteria (which still has no camera)?


What's the best film you've seen recently?

Unexpectedly I saw some of the best short films on my travels in Philadelphia at the Terror Film Festival. I dragged my feet there but got really excited about horror film sitting there in Rittenhouse Square because I realized that something really important is happening. There was a revolution and it had brain cells, not just mindlessly splatters of nubile tits and ass.

Horror is undeniably the breakthrough genre for many filmmakers due to its natural empathy for lo-budget endeavors. I got really excited and came back convinced that there’s a way to smarten up the genre and operate comfortably within its parameters. Look out for Foet by New Yorker Ian Fischer - it’s fun! Another New Yorker whom became a friend is Kirsten Kearse. Her perverse film which I saw in France Horse Fingers 3: Starfucker is beautifully kooky. Then there was Hallo Panda by UK filmmaker Benjamin Blaine…


Who's a local up-and-coming filmmaker or artist to watch?
Kino Sydney once a month. Watch them all. A plethora of rough-cut diamonds abound. The Festivalists have done an incredible job at fostering the underground scene locally and garnering enviable support. I’ve been to festivals who would envy us the 120 peeps or so in every audience. The energy is unparalleled. From humble beginnings come truly incredible things.


If you could collaborate with the artist of your choice, who would it be?

Abbie Hoffman. Unfortunately he’s dead so bar exhuming his remains and re-animating him, my 2nd choice would have to be Ron English. He’s a US based guerrilla billboard artist/activist. I’m a huge fan of his work and philosophy. Politics, art and pranks combined: sounds like heaven! If we could bring along Barbara Kruger to the party then yeah, that would be a tremendous amount of hilarious anarchic creative juice happening.


You've had many past lives as an artist - do they influence your current work? How?

And hopefully will continue although I’m parking my caravan here. Film feels right. It took awhile to realise this is where I’m suppose to be, but it was a logical progression and it’s already starting to look like a well-loved trailer park around here.

I’ve had a really inspiring year and it’s made me want to pick up the rest of the tools and helped banish the self-crippling doubt we’re all too often plagued with. My storyboards are not what they should be and there’s really no excuse. Somewhere I got lazy and forgot I can draw and paint even.

But everyday when I’m thinking about a film: I view it on multiple levels: I have a few different hats I’ve worn over the years, the artist, the marketer, the philosopher, the writer, the editor, the content developer, the art director, the corporate whore: all equally full of colour and texture in all their crazed variance. We all juggle with our own distinct versions. Hopefully Edward de Bono will approve and it will translate into unique, exquisite, tapestry-rich films when I finally grow up (to be a film terrorist).


How/where can people watch your films?

Come to KINO! Otherwise… we just officially ended our film fest circuit this week but then received a couple of other festival invites. When Sally Met Frank is actually being distributed by Chainsaw Mafia in San Francisco as part of the Viscera DVD along with 7 other international horror films directed by women. You can buy the DVD here.

There’s a couple of websites happening. Punk Monk Propaganda online is in need of a slight overhaul but I just haven’t had time. There’s a secret navigation that spins people out and forces them to think which they hate apparently. One of my dear friends in the UK has actually redone a flash version with a more sign-posted nav but I just have to do some tweaks and it slid to the bottom of my very long “to do” list. Coming soon (I swear)!

Websites to watch are:

PUNK MONK PROPAGANDA | WHEN SALLY MET FRANK | VICTORIA WAGHORN



Previous local heroes:

• Keith Loutit, filmmaker & photographer
• Eamonn Miller, filmmaker