Bastardy

Editorial

Even from a young age, Bastardy director Amiel Courtin-Wilson was fascinated and insatiably curious about the life of family friend Jack Charles, following a childhood peppered with tales of Jack’s legendary pursuits including entertaining adventures as an actor, and as a cat burglar.  When he finally got to meet Charles years later, he made a spur-of-the-moment decision to make a film about his life, and actually began filming that very day and would continue filming for the next seven years.  During this time, Charles’ certainly lived up to his colourful reputation with stints in and out of jail, living on the streets, doing drugs, and even moving in and out of Courtin-Wilson’s home a few times.

Charles’ life can be best be described as one of extremities and Bastardy, a fly-on-the-wall documentary is confronting and at times uncomfortable to watch as it takes you on the journey of, as Charles puts it, his life as a “rogue, a vagabond, a person of note and a role model in my community.”  Born in 1943, he was a child of the Stolen Generation, and spent most of his early life in and out of boy’s homes in Melbourne.  In 1971 he founded the first Aboriginal theatre company Nindethana and since then and has performed with Australia’s top talent including Geoffrey Rush, Neil Armfield, John Romeril and Tracey Moffat. When it comes to film work, you name it, he’s done it; feature films, TV series and hundreds of plays including The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith, Bedevil, Ben Hall and The Marriage of Figaro. This year, he won the prestigious Tudawali Award at the 2009 Message Sticks Festival honouring his lifetime contribution to Indigenous media.

In contrast to these achievements is his life as a burglar, drug user and self confessed fringe dweller for the last 30 years.  Charles is quite the character, charismatic and a born performer who manages to draw you in with his disarming frankness and humour. In the film he describes his time as a burglar as “rent collecting”, and he’s shown during the film pointing to all the houses in Melbourne’s affluent suburbs he broke into over the years, including how he got in and where he hid from the police.  At one point, he even asks the cast and crew to join in a group photo in front of one the houses. When it comes to his heroin addiction, he’s just as frank - in fact in the first few minutes of the film Charles is shown shooting up in dingy surroundings. 

Charles’ story is both hilariously funny and terribly sad at the same time and he certainly doesn’t pull any punches in telling it like it is and letting others see his life for what is really is, warts and all.  He’s really a lovable character and Courtin-Wilson has structured the film so the audience discovers Charles’ character slowly, in a series of flashbacks that describe more about his history. Described as inspirational, but not in the classic clichéd rags-too-riches sense; this film soars thanks to Charles’ infectious optimism despite his circumstances.

Bastardy opens June 25 in selected cinemas across the country for a limited two week season.

Anita Stevens, Citysearch