Punching above its weight

With Western Australia currently enjoying an influx of film and television productions, the film that got the ball rolling opens in cinemas across the country this week. Filmed in Western Australia, Kid Snow tells the story of a washed-up tent boxer who gets one last shot to make a name for himself, only to find himself forced to choose between old dreams and new love.

Directed by Paul Goldman – who along with directing music videos for the likes of The Go-Betweens, Nick Cave, and Kylie Minogue has made acclaimed films such as Australian Rules and Ego: The Michael Gudinski Story – the Billy Howle, Tom Bateman, Phoebe Tonkin, Robert Taylor, Mark Coles Smith and Tasma Walton starring, Kid Snow was the first post-COVID production to land in the state after we reconnected with the world. From the Goldfields to Fremantle’s historic West End, its use of iconic Western Australian locations is just as stirring as the film’s emotive narrative.

Billy Howle as KID SNOW, Director/Writer Paul Goldman & Tom Bateman as RORY. Kid Snow – Photograph by David Dare Parker

On the eve of the film’s nationwide release, Brett Leigh Dicks spoke with Paul Goldman, who was quick to point out that on screen and off, there’s nothing like a little dislocation to bring people together.

There are so many layers to Kid Snow. It’s a very emotive character driven film set in the world of tent boxing with an amazing ensemble cast. Yet it’s not a boxing film …

I didn’t want to make a boxing film. I love that genre, Fat City, the John Houston film, and obviously Raging Bull would be two of my all-time favorite films, but I was less interested in the boxing as using it as a backdrop.

It’s a film about two brothers who have a dysfunctional relationship that’s haunted by the past and the woman that comes between them, who’s running from a haunted and violent past of her own and lands in what’s probably the worst possible place she could – in the the violent world of tent boxing.

How did the story come to you and how familiar were you with the tent boxing culture prior to delving into Kid Snow?

Lizzette Atkins had optioned an unsolicited script by actor, writer, and one time tent boxer, John Brumpton. John had written a script on the basis of the short time he had spent as a tent boxer and his fascination with that world and took it to Lizzette. They then starting working on it and approached me. One of the things that compelled me to get onboard was that I had read about tent boxing over the years and had kind of wondered why no one had made a film about it because it’s such a rich part of Australian folklore. When I was at NIDA, Jim Sharman had become a mentor and friend of mine. He of course was a highly esteemed Australian theatre and film director who directed The Rocky Horror Picture Show. His father was Jimmy Sharman who ran one of the most legendary boxing tents in Australia. I had asked Jim about tent boxing and while he wasn’t very forthcoming, I had read his autobiography, Tinsel and Blood, where he talked about growing up in and around that scene.

My grandfather loved regaling me with stories of how, as a young man, he would jump into the tent boxing ring when it came through town. He painted a very poetic picture of it, which I’m sure wasn’t the case at all. What did you drawn upon to familiarize yourself with that world?

Tent boxing occupies a strange place in Australian folklore and there’s a definitely a mystique surrounding it. It’s brutal and violent, but there’s also a circus-like element to it. There were photographs of the boxing tents made over the years and we furiously went looking for whatever we could find. But one of the greatest sources we found was actually catching up with former tent boxers out in Kalgoorlie and listening to their stories. They inevitably reminisced about their time in the boxing tents. Many of them had either come from professional boxing or were looking for a way back into professional boxing. There were also a lot of indigenous boxers involved so it was valuable to get their perspective as well.

Speaking of which, the film is set during a very tumultuous period of Australian history, especially with regard to how indigenous people were treated at the time. How conscious were you of the way that might play out on the contemporary screen?

Clearly the film is set in a period where there was tremendous racism so it was something we discussed at length with our indigenous cast – Shaka Cook, Hunter Page-Lochard, Mark Coles Smith, and Tasma Walton. We listened very closely to their thoughts. Shaka Cook would tell us how proud his grandfather was of being a tent boxer, but it was inevitably a period of racism and where there was a tremendous racial divide in Australia at the time so it was something we were very conscious of it.

You have assembled an incredible ensemble cast. Billy Howle and Tom Bateman are spellbinding as the brothers. Phoebe Tonkin and Jake LaTrobe are equally so as the mother and son. Add to that Longmire himself, Robert Taylor, along with the likes of Mark Coles Smith and Tasma Walton stealing the show and you have quite the cast. Did you find guiding some many immense personalities through the production a challenge?

My process is to create as much of an ensemble as I can. There are a lot of different characters and a lot of subplots in Kid Snow so it was always going to be a difficult balancing act. But, maybe because we were also out in Kalgoorlie and so far away from anywhere and had already overcome so many production challenges with COVID and the border closures, the cast bonded in a very special way. I think you see that all throughout the film. During the final scene, where the characters part and go their separate ways, it was amazing to see the cast and crew start crying while filming that scene.

A lot of the film’s emotional fortitude comes from the tension between the two brothers. Why were Billy Howle and Tom Bateman the right choices to play Kid Snow and Rory?

Casting a film is always a long and drawn-out process but this was even more so because of COVID and people’s availability. When I got on the phone for the first time with Billy Howle, his observations about the character and his own soulfulness struck me as perfect for Kid. It was character that I wanted to see come alive. I wanted Kid to be a very internal character who then came out of himself and it struck me that Billy could dig deep and immerse himself in that character. Likewise with Tom Bateman. That character could so easily just have been a monster, but he clearly saw the opportunity to present a character that was very complex rather than just being a beast. It’s been amazing to see how many people feel sympathy for Rory at the end of the film and that’s all down to Tom.

Jake LaTorre is incredible as Darcy. He’s a beacon of light in what is at times a very dark world. Was he the obvious choice for the role?

Jake LaTorre brings a lot of humor and lightness to the film. Casting kids is the bane of any director’s life. You see 300 kids and there’s maybe one or two you bring back for a recall. We’d actually found someone but, because it took us so long to go into production due to COVID, he had grown up and we needed a kid who was a child and not a teenager. At the very last minute, Anousha Zarkesh, who did the casting, mentioned she’d met a boy via his sister who was a child actress. When I Zoom-called with Jake and his parents, I breathed a sigh of relief because it was very clear I had just found Darcy.

The romantic tangent in the film surrounds the character of Sunny, who joins the troupe as an exotic dancer. The production design of the film reminded of a photography series Susan Meiselas did in 1970s documenting the world of carnival strippers. Do you know that book?

That book was our bible! As you know, I collect photography books and that book was revelation to me. Along with the boxing tents, it was very common for there to also be a leg show somewhere down sideshow ally, especially in the dying days of tent boxing when the crowds were falling off and they were trying to bring people in. So that book became a touchstone for us amongst many other touchstones. As I mentioned, Fat City, was of course another and, as strange as it might seem, so was the Peter Bogdanovic film, Paper Moon, especially for the child character.

And in Phoebe Tonkin you found the perfect actor to play Sunny …

There were a few Australian actors who we wanted to talk with, but as it turned out Phoebe was available and prepared to do the role. It was a very challenging role, not only in terms of the character but also the production because she found herself stranded out in the middle of Western Australia as the only female in the cast. I was concerned about how that character would play. I wanted her to be feisty and I wanted her to have agency. Phoebe had some very difficult scenes and we asked a lot of her, but she went into those scenes fearlessly. We made her look dusty and traveled and like she had lived a hard life so it wasn’t very glamorous role. Her performance is incredible.

And finally, what was the impetus for setting the film in Western Australia?

We chose Western Australia because of the landscape. I had been over there quite a few times over the years for different reasons and love the Western Australian landscape. And also, dare I say it, Screen West were very forthcoming in their support of the film. We received the most amazingly warm welcome and incredible support, not only from Screen West, but the people in Western Australia, particularly in Kalgoorlie. It’s always tough making a feature film so far away, but the support we found there was remarkable.

Kid Snow opens nationally on September 12, including at Luna on SX.

By Brett Leigh Dicks

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