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Street Heroes
Amiel Courtin-Wilson shines a light on irrepressible petty criminal, actor and famed raconteur Jack Charles (pictured) in his new documentary, Bastardy.
There's a lot of harrowing stuff in Jack's life that he doesn't flinch from showing - his heroin habit, his life on the streets. What was your attitude to portraying these aspects in the documentary?
"From the outset, Jack was very adamant about being blisteringly honest in this documentary. We grew to trust each other implicitly and it was actually the broader criminal fraternity that understandably took a lot longer to warm to someone walking around with a video camera. As a result I never questioned putting this more confronting material into the film because I am a staunch believer that my documentary films are a manifestation of my relationships with my subjects and I love Jack very deeply so I never felt this material would feel exploitative in any sense. We also obviously had a screening with Jack when the film was at a rough cut stage and he was totally fine with his drug use and theft being a prominent part of the film. As he said, at the time it only serves to strengthen the sense of just how much he has overcome."
There's a moment when you confront Jack about a crime he's committed, and up until this point you had kept your presence out of the documentary. Why did you make this shift in tone?
"I really only appear in the documentary at that point because it was an absolute necessity to intervene in Jack's life to try to prevent him from being arrested. He had robbed a friend of his and they had called the cops and given them my name and number so I had to let Jack know what was going on. It was also a very organic transition as I had been filming with Jack for nearly four years by the time this scene took place. Jack had been living with me on and off and it was absolutely normal for the camera to be part of nearly all our interactions."
How did your relationship change with Jack over the course of filming? How did this affect the documentary?
"When I started making Bastardy in 2001, I had no idea where Jack's journey was going to take me. From the beginning, researching Jack's childhood and making the film was an amazing education for me as I had come from a place of total naivety about Koorie culture. Like my previous documentaries I assumed that I would shoot with him for several months, edit the film and that would be it. But as Jack's story began to unfold and I witnessed the reality of his lifestyle as a homeless man and a heroin addict, I started seeing him more and more regularly until it was normal for Jack to visit my house every day. As Jack and I became closer, he effectively moved into my house several times and there were periods of months where the filmmaking paled in comparison to the increasingly profound friendship we developed. This intimacy finally culminated in becoming embroiled in Jack's criminal activities to the point where I was unsure if what I was doing was legal anymore."
The film has had a very positive response. Are you surprised that it has connected with people to the extent that it has?
"What is really inspiring is to see a very disparate cross section of people warm to Jack's innate charm despite his rather "nefarious foibles" as he used to like to call them. In that sense I'm not surprised because his charm and optimism is what made me so passionate about making this film in the first place. What is pleasantly surprising though is to get a national release for a film that is also potentially quite confronting at times. Palace have been brilliant in supporting us and I'm really thrilled to see it get out to a broader audience.
Bastardy is released on June 25 in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Adelaide. For more on Amiel Courtin-Wilson check out the latest issue of FILMINK Magazine.