by Dov Kornits
Maverick director/producer Haydn Keenan’s 1982 Sydney-shot comedic drama about 4 young women on their last night out together is not only prepping for a local re-release following digitisation and restoration by Spectrum Films and The Grainery, but it has also been discovered by Brooklyn historian/filmmaker/programmer Elizabeth Purchell, whose company Muscle Distribution has picked up North American rights to the film and is prepping a 9 May theatrical release of the 4K restoration.
According to Keenan, Purchell found a VHS copy of the film in a ‘remainders bin of a New York video shop’. “I couldn’t believe it, but she really understood the picture. She got that it’s a movie for and about young women,” said Keenan.
Appropriately enough, Going Down follows Karli (Tracy Mann) as she hits the town with her girlfriends ahead of a trip to New York. “The relationships between the four girls and their concerns about life are universal,” according to Purchell. Interestingly, Going Down actually screened at the Sundance Film Festival in 1986, but has never had a US theatrical release.
Apart from Tracy Mann, the film stars David Argue and Vera Plevnik [above], who tragically passed away soon after completing the film. Keep your eyes peeled for filmmaker Esben Storm, Hugh Keays-Byrne, Ralph Cotterill, Richard Moir, Charles Waterstreet, Gary Foley, Tim Burns, film producer Richard Brennan, and a very young Claudia Karvan and the late Samantha Rebillet in supporting roles. Apart from a time capsule of Sydney inner-city life and mores in the 1980s, the film also features a cracking soundtrack.
“Peter [Richards, from The Grainery] got every piece of data from the original negatives and the gang at Spectrum made the film look and sound better now than it did when it first came out,” says Keenan about the 4K remaster. “Digital technology has made the pictures glow and Australian Crawl, Pell Mell and Nick Cave sound better than they ever did. I’m indebted to the generosity of everyone who worked on the restoration and heartened to know that the old school industry family is still alive and well.”
According to Keenan, who also runs production/distribution company Smart Street Films, Going Down will release in Australian cinemas in 2025.
Main image: Tracy Mann, Gary Foley and co-star Micki Gardner on the set of Going Down
