by Reuben Stojanovic-Rowe
It’s about time that Torquay got its cinematic due. Not counting the final showdown between Keanu Reeves and Patrick Swayze in 1991’s Point Break of course, which was meant to take place down the road, but didn’t even shoot on-location in Victoria, Australia. The new documentary Belly of The Beast: A Torquay Story doesn’t make the same mistake.
What may seem like an ordinary coastal town; south-west of the city of Melbourne is a place that holds an extraordinary story of mateship and cultural expansion. For local John Teague (and his co-director Max Miller), this was a story ripe for the screen.
“The story of Torquay has never been put on screen and I’m in a unique position having lived down here and knowing the locals to tell it.
“I’ve lived in the region since ‘89. And Torquay specifically since ‘95.
“Before that, I lived on a farm [with my parents]. I wasn’t born here, coming here during my later teenager years. I didn’t spend my formative years here.”
He sadly felt a level of estrangement as a result, stating that ‘it took me a long time to break in’, and to feel a part of the community. Additionally, he had to do some soul-searching to finally accept the truth.
The film is a tribute made with love, appreciation and respect for the impact that the town made to surfing culture. It begins by acknowledging the local Wathaurong Nation, the traditional custodians of the land. It then proceeds into the beginnings of the surf lifesaving club that grew Torquay into a major world destination for those who love the waves.
“My parents split up and I ended down this way, but I remember I was always enamoured with surfing. Even when I was on a farm. Once I left the farm, I was committed to the life.”
Many others can attest to this ‘life’, which led to the monetisation on this rapid cultural expansion. Many may not know, but Torquay was home to brands Rip Curl and Quiksilver.
Before he committed to a documentary filmmaking career, John lived in the United States to follow his love of storytelling through acting.
“I’ll be honest, I was determined to not come back to Torquay. A few things happened and the varnish of Los Angeles wore off a bit and I decided that I wanted to come home and try my career back home.”
Trying his hand in low-budget feature films, inspiration for Belly of The Beast came from an ordinary day catching the waves at Bird Rock.
“A friend of mine had a really old surfboard and we were talking about the history of the surfboard. Which then brought about the wild days of Torquay.
“That would make a great documentary. And I went home thinking about it; that there’s a bigger story surrounding that small story.”
He approached a close friend of his, Max Miller who he had collaborated with on previous projects in the US. Upon hearing the idea, Miller was instantly interested in helping Teague bring it to the screen.
“It was good to have Max there because he’s from Melbourne and I often get swept up in the romanticism of it all.”
Teague admits that his first edit came down to just over three hours long.
“It would’ve killed me to dwindle it down to two, but Max was a huge support in helping me bring it down.
“We share similar values. Our strengths and weaknesses line up really well.”
Being a local and having gone to school with the kids of ‘the surfing legends’, Teague found no difficulty getting in contact with the people he needed to. This close relationship helped create the film’s ‘chill’ vibe in recollecting the good old days.
“I think it’s partially my style. It’s the way I engage with people. It’s like listening to a couple of old friends. That’s how I draw information out of people too. Keep it as casual as possible. I always have a series of questions, but I would rather have it come out conversationally.”
Luckily for Teague, he was also able to get access to archive footage documenting the early days of the life-saving club.
“No one else has done something like this before. Everyone was sitting on it. And when I reached out to various people and said this is what I’m doing, they were like ‘We just cut together all this old footage and we didn’t know what to do with it. You can have it’.”
Teague even got to meet the co-owner of Quiksilver, John Law, who gave him access to his archive vaults.
“He took me down to a vault with all this old footage they had saved. And he was like ‘just have at it’.”
This unlimited access certainly helps with communicating the wide selection of stories that fill the story – the loyalty to the life-saving club, the lives of the characters who shaped Torquay into the mecca of surfing culture.
The rise in popularity does have its downside, however, as the small coastal town has seen a rise in unruly tourist behaviour and most tragically for Teague, the over-development of residential holiday houses, golf courses and a football oval.
“I came back after seven years, and I was like ‘what happened?’ It happened real quick.”
While the film briefly covers the locals’ reaction to their hometown being handed to property developers, Teague admits that it is a huge topic that could’ve been the basis of a different film.
“I also didn’t want to end the story on a downer. And for a lot of people, it’s not a downer. Don’t get me wrong, I still love Torquay. There’s still so much beauty here.”
With such support from the locals, it comes as no surprise that the premiere screening of the finished film to the locals came with much anticipation.
“It’s been very well-received locally,” Teague says proudly. “There’s a lady in the documentary: Chris Barr. She’s amazing in the documentary and she’s a historian here. Warning: she doesn’t mince her words nor pull her punches. But at the end of the premiere, she came up to me and gave me a hug. She said, ‘You captured the essence’.” You heard it here.
Belly Of The Beast: A Torquay Story is screening at the Melbourne Documentary Film Festival on Saturday, August 5
