The Imagination of Magic Beach

by Liam Ridolfi

Author Alison Lester and director Robert Connolly get animated about their new Aussie adventure.

Robert, with films like The Dry, Blueback and now Magic Beach, you have accrued a track record of taking beloved classics in literature and then turning them into beloved classics of cinema as well. How does great literature inspire you as an artist, particularly in the case of Alison’s Magic Beach

Rob: “I read as much as I can and I try to find a personal connection to work. I don’t look at things when I read them as an opportunity. I look at them just to see if they touch my heart a bit or if they stir something in me.

“I grew up in the Blue Mountains. My childhood was my parents taking me into the bush and my imagination was unlocked by all of that. So, these stories about the power of the natural world to inspire imagination in young people is very personal to me.

“When I read Magic Beach to my children when they were young – and who are now in their twenties – I got a sense of a very inspiring personal response to that book. And when I went to the Ningaloo Reef with Tim Winton and swam with the whale sharks, or even Force of Nature, which is a love letter to my experience in the Blue Mountains and just trying to find something personal. Otherwise, I don’t know how to make the films. If you think of Magic Beach, I read it to my children, I got to know Alison, I visited the Magic Beach, I have my personal love of the natural world… It just felt like an inevitable process.”

Alison, what is it like to have such a beloved creative expression of yours interpreted and then adapted by another artist who also has such a distinct vision? Is it scary? Is it fun?

Alison: “It wasn’t scary because I really like and trust Robert, and I knew he would do something beautiful. It’s really been a lovely experience just watching this little book being turned into a great big movie.”

What was the process like for both of you in translating such a rich, almost dreamlike setting onto film? 

Rob: “I’ve increasingly across my career developed a philosophy around the way you make a film gets infused into the DNA of the film. You have to find a methodology to make the film that speaks to its theme. If I think of a film like Balibo, taking a crew of 15 people to East Timor or filming it in the real places and giving up the trappings of making a film to get that real world… Or Paper Planes, I had to reconnect with my childhood and this mystery and magic. So, Magic Beach is really the extreme version of that. We filmed at the Magic Beach. We’d meet every day in Alison’s house, which is in the book, and Alison would be there and the little kids would turn up in the morning, have their costumes put on and say hi to Alison and then we’d shoot it with a crew of eight people and then we’d walk down to the beach and then we’d improvise with these kids. It was part of a philosophical approach to how to make this film, how to get the joy, the magic, the spirit, how to let the children lead it. And then over the shoot to build to a point where on the last day, this end of the film, when all the kids walk down to the beach, all the kids have gotten to know each other.”

Alison with the cast of the film

Alison: “There were really magical moments too. At one stage, everyone was filming out on the rocks and rock pools and people got these big cameras and they were trying to walk on these rocks without tripping over. Then a little boy dropped something into a rock pool, and we looked up and there were some dolphins out in the sea. Then they came in really close, and I was like ‘should we be getting this?’”

Alison, you’ve traveled widely and worked in various communities, including Indigenous communities. What I love about your writing is that it often reflects themes of self-expression and individuality. How have your experiences in your travels and through different cultures, shaped your writing and in particular even shape your approach to this project in particular? 

Alison: “I think all travel and work in remote places has made me less of an egomaniac. I’ve learned very much to listen rather than try and tell people what to do. And doing that, I’ve had really lovely times in remote communities working with adults and people and just learning so much. It’s probably what we all strive to be in a way that you can walk softly through the world and just absorb as much of it as you can and shine it back out if you can.”

Robert, does your approach change from adult centric stories such as The Dry to ones intended for younger audiences. Do you need to adapt in your directorial approach? 

Rob: “It’s really been an interesting journey for me and my career because I feel like the filmmaker that massively inspired me when I was younger was Peter Weir and his films. I could see Gallipoli as a little kid, but then Picnic at Hanging Rock, and then a masterpiece like The Year of Living Dangerously, and then he goes to America and makes a thriller like Witness. You look at his work and what I found inspiring is that I think there is a deeply humanist approach to the storytelling and that there’s a truthful investigation of the human condition in the work. It’s like the films apply a microscope to the human condition in some way. I found that very inspiring – there’s a filmmaker not wanting to be trapped by genre. When I was a kid, I read science fiction. I was a massive Isaac Asimov fan. And I haven’t directed science fiction yet… I’d love to!

“To make a film for little children, Magic Beach is for little kids, but it is also for anyone who can connect with being a little kid.

“But yeah, I find that inspiring, observing someone like Peter Weir’s work and trying and finding each of his films offer me some insight; they’re a jigsaw puzzle of films that add up to quite a profound insight.”

Both of you being such important creative artists in the space of children’s media, you’ve both seen shifts in how children’s stories are told, whether through books or through films… What do you think the future holds for children’s storytelling in film, especially in a time when kids have access to a broad array of content online? 

Rob: “I’ve been really lucky to have done Paper Planes, more for a primary school audience, Blueback for high school and now Magic Beach for preschool, exploring these different demographics. In some ways, Magic Beach is the boldest. Children are supremely intelligent; they just haven’t learned things yet. Little children, they can pick up three languages quickly. You need to harness that. I didn’t realise that until I had kids and looking at them going, ‘oh, now I get it. You are the smartest living thing in the animal kingdom’. The danger is that as we get older, we start thinking we know what young kids want as opposed to letting them take the lead. And what they want is freedom, the ability to be creative, to fill in the blanks. They don’t need to be spoon-fed everything. They need to be challenged a bit. We shouldn’t be scared of challenging kids a little bit. Chris Noonan who made Babe, I met him before I made Paper Planes, and he said, ‘do not forget that children love a little bit of sadness’. He said that sometimes for children, the first time they feel emotions is in the cinema before they’ve experienced them in real life. It’s such a beautiful idea.”

Alison: “I think a good story will always shine through. Someone sent me a letter the other day thanking me for some books and they said, ‘It’s so nice to see these books. They’re so refreshing in these days when there’s lots of books explaining that it’s okay to identify as guacamole’. I know that those books have a place, but I personally find them really tiring and it’s like, ‘come on, let’s have some fun. Let’s go for a walk or have an adventure’.”

Magic Beach is in cinemas 16 January 2025

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