The story of Terowie-born J.P ‘Jack’ McGowan plays like a Hollywood script. He was a sailor, stockman, a Boer War hero and an actor before he stumbled into films around 1912. He went on to become one of Hollywood’s first stunt directors; with his wife and on-screen daredevil Helen Holmes, he paved the way for the action-adventure blockbusters we know today. Helen provided a new model for the modern woman, leaping from trains, fist-fighting bad guys and righting wrongs. She was a collaborator with the tenacity Jack needed to help him produce quality films. As specialists in railroad themed cinema, the couple formed a creative partnership like no other in film history. Matthew Bate fuses animation, found footage, and audio re-creations with traditional documentary techniques to tell an epic romance of high adventure and fame, of great love won and lost.
Festivals: Adelaide Produces... (Museum of Modern Art, NY); Dungog Film Festival (Aust)