By Eddie on 29/04/2024

Recently I was fortunate enough to attend a Q and A screening as part of the pre-release tour for new Australian documentary The Road to Patagonia. 

A fascinating road trip documentary that is full of heart, power and stunningly captured scenery, director Matty Hannon’s feature debut is one of the years must-see local offerings. 

Utilising 16 years worth of footage, the feature length documentary follows the adventures of ecologist and surfer Hannon as he attempts to surf the west coast of the Americas, changing his life and the lives of others forever.

Following on from the screening I was fortunate enough to delve a little deeper into the film with Hannon who offers some great insight into his own journey, that of a budding filmmaker and some context to a film that is sure to find an audience on a global scale. 

For my full review of the film CLICK HERE. 

See you at the movies.  

 

Q – Shot over the period of 16 years, can you tell us a little bit about the process of condensing that amount of footage into a 90 minute feature? Was it a case of the film having lots of different versions or did the final version make itself apparent in the editing suite nice and simply?

The film is chronological, and so that structure became apparent in the first couple of drafts of the film. The main events and plot points in the story were relatively easy and straightforward to work out, because I wanted that side of things to be as real and truthful as possible.

But it was the premise that killed me.

I knew why I set off on the journey, how it felt to be on the journey and how it changed my life, but it was incredibly difficult to distil those big life changing feelings into a digital medium. How do you fit 2 decades into 1.5 hours? Plus I had about 50 interviews with people from all over the world, shamans from Sumatra, Alaskan mask carvers, Zapatista rebels and Mapuche leaders who I wanted to include in the film. I knew what they had shared during interviewees was important, but I was struggling to intertwine their story into Heather and my personal love and adventure story. Struggling to find the universal truths I suppose. The fact that the film took many years to make, gave me time to reflect on what the journey meant to me, and what it was that I wanted to say with the film.

The realisation of the premise came later, when pieced together the interviews and realised they perfectly explained what we’d been feeling on the journey.

Q – When you were filming your own personal adventures, was it always in the back of your mind that you wanted to turn your journey into a feature or did that come later on towards the tail end of your experience or even after the fact?

Initially I wanted to make a high quality short that I’d release straight onto the internet, but as time progressed on the journey, I realised that there were lots of events, characters and narrative arcs that could potentially lend themselves to a feature length. To be honest I had no idea what I was in for, I’d never made a feature film before and so I was just fumbling along as I went. I certainly never thought it’d take as much time and money as it did.

Q – Making and releasing an independent film in the Australian filmmaking landscape isn’t an easy task. Can you get real and honest about the experience of getting your film to the point it’s in today and maybe provide any personal advice or learnings you’ve had from the experience?

Without a doubt making the film was the hardest thing I’ve ever done. Finding the funding took forever. We were woofers on a farm to allow me to edit and research.

One of the big learnings I’ve come away with is that at some point along the way you’ll encounter naysayers and negative people – maybe it’s their own insecurities – but in order to finish the film you simply have to suck it up, believe in the message you’re sharing with the world, and persevere. Concentrate on the supportive people you have around, foster community and mentorships. I wish I had’ve approached mentors earlier…

Q – Your love and passion for travel, nature and of course surfing is really apparent when watching this film, I’m interested in director Matty Hannon and perhaps what films or filmmakers inspired your interest in film and directing and how they might have influenced the end product audiences get to enjoy here?

My love of the outdoors has always eclipsed my love of film, and I only came to film through wanting to document the world around me rather than any aspirations to become a director. I’ve never owned a television.

Having said that, I’ve learned to love and appreciate film, especially documentary. I love gritty, risky and verité documentaries, titles such as Cartel Land, La Vida Loca, Meru, The Alpinist and Alone. 

Across Australia just to name a couple. I love scripted films that hit hard and have something to say, some of my Australian favourites are The Proposition and The Nightingale.

Q – Successfully playing at festivals and other events throughout Australia, do you have any immediate plans for taking the film on the global circuit or have you already had interest from overseas markets to showcase the film on a global-scale? While often layered in Australianisms and flavour, the broad appeal of the film is quite rare in local products.

We’ve got a couple of international distribution offers on the table at the moment, but with the Q&A tour taking up so much bandwidth, we haven’t really had time to properly consider them.

It’s been fun doing the festival circuit internationally, we’ve won some awards over in the states for the film and I know that there’s an audience for it internationally, but we’re not rushing anything. It’s doing a comprehensive French tour right now, and a few sporadic screenings in Asia too, but we’re not going to do another full-blown Q&A tour, as amazing as the Australian tour was, it’s just too much for a family do another one, we’ve got a baby due in June! We’re looking to partner with a distributor and let them figure out that part of the strategy…

Q – The film is full of incredible shots and segments that best laid plans could only ever dream of. Is there a particular segment of the film or a shot that is a favourite of yours or that you’re so happy managed to be captured on your journey?

I think the one shot I’m still surprised to have captured was when the engine caught fire in the VW kombi van – it was just one of those moments where the camera was rolling for no particular reason, but somehow recorded a dramatic and hilarious moment.

Q – I was intrigued by how the music of Daniel Norgren came to be such a big part of your film?

It feels like such a natural fit and calls to mind the soundtracks of films such as Into the Wild or The Graduate where the musical element of film adds such a natural and important extra layer to what we see on screen.

I knew from the beginning that I wanted to build a beautiful soundtrack for the film, I had thought of using traditional music from each region we visited or a collection of 20 different artists that I liked etc, but when I heard Daniel’s music for the first time it eclipsed everything I’d hoped for. I remember putting on his albums and watching the film materialise in front of my eyes, and strangely the lyrics of the songs themselves often spoke directly about the scenes they were used in. He has this haunting sound with a nostalgic call-to-nature that also forms the premise of the film. When Daniel watched the rough-cut and agreed to let us use his music I was over the moon, it was then that I knew we could create the emotions in the audience to match the experience we’d felt on the journey.

Q – Do you and the team have any idea or plans for how the rollout of the film will evolve once the cinematic run locally has been completed? Can we expect to find the film on local service providers such as Stan or Binge and internationally has there been any early movements?

It’ll definitely be out some major digital outlets a little later in the year.

Q – Lastly, what’s next once the dust has settled on The Road to Patagonia on the filmmaking front. A long overdue rest or do you have plans for the next steps of your filmmaking journey?

Next week we’re off to Bali to screen the film once, and to have a rest. I haven’t been to Bali in 20 years, so that’ll be interesting, we were offered some incredible accommodation in exchange for sharing the film. After that we’re having a baby and going inward on our little farm on the NSW north coast, where I’ll also work on a couple of short 10 min documentaries that’ll see me through to the end of the year.

I have 2 or 3 feature film ideas percolating in my head right now, all centring around the same themes as RTP, those 3 ideas will probably coalesce into one film. I’m excited to dive into another feature – I’ve learned a lot over the last 10 years of what (and what not!) to do.

The Road to Patagonia is scheduled to be released nationwide on May 2nd. For up to date information or to find out more about the film visit the official website HERE