Catriona McKenzie Director of Satellite Boy
In a piece that first appeared in Encore, first time feature director Catriona McKenzie talks about making Satellite Boy.
You’ve directed quite a bit of TV including the ABC series Dance Academy and Redfern Now. How was directing Satellite Boy, your first feature film, different from your work in television?
I was actually in short films before TV. I had made an adjustment to television, so in a way I was going back to what I’m most comfortable with, which is a bigger canvas. With TV you have a network behind you and a whole team there to back you up, but in a feature film you are on your own; the buck stops with you.
What was it like filming in the Kimberley region?
It’s the first feature to film in the Bungle Bungles. You can’t drive in, we had to walk with everything and the rubber on the bottom of our shoes would bubble it was so hot. We were in tents because there was no accommodation. It was rugged but no-one complained.
How did you get the budget together to make the film?
In Australia it is a fairly well-trodden path; you get your Screen Australia funding, your ABC television network funding, Screen NSW, Screen West, we had a little money from a mining company and there was our own money too. It’s very low budget. The casting director and I threw our kids in the back of the car and started driving from Broome, camping on the side of the road and asking children if they wanted to be in a film.
The main character in the film, 10-year-old Pete, relies on his grandfather’s teachings to survive in the bush. Does the title Satellite Boy refer to Pete and did you come up with the title before or after you finalised the script?
Before. Pete is the moving satellite and his journey is the basis of the film. It’s about who he is and where he comes from. I had thrown away previous versions of the script because they weren’t as distilled as that. I wanted to explore the grandfather-grandson relationship in the context of country.
Pete finds an actual satellite in the desert, how did you pull that off?
We couldn’t actually afford a satellite, so the community donated the steel to make it, the man hours and trucked it in. It’s easy to make a film when you have $5million but it’s when you have a lot less that you’re tested creatively. I think the challenges made the film what it is.
You got to work very closely with the locals. Were you concerned that the themes of alcoholism and abandonment in indigenous communities which are explored in the film would offend them?
Not really. Its not a political film. In the casting process we met a lot of young men who were raised by grandparents and some of the improvisations would involve their mothers. They would crumble and cry because, unfortunately, abandonment is an issue and they miss their mums.
What did you want people to get out of this film?
I’m adopted and Satellite Boy is in part a love letter to my father, my adopted father, who imparted knowledge to me the same way Pete’s grandfather does to him. We have shown the film all over the world and the grandfather-grandson relationship is a very strong and translatable message. In Australia, there is a lot of cultural knowledge at risk of being lost and I suppose it is about trying to frame that challenge in a cinematic way. I wanted to say: listen up kids because this knowledge won’t be around forever.
Catriona McKenzie has directed a number of television series including Dance Academy, Redfern Now and SBS series The Circuit. Satellite Boy is now showing at selected cinemas.
This story first appeared in the weekly edition of Encore available for iPad and Android tablets. Visit encore.com.au for a preview of the app or click below to download.
