Not Quite SBS
Not Quite Hollywood producer Craig Griffin sent a letter to Encore, expressing his frustration over what he sees as a lack of promotional support from SBS.
I am writing as an aggrieved producer after the near silence from SBS on the eve of the Australian television premiere of Not Quite Hollywood on March 27.
PS. Quentin loved Not Quite Hollywood and Edgar Wright (Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz) said it was the best documentary of all time!…which is maybe a pretty big call, but you get the idea.”
There was virtually no pre-publicity for the screening, scant mention in any of the major papers or TV guides, and I found this lack of publicity nothing short of bewildering.
Maybe if the film was a misfire I might get it, but amongst other things it played at most major film festivals in the world, was opening night film for the Melbourne International Film Festival in 2008, won best documentary at the AFIs in 2008, got a theatrical release on an almost unheard of 30 screens in the US, has sold in most territories around the world, and received favourable reviews in, amongst others, The New York Times, The New Yorker, The Los Angeles Times, The Sydney Morning Herald, The Age, etc.
People spoke to me following the screening to tell me how much they enjoyed it – but then said they’d only just stumbled across it whilst channel surfing on a Saturday night.
Am I being overly demanding to expect a little more from the public broadcaster? Needless to say, after 10years of hard and ultimately successful work (in the case of Mark Hartley, the director ), I think we were entitled to expect a stronger effort from our television network “partner”.
I feel SBS squandered the enormous goodwill and positive critical response that Not Quite Hollywood had already generated, not to mention the missed opportunity of screening it whilst Quentin Tarantino was in Australia during the last Melbourne Film Festival.
Yours sincerely,
Craig Griffin / Producer
Melbourne
UPDATE: SBS’s response and Craig Griffin’s comments on the theatrical/TV window can be read here.
I agree with Edgar Wright – this is one of the best documentaries ever made and easily my favourite doco of all time.
I’ve been raving about NOT QUITE HOLLYWOOD for months to work colleagues and one of them mentioned that it was on SBS over the weekend. We had no idea that it was going to screen on TV. Otherwise I would have urged everybody I know to tune in for a great night’s entertainment.
It should have gotten much better publicity from SBS. I really feel for Craig Griffin and director, Mark Hartley and all the excellent work they put into NQH. They should have gotten MUCH more support. Especially now that Aussies are not shying away (finally) from making some more genre films.
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I agree, not much publicity. But on the night that it screened, I received a text message from a friend that said “TURN ON SBS NOW” which I did and discovered NQH was on. I’d already seen it on DVD but watched it again cuz it’s an awesome doco. I also forwarded the text to about five of my friends, who did the same. Several of us saw each other at a party Thursday night and talked about the doco for a good part of the night. So there you go. Word of text also works.
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