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Australian Story - Season 31 Episode 12 The Hustler John Polson
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Short filmTranscript
00:15Hello. Everyone who meets actor-director John Paulson seems to agree on one thing.
00:21He is a singular force of nature.
00:24More than 30 years ago, John had an idea for a festival that would allow amateur filmmakers,
00:31without qualifications or connections, to show what they could do.
00:35It turned into Tropfest, one of the largest short film festivals in the world.
00:41But John Paulson's journey to get there has been far from smooth.
00:50I'm so excited.
00:52If you tried to quantify the contribution that Tropfest has made to the Australian film industry,
00:57I mean, it would be next to impossible.
00:59What's happening today is enormously down to John's drive.
01:04There's a person there that's very good at what they do.
01:08OK, straighten this camera for me. Thank you so much.
01:10John's a hustler, like, in the best possible way.
01:13He's like, why not? Let's do it. Yeah, OK, great.
01:16It's great to meet Bert here.
01:17He's definitely a showman and he's definitely a salesman.
01:20And he knows where the bread's buttered and he knows how to make it look exciting and put some jam
01:24on it.
01:25The fact that it started at Tropicana Cafe and has turned into this, you know, 30 years later or whatever
01:31it's been,
01:32it's a real testament to John.
01:34Here we go. George, how are you?
01:35With all the great movements in Australian cinema, the first sound movies and so on,
01:41probably Tropfest has been one of the most significant events.
01:46What John did with Tropfest is, like, create this platform where he could really make, you know,
01:51all these other filmmakers, actors, superstars.
01:54And the proof is in the pudding of all the people who have come out of Tropfest.
01:58Rebel Wilson, Nash Edgerton, Joel Edgerton, Justin Curzell.
02:02And then COVID hit.
02:03And the next thing you know, there's been no Tropfest for two, three, four, five years.
02:07I was very devastated.
02:09We always felt like there was a little bit of something missing for John
02:12because it was so much a part of him and what he had built.
02:16Founder and director of Tropfest, please welcome John Paulson.
02:22Unbelievable. What a crowd.
02:25After a seven-year hiatus in which Tropfest had no right to exist anymore,
02:31the world had changed too much.
02:33Suddenly, and I don't really know how, it rose again.
02:37Tropfest is finally home again.
02:42CHEERING AND APPLAUSE
03:05John walks into any room and people go, who's that?
03:09That looks like good trouble.
03:11His innate talent, not only as an actor, but as a director and a showrunner,
03:17basically took him out of Australia to probably the toughest place in the world to make it,
03:24is New York.
03:26You know, he started in film, but he's really carved himself out a little niche
03:31for directing these amazing TV shows in the States.
03:34And there he made a family.
03:36And there he made a life.
03:38But he was always coming back each year to run Tropfest.
03:42He's one of those rare examples where life, his early life, is tough,
03:47and somehow uses it to transcend all of that.
03:52And his reaction to that is almost his superpower.
03:58There was like a fork in the road, and he could have easily gone down the path that,
04:04you know, many of the people that he grew up with went on,
04:06even people in his family.
04:08So it was not a done deal that he would be able to get himself out of it.
04:12If a flame is to grow, there must be a glow.
04:17My parents met in New Zealand.
04:19They're both New Zealanders.
04:21My mom was a very brilliant piano player.
04:24And my dad, he wanted to be an artist.
04:27He had a nice voice.
04:29It was an unusual existence, I suppose, compared to what other people had.
04:34And I'd say, Mari, what's for breakfast?
04:38And she'd sit down to the piano and say, what would you like to hear?
04:45So they met and decided to move to Sydney,
04:48which I think at the time was the big smoke in terms of jazz.
04:53Had many kids very quickly.
04:57It wasn't a lot of fun.
04:59You know, they fought a lot.
05:00And almost straight away they split up.
05:04She was left with four kids under the age of five.
05:09His mother was not really present and the four kids were just roaming around.
05:16My mum had demons.
05:18I think she'd had quite an abusive childhood, which leads to a lot of pain,
05:23which leads to a lot of self-medication.
05:27She was into hard drugs.
05:28I mean, she was into heroin with needles.
05:32I mean, that's about as hardcore as it gets.
05:37My mum hooked up with this guy who was a drummer, who was a heroin addict.
05:43He was a pretty tough customer.
05:46It was like, if he wanted to beat you, you get a beating.
05:51And my mum was like that too, to be honest with you.
05:53You know, it was chaos.
05:55It was chaos, you know.
05:56If you can imagine someone who's on heroin,
05:59and the only way you can get attention is to be explosive.
06:02You know, so that's what he was doing, you know,
06:04to find ways to get attention.
06:11I was very close to my mum all of her life.
06:15I saw her as, you know, she was a victim too.
06:20Like, it wasn't like she woke up and said,
06:22I'm going to beat my kids or I'm going to use heroin.
06:26When I was 12, she was put in, you know, a mental hospital.
06:30And then suddenly, Mari was not around and he had to go live with his dad.
06:35Well, I tried to bring some stability.
06:39He wasn't very fond of authority.
06:43And that didn't go super well at school.
06:48So I bounced around a few schools.
06:49And by the time I was 15, I was out.
06:52I don't think I ever really hurt anybody,
06:55but I was hanging out with the kids
06:57who were breaking into cars and stealing boats.
07:01But yeah, no, I got in a lot of trouble.
07:03I got arrested many times.
07:05I can remember on one occasion I was in a shop at Crow's Nest
07:09and I just happened to be looking out the window
07:12and there is John with a friend
07:15breaking into a car right in front of my eyes.
07:19He was seconds away from prison, you know,
07:23whether it was for stealing or lighting the school on fire.
07:26You know, like, he was delinquent.
07:27He couldn't, you know,
07:28he couldn't find his place inside an institution.
07:31Well, I think to this day, that explosive personality of his
07:34is the thing that he's got to have to deal with.
07:36You know, it can escalate.
07:37It's like all of us.
07:38We learn how to, you know, learn our little, you know,
07:41demons that we've got hidden away
07:42and we try to work with them the best way we can.
07:50I've got this podcast, Invisible Roadmap, where really it's inspired, I suppose,
07:55by people like me and John to try and inspire young people like the path is never straight
07:59and sometimes it is very challenged.
08:02Is there a moment or a person that really shifted your life
08:05and changed the kind of, you know, the roadmap of your life?
08:09There's a few.
08:10I got arrested for stealing a motorbike when I was about 17
08:14and you get one phone call, all that stuff is true.
08:17And I called Robin Gardner.
08:21One of my parents' best friends was Robin Gardner, who had just started an agency.
08:28One day Robin called and said,
08:31Hey, do you want to do an audition?
08:34And I'm like, what's an audition?
08:36So I was literally on my way to prison.
08:38I mean, I was arrested.
08:39So I called Robin to say, and she told me on that call that I got that part.
08:45And from that moment, he was totally fixed on his career as an actor.
08:51It was just, just completely a turnaround from the sort of delinquent that we knew to a budding actor.
09:04John was lucky enough to be adored and seen very, at a very young age by directors like George Miller.
09:14From that first time I met that 21 year old, that enthusiasm on the set,
09:21where he was happy to be part of a team of a family that was doing something and creating something.
09:28I was hoping you could have come to Sydney with me.
09:32Oh, Serge.
09:33He wasn't trained as an actor necessarily, but life had trained him for it.
09:37Come on, let's see, give me a go!
09:39You bastards!
09:41I think acting gave him the ability to channel this energy that he had stored up.
09:46I've got to beat the shit out of you.
09:48Well, why don't you try it?
09:50The light bulb came on.
09:51I thought, wow, I can put all this stuff into a place and get paid for it.
09:58It's insane.
09:59Oh.
10:01Up your bum.
10:04I think it was a real testament to how art can, you know, transform you in many ways.
10:11It gave him a sense of self-worth.
10:12It gave him a place to express himself.
10:15You know who that is.
10:16That he was never allowed to explore for himself at all.
10:21Acting saved me and actors saved me because what also happened was I suddenly was part of a community, you
10:28know?
10:32It's quite emotional, actually, to be driving around these old streets, which is where it all happened, where I was
10:37riding my bike around when I was in my 20s, being an actor, going to auditions.
10:43John used to live with my ex-wife, so I was always a bit like, you know, John Paulson guy.
10:51Everyone loved John because he was so witty and funny.
10:53I was like, he's got one joke, you know?
10:57But I don't know, there was something sort of, I don't know, like a little bit of a mongrel dog
11:02about him that I liked.
11:04This has never left me, these streets.
11:07You know, this is, uh, this is who I am.
11:10I inherited John through the Sydney acting scene and he was always at the Trop, obviously.
11:17We all were.
11:18So I'm here at the Tropicana, where it all started.
11:23The Tropicana was a hotbed of really creative people meeting there every day.
11:29You know, the dancers, musicians, actors, bouncing in and out.
11:33I tried to get out of film school many times.
11:35They were like, dude, you didn't finish high school.
11:37You're not coming here.
11:39My memory of him is like, he was always doing something.
11:43Okay, if he didn't have an acting job, well, what am I going to do?
11:45I've got to do something.
11:46I'm not going to just sit around and do nothing.
11:48I kind of like the hustle.
11:49I think I thrive off the energy of it.
11:51Maybe because of my background and my childhood.
11:55Chaos is almost, it settles me down.
12:01He was there having coffee every day with actors and would-be directors,
12:07despairing about their chances.
12:10And he was the one who said, well, I'll make a little film.
12:12Just on whatever resources he had.
12:15I made a short film and it was a mockumentary called Surrey Hills 902 Spring Roll.
12:21It was something to do.
12:23It was a project.
12:23Give us the money back.
12:24Hey.
12:25Hey.
12:27Your first thought is, well, I've got to show it to the people who made it.
12:31This room right here was where I put the little TV that night in 93,
12:38when I was a lot younger.
12:40And it was in that, kind of in that corner there.
12:44I benefited from people not really being able to see it or hear it.
12:49And so as a result, I thought it was brilliant.
12:52I'm pretty sure somebody else said, hey, we should have a festival, you know.
12:57But I was the guy who got on the chair and said, you've got X number of weeks,
13:02or whatever it was, to make a film.
13:05And I set a deadline.
13:06That was the beginning of Trotfest.
13:08It was just a cool thing to do.
13:10The idea of showing up and seeing these films with an audience was inspiring to people that
13:16may never have even got off their ass to do anything.
13:19I had no idea if anyone was going to make a film.
13:23And nine people lined up at the desk with movies.
13:26And a thousand people showed up that night to watch them, which was insane.
13:34I remember the atmosphere and the kind of enthusiasm that everybody had.
13:40It was so small, it was so spontaneous.
13:43And the very next year, the entire street was blocked off.
13:48One year's free coffee at the Tropicana plus the coffee machine,
13:52and three kilos of beans.
13:55There's tens of thousands of people in Victoria Street,
13:58and the road's blocked off and everything.
14:00And I'm like, oh shit, this is bigger than I imagined, you know.
14:04Because I'd never been to anything like it.
14:06From these humble cafe beginnings three years ago,
14:10the Tropicana Film Festival has taken off.
14:13The Australian film industry have recognised Trotfest as a place to nurture young talent.
14:17It's a stepping stone between amateur and professional.
14:21I had no business model.
14:23I had no education in this kind of thing.
14:25I had no schooling, period.
14:28So it took me a few years to realise, actually, there is a way to do this
14:32where I'm not paying out of my own pocket and I'm not doing it alone.
14:36Would you please make welcome Dr George Miller?
14:39Even back then he had an instinct for it.
14:42It's intrinsic to him.
14:43It's not something you learn in a book or a seminar or through education.
14:49I think it's the greatest thing happening in Australian film because anybody can have a go.
14:55And then it just keeps getting bigger and bigger and bigger.
14:57It's an amazing crowd.
14:59There's about, I think about 8,000 on Victoria Street and probably more than that down at Rushcatters Bay Park.
15:04I do remember, I think for me it was The Domain and I was like, this is insane.
15:09More than 20,000 fans of the short film genre crowded into The Domain to see offerings from 16 finalists.
15:17All ambitious young filmmakers trying to make a name for themselves.
15:21OK, in my hand is what's being contested here this evening.
15:25It was something that happened at the right time for me and a lot of young filmmakers that really kicked
15:32careers off.
15:34There were hundreds of films being made every year.
15:36So, like, it was encouraging people to collaborate and work together and make stuff.
15:43He was like a benevolent pipe piper.
15:45He was just calling people to filmmaking.
15:50And people emerged.
15:59One of the best moments in the whole Tropfest calendar is calling the finalists to let them know they're in.
16:06So I'll be making those phone calls today with a couple of the other team members.
16:11John and I, because we both come from really low socioeconomic circumstances, I think one of the things that we're
16:18both very passionate about is access.
16:20It's John Poulsen from Tropfest, mate.
16:22I have minions do the bad news, OK?
16:24So, yeah, it's good news.
16:25You're in.
16:26Holy shit.
16:27Congratulations, mate.
16:29What a movie.
16:30I love it.
16:31When Tropfest started, you had to get into film school and make a graduate film to get out and to
16:37go on to be something.
16:38So Tropfest completely blew that model up and said, you know what, if you've got talent, I don't care where
16:46you've come from or what you've done or haven't done.
16:49You know, what can you do within seven minutes that can put you on the map?
16:54You've got to take it, man.
16:55Get your hands off me, mate.
16:56I made a short film called Deadline that John stars in with me for $80.
17:00Two minutes after the f***ing Deadline, you want to take my film?
17:03Deadline? What are you talking about, mate? It's tomorrow.
17:05I made it in a week and it won the festival.
17:08The winner is Deadline.
17:16And I think it gave me a confidence that maybe I can do this.
17:21And I think just as a filmmaker, like that feeling that the film gave me, the reaction from the audience
17:27gave, I think I've been chasing ever since with anything that I make.
17:31Tough, tough year, but it never left my list of finalists.
17:37This is what I love, like, you sort of like, this is part of why I do this.
17:42You live vicariously through these filmmakers and it reminds me of, you know, when I was just starting out.
17:48Chopfest helped leverage his career.
17:50It certainly, you know, skyrocketed the possibilities.
17:59Ethan Hunt. G'day mate, I'm William Baird, but Billy's okay.
18:02Anything you need me to get, move or watch, just let me know I'm your man.
18:05Tom Cruise, I met once or twice because I was very tight with Nicole.
18:10And then I got cast in Mission Impossible 2 and we became pretty tight.
18:15I went to America and at the end of that movie, I really had no reason to come back.
18:21Actor-director John Paulson is on a high.
18:24With a role in Mission Impossible and his first director credit with Siam Sunset, his career's booming.
18:30At that time I was finishing up Siam Sunset, my first film.
18:34So he asked if he could see my film because he's Tom.
18:37He's like, I'd like to send it to LA and set up a few screenings.
18:42And I started to get calls like, hey, you know, let's talk.
18:47That's a very powerful voice to have in your corner.
18:52The first thing he did when he went over to America was he worked as a director on Without a
18:56Trace.
18:57From there he did a lot of freelance work on different TV shows, Laura and Aura and those sorts of
19:02things.
19:02He could see the potential in being a filmmaker more so than just being an actor.
19:06So on action, she's already back there.
19:09He wanted to be more in the driver's seat.
19:12I am directing New York City. It's incredibly cold.
19:17We're on the upper west side of Manhattan.
19:21GW Bridge over here behind me is approved for Blue Bloods, a TV show on CBS over here.
19:28He did a fair few episodes of The Mentalist, so we worked together on that.
19:32Part of the challenge of directing and particularly directing television is just to keep the energy light and to keep
19:40moving.
19:41And he's really good at that.
19:42Roll it!
19:44As a showrunner, he's at his best doing that sort of stuff.
19:47He's in control of the whole show.
19:49Cut!
19:50Pretty good.
19:51He got his very first film to direct in America,
19:56which was called Swimfan.
19:58And he was looking for a casting director and was very charming and asked me if I wanted to cast
20:05it.
20:05And that's when me and Amanda really, you know, started hanging out and falling in love.
20:10And that was it, you know.
20:14Our first date, my credit card didn't go through.
20:17That's where I was.
20:19You know, so it's not like she married money.
20:23John is innately a survivor and he goes towards what nurtures him most.
20:31Amanda has the ability to control his worst characteristics and to nurture his great characteristics.
20:37And she's a very, very calming influence on him.
20:45Fatherhood to John is everything.
20:47Really everything.
20:48And I think that coming from the childhood that he came from, he was determined to not repeat any of
20:57the experiences or any of the parenting that he did not receive from his parents.
21:04You know, I'm damaged goods like most people.
21:08And you just, all you can think is, well, let me try and step up here and not do what
21:12my parents did.
21:13But from the moment they came out, I've just been all over those kids.
21:18It's really important to me.
21:21Way more important than any of the other stuff.
21:24He was able to cobble together and figure it out.
21:26What kind of dad do I want to be?
21:28And he's really stood right up to that.
21:30It's not backed away.
21:33That's what he would say if you asked him, what is like your greatest accomplishment?
21:37He would be like building this amazing family.
21:51So today is Friday and the event's on Sunday, so a couple of days out.
21:55So this year, it's not quite 1993, the Tropicana Cafe when I had one TV screen.
22:02A lot of expensive equipment up there.
22:06The success of Tropfest gave him a lot of confidence.
22:10But I think he felt a certain responsibility to it that was maybe sinking him a little bit.
22:18Having established himself in New York and coming back and trying to sort of keep it going.
22:24And then eventually that was an impossibility, that he couldn't do both things.
22:31So he handed it over and I had what I thought were good people running it.
22:35And then I remember about a month before the 2015 event, I got a call saying,
22:40hey, we don't have the money to put this on.
22:43Tropfest has been cancelled this year due to a lack of funding.
22:46Tropfest has been cancelled in what was supposed to be its 24th year running.
22:53We were like a million dollars in the hole.
22:55And meanwhile, the people running it sort of disappeared, stopped answering the calls.
23:00And it was a disaster.
23:02And I do take some responsibility for this.
23:05Taking your eye off the prize a little bit, you know.
23:08Not only did it fall over, I think it fell over literally 24 hours after I'd called all the filmmakers
23:15to tell them they were in.
23:16So we went from this massive high and the next day that Tropfest had fallen over.
23:21So that was a tough feeling.
23:26John came back from America and, like, Tropfest was dead in the water.
23:30Having the rug pulled out that there is no Tropfest this year, there may never be a Tropfest, was a
23:35devastating, devastating feeling.
23:37Yeah, that's a tough part for me.
23:44You know.
23:49By the end of the week that he'd been here, he turned that around and had raised about $2 million
23:53in sponsors' money to get Tropfest back on its feet.
23:58Welcome to Tropfest, everybody!
24:01We're back, babies!
24:03He can surf chaos.
24:05He's learnt to triage trouble.
24:08He resurrected Tropfest, which was an amazing achievement.
24:11It was going great until COVID hit in 2019.
24:14And that really was the death rung, really, to it.
24:17Publicly, I was kind of like, well, you know, it's run its course.
24:21But privately, I was like, really?
24:24Is it just dead?
24:30We'd be talking and he would say, it doesn't sit well with me that this is not still happening.
24:36And he would meet Australians in New York or wherever and they would say, what's happening with Tropfest?
24:40You always felt like there was something where he was really sad, you know, for those years it didn't happen.
24:48One dark moment was sitting at breakfast with my own kids and they're saying, what happened at Tropfest?
24:56And they're like, dude, do you realise it's gone? It's been five years, it's over. How did you do that?
25:02I feel like I always wanted it to come back.
25:05Even though, thinking about Tropfest, I don't always remember it so well because the last one was like, what, seven
25:12years ago?
25:13They're a big reason why it came back because they kept sort of talking about it.
25:17You guys wanted Taylor Swift to come and perform?
25:19And Olivia Rodrigo.
25:22So I do remember he got this email overnight from Brian Brown and it was, hey mate, let's talk about
25:30Tropfest, you know, what's happening with it?
25:32We got on one Zoom and it was Sarah Murdoch, Peter Volanis and Brian and myself and Rich Weinberg.
25:40And it was music to my ears. They wanted to bring it back as a not-for-profit, which was
25:44perfect for me.
25:45They wanted to do Tropfest the way that I wanted to do Tropfest, but on steroids.
25:55The world's biggest short film festival returns to Sydney after a seven-year break.
26:00Tropfest is back and Hollywood is right behind it.
26:05Putting his whole heart and soul into it again, it lights a fire in him.
26:10There's nothing really like it that I've seen him invested in so fully in the time that I've known him.
26:17My team would probably say this guy's on every email, about every napkin.
26:23You know, those things are important to me.
26:25When you think about it, Tropfest is me personified as an event, right?
26:32Hello Centennial Park and hello to everyone watching across Australia and around the world.
26:41There was a lot of love for the fact that the festival came back this year.
26:47People were excited about it.
26:51It's lovely seeing his enthusiasm for it again.
26:55We had over 700 submissions this year from every corner of Australia.
27:01And I have to tell you, the quality was incredible.
27:05He's not doing it alone.
27:07Like, I do think he's got proper partners now who understand what it can be.
27:12And so he feels very supported by them.
27:16None of this would be possible without our new not-for-profit board.
27:21And for our incredible panel led by Margot Robbie.
27:25That's the amazing thing.
27:27By it collapsing, the essential idea was so powerful and important that it rose up stronger.
27:34Thank you very much.
27:36Thank you very much.
27:37Thank you very much.
27:39Thank you very much.
27:40Thank you very much.
27:45Thank you very much.
27:49I don't feel like a success story.
27:51I really don't.
27:52I'm not trying to be fake, humble.
27:54I feel like I've got a long way to go, and I'm like, I don't see myself that way.
28:03He had a pretty challenging childhood, but he never has used that as an excuse.
28:09If anything, it's given him a little more, you know, fire, a little more drive to succeed.
28:16I'm shooting a TV show here, but today is Saturday to get the day off.
28:21I'm going to go flying.
28:25Learning to fly a plane.
28:27That's when I really see him light up.
28:32Flying for him, you know, being in control of this thing really suits his personality.
28:40If you want to stay alive, then in flying, you've really got to be focused all the time.
28:45John's love of flying exercises that level of focus and tenacity and will that brought Trumpfest into being and has
28:57sustained it.
28:58So now I have a moment to look at how beautiful it is up here.
29:01It's an incredible sense of freedom.
29:04I think young John would be pretty impressed with how far he's come and then the life he's made for
29:11himself.
29:12It's pretty astounding.
29:15We crave people that remind us that anything's possible and Johnny is such great proof of that.
29:34We have to thank God all night.
29:43We hope everyone will thank you.
29:44I think it's all Glass.
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