Tony Williams leads a group of expat Kiwis to the Cannes Film Festival to score interviews with some of the festival’s emerging talents at that time, including Werner Herzog waxing lyrical on the trials and scars of directing: a boyish Steven Spielberg recalls the challenges of framing shots during Jaws: Martin Scorsese discusses making Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore: Paul Bartel the making of Death Race 2000: Tobe Hooper recovering from The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and an interview about censorship with Dustin Hoffman.
“I wanted to experience the Cannes Film Festival, so we decided the best way to get there was to make a film. Michael Heath interviewer and I would donate our time along with Jennifer Pointon and Edward Seckerson, Michael Hardcastle took up a camera, and Susie Pointon did a crash course in sound recording. Michael Seresin organized a film company in Paris to rent us 16mm camera gear. Arrow Films, a commercial company in London I used to edit for, supplied the film stock.
I paid for everything on my credit card and hoped John O’Shea producer would find finance before the bill was due to be paid. We rented a van in Paris and drove to Cannes, found a cheap hotel and slept four to a room. Dustin Hoffman thought it was hysterical, and took us all out to dinner and charged Universal. We discovered Herzog living in a VW van up in the hills, and were able to break the news he had won one of the main awards at the festival.
Back in London, I edited the film and showed it to John. He was able to come up with some finance to cover my credit card bills just in time.”
Tony Williams
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L to R Tony Williams, Michael Heath, Steven Spielberg, Edward Seckerson
L to R Michael Hardcastle (camera), Martin Scorcese, Michael Heath
L to R Tobe Hooper, Edward Seckerson, Michael Heath
L to R Werner Herzog, Michael Heath
L to R Tony Williams (Camera) Dustin Hoffman, Jennifer Pointon
Paul Bartel
Edward Seckerson, Michael Heath
Cast and Crew of Lost in the Garden of the World. L to R Peter Herbert, Michael Heath, Michael Hardcastle, Edward Seckerson, Tony Williams, Jennifer Pointon, Susie Pointon
Four Donkey Films 