SEARCH FOR WENG WENG update

Long-time readers will no doubt remember that I have been working on a documentary, “The Search For Weng Weng”, on the midget James Bond of the Philippines (www.andrewleavold.blogspot.com and www.bamboogodsandbionicboys.blogspot.com). Well, a lot has happened since I first picked up the camera almost four years ago. My producer Veronica Fury of Fury Productions pitched the project to ABC TV last year, and the word came back: allow the project to evolve into a documentary on B-filmmaking in the Philippines, and you have a deal! Funding came through from ABC TV, ABC Commercial, MIFF Première Funds, Film Vic, Screen Queensland, and Screen Australia.

At this point I stepped down as writer/director and we offered the driver’s seat to Mark (Not Quite Hollywood) Hartley. He agreed to come on board, with myself as Associate Producer, Research Consultant and Original Concept credits, and set to work crafting an essay-style documentary on the overseas filmmakers engaged in the export trade during the Marcos years of the late Sixties to early Eighties. Now titled “Machete Maidens Unleashed!”, Mark is set to return this weekend with his first batch of interview footage from the US and the Philippines. If all goes according to plan, we deliver the finished film to the ABC in June, and premiere Machete Maidens Unleashed! at the Melbourne International Film Festival later this year. Click on Fangoria’s blog www.fangorianews.blogspot.com/2010/02/filmmaker-talks-machete-maidens-and.html for Mark’s first interview on the movie.

The Search For Weng Weng will still be completed over the next 12 months and hopefully accompany Machete… as a companion film on the DVD releases.

As you can imagine, it’s a very exciting process for Trash Video and myself to be involved in such a major production, and we look forward to walking down the carpet with Mark and Veronica at MIFF 2010!