The Monkeys Teams Up With Bombora Film & Music Co. to Release Mambo: Art Irritates Life
The Monkeys has joined forces with Bombora Film
& Music Co. and writer/director Paul Clarke to create a one-hour ABC
documentary special, Mambo: Art Irritates Life, telling the
story of how a group of comical and contrarian troublemakers and misfits
became Australia's most popular art collective of the 80s and 90s.
Back
in the days when artwork could get you into trouble, Mambo began in a
garage in inner Sydney, and 15 years later their brand of piss-taking
and irreverent humour made it the obvious choice to represent Australia
on the world stage at the 2000 Sydney Olympics. Founder Dare Jennings, a
teenager from the south western plains of New South Wales, first
hitchhiked to Sydney to set up a screen-printing studio for t-shirts and
posters, calling it Phantom.
Phantom became a music recording label, releasing independent local acts
at the centre of a riotous rock scene, largely ignored by the big
record companies. It was in the early 1980's that Jennings realised he
could combine the irreverent artworks produced by artist friends and
musicians, with surf wear to release his first run of board shorts under
the name Mambo. The board shorts were a hit and Mambo was born.
Says Scott Nowell, script
editor and producer of the documentary and co-founder / ECD, The Monkeys: "We are children of the 70s and 80s, and for us
Mambo came into being at a pivotal time in our pubescent lives. Growing
up on the Northern Beaches, I can remember my first pair of Mambo shorts
and how quickly Mambo captured that larrikin voice, sticking it up the
big surf brands then taking on much bigger targets with humour and a
violent lack of respect. Looking back, it's hard to overstate how
important that became to us as a nation."
At the time, Mambo
was well known for its irreverent humour and also depicted a fresh take
on the Australian surf industry. The country was also open to new ideas
and taking on the world.
Says Nowell: "We went from Keating's creative
nation to little Johnny and the Cronulla riots. Over those decades the
Mambo voice remained steadfastly politically incorrect and we have beer
monsters, farting dogs and Australian Jesus entrenched forever in our
culture as a result."
Says Paul Clarke, writer and director: "When you really get to think about it, there
probably hasn't been a good doco about the 80s in Australia, featuring
that sense of excitement generated by all the ratbags in art and music
rattling the establishment cage, and really enjoying themselves so
hopefully that's what we've made. It was great fun to write and direct
in collaboration with our friends The Monkeys - they have wonderfully
silly ideas including a printed t-shirt titles and end credits... the
artists at Mambo really related to them."
The Monkeys senior
creative Scott Dettrick, a former Mambo art director and production
designer on the documentary, was also instrumental in getting Mambo: Art
Irritates Life off the ground.
Says Nowell: "Early on we
hired Scott Dettrick. He had been working as an art director at Mambo
for 10 years and came to us with the idea to tell the story of Mambo's
impact on Australian popular culture.
"The idea immediately
connected, and not long after we met with writer/director Paul Clarke
from Bombora Films and pitched him to produce a documentary outlining
the social history of the 80s and 90s as told through the lens of Mambo,
Australia's modern art movement that we all wore on our backs."
Mambo: Art Irritates Life is set to air on The ABC, Tuesday 8th November at 9:30pm.
Writer & Director: Paul Clarke
Producer & Script Editor: Scott Nowell
Production Company: Bombora Film & Music Co.
Executive Producer: Jo-anne McGowan
Line Producer: Katherine Hristoforidis
Editor: Antoinette Ford
Production Designer: Scott Dettrick
Art Director: Wayne Golding
Associate Producer: Sonia Borg
Narrator: Celia Pacquola
