Tue 30 Sep 2008 In: New Zealand Daily News View at Wayback View at NDHA
Rubbings From a Live Man, the movie of the life of 'out' Kiwi entertainer Warwick Broadhead that bewitched audiences at this year's NZ International Film Festival, will be released in Rialto cinemas around New Zealand this November. Flambouyant: Warwick Broadhead as himself Director Florian Habicht says the film aims to be a flambouyant, tour-de-force exploration of the life and times of the incomparable Broadhead. Habicht takes a unique approach to documentary filmmaking as Broadhead re-enacts the highest and lowest points of his life through various alter-egos and vignettes that lavish his story upon the screen. Together filmmaker and subject revisit Broadhead's childhood in 50's Kiwi suburbia, his wild ecstatic 60's in San Francisco and a heap of trauma, exaltation and grief ever since. "Some people who've seen it say it's like a journey into the soul," Broadhead told GayNZ.com when the film premièred. "I've really not held back. I have told my truth." Broadhead's career as a performing artist and director has spanned four decades – from Full Moon Follies in 1972 through to 1999's A Delicate Quest and on to The Resting Show; a grand community project planned for release next year. He'd never allowed his work to be recorded until Rubbings From a Live Man began production. GayNZ.com blogger Michael Stevens wrote after seeing the film at the Festival: "It's not often you get to attend the premiere of a great work of art, but I did tonight… The overall picture that is built up is one of delight in life, the importance of art to us all as humans, and the sheer warm and eccentric brilliance that Warwick Broadhead brings to everything he does." Rubbings From a Live Man will screen at Rialto Cinemas in Auckland, Christchurch and Dunedin, and Wellington's Paramount Theatre in November. Further details are on the film's official website, linked below.
Credit: GayNZ.com Daily News Staff
First published: Tuesday, 30th September 2008 - 11:55am