Warren Ellis revealed all about his personal new documentary in a new Rolling Stone AU/NZ interview.
Speaking with Print Editor James Jennings for our June-August issue, Ellis discussed Ellis Park, the film that takes its name from the musician’s unexpected passion project far from the spotlight: a wildlife sanctuary deep in the Sumatran jungle.
Co-founded by Ellis and led by Dutch-born vet Femke den Haas, the sanctuary rescues trafficked and mistreated animals, nursing them back to health with the help of a devoted team of conservationists.
“It was more personal than I anticipated… I freaked out when it was edited and [I watched it],” Ellis said in our interview, adding that he sent the film to close collaborators including Nick Cave and Dirty Three bandmates Jim White and Mick Turner.
“[…] I got their thoughts on it, particularly the personal stuff, which created problems within my family,” he said. “Eventually I said ‘fuck it,’ but the first time I saw it in Melbourne was terrifying, because there was a thousand people there. It’s one thing to look at somebody else’s life up there, but when it’s your own, and it goes into some stuff that I’d only just started coming to terms with personally, it’s something else. I was so rattled by the whole thing and felt like I’d let the world into the back door.”
Elsewhere in the interview, Ellis had high praise for director Justin Kurzel (Nitram, Snowtown), saying that he came out of the experience “loving him like any other close friend that I have.”
“It was an extraordinary creative collaboration with him, and I couldn’t have done that with just anybody. He knew what to do with me. When we finished it, he said to me, ‘I want to tell you, I’ve pushed you as hard on this as any actor I’ve ever worked with.’ It was an incredible gift for me, just on a personal level, to have gone through that with him and to have been pushed to the outer limits,” he revealed.
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Ellis will tour a string of special Q&A events this June ahead of the release of his new documentary.
At select screenings, Ellis will be joined on stage by filmmaker Kurzel for an in-person conversation about the film.
The film will premiere as part of the Sydney Film Festival and Vivid Sydney, before rolling out to cinemas across the country in June. You can check out the official trailer below.
Further screening information and tickets are available here.
Ellis and The Dirty Three made a long-awaited return last year with Love Changes Everything, their first album in over a decade. The record follows 2012’s Toward the Low Sun, which was widely praised at the time of its release.
Warren Ellis Q&A Events
Further screening information and tickets are available here.
Thursday, June 5th
Luna Leederville, Perth, WA
Warren Ellis virtual Q&A
Friday, June 6th
The Astor, Melbourne, VIC
Warren Ellis and Justin Kurzel in-person Q&A
Saturday, June 7th
Palace Regent Cinema, Ballarat, VIC
Warren Ellis and Justin Kurzel in-person Q&A
Saturday, June 7th
Cinema Nova, Melbourne, VIC
Warren Ellis in-person Q&A
Sunday, June 8th
State Theatre, Sydney, NSW
Sydney Film Festival premiere & Vivid Sydney “An Evening with Warren Ellis” event
