Luis Bayonas’ feature film ADIOS world premieres on April 22 at
Colac Cinemas in regional Victoria with the film’s stars in attendance. ADIOS is a product of a 40 year
friendship between industry veteran and Colac district filmmaker Luis Bayonas
and acting legend, AFI Award winner John Waters (Offspring, Breaker Morant).
Waters plays Marcus Smith, a well
known singer/actor at the peak of his career, who leaves his home, wife and two
children to go and live in a remote corner in the dark side of the bush for
reasons he doesn’t know. This is the start of an outrageous, enlightening,
pointless journey into his own head.
John Waters said “Everything’s
positive to me about this film…I love what I do and I like doing it with Luis,
who is someone I love and trust, and the result is complete freedom.”
Luis Bayonas, a filmmaker and script
writer who cut his teeth working on American/Spanish/Italian co-productions in
the 1960s (including Dustin Hoffman’s first film), landed in Australia in the
’70s imported by the great Hector Crawford. The talented emigre won numerous
writing awards while working on most classic Aussie TV shows including Homicide, A Country Practice, The Flying
Doctors, Special Squad, two telemovies and the teleplay A Woman in the House. He burnt out in
the late ’80s, but recovered from a massive writer’s block by taking up
painting and music in the ’90s. In the new millennium he returned to filmmaking
as a director/writer at the ripe old age of 74. His first feature film was Dancing Cows, shot in the
Colac/Camperdown region, where Luis lives.
There would be very few people around
Colac, Camperdown, Birregurra and Beeac who hadn’t heard of
Luis’ productions. “People simply
believed in the project and wanted to be a part of it, and give movie-making a
go,” says Bayonas, “now all their hard work and commitment has paid off.”
The local talent (Lyn Stone, Lyn
McLean, David McKenzie, Peter Daffy, Moira Nelson) joined with industry
professionals such as John Waters, Colin and Cameron Cairnes (100 Bloody Acres), Jorge Ordonez and
producer Jenny Sharp to make a film that belies its more than modest budget.
Father Bob Maguire makes a cameo as himself.
In Bayonas’ own words: “Adios
is exactly the movie we wanted to make, nothing more nothing less. A movie that
flows naturally. We picked a situation, gave it a kick start and let it unroll
out of itself like a streamer, I tried not to control the characters, but let
them live instead, find their own feet.”
Producer Jenny Sharp has worked with
Bayonas on both Dancing Cows and Adios. They met in the late 1970s on Crawford Productions’ Cop Shop. An Awgie nominated writer
herself, Jenny has been collaborating with Luis as a script editor on many film
projects ever since.
Bayonas is now working on other
scripts while painting professionally and playing and writing music. Adios is set to play at film festivals
here and abroad and is an exciting way to show not just what a wonderful part
of the world south west Victoria is, but the extraordinary amount of talent that
exists there.
WATCH
THE TRAILER:
CAST
& CREW ATTENDING WORLD PREMIERE SCREENING
Cast and crew in attendance at the
world premiere screening on Monday include:
Writer/director/composer/DOP Luis
Bayonas
Cast – Cameron Cairnes, Colin Cairnes
& Lyn Stone
Producer Jenifer Sharp
ADIOS WORLD PREMIERE SCREENING
Monday 22 April at 8.30 pm. Tickets available
by phoning: 03 5232 2077.
INTERVIEWS
– available ahead of world premiere screening on Monday
John Waters available at limited times this week
Director Luis Bayonas available by phone from Colac
ATTEND
THE PREMIERE
Colac is less than 2 hours drive from Melbourne via Geelong.
Vline runs services to Colac from Southern Cross station –
change to a coach at Geelong
Follow Adios on: https://www.facebook.com/adios.bayonasmovie?fref:ts
