The title of the new documentary Ego: The Michael Gudinski Story is a nod to the Skyhooks song and album that aided the Mushroom Records founder early in his career, and, of course, the ego that kept him at the forefront of the Australian music industry for five decades.
You would be hard-pressed to find a director more suited to helm the documentary than Paul Goldman. Along with feature films and documentaries, he has directed over 200 music videos, many for Mushroom Records’ artists. Like Gudinski, Goldman grew up in Melbourne and had an immediate impact on the music industry.
Goldman may have struck gold even quicker than Gudinski, directing a fresh-faced Nick Cave for his first music video in 1978. “I made a music video as a film school exercise for Shivers, for The Boys Next Door,” recalls Goldman. “Later in that same year, I made a couple of other music videos for The Boys Next Door that have gone missing… Swinburne [University] just can’t track them and we never kept copies.”
Keep up with the latest music news, features, festivals, interviews and reviews here.
Fortunately, copies of their next collaboration, the frenzied clip for The Birthday Party’s Nick the Stripper remain. The two went from working to living with each other shortly after. “Unfortunately, I lived with Nick Cave for a year in Los Angeles,” jokes Goldman. “No one knew who he was…we lived in a bungalow in West Hollywood, and Jeffrey Lee Pierce from The Gun Club was our regular friend who was trying to drink himself to death. The household was always surrounded by LA punks, which at the time weren’t very fashionable.”
Having met during the making of Goldman’s first video, he and Gudinski’s relationship spanned more than four decades. “Michael and I always had a fractious relationship, which I enjoyed and so did he,” explains Goldman. “Michael liked it when you served it up to him, and he could serve it up to you… enormously. He was a provocateur, and we clashed many, many times, but I actually really loved being around Michael, just that energy and that life force.”
Goldman was approached by Gudinski to make the film. “He asked me to read some treatments that other companies had sent to him being cognisant of the fact that the Mushroom 50th anniversary was coming up,” explains Goldman.
“He rang me and said, ‘What do you think? I was pretty blunt and said ‘They’re shithouse.’ He said, ‘Well, why don’t you do it?’”
Originally it was meant to be a four-part documentary anchored by Gudinski. “Then the pandemic happened as we were gearing up to do a week of interviews with Michael alone,” explains Goldman. “Of course, living in Melbourne meant that you couldn’t walk outside your front door, [and] Michael was very concerned about his own health, [so] we put it on hold.”
Just when the lockdowns had ended and they were getting ready to do the interviews, Gudinski unexpectedly passed away. “The family were grieving, and a lot of the people around the project were very, very upset, including myself, [and] we didn’t know where it would go… so we put the project aside for a while,” says Goldman. “Eventually, we pulled it out of the bottom drawer again and dusted it off.”
Not being able to interview Gudinski was a disappointment for Goldman and everyone involved. “I think it’s a lost opportunity for the Australian film industry, which I don’t think is very good at honouring and celebrating the legacy of people like Michael,” says Goldman. “The reason we wanted to do that week-long interview was because Michael said he wanted to set the record straight… and I think he was in the mood to say some pretty provocative things.”
Fortunately, there were over 1,000 hours of archival footage for Goldman and his team to dig through. “Michael just fucking loved the camera,” he says. “Even at the age of 19, he stood in front of the camera and basically delivered a mission statement about what he was going to do.” Goldman also conducted 120 hours of interviews for the project. “[It’s] just a stupendous amount of material, and to wade through and reduce it to 110 minutes was pretty hard.”
Goldman was able to include extra footage through the use of split screens. “If you laid out all the footage end to end, it’d be the equivalent of three documentaries,” he explains. The innovative use of animation also helps set the tone of the film. “I wanted to make a film that was a roller coaster ride. I wanted it to be loud and brash [and] I wanted it to be bold and rude, like the man himself.”
Inevitably people and issues will be left out says Goldman. “The assignment was to find the foundation stones of Mushroom,” he says. “Obviously, the origin stories are always interesting with a documentary and a person like Michael. How did he start? How did [he] get there? And those bands are at the start.”
Goldman has directed music videos for several interviewees in the documentary, including Paul Kelly, Neil Finn and Kylie Minogue. “It’s great to go back with those people and watch us all get old,” he jokes. “To see how some of the rough edges have been knocked off certain people, and how people are reconsidering history.”
Being at the forefront of such a cutthroat industry did not leave Gudinski without his critics. “I didn’t want to make a hagiography, but I also didn’t want to get down into the gutter and get nasty about stuff,” explains Goldman. “I wanted to make a film that was respectful, but also challenging and balanced.”
Most importantly, Goldman wanted to honour the contribution Gudinski made to the music industry. “We can lose sight of that… because 1972 seems a long way away… but for a 19-year-old kid to say ‘I’m going to challenge the status quo,’ [which was] a landscape run by international record companies re-treading hits from overseas, to have stood up and taken them on is pretty incredible,” says Goldman.
“For all the criticisms that anyone might level at Michael, and there’s plenty of them, the contribution and the legacy is fucking enormous,” says Goldman. “I wanted to have some sense of that, what that legacy was, and, and how difficult it was. The guy had his back to the wall so many times throughout his career.”
Melbourne International Film Festival is the perfect place for the film to premiere says Goldman. “Michael was such a great ambassador for the city [and] often said that Melbourne was one of the music capitals of the world.” Several of Goldman’s films have screened at MIFF, but his association dates back even further. “I used to work [there] as an usher when I was at film school, so to have a film in the Music on Film Gala is very, very satisfying for the entire team,” he says. “The Gudinski family would be very excited, everyone at Mushroom is excited, and I think Melbourne is really excited about it.”
For screening times and more information, head here. MIFF runs in cinemas from August 3 – 20, view the full program here.
