HIGH THERE PRESS KIT MATERIAL! DIRECTORS' BIOS



WAYNE DARWEN
Director/Writer/Producer

Immortalized in the book Tabloid Baby as one of the innovators of the tabloid television genre, Wayne Darwen rewrote the rules of television news, developed the template for the modern entertainment news package, changed the way stories are told on television and opened the gates for the reality television revolution.  All the while, he was developing and cultivating the role of the brilliant Aussie pirate in an increasingly corporatized industry. Starting out as a 17-year-old reporter for a newspaper in Sydney, Australia, he traveled the world as a reporter for the likes of the Sydney Daily Mirror, Star magazine and the New York Post, before scorching the earth of popular culture when he made the move to television on influential shows like A Current Affair, Hard Copy, Geraldo Rivera’s Now It Can be Told and Inside Edition.  He saw his reputation reach legendary status when he inspired the character of newsman Wayne Gale in Oliver Stone’s film, Natural Born Killers, mellowed considerably during an extended stay in Nashville, and washed up in Los Angeles at the dawn of the 21st century to write and produce for network, cable, and the syndicated television series, Extra, while a new generation of television producer and executive looked upon him with awe  -- and a bit of fear.  In his most recent venture, Darwen confronted his own legacy as well as the devolution of modern journalism in the service of television entertainment when he wrote, directed, and took on the guise of Dave High in the documentary film High There.  It is the first leg of a filmic journey that picks up where his colleague and inspiration Hunter S. Thompson left off.



HENRY GOREN
Director/Director of Photography/Producer

Henry Goren was born in Hollywood, California, with his future career as a photographer first taking shape when he was given the family Kodak 8mm movie camera at age eight to document a family vacation through some 35 states over 42 days. His father, an electrical engineer and writer, was amazed how well his son did the job, and an inspired young Henry continued to make small one-reel animation films. He broke into the film industry in the post production department of Schick Sunn Classic Pictures and was promoted to assistant film editor before breaking into the television news business as cameraman and director of photography for shows including Dateline, Extra, Celebrity Justice, TV's Practical Jokes & Bloopers and the NBC’s Olympic coverage. Goren was a stunt driver on Stingray, appeared onscreen as a footballer on HBO's 1st and Ten and as a police officer with a whole five lines on General Hospital. He first worked with Darwen while freelancing for Telepictures in 2002, beginning a long collaboration that culminated in High There.


HIGH THERE!


"Hunter S. Thompson meets Barry McKenzie in this dark nonfiction comedy about a real-life, legendary but down-and-out tabloid television journalist who heads to Hawaii to film a marijuana travel series, only to become lost in a fog of drugs, sex and paranoia as he uncovers a secret government war to control the marijuana trade."
-- IMDb

HIGH THERE IS HERE


HIGH THERE 
is a new motion picture comedy 
directed by 
WAYNE DARWEN & HENRY GOREN



HIGH THERE: THE DIRECTORS





MEET DAVE HIGH & ROLAND JOINTZ


DAVE HIGH
"I used to be somebody. Well, let me put it this way: 
I used to be a tabloid television producer.  
The dirtiest, most unethical bastard in the business. 
That means I was one of the best."


ROLAND JOINTZ
"He could use a gig, too.
Only problem? He doesn't drink, smoke, 
or do any drugs at all.  Ah, I could tolerate that."

"We were somewhere over the Pacific, on the edge of 40 thousand feet, when reality began to take hold..."