Press Release: HIGH THERE turns out to be year's best-reviewed nonfiction film

For immediate release:

One reviewer calls High There "a perfect film, a perfect documentary" 

HOLLYWOOD (JULY 13) -- Less than twenty days after its release, the gonzo comedy High There is the year's best-reviewed nonfiction film.

After High There opened with strong DVD and VOD sales amid a flurry of raves and a much-watched RT America television appearance by director-star Wayne Darwen, Jay Ruttenberg of the highly-regarded comedy journal Lowbrow Reader recommended immediate viewing of the film, praising its "wild... Pynchon-noirish plot."

This was followed by a "review heard 'round the world" from the essential B-movie and film fan website, A Bucket of Corn.  "The Home of Down-to-Earth Honest Reviews" stated that  High There "is a prime example of a perfect documentary... a perfect film."

In contrast, High There's most-publicized VOD competitor, The Wolfpack, was praised by the New York Times for telling "a strange tale with heart and generosity," but hit by Variety for its "middling execution."

"Perfect? I'm amazed but not surprised," said High There executive producer Sam Peters. "High There really is the best-reviewed documentary of the year!"

The A Bucket of Corn reviewer wrote: "I was thoroughly entertained. I laughed and was very much educated... This is an experience to watch. BRINKvision has done it again and brought out a very unique film... a perfect example of the art form of filmmaking through a real person, situations, and the exploration of the human species in all its weird HIGH form.

"I can’t speak highly enough about this oddball non-fiction comedy. A true eye opening trip, pardon the pun... This is possibly one of the best documentaries I have seen in a long time. It’s truly original and a perfect example of everything to do in a memorable, wild, over the top and perfect piece of filmed cinema. The reality-based ordeal, the characters, the travelog-like atmosphere, and the wild comical truths leave a truly lasting impression.

"I feel this is a perfect film. There is no flaw with this documentary. I was thoroughly entertained and it gave me a wild ride, simply put, HIGHly recommend."

A Bucket of Corn reviews "every type of film, from movies of today all the way to unknown and forgotten by time cinema."

Other sites and reviewers heaping praise on High There include The LA Weekly ("a trip, full of comedy and chaos"), film critic Indra Arriaga in the Anchorage Press ("absurdly funny" with "newsworthy substance'') and media columnist Mark Day in the national newspaper, The Australian ("a labour of love... hailed as a minor masterpiece (that) reignites a film genre made popular decades ago by the likes of Cheech and Chong... and its producer/star... described as the new Hunter S. Thompson — the new king of gonzo journalism."

The award-winning High There is also receiving five-star reviews on Amazon.com, where its initial order of limited edition DVDs has sold out (and since been replenished) and the film is a big attraction as streaming Video On Demand.

FOR INTERVIEWS, REVIEWS, PRESS MATERIALS

CONTACT: Sam Peters

goodstoryproductions@mac.com

SAM PETERS PUBLIC RELATIONS NY LA LV LN HK

Press Release: From Australia to Aloha to Alaska: High-flying week for HIGH THERE

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

Nonfiction gonzo comedy film praised as "absurdly funny" 

Director-star Wayne Darwen called "icon of his era"

High There set for  June 23rd release on BRINKvision DVD and On Demand

HOLLYWOOD (MAY 29) -- Praise and publicity for the soon-to-be-released nonfiction comedy High There crossed hemispheres and continents this week, beginning with a controversial retraction by a septuagenarian newspaper columnist and culminating with a rave review calling the film "absurdly funny," with "newsworthy substance."

The latest critical thumbs-up in advance of the film's June 23rd release on BRINKvision DVD and On Demand came Thursday from The Anchorage Press in Anchorage, Alaska.  Film critic Indra Arriaga called the film "absurdly funny," with "drama and conniving... front and center." She wrote that its focus on "a crackdown on the cannabis industry as well as the ongoing detention of Roger Christie who founded the THC Ministry... give High There newsworthy substance."

She concluded by stating that director/star Wayne Darwen "is an icon of his era."

The write-up in the 49th State came as High There was being cited in the 50th state as a counterpoint to Cameron Crowe's critically-panned film Aloha.  After a civil rights group attacked Crowe's film for its alleged unfair racial representation of Hawaii, High There was shown on social media to present true diversity in and around the hippie enclave of Pahoa on the Big Island.

Wendy & Mark Day

All this came on the heels of a puzzling about-face by columnist Mark Day of The Australian. After a laudatory May 18th column mentioning that High There "is being described as a minor masterpiece and its producer/star is being described as the new Hunter S. Thompson -- the new king of gonzo journalism," Day recanted on Monday, writing "I should not have written that... I have now seen the movie. It is not my cup of tea."

Conspiracy theorists note that Day's unprecedented reversal came hours after Darwen was quoted in worldwide media criticizing Robert Downey Jr.'s disparaging comments about independent films.  Mark Day is married to Wendy Day, a high-powered manager of Australian movie stars like Nicole Kidman-- Downey Jr.'s costar in the 2006 film Fur.

Anchorage Press review of High There

CONTACT: Sam Peters
goodstoryproductions@mac.com
SAM PETERS PUBLIC RELATIONS NY LA LV LN HK

Press Release: HIGH THERE horrifies The Establishment

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

Sam Peters, executive producer

"Not my cup of tea!" Australian columnist does about-face days after director criticizes mainstream movie star

Executive producer: "This film is not for elderly old timers who drink tea from a cup. The audience for High There likes their tea rolled in paper or lit in a pipe!"

Gonzo comedy film set for June 23rd release

HOLLYWOOD (MAY 24) -- A week after his praise of the new gonzo stoner comedy High There, veteran Australian journalist Mark Day has taken to his column once again to declare that the film "is not my cup of tea."

Day, who is marking his 56th year as a journalist, wrote last week in The Australian newspaper, correctly, that High There has been “hailed as a minor masterpiece” and “reignites a film genre made popular decades ago by the likes of Cheech and Chong.”

This morning he used his column to say: "I should not have written that. (High There) is a pointless rave... If this is gonzo, I’m a monkey’s uncle. Cheech and Chong were funny. This is not!"

Director and star Wayne Darwen had no comment on Day's latest column. 

But executive producer Sam Peters fired back.  "Pointless? This film helped get a man out of prison. Not gonzo? 'Gonzo' is defined as being 'of or associated with journalistic writing of an exaggerated, subjective, and fictionalized style -- bizarre or crazy.' This film, and the character Wayne Darwen portrays-- fit the bill perfectly.

Mark Day, monkey's uncle

"We sent Mark a link to watch the film, and got word that he was chuckling his way through the first half. I don't know what happened to change his opinion, but the pearl clutching is not unexpected.

"Mark's about my age, and this film is not for us elderly old timers who drink tea from a cup. The audience for High There likes their tea rolled in paper or lit in a pipe! High There won the Viewer's Choice Award from the Cannabis Film Festival -- not the Australian Press Council!

"I don't want to age myself, but to quote a song from my old friend  -- and tea-rolling mate-- Willie Dixon, 'The men don't know, but the little girls understand.' The kids understand High There.  If we got Rupert Murdoch men's approval, we'd be in trouble!"

High There DVD,
available June 23 

Day's clarification comes days after Darwen challenged Robert Downey Jr.'s treatment of journalists and denigration of independent films. “Junior was a lot more interesting when he was a substance-abusing, suffering artist — brave and silly enough to push the envelope,” Darwen told Richard Johnson of PageSix.com.  "It was the untamed spirit of the indie movement and the writings of journalists he now walks out on, that made him a name in the first place.”

High There will be released on BRINKvision DVD and On Demand on June 23rd. It's available as a pre-order on Amazon.com and other online sales sites.

CONTACT: Sam Peters

goodstoryproductions@mac.com
SAM PETERS PUBLIC RELATIONS NY LA LV LN HK

The Australian: Wayne Darwen's High There stoner's film is a labour of love

THE AUSTRALIAN  May 18, 2015

MARK DAY

Columnist

Sydney

I coulda been famous. I coulda been somebody. I coulda been The Judge! But I said no and I missed out on my big chance for stardom. 

I kid you not. A couple of years ago I was invited to play a small role in a movie. 

Because of my grumpiness, stern features and stentorian voice I was offered the role of the judge in what I perceived as a wacky low-budget crazy movie idea being pushed by an old journalist mate of mine.

I declined, mumbling something about being too busy.

That movie has just won the viewers’ choice award at a Californian film festival. It is being hailed as a minor masterpiece and its producer/star is being described as the new Hunter S. Thompson — the new king of gonzo journalism.

Mind you, it is a specialist film and its festival award was decided by folk with a specialist interest. The film is called High There and it won at the first Cannabis Film Festival staged in Garberville, California, at the heart of the Emerald Triangle. (Who knew of such things?)

High There was conceived, written, co-directed and co-­produced by its star, Wayne Darwen, playing (if that is the word) investigative journalist Dave High. His co-director and director of photography was Henry Goren, aka Roland Jointz.

Are you getting the picture? High There is a stoners’ movie about sex, drugs, booze, idiocy and persecution — “all the things people want to see”, according to Darwen. It reignites a film genre made popular decades ago by the likes of Cheech and Chong.

According to the festival blurb, the movie is “a 2014 dark, nonfiction comedy film 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”.

That sounds as if the movie has a point to it, but I doubt that. I have seen only the trailer online but from earlier discussions with Darwen the whole point of the exercise was to not have a point. Well, I think that was the gist of it. When I inquired about a script for the judge’s role he told me not to bother about that … we would just see where it took us.

Hold that thought. None of us know where life will take us. In the mid 1970s, when I was news editor and later editor of the Sydney Daily Mirror, I was called on to nominate a candidate for a job as a correspondent in our New York bureau.

It was an unexpected call to fill one of the most prized positions available. On that day we had scooped the opposition with a great yarn that was the result of a young reporter’s skill, intuition, terrier-like tenacity and creativity; Wayne Darwen had stayed up all night and trawled the streets of Kings Cross to bring home the bacon.

It seemed to me that Darwen had, not for the first time, exhibited the attributes we wanted in the highly competitive Sydney afternoon tabloid wars and on that basis I offered him the job. It also helped that he could write.

It was proposed as a six-month posting. He took it and he took off, never to return. He worked in the bureau for a while, then joined the team of Aussies rewriting the American television story with A Current Affair, the program that became the powerhouse that helped generate the viewer attention that inspired the Fox network in the US.

The ACA team’s antics were amazing, preposterous, amusing, appalling, genius and sometimes — often, perhaps? — dubious. They were part of Rupert Murdoch’s early push into American TV and they adopted an “anything goes” culture that caused their immediate manager, Ian Rae, to tear out his remaining hair. But it was their devil-may-care, whatever-it-takes approach that got the stories that people watched.

ACA was headed by Peter Brennan, another former news editor of the Mirror who cut his teeth in TV on Ten’s Good Morning Australia and went on to make and lose various fortunes as owner or producer of TV reality and current affairs shows such as Hard Copy and Judge Judy.

ACA’s star reporter was Steve Dunleavy, the legendary Sydney reporter who, amazingly, has survived his hard-drinking, hard-living past to become a gentleman retiree on Florida’s beaches.

If you want the full story on this extraordinary group and their antics, ACA’s Burt Kearns (also a co-producer of High There) told it all in his highly readable book Tabloid Baby.

ACA was eventually killed off not because viewers got sick of it but because advertisers thought it too hot or too close to the bone to want to associate their products with it. Darwen became a freelance producer.

He also became known as the inspiration for Robert Downey Jr’s role in the movie Natural Born Killers. Steve Dunleavy may dispute this but either way, both were contenders for the Hunter S. Thompson crown of gonzo journalism.

From time to time Darwen made quiet trips to Australia and each time we would catch up for a yarn and a beer. We discussed making an outback discovery program but decided Australian audiences didn’t need another man in a wide hat chasing camels in the desert.

High There has been Darwen’s passion or plaything — you can never be quite sure — for several years and it is good to see his persistence and dedication to a seemingly absurd proposition pay off.

His movie was made on a shoestring and I haven’t seen it — it becomes available online on June 23 — so I don’t know if he found anyone to play his judge, or whether that character made it into the final cut.

But it serves to make the point that if we don’t know where life will take us, journalism is a good place to start.

Link to The Australian article 
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/business/media/wayne-darwens-high-there-stoners-film-is-a-labour-of-love/story-e6frg9tf-1227358238524