FEATURE DOCUMENTARY, 2020
People Productions
Dir: Matthew Walker Prod: Clare Lewis, Tait Brady, Carolina Sorenson
Angela Cerasi colour graded this award-winning documentary I’m Wanita, the story of a renegade country music singer from Tamworth, Australia, directed by Matthew Walker. It began as a four-day shoot and transformed into a five-year journey for the director.
I’m Wanita is the story of a renegade country music singer from Tamworth, Australia, hell-bent on realising her childhood dreams of stardom. Self-crowned as ‘Australia’s Queen of Honky Tonk”, Wanita is still waiting fir the recognition she knows she deserves. Wanita embarks on a quest to record an album in the country music Mecca of Nashville, but her inability to toe the line threatens to derail her plans – can she keep her date with destiny?
Wanita Bahtiyar grew up in northwest of Victoria, listening to Loretta Lynn and Hank Williams and dreaming of singing at the Grand Ole Opry. The film catches up with Australia’s self-proclaimed ‘Queen of Honky Tonk’ in her late forties, having lived a life that has encompassed autism, parenting, struggles with alcohol, a tumultuous marriage, sex work, and an unrelenting (if unwanted) tendency to burn bridges.
Director Matthew Walker discussed the film in this way, in this IF magazine article:
“You don’t need to be a country music lover to enjoy this story at all, you just need to have tried to achieve something. I guess in this world where we are bombarded with curated images of people living their best lives, this film is a bit of an antidote to that, where we see what really goes into someone trying to be their best self. It can actually be a little bit ugly at times and other times transcendental and hugely uplifting.”
The award-winning documentary was nominated for multiple awards and was the winner of Best Music Documentary at the Raindance Film Festival in 2021 and winner of the Australian Documentary Prize at the Sydney Film Festival in 2021.
To see another documentary recently colour graded by Angela Cerasi, check out the trailer and stills for The Jewish Nazi.