By Laura BennettThursday 11 Aug 2022Hope AfternoonsMoviesReading Time: 3 minutes
Adolescence comes with many rite-of-passage experiences. For a lot of us, music festivals with our mates – away from the structure of family and school – offered an unmatchable sense of adventure. They stirred new feelings of freedom and independence and forged a sense of community within us.
Australian filmmaker and recording artist Macario de Souza (Bra Boys, Fighting Fear) has bottled the festival experience in his new film 6 Festivals, telling the story of three rascally teenagers who attend a bucket list of local events after one of their group is diagnosed with terminal cancer.
Showcasing some of the best Australia acts including Lime Cordiale and Bliss n Eso, Macario told Hope 103.2, “I had a non-negotiable with this film to shoot it at real festivals”.
“I feel like a lot of music films can fall short and end up a little cheesy sometimes. I really wanted to avoid that [through] setting it in the real world.”
Having finally been able to bring the movie to life after the 2019 bushfires cancelled events, and then the pandemic shut the industry down, Macario’s 6 Festivals is a real ode to the formative Australian music culture.
“Your write what you know about, and I tapped into my own experiences as a touring artist for years on both sides of the fence,” Macario said.
“First as a music fan, jumping fences when I couldn’t afford a ticket to a festival, and [then] making my way up the ranks as an artist.”
“I thought that environment of music festivals was exciting, euphoric and an interesting backdrop to tell a story of what essentially, at the core it, is a story of friendship,” he said.
Within the youthful mateship 6 Festivals captures, is a profound awareness of what draws us to festivals: the excitement, the newness and the unique memories created there.
Within the youthful mateship 6 Festivals captures, is a profound awareness of what draws us to festivals: the excitement, the newness and the unique memories created there.
“Music’s one of those things where it’s almost a conversation without having to talk, people can escape,” Macario said.
“Between the ages of 10-16, certain music that connected with you stays with you forever. It soundtracks different phases of your life and [it’s] something to lean on.”
At festivals “you have this sense of freedom away from authorities, away from parents, away from school with your own friends on your own terms seeing music that you love, and sharing in, and creating, these memories”.
Alongside a celebration of music, 6 Festivals deals with some pretty heavy issues like loss, drug use and miscarriage, which Macario hopes will be “a conversation starter” about things that happen behind the scenes of the music industry, but “aren’t really talked about”.
Alongside a celebration of music, 6 Festivals deals with some pretty heavy issues like loss, drug use and miscarriage… [things that] “aren’t really talked about”.
“The idea of dealing with loss is something I’ve dealt with at a young age – or potentially didn’t deal with properly,” Macario said.
“So I wanted to explore that idea of young people dealing with loss and how they do and don’t cope with it.”
“Particularly as men, we’re not great at talking about our feelings and issues,” Macario said.
“Looking back, young people in general, we thought we had it all together but [unspoken trauma] comes back later in life if you haven’t dealt with it and teaches you some life lessons.
“I hope [6 Festivals] encourages people to do a bit of a stock take of the people around them and make sure they do have solid friends who can get them through the ups and downs of life .”
“I hope [6 Festivals] encourages people to do a bit of a stock take of the people around them and make sure they do have solid friends…” – Australian filmmaker and recording artist Macario de Souza
6 Festivals is in select cinemas August 11. Rated MA15+. It comes with a language warning, and content warning for drug use and mature themes.