Our story begins, as most stories do, because of a girl. Back in the early 80s, a young boy of 15 who lived far out west was eager to impress an equally young, rather smart girl who caught his eye. He decided to flash his feathers in the hopes of looking smarter than he probably was by watching the indie films Jesus of Montreal and Cyrano de Bergerac with her. Who’s to say if this little story ends with the guy getting the girl, but more importantly this started our young protagonist on his path to indie film love, and indie movie buffs all over Australia have a lot to be thankful for.
The boy in our little tale is Troy Lum, managing director and co-owner of Hopscotch Films and Hopscotch Entertainment, Australia’s leading independent film distribution company. For a man of only 33, Lum’s background in film is impressive. He has brought over 150 films to Australia, and together with Frank Cox and Sandie Don, his partners at Hopscotch, has begun producing award-winning Australian films worthy of international attention.
It’s hard to believe that Troy started his career a little over a decade ago by serving thick, black coffee as the assistant to the Managing Director of Dendy films and living on a meager salary of $25,000 a year. “I started really young, I guess I was coming through at a time when the business was really changing and I had these opportunities that I was really lucky to get and I learn a lot really quickly,” says Lum.
Hopscotch was founded in 2002 by Lum, Cox, and Don in the hopes of creating a young, dynamic company that would be a worthy brand to remember when it came to showcasing films that weren’t your typical cookie-cutter molded box office successes. “You hope that you
build a brand up like Hopscotch so that the name of the brand adds something to the films, so people feel a little bit more comfortable because it’s a Hopscotch movie,” explains Lum. “We find that we’re able to outperform other territories in Australia and I think that’s because cinemas trust us, we’re really good at marketing, and we’re really good at a certain kind of cinema. So I think we get the films out here and they do better under us than with somebody else.”
Lum says that it’s been getting more difficult in recent years to buy the films and bring them over. “American studios have been much more aggressive, they buy out multi-territories with Australia as part of their packages so it’s been harder to source product.” Lum elaborates, “But it’s not necessarily a roadblock, we just have to be faster and smarter.”
Another thing that brings out the fighter in Lum and the rest of the team in Hopscotch is great films that are refused entry to Australia because of their content. Mysterious Skin, a critically acclaimed film about the effect of childhood sexual abuse on two young boys was almost prohibited in Australia due to outrage from right wing moral groups. Hopscotch spent a great deal of time and money while the case was being appealed through the censorship board. “When we bought the films, we didn’t know whether they would get banned or not, so when the talk came to actually banning those movies we felt it was our duty to fight for them. We don’t think that good cinema should be denied to anyone.” But Lum also explains that there is no bad blood between him and the groups that want to ban his films. “Everyone can have their point of view, and we’ve been no strangers to courting controversy when we’ve needed to promote a movie. Sometimes it’s great to have people yelling and screaming about
your movies,” he laughs. “But it would be nice to know though that the people in power didn’t take it so seriously. A lot of the far right groups have a real channel to the people in the power that I’m not happy with.”
Hopscotch has big plans for production this year and Lum’s eyes light up when he enumerates. “We’re executive producing a film called Mao’s Last Dancer, which is based on a best selling novel. This is being directed by Bruce Beresford who did Driving Miss Daisyand being produced by Jane Scott who did Shine.” Hopscotch has also invested in Bright Star, the latest film from Jane Campion, director of The Piano. Bright Star and Mao’s Last Dancer are set for release next year. In a few months, Hopscotch will be bringing in Mongol, a biopic on formidable Genghis Khan shot on location in Mongolia in the Mongolian language. “It’s got great battle scenes. It’s fantastic,” shares Lum. Hopscotch has also bought the rights to distribute Woody Allen’s new film Vicky Cristina Barcelona, shot entirely in Spain and starring Scarlett Johansson, Penélope Cruz, and Javier Bardem.
Lum has many dreams and goals for Hopscotch and the magic of film, but he is also a pragmatist and doesn’t believe that our cinema experience will always be the same. “The younger cinemagoer is going to be really challenged to compete for their entertainment time because they are so connected to the digital world through the Internet, etcetera,” he explains. “But I don’t believe that cinema will go down the same path as the music industry where it’s all about downloading. I think that will happen to a degree but I still think that the social interaction of going to a cinema, watching something with an audience will hold strong.” Lum predicts, “I think for the foreseeable future, we’ll always have cinema.”