A cult classic, an underestimated indie -loving and “one of the lost gems in Australian film” has been restored and will be released in the United States for the first time.
Haydn Keenans 1983 film “Go down”, a landmark in Aussie Indiefilm that has largely been inaccessible, will be released at 4K thanks to the launch of a new distribution company called Muscle Distribution. And muscles, such as the first acquisition and theater release, will give “go down” their first US driving starting with a premiere at Bam In New York on May 9, IndieWire can exclusively reveal.
“Going Down” was distributed to Little Fanfare himself at his first edition but grew slowly as one of the crucial examples of the Australian Indie Film scene. One of the only American shows was at the Sundance Film Festival in 1986, where it was shown as part of an independent Australian side-bar program.
The movie Stars Moira Maclaine-Cross (“Tender Hooks”) and Julie Barry (“Hell Hole”), who both also wrote the script and based it on their own lives. The film follows the middle class Karli (Tracy Mann), the Alcoholic Jane (Vera Plevnik), the unemployed Jackie (Barry) and Square Ellen (Maclaine-Cross), who together are four friends who live together and barely scratch in suburb in Sydney. But when Karli’s father offers her some money and a one-way ticket to New York, she finally sees a way out of her final life-that wants to say until the money disappears, kick start one last night out on the city that none of them will ever forget.
Time Out London praised the film as “a furious odyssey of drinks, drugs, violence and various devastation” and “an exuberant gesture despite.”
Keenan debuted his director’s debut on “Going Down” and he had later become known for the controversial cult film “Pandemonium” (1987). “Going Down” is also a time capsule of performances from local Sydney bands such as Pel Mel and Dynamic Hepnotics and has early support for performances such as David Argue and Hugh Keays-Byrne who would be known for their work in many “Ozplloitation” films, the Australian version of the exploitation.
“” Going Down “is the exact type of film that makes me excited-scary, a little dangerous and clearly the work for a group of friends who had to make it any cost to be such a honor to give this landmark for Australian independent film its first North American edition,” said Elizabeth Buyell, founder of the muscle distribution.
Buyell is a Brooklyn-based queer movie historian, programmer, filmmaker and the creator of the queer experimental feature “Ask any friend.” With muscles, her goal is to have a “heavy focus on radical, canon-expanding repertoire cinema” and are “dedicated to complicating and expanding the cannon by shining a light on works that either have never got its correct decay or which unfairly faded to ambiguity.” The company will have other titles throughout 2025, and additional dates as part of the North American theatrical edition for “Goga Down” will be announced.
Buyell is also known for the monthly screening series She Hosts Queer Cinema: Lost and Found at the Austin Film Society, and she hosts the monthly Queer movie series and podcast that cruises the films at the IFC Center.
The deal was negotiated by Buyell and producer/director Haydn Keenan for his own smart street films.
