Some of the “A Life Unexpected” team – L-R: Laura Wagner (German Translations), Melanie Brunt (Producer), Sally McLean (Writer/Director/Producer), Robert L Galinsky (Executive Producer) & Tim Egan (Director of Photography)November was a busy month for the “A Life Unexpected” team, as they geared up for the official Investors’ Launch, held at St Catherine’s School, Toorak.
A plethora of Olympic and Commonwealth Games luminaries were in attendance, including John Landy, Ralph Doubell, Bill Hooker, Bob Lay, Nick Regos, Bob Joyce, David Boykett, Ondine McGlashen, and Marg Woodlock-McLean.
Guests enjoyed wine from Morning Star Estate and Hickinbotham of Dromana, along with finger food and nibbles, before watching an exclusive screening of the latest version of the full teaser reel (only available to distributors and investors), followed by a presentation from Writer/Director, Sally McLean, Producer, Melanie Brunt and Executive Producer, Robert Galinsky.
A highlight of the evening was Marg Woodlock-McLean’s sharing of her experience of the 1956 Olympic Opening Ceremony in Melbourne as one of the Australian Olympic team. Guests were noticeably moved – some to tears – listening to Marg’s story of being a teenager in her first Olympic Games, sharing the wonder and awe she felt walking into the MCG to the extraordinary roar of 60,000 people with fellow athletes from every corner of the world.
Marg had spent a busy day talking about her time as an Olympian and her training under Franz Stampfl – earlier that day, she had appeared on popular Melbourne radio station, SEN (Sports Enterainment Network) on “An Hour of Power” with Commonwealth Games Gold Medalist, Peter Bourke, to discuss their Athletics careers and their coach, Franz Stampfl.
During the evening many Athletes got the chance to catch up and reminisce about their time in their sports – some not having seen each other since they were competing! It was just a taste of what the documentary itself will be like for those present – many of the guests experiencing first-hand the senses of humour and fascinating stories that these athletes have and the production team intend to capture on film.
It was an extremely successful evening, with universally enthusiastic and positive feedback from all in attendance. And culminated with several people present now beginning the process of investing in the film!
The team would like to thank the following people for making the evening possible and such a success:
Our major supporters:
And the group of generous people who gave of their time and expertise so freely:
- Marg Woodlock-McLean
- Catherine Middlemiss
- Chris Schembri
- Billy Smedley
- Judy Barrett
- James McLean
- Danielle Sands
- Radyn & Tim Hoffman
- Samantha Brown
Thank you to everyone who contributed to the evening. Special thanks to Christoph Ziengenhardt for his wonderful photos of the night, which captured the atmosphere so perfectly.
News on the commencement of pre-production and other exciting developments will be released as it comes to hand, but in the meantime, enjoy the gallery of photos (from Christoph) from the evening below:
