Striking Gold: Maria Angelico and Zoe Coldham on Spare Time
Following the quirky and endearing characters who frequent Melbourne vintage ten-pin bowling alley The Keys as they prepare to compete for big money at an annual tournament, Maria Angelico and Rhys Mitchell’s new documentary Spare Time is an affectionate and often very funny portrait of men bonding over a shared passion.
Speaking to Angelico and cinematographer Zoe Coldham (whose short documentary Gore Street, Fitzroy is also screening as part of the New Voices in Australian Cinema program), MIFF Publications Manager David Heslin asks about tenpin bowling’s place in Australian culture, the role gender plays in this milieu and their thinking around documentary film structure.
How did you first come across The Keys, and what was your entry point into this world of competitive bowling?
Maria Angelico: I have some personal connections to The Keys: I was filling in for a league team, and it was [through] that that I kind of became aware of the community of the bowling alley.
We came into it not really planning to make a feature documentary. I was more interested in getting some short interviews with the guys that were entering the competition, because I thought they were interesting characters and I loved the idea of these local guys going against professional bowlers. I thought maybe we could do something with it – put something on Instagram, I dunno. And then when we started filming them and getting to know them …
Zoe Coldham: It just became apparent that there was an interesting story behind each character and why they bowled, and it was different for everybody. That’s what we started uncovering.
MA: We kept saying, [editor/producer] Zac [Bradtke] and I, “If men can’t talk, they bowl.” It’s about a bowling competition, but also a little about male loneliness.
It’s interesting that the bowlers we see in the documentary are almost exclusively male. Is that something you expected going in, and what was some of your thinking around gender and representation?
MA: In my career as an actor and writer, I feel so passionate and adamant about females in film, and if [someone had suggested], “You’re going to make a documentary about men in sport”, I would have been like, “Absolutely not!”. And it so happened that that’s just what it is.
ZC: It seemed more like that’s the way it happened, and it didn’t feel exclusionary – it didn’t feel like a space where you’d be uncomfortable being a female – but it just seemed as though it had attracted more groups of men, and then we decided to investigate that and make that part of the story: why these groups of men who maybe sometimes are really introverted, like Bob, are feeling comfortable in this space and coming out of their shells. It’s important to have places where you can have positive masculinity, and I think that’s kind of what we were looking for.
They’re quite sensitive guys, aren’t they?
ZC: I think it’s important to show that.
MA: I think that’s what we’re interesting in. I’m always curious about people, what’s under the surface with [them], and [their] sensitivities and vulnerabilities.
Two men we see a lot of in Spare Time are the co-founders of The Keys, Jon Rowatt and Tommy Peasnell – there’s an amusing scene where they’re asked how they share the workload of running a bowling alley and struggle to provide a concise answer. This documentary likewise happens to have two directors at the helm. How did you and Rhys manage that joint role, Maria?
MA: Rhys and I have collaborated for years – never co-directed, but we’ve written and performed together, so we have a real trust with each other. We don’t discuss who’s responsible for what. I really trust that his vision is my vision: I think we have the same comedic sensibilities and we’re interested in the same humanity. Also, I knew Rhys was really great at interviewing people and just letting them talk.
Above: The Keys staff members Ellen Lewis and Dominik Shields in Spare Time | Header: The Keys bowler Ellis Johnson in Spare Time.
Zoe, in terms of your cinematography, how did you approach framing the shots with interviewees and handling some of the more active sequences with bowling?
ZC: For the interviews, we were very much inspired by some of Errol Morris’s earlier works: Vernon, Florida (MIFF 1982) and Gates of Heaven. He – especially earlier on – would set up a single interview frame and let his characters exist within that, and just let the background or the mise en scène speak to that character as well. So we kept everything as it was; you know, someone’s drinking a cappuccino, so that stays in the frame.
In terms of shooting the bowling, it’s quite challenging! You don’t want to distract the bowlers, so I was shooting a lot on long lenses quite far away, especially at the Pro-Am.
Did you have an idea beforehand of how much of the film might be made up of developing the characters versus devoting time to that more climactic sequence at the Pro-Am?
MA: I think it became really clear as we got to know the characters that it had to build up to the competition. Being able to use the actual footage of the competition really helped as well, because on the day of the Pro-Am, we were the most unimportant people. I felt there was so much where we were like, “Where can we get in? Can we bother this person or that person?” We were so happy that we got the footage.
ZC: We didn’t super flesh this out, but the story of bowling in Australia is quite interesting in and of itself. It came to Australia in the 1950s, and was super popular in the 1960s and 70s; then it just fell out of fashion in the 90s and 2000s and became uncool, and now it’s having a resurgence.
MA: There was a point where we did entertain [making] it more of a documentary about bowling, but it was hard to keep the story concise with the players because there is so much interesting stuff. We had to sacrifice some things. But there is so much just in the sport of bowling … it’s a leisure sport, but it’s working-class, and I think there’s not much of that in our culture. So there’s something that’s interesting in that.
Have any of the subjects had the chance to see the film yet? If so, how did they react?
MA: They haven’t! I like the idea of them seeing it all in a cinema with each other, particularly because they’re guys that aren’t used to seeing themselves on screen. From my experience, when I watch myself on screen, it’s really nerve-racking. I think it might be nice [for them] to see themselves on the big screen and feel like superstars for a night. I think they’ll enjoy that.