For most of us, our personal idea of adventure comes in all shapes and sizes.

For some, a fishing trip is an adventure. For others, it might be a spontaneous overseas trip with friends. For others still, it could be something more extreme, like skydiving or rock climbing.

For three young Australian men, Valerio De Simoni, Jamie Kenyon and Kris ‘Ted’ Davant, their interpretation of adventure was to embark on a record-breaking quad bike journey across Europe, Africa and Australia while fundraising for Oxfam.

In a rite of passage, the fearless and idealistic trio were hell-bent on testing their limits until tragedy struck, forever changing their lives.

Now, 16 years later, their intimate and often edgy road-trip footage, alongside a discovered diary and contemporary reflections, feature in the new documentary Sand Roads, telling a heartfelt story of friendship, loss, memory and courage.

Sand Roads is produced by experienced film and television producer Sally Browning, who has more than 30 years’ experience working on projects including the ABC’s Muster Dogs, as both director and producer. 

Sally has also worked on the SBS documentary series Perspective Shift, created and produced the ABC short-form animation series The Stickie Gang, and co-created and executive produced two seasons of the family comedy-drama series Drop Dead Weird, among many other projects.

In this interview, Sally discusses the emotional challenges of working with a victim’s family to make a documentary about an unfathomable tragedy, the difficulties of working remotely with Italy-based directors, and why she believes the deepest forms of grief, like the one explored in Sand Roads, can ultimately offer hope to those who experience it.

“I’ve made quite a lot of emotional films, but I think the approach is always the same, and that is how careful we have to be in handling real-life participants.”

Interview by Matthew Eeles

You’ve worked in the industry as a producer for 30 years. What makes a project the right fit for you?

There are a lot of different things, but what attracts me to a documentary idea personally and professionally is the people involved. Second to that would be if there’s an issue attached that needs amplification. Those two things for me are crucial. Also, if somebody has approached me with an idea, it’s all about how passionate they are about making it and whether or not they can see that documentary in their mind’s eye and who it might reach. And I’ve made quite a range, I would say. Political, social films, sociopolitical films, personal biographies, through to something like Muster Dogs, which is factual entertainment. And I still think there’s a really good space for that sort of factual or documentary programming as well.

So why did this particular story need amplification in your opinion?

Sand Roads has a very natural emotional narrative arc, and it’s an experience that I felt could find its audience because of the fact that it combines the elements of adventure, youth, and then, with hindsight, reflection, as well as having a tragedy at its core. But it was really the emotional storytelling that leapt off the page. And the fact that the participants, and I’m talking not just about Victoria, Ted and Jamie, who are in the contemporary footage, but also the boys when they went on their journey and the amazing footage they shot. All of that in its layers is just a beautiful story.

Did you know anyone involved in Sand Roads prior to it being presented to you?

I hadn’t known anyone involved, and yet there were some very coincidental things that were going on. I actually read an article about it when the event happened, and I didn’t really think much more of it. Years went by, and then in 2018, I got approached by the Italian producer who had been trying for a number of years to get the project up. I believe he’d gone through several Australian production companies as well. I really connected with it the moment we met and we talked about it. And I also have some Italian connections in my own background. So for me, I was immediately attracted to it. It was absolutely a film that I could get involved with creatively and to raise the finance for.

Considering that you had recently worked on children’s animation and TV shows like Muster Dogs, did you find you had to prepare differently for Sand Roads on an emotional level?

Well, I’ve made quite a lot of emotional films, but I think the approach is always the same, and that is how careful we have to be in handling real-life participants. And for Jamie and Ted and Victoria, Valerio’s mother, and even the wider family, his sister Martina and the nieces, Eleanor and Ima, we’re dealing with an event that has totally rippled across their lives for the past 15 years. So I was very conscious of enabling them to understand the process all the way through. The entire creative team and crew that we had were very mindful of this, and we’ve tried to be all the way through as well in terms of presenting a rough cut and a fine cut and explanations for how it came together as a final film.

Considering Jamie, Ted and Victoria had seen rough cuts prior, did they have any input at all in the final cut of the film?

They were always consulted. It’s very tricky to give participants final approval. Our funding arrangements don’t allow that, of course. However, we listened to what they had to say and their feedback. Some we took on board where we were able to, and things we couldn’t, but we were always very upfront and explained why. Generally, they wanted a little bit more of the adventure itself in there, or there were certain things that they asked to take out, which we did. But overall, I think it was a good consultation process. I wish we had more time in the edit to allow for further consultation. But of course, once you get to a certain point and everyone understands where they are, you just have to move towards the end. One of the things that was very apparent is that making the film, finishing the film, and then knowing that an audience is going to see it is a really visceral form of closure for them, particularly for Victoria. I know that. These three really did want to see it made, and it took a long time, but we got there.

How would you describe Jamie, Ted and Victoria’s involvement in this film? Would you say they had had enough time to heal, and they found this process easier, or was it still raw for them?

Grief is a complicated state of being and emotion because I think you can move through it and then it can all come back in no time at all, no matter how many years have passed. I can’t speak for all of them, but I do know that there were moments, particularly when we were showing a cut, for instance, where I felt that I needed to warn them before the screening, and just say, “Look, you’re going to be seeing this on a big screen. It’s going to feel different. We are aware of that. We want you to have that in your mind because it may bring up certain emotions for you.” And I think it did for each of them in different ways. But also for Victoria, there was something she really wanted to say in this film. She wanted to get through it. And as I said, it was almost closure in a way for her. It was something cathartic that she could finally put to rest in a way. I mean, Valerio lives on through the association that she formed, but at the same time, this was actually closing a chapter for the family.

And is that something that you recognised, that that chapter had closed in a sense?

I feel like it has. It’s got a different life now because it’s a film that audiences are going to see. So that’s going to be a different feeling to them, particularly when they see it for the first time with an audience. But I think as creatives, the directors and us as producers, and also Daniel Oates, the editor, we really did work hard on how the film was going to end. And we all wanted it to end with a sense of hope. At one point, I think that’s all we talked about in our back and forth. How do we do this? And there were, again, more robust discussions, but the idea was that we all wanted to bring a sense of inspiration and a feeling of hope at the end of the film. We have been told by people that it does have that, so I hope so.

Tell us about working with the film’s directors, Gabriele Gianni and Lorenzo Conte.

Gabriele and Lorenzo were based in Italy. They did a lot of things remotely. They did come out here for the shoot for around six to eight weeks all up. They had a really solid idea about what they wanted on paper. As the creative process unfolded, that found itself adjusting into what was actually possible. Also, once you bring in an editor and even cinematographer, perspectives do change. I can say honestly, there were robust discussions, but what we were all fighting for together was to have a film that told this really intricate, rather complicated narrative, and it did it in a way that would give an audience a feeling of going on that journey. Not just the journey with the boys on the quads, but the journey of what happened and how things are today.

What were some of the challenges of working with directors remotely? Did you ever feel a level of disconnect considering you weren’t in the same room together?

The time difference was the biggest challenge. [Laughs]. They were here for the shoot. That was the important thing. We wanted them to come back for the edit, but there were funding challenges going on in Italy that made it difficult. I think the biggest challenge was having the directors who hadn’t worked remotely with an editor before. And that meant that while our editor, Daniel, was working during the day, Gabriele and Lorenzo were looking at edits while we were sleeping. And sometimes that would happen and sometimes it wouldn’t. So I think time was the biggest challenge for us.

Towards the end of the film, Jamie tells the camera that it’s strange speaking to the camera, and he asks, why now? So why was now the right time to release this documentary?

Because we got it made. [Laughs]. We finished it. It was selected by Palace for the Italian Film Festival before we had actually even started the sound mix. We sent them a rough cut. Our distributor, Tait Brady at Label Distribution, sent them a rough cut. They came back with a very positive response to it, and then it was just a case of buckling down and getting it done. But in terms of what might make it something that people might want to see at the cinema now is that these boys went on an odyssey which is something that young people do today, and have done for millennia, particularly Australians. Young Australian’s love adventure. I think that alone is an attraction to see the film. The other layers that will attract people to see this are to do with reflection, the contemporary hindsight, the maturity that comes with that, and also the weaving in of how something from the deepest forms of grief can actually give life and hope to something else. I think those are themes that people do like to feel while watching a film, and maybe this doco can do that.

Sand Roads is now screening at the Italian Film Festival. Details here.

If you enjoy Cinema Australia as much as I loved publishing it, please consider supporting Cinema Australia’scommitment to the Australian screen industry via a donation below.

I strive to shine a light on Australian movies, giving voice to emerging talent and established artists.

This important work is made possible through the support of Cinema Australia readers.

Without corporate interests or paywalls, Cinema Australia is committed to remaining free to read, watch and listen to, always.

If you can, please consider making a contribution. It takes less than a minute, and your support will make a significant impact in sustaining Cinema Australia as the much-loved publication that it is.

Thank you.

Matthew Eeles
Founder and Editor.

Make a donation here.