WildBear & Elton John doc on Netflix Australia, NZ
September 21, 2021
WildBear Entertainment has announced that its latest star-studded feature documentary, Hating Peter Tatchell, will begin streaming on Netflix Australia and New Zealand from 22nd September, following its successful international release earlier in the year.
Produced by Veronica Fury from WildBear Entertainment’s Brisbane office, directed by Gold Coast based Christopher Amos, and executive produced by Sir Elton John and David Furnish, it tells the powerful and inspiring true story of Peter Tatchell, the controversial human rights campaigner whose protests rocked the establishment, revolutionised attitudes and laws on homosexuality, and exposed tyrants and injustice across the globe.
WildBear Entertainment is one of Australia’s most successful factual production companies, with Hating Peter Tatchell coming off the back of WildBear’s recent feature triumph with the official selection of Playing with Sharks: The Valerie Taylor Story at Sundance and its Disney Plus launch earlier this year, plus Brock: Over the Top, released by Universal Pictures and ABC. Five years in the making and filmed across the UK, Russia and Australia, Hating Peter Tatchell follows over fifty-years of Peter’s life from his activist beginnings in Australia with the Anti-Vietnam War movement, to his latest crusade against the persecution of LGBT+ people in the Chechen Republic during the 2018 FIFA World Cup in Moscow that led to his public arrest near the Red Square and Kremlin.
Hating Peter Tatchell has also just been announced in this year’s Raindance Film Festival’s official selection.
Producer Veronica Fury comments: “Hating Peter Tatchell has been a terrific team effort and we are thrilled to have had the support of Sir Elton John and David Furnish as part of that team. We are proud to have produced this very topical and resonant feature doc, about a truly inspiring man, and we are now delighted to share it with home audiences in Australia and New Zealand.”
Hating Peter Tatchell received principal production investment from Screen Australia in association with WildBear Entertainment and was financed with support from the Melbourne International Film Festival Premiere Fund and Screen Queensland.
Featuring extensive never-before-seen photographic and video archives, an intimate conversation between Peter and fellow activist and celebrated actor, Sir Ian McKellen, and evocative supporting interviews from allies and adversaries, including former Archbishop of
Canterbury George Carey, actor Stephen Fry, the ex-head of the UK LGBT+ group Stonewall Angela Mason, 1970s pop star Tom Robinson, the world’s first out cabinet minister Chris Smith, and photojournalist Adrian Arbib who reported on some of Peter’s best-known protests, Hating Peter Tatchell invites audiences to discover how this Australian-born activist went from the ‘Most Hated Man in Britain’ to a national treasure.
Hating Peter Tatchell received principal production investment from Screen Australia in association with WildBear Entertainment and was financed with support from the Melbourne International Film Festival Premiere Fund and Screen Queensland.
Sir Elton John and David Furnish said: “We were so overwhelmed with emotion. It was fantastic! It’s so compelling – and such a harsh contrast to the disappointing times we are living in. An important cinematic milestone that properly celebrates a true hero.”
Sir Ian McKellen said, “I hope it’s obvious how much I admire his tireless work on behalf of us all.”
Stephen Fry said, “It’s magnificent. Truly inspiring. It is one thing to have accumulated so much footage and such fine contributions, but you have put it together with such skill, flair, and brilliance. It tells the story perfectly, without a frame of longueurs or drop in narrative drive.”
Christopher Amos said, “Peter has spoken out against human rights abuses when others have stayed silent, and he remains a shining example of how one person truly can make the world a better place.”
The 29th Raindance Film Festival is being held in London from 27th October to 6th November. Hating Peter Tatchell will have a VIP screenning on 31st October, followed by a public screening at Curzon Soho on 1st November