Leatherlip

As far as I know, this is a lost film. If anyone knows of an existing copy, please contact me.

My thanks to 2nd Unit director Josh Spencer for supplying the info on this film. (Most of it from memory!). For those who are interested, I have posted Josh’s comments and a full film synopsis below.

2nd Unit Director's Comments

This film is exploitative in the most literal sense in that Director Stuart Pringle had no clear idea of what the film would be. He simply exploited whatever production value he could find in locations, props and people he encountered whilst the unit travelled across southern Africa. All dialogue was improvised. There was no shooting script. Stuart was open to ideas from all crew members and gave me a free hand to direct the petrified forest sequence (amongst others) in his absence.

The wildly diverse material – fashion industry, surfing, Leatherlip's camp, drag racing, wildlife, bushman encampment, and much material of Leatherlip travelling on his exotic trike through various landscapes was woven into a semblance of a story by Editor Tommy Doig. Colin Shapiro's music helped knit it together too. The result was an adventure/travelogue that captured much of the late 60's ethos. Considering that it was made on a shoe-string budget, with a tiny crew and amateur Director and leads, the end product is surprisingly enjoyable.

Film Synopsis (Contains spoilers)

A super-model (Evon de Meistre) begins to question her glitzy, frenetic lifestyle when she awakes after a all night party to find a strange man (Richard Loring) in her bed. Suffering a nervous breakdown she is intent on suicide and is about to throw herself off a cliff when she sees a surfer riding the waves below. She follows him to his tented camp on the banks of a river. 'Leatherlip' (Tim . . . . .) is a free spirit, earning a living making leather goods and roaming around on an extraordinary 'trike' with his worldly goods and surfboard strapped on an overhead rack.

They fall in love and she abandons her previous life, entranced with his gypsy-like existence. They enjoy a blissful interlude, surfing, swimming in the river, exploring forests and lying in each others arms around the camp fire each night. Then inexplicably she disappears. Leatherlip sets off on a cross-country odyssey to find her, knowing only that her father (Bill Brewer) lives on a boat on the West Coast. He wins a drag race on his trike to finance his search and has many adventures. Crossing the Kalahari, rides through huge herds of antelope, he rescues an injured bushman (Whotsie), is fated as a hero at a Bushman camp, gets run off the road by roughnecks and gets lost in a sandstorm. Weary and dispirited by his seemingly futile quest, in a dramatic petrified forest he re-connects to the natural world and draws strength to continue. Eventually, he finds her father and is reunited with his lover.