Page 12 - The Outdoor Showman April-June 2023

The Carnival
Documentary Film directed by Isabel Darling
Go on an epic road trip with the Bells, a sixth-generation carnival family, as they haul their convoy of trucks, rides and workers from Batemans Bay to Darwin and back.
Family carnivals and shows have been operating in Australia since the mid 1800’s and today over a hundred multi-generational show families
are still operating their own shows and carnivals across the country.
This is the story of one of these families: The Bells.
The Carnival is an observational documentary, filmed over the course of 8 years and capturing the most intimate moments of this one family and its workers. We’ll follow them as they haul their convoy of 30 trucks and rides across the country with their workers in tow where they’ll face the elements, shutdowns, and bushfires as they battle to keep their show running and on the road.
This is the story of not only the carnival itself - a nostalgic and much-loved place that has thrilled Australian families over the years - but a story about the salt-of-the earth people everyone is curious about: the
carnival workers, the showies.
They live in a different world, in a parallel universe where the old world
meets new world, where technology is changing their lives not always for the better. This is a family drama underpinned by a quest to uphold their ancestors’ traditions and to ensure that the carnival never dies. The Carnival is a sticky, colourful place filled with happiness and screams of laughter - but underneath is a darker side, one filled with pressures and expectations. Now,
as the insurance industry pulls out of Australia, hundreds of show and carnival operators no longer have the ability to insure their rides, leaving families like the Bells on the potential brink of collapse.
The Carnival documentary film will be featured during the Sydney Film Festival on Saturday 10
June – Monday 12 June 2023
For further information or to book
a ticket please visit www.sff.org.au/ program/browse/the-carnivalprogram/
10 THE OUTDOOR SHOWMAN
Continued of pages 12 & 13