‘Agadoo’ Singer Film ‘Still Pushing Pineapples’

The thirty second version of the Sheffield DocFest kicks off on June 18 with … no, not a bang, however a banger. “Leisure, working class tradition, human connection, the facility of pop and the state of Britain align in a humorous, irreverent highway film that follows an getting older pop star attempting to revive and preserve alive his previous triumph.” So reads the synopsis for director and cinematographer Kim Hopkins‘ new documentary, Nonetheless Pushing Pineapples, which tells the melancholic and heartfelt story of the previous singer of pop band Black Lace, greatest recognized for the novelty hit “Agadoo,” a much-maglined novelty music, together with such different British wedding ceremony and get together favorites as “Superman,” “Do the Conga,” and, sure, “We’re Having a Gang Bang.”

In case you assume you’ve got by no means heard the 40-year-old “Agadoo,” you could be stunned to understand you’ve got whenever you learn its well-known refrain: “Ag-a-doo-doo-doo, push pineapple, shake the tree. Aga-doo-doo-doo, push pineapple, grind espresso. To the left, to the precise, leap up and down and to the knees.
Come and dance each evening, sing with a hula melody.”

In her cinéma vérité model, Hopkins and her digicam adopted Dene Michael, who nonetheless goes on the highway to carry out this and different hits, along with his getting older mom and his younger accomplice in tow, dreaming of a comeback and writing a success music that’s totally different from his regular stage repertoire.

The doc’s title is impressed by the “Agadoo” lyrics-inspired title of Michael’s guide Nonetheless Pushing Pineapples: The True Story of The Legendary Dene Michael. “The movie highlights the fleeting nature of fame and the ever-changing panorama of British society and cultural tastes,” highlights a abstract on the Sheffield DocFest web site. “Above all, Michael’s appeal and affability shine by way of, leading to an entertaining, and finally touching, life drama.”

Produced by Margareta Szabo and edited by Leah Marino, the movie will get its world premiere because the opening-night presentation of the Sheffield DocFest, which runs by way of June 23. Jenny Bohnhoff at MetFilm Gross sales is dealing with gross sales on the challenge.

Forward of the world premiere of Nonetheless Pushing Pineapples, Hopkins talked, through Zoom from York in northern England, concerning the inspiration for the movie, her fly-on-the-wall doc model that’s like “leaping off a airplane with a suitcase” and being a physician on name, how she feels many docs have misplaced authenticity, her plans for finishing her “trilogy of working-class tales” with a doc a few pub, and why she all the time desires to make “movies which have hope in them.”

How did you discover out about Dene, discover him, and resolve to make a doc about him?

I used to be at my mom’s and had simply completed a movie. There have been masses and a great deal of IP movies round on a number of musicians, Wham!, and no matter. And I used to be pondering what IP I may get. What can I probably get to? And I requested my mom: Do you keep in mind that band? They’d that horrible music within the ’80s, after which it got here to me. So I mentioned, “Alexa, play ‘Agadoo,’ and that was the primary time I’d heard it in one thing like 30 years. And so I did a Google search on them, came upon that they have been really from Yorkshire, within the north of England. I didn’t even know they have been British. And I had a gathering with Dene, invited him to see my earlier movie, A Bunch of Amateurs, which he beloved. He type of understood the kind of movies I made. And he was fully afraid. I mentioned, “Look, not like with these IP movies, I need whole entry. That’s how I make movies. It’s a few real relationship, and it’s a must to belief me. And we are going to make this movie collectively.”

Inform me extra about your fly-on-the-wall, immersive documentary model and why that’s so necessary on your storytelling?

I went to the Nationwide Movie and Tv faculty, and I used to be, I used to be introduced up on cinéma vérité, observational cinema, or direct cinema, no matter folks wish to name it nowadays. It’s moved on from these lengthy takes, and also you are inclined to edit for story extra these days. However I’ve all the time maintained that the very DNA of documentary movie is that this authenticity you get with out sitting any individual within the studio and asking them to let you know about what’s occurred of their lives, out of context of every little thing.

I consider that the documentary is presently struggling due to this. They’ve thrown the infant out with the bathtub water. It has misplaced its authenticity. The distinctive promoting level of documentaries is that stuff. I feel audiences see themselves mirrored, they relate, and so they go on these journeys with folks. So, no sit-down interviews, no narration. Attempt to inform the story because it unfolds.

After all, that results in the story. Issues occur – you’ve got fully surprising turns of narrative. For instance, after I began filming with Dene, I had no thought [his partner] Hayley was going to come back alongside in any respect. My unique thought was: Here’s a man who’s been singing get together songs for 40 years, and no matter’s happening in his life, regardless of how he’s feeling, he drives throughout the nation and has to sing these get together anthems, then goes dwelling at three within the morning and sits in his flat. And that was his life. After which, after all, Hayley got here alongside, and that modified issues. Really, I feel Haley introduced rather a lot to the movie, an terrible lot. And people are the gorgeous issues that occur in any such filmmaking whenever you simply enable it. It’s like leaping out of an airplane holding only a suitcase deal with. You simply must go together with it.

I caught myself feeling with and for her, him, and them. So, typically I ended up being torn whereas watching them. How is that for you as a filmmaker?

Being a filmmaker or being a journalist or being something the place your job is greater than your job turns into a part of your life. It turns into you. We get outlined by what we do, a few of us very a lot so. And I feel Dene very a lot received outlined by what he did. Therefore, the metamorphosis, symbolism I used to be actually considering.

After I first met Dene, he’d received his autobiography referred to as Nonetheless Pushing Pineapples out, and it was the phrase “nonetheless” that actually me. 40 years, I assumed – what does this do to any individual? What does singing “Agadoo” 20,000 instances do to any individual? There is no such thing as a escape. And as you see within the movie, after they bury his singing accomplice, or cremate his singing accomplice, Colin, even at his funeral, the music is performed. And I feel it was at that time that Dene actually realized that he has to embrace this. “That is who I’m and the way I’m going to be outlined without end. Go along with it!” It’s also concerning the thought of what sacrifices you make in life when your job defines you. What occurs to household, what occurs to all of these things? It’s the concept he finds Haley, finds youngsters, the younger youngsters, and that he has one thing else that he can purpose for in what’s left of his life.

The problem of discovering one’s function on the planet and the liberty one has to vary it, or not, goes past Dene Michael. How a lot of a common story did you are feeling you have been telling?

You’re completely proper. I feel it’s common. For lots of us, our careers simply take over, and there comes some extent in your life whenever you type of begin to reevaluate. “Did I make the precise life decisions alongside the best way, and what did I sacrifice making these decisions?” Dene, I feel, actually embodies that. And I feel that could be a common theme.

You understand the concept musicians find yourself getting outlined by sure items of music, whoever they’re – whether or not you’re Leonard Cohen singing “Hallelujah,” or one thing else. The opening of the movie exhibits a line from Mick Jagger who mentioned: “If I attain 45 and I’m singing ‘Satisfaction,’ I’d reasonably be lifeless.” However what’s it prefer to sing “Agadoo” for 40 years, not simply whenever you’re 45, however whenever you’re in your 60s?

How lengthy did you spend filming Dene?

These movies all the time take roughly the identical time, about two and a half years. I feel that’s the largest commodity I can provide to folks: time. I regard my job as being like a physician on name, so I’m all the time obtainable. And that’s a giant sacrifice in life to make.

I had a dialog with Dene’s mom, and I mentioned: “You understand, ought to one thing actually dangerous occur to you, do you have to go away, can I movie? How do you are feeling about that? I want to movie at your funeral. This could be a giant change in Dene’s life.” And so all of these items are mentioned whereas making a movie, and that solely comes by way of time. Time creates belief. That’s what we do with pals. We acquire belief by having lengthy relationships with folks.

The tone of the movie is a mixture of heat but additionally unhappiness. How would you describe it?

Melancholy? Yeah, melancholy.

How do you take care of drama that unfolds in entrance of your digicam when there’s a threat that it may really feel exploitative?

Drama does occur. There was this incident when Dene’s mom received very, very ailing within the van on the best way to Benidorm, Spain. They’d set off on this previous camper van that had no air conditioning. It was that summer season, when it was reaching 38 levels [Celsius], a very sizzling summer season. And Dene’s mother received warmth stroke within the van. We needed to cease. We pulled her out of that van. We received her into one other van with air conditioning on, and we stopped filming the entire thing. And we received her right into a room. So, sure, there are factors the place you make these selections.

That is actual life, there are actual people who find themselves going to have a life after I’ve left. And so there are factors the place we do cease, however not for issues like satisfaction and issues that aren’t materially damaging to folks. Dene struggling to seek out work is a common factor.

How do you discover the place to finish your movies? And inform me a bit about how the ending of this movie took place? [SPOILER WARNING: details about the doc’s ending are contained in this answer.]

I’m all the time attempting to make movies that have gotten hope in them. And dealing-class lives are powerful, and it’s typically fairly onerous to seek out hope. And with Dene, I actually wished some type of crescendo. I wished him to get a giant viewers on the finish, and that simply wasn’t going to occur. I simply didn’t assume he was ever going to get one other hit report. And I assumed: what can we do? How can we give Dene hope on the finish?

He insisted he may sing, though he was simply singing “Agadoo,” “Superman,” and “Do the Conga.” When his mom informed us about this very stunning ballad, I assumed I’m going to see if I can get the rights to that. And we gave Dene a possibility and mentioned: Do you wish to report this? He mentioned, “Sure, I’d like to, for mother. I’d like to report it.” And so we received him within the studio, and he sang. And he sings it actually superbly. I feel it proves that he does have a voice. And that gave him some type of legitimacy after 40 years of agony, derided by the music press. I simply wished to offer him one thing that was credible, alongside along with his discovering a brand new household, discovering hope in love. We wished to go away it with some hope, even when it wasn’t him making a brand new hit report or discovering a brand new huge viewers.

That ultimate scene was really shot within the Scottish Borders [in southeastern Scotland, bordering England] the place they’ve these actually pretty venues in fairly small cities.

Why did you decide the title Nonetheless Pushing Pineapples?

He selected Nonetheless Pushing Pineapples because the title of his autobiography, and, because the movie alludes to, he wasn’t going to flee from that. In some methods, it’s like creating Frankenstein. You find yourself being the monster your self.

Is there something new that you just’re already engaged on?

My earlier movie, A Bunch of Amateurs, was principally about an beginner filmmaking membership, once more a working-class story about who artwork belongs to. Who does creativity belong to? And once more, it was in a style that’s struggling to maintain going. It type of was an allegory of Hollywood and the collapse of Hollywood.

Now, we’ve Nonetheless Pushing Pineapples. After which the third movie that we’re making in a trilogy is ready in an actual ale pub in Bradford, Yorkshire. The movie is known as The Native. We’ve already been filming for a yr and a half in it.

Martha Gellhorn, who was married to Ernest Hemingway, mentioned when she visited the U.Okay.: “If you wish to discover out what’s occurring within the U.Okay., go to the pubs.” And I’m type of utilizing that as a guiding drive. So, we’ve been filming on this pub [called Jacobs Well], discovering out what individuals are fascinated by, what’s occurring globally, what’s occurring of their native city, what’s occurring in their very own lives, and what’s actually necessary to them on this world that’s actually fairly combined up. That is going to be the third a part of this trilogy of working-class tales, and significantly northern [English] working-class tales. It’s practically shot, and we hope to get that out perhaps late subsequent yr.

We now have discovered that pets are huge. You possibly can discuss Musk or Trump, or are we going to have a nuclear conflict, what’s occurring within the Ukraine, what’s occurring to their native city? However finally, the factor that tends to bond folks is their love of their animals.

How does it really feel to open Sheffield DocFest?

It’s a courageous movie for Sheffield to open with. In these pretty troubled instances, they may have chosen one thing far more overtly political. This movie, set within the north of England that has some humor in it and has one thing actually fairly profound to say about issues that I feel will converse to extraordinary folks, not the bubble of documentary makers, is an excellent alternative, I discover personally. However it’s fairly courageous.

Dene is a type of anti-hero in a number of methods. He’s very retro. He’s a white working-class bloke who has connected with a girlfriend 30 years youthful than himself. However we do keep empathy for the entire thing. It’s actually necessary to have empathy for our characters in these kinds of movies.