Session 6: The Topp Twins: Untouchable Girls (2009)

Today’s film:The Topp Twins: Untouchable Girls

• Director: Leanne Pooley• Producer: Arani Cuthbert• Starring Lynda and Jools Topp• Premiered September 13, 2009 at Toronto

International Film Festival– Primarily screened at film festivals, both mainstream

and LGBT, in 2010• Budget: under $1 million ; Box office: $1.82

million (as of 2011)• Expository documentary

Today’s film:The Topp Twins: Untouchable Girls

• Awards:– Won 12 film awards, with an additional 4 nominations– Wins include:

• Toronto International Film Festival (People’s Choice Award -Documentary)

• Qantas Film and TV Awards (Best Feature Film, small budget and Best Original Music in a Feature Film)

• Other film fest Audience Awards or Best Doc awards, including Melbourne, Portland, Seattle, Nashville, and Florida

– Nominations include:• GLAAD Media Award (2010), Outstanding Documentary• International Documentary Association (2010), Music Doc

• Rotten Tomatoes score: Critics 89% ; Audience 91%

Leanne Pooley

Left: Pooley during taping with Topp Twins, circa 2007/08Right: Pooley more recently (exact date unknown)

Pooley resume summary

• As director: 13 credits, almost all documentaries– Best known for 25 April (2015), Beyond The Edge

(2013), Shackleton’s Captain (2012), The Topp Twins (2009)

• As producer: 7 credits– Primarily her own documentaries

• As writer: 3 credits, her own docs• Pooley has won 8 awards total, with an additional

4 nominations

The Topp Twins

Lynda (left) and Jules (right) Topp on the cover of their 1994 CD titled Two Timing

The Topp Twins

Jules (left) and Lynda (right) Topp photo from their website (date unknown)

Today’s film:The Topp Twins: Untouchable Girls

• “The greatest movie ever made about a lesbian twin sister country singing, yodeling comedy act.” – Toronto Star

• “A film that is shot straightforwardly -- to the point of being visually unimaginative -- but that benefits enormously from the overflowing charisma of its subjects .” – The Times-Picayune

• Let’s watch ...

Brief epilogue

• Both sisters are still alive and well!

(Photo taken at film’s premiere in Auckland, 2009)

Brief epilogue

• Awards and honors:– New Zealand Order of Merit

• 2004: named as Members• 2018: named as Dame Companions

– 2008: inducted into New Zealand Music Hall of Fame

– 2010: honorary masters degrees from Wintec – 2011: honorary doctorate degrees from Waikato

University

Brief epilogue

Dame Jools (left) and Dame Lynda (right) with NZ Governor-General Dame Patsy Reddy (official NZ government photo, Oct 2018)

Brief epilogue

A mural in the Twin’s hometown of Huntly, NZ (date unknown)