Last night I went along to see the film Happy Sad Man at the Nova in Carlton. What is it about? Well, from the film's website, "Happy Sad Man is a charming and uplifting insight into the lives of five very different Australian men... [It] gives unforgettable voice to the complex emotional landscapes we can all traverse... Touching, funny and tender, this must-see documentary is set to shine a light on and change the dialogue around masculinity and mental health today."
As it happened, the film's producer and director, Genevieve Bailey was there to say hello to audience members afterwards. One of the early discoveries I made in this genealogy research was that Genevieve and I are related, distantly (but not too distant - second cousins once removed, to be precise!). At the time of this discovery, she had just completed her first feature film, the wonderful I Am Eleven, which introduces audiences to a selection of eleven year-old children across the globe. I got to meet her back then a couple of times, and I thought I would relate the story of how that all came about.
When building a family tree on the ancestry.com website, you are given other family tree 'hints', which allow you to connect with other people who are have the same people in their family trees. One of those was the tree of Peter Bailey, and soon I was contacted by his brother Jeffrey, who was hoping to copy across some of the information on my tree for theirs. Peter and Jeff's mother was Lesley Bailey (nee Phelan), daughter of Leslie Joseph Phelan, who I have written about in an earlier post (president of the Fitzroy Football Club for many years). Lesley was my Dad's first cousin and I had remembered him mentioning her once or twice, so I thought it would be great if I could reintroduce them after not having seen each other for so many years. And so it was that I organised a visit with Dad, on 21 October 2011, to the aged care home where Lesley was living to meet her and Jeff. We learnt all about the Bailey family: there had been another brother Brian, but he had sadly passed away in 2003. Genevieve is Brian's daughter, but is not the only member of the family prominent in the media/arts/entertainment sphere. Her brother John Bailey has been the Arts journalist for The Age for many years, while her cousin (Jeff's daughter) Lisa is a talented voice-over artist. Jeff's son Simon is active in the music industry and in a further coincidence had worked at Lonely Planet for a short time (though we didn't work in the same area and our connection was never established at the time).
As an aside, in talking to my sister Sue since then, I believe that in her early years as a teacher she taught some of the Bailey children and had been unaware of the relationship until some time into her stint at the school (Sue, please comment on this post if I am right and tell us exactly what happened!)
Unfortunately less than three weeks after this enjoyable meeting, Lesley Bailey had a stroke and Jeff emailed me to say the she was not expected to survive. Naturally we were all sad to hear this, but little did I know that within the week my Dad would pass away suddenly. Lesley passed a few days later. Although not having had anything to do with the Bailey family until the recent meeting, given all that had just happened I felt compelled to go along to Lesley's funeral, held on 25 November, seven days after Dad's. It was there I met many new cousins including Genevieve for the first time. I Am Eleven had just premiered at the Melbourne International Film Festival, and in July the following year (2012) began screening around the country. I attended one of the Melbourne screenings at which Genevieve and her partner Henrik held a Q and A session after the film. A brief hello after the film that night was the last time I had spoken to her - until last night's encounter at the Nova!
Anyway, after all that, it was lovely to chat to Genevieve last night, she has done a brilliant job with the film and it is well worth seeing. For those interested, you can view a trailer of the film here:
https://happysadman.org/
As it happened, the film's producer and director, Genevieve Bailey was there to say hello to audience members afterwards. One of the early discoveries I made in this genealogy research was that Genevieve and I are related, distantly (but not too distant - second cousins once removed, to be precise!). At the time of this discovery, she had just completed her first feature film, the wonderful I Am Eleven, which introduces audiences to a selection of eleven year-old children across the globe. I got to meet her back then a couple of times, and I thought I would relate the story of how that all came about.
When building a family tree on the ancestry.com website, you are given other family tree 'hints', which allow you to connect with other people who are have the same people in their family trees. One of those was the tree of Peter Bailey, and soon I was contacted by his brother Jeffrey, who was hoping to copy across some of the information on my tree for theirs. Peter and Jeff's mother was Lesley Bailey (nee Phelan), daughter of Leslie Joseph Phelan, who I have written about in an earlier post (president of the Fitzroy Football Club for many years). Lesley was my Dad's first cousin and I had remembered him mentioning her once or twice, so I thought it would be great if I could reintroduce them after not having seen each other for so many years. And so it was that I organised a visit with Dad, on 21 October 2011, to the aged care home where Lesley was living to meet her and Jeff. We learnt all about the Bailey family: there had been another brother Brian, but he had sadly passed away in 2003. Genevieve is Brian's daughter, but is not the only member of the family prominent in the media/arts/entertainment sphere. Her brother John Bailey has been the Arts journalist for The Age for many years, while her cousin (Jeff's daughter) Lisa is a talented voice-over artist. Jeff's son Simon is active in the music industry and in a further coincidence had worked at Lonely Planet for a short time (though we didn't work in the same area and our connection was never established at the time).
As an aside, in talking to my sister Sue since then, I believe that in her early years as a teacher she taught some of the Bailey children and had been unaware of the relationship until some time into her stint at the school (Sue, please comment on this post if I am right and tell us exactly what happened!)
Unfortunately less than three weeks after this enjoyable meeting, Lesley Bailey had a stroke and Jeff emailed me to say the she was not expected to survive. Naturally we were all sad to hear this, but little did I know that within the week my Dad would pass away suddenly. Lesley passed a few days later. Although not having had anything to do with the Bailey family until the recent meeting, given all that had just happened I felt compelled to go along to Lesley's funeral, held on 25 November, seven days after Dad's. It was there I met many new cousins including Genevieve for the first time. I Am Eleven had just premiered at the Melbourne International Film Festival, and in July the following year (2012) began screening around the country. I attended one of the Melbourne screenings at which Genevieve and her partner Henrik held a Q and A session after the film. A brief hello after the film that night was the last time I had spoken to her - until last night's encounter at the Nova!
Anyway, after all that, it was lovely to chat to Genevieve last night, she has done a brilliant job with the film and it is well worth seeing. For those interested, you can view a trailer of the film here:
https://happysadman.org/
Meeting Genevieve Bailey after the film last night
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