Review: 'A Boy Called Sailboat' film screening with live soundtrack

Published on 29 March 2022

On Saturday night, we collectively witnessed something very special – the intersection of visual and musical storytelling. Cameron Nugent’s charming feel good film, A Boy Called Sailboat was accompanied live by the incomparable Grigoryan brothers on guitar (they wrote and performed all the arrangements for the soundtrack).

It was hard to say what was more captivating, the film or the live music, but the combined effect was deeply moving from start to finish. The story, a fable of sorts, centres on a young Mexican-American boy who lives in a dusty desert town in a lopsided house held up by a stick, literally. His parents are poor, but loving.

One day, the boy, Sailboat, discovers a ‘little guitar’ when putting something on the rubbish heap. He decides he is going to teach himself to play. The ukulele becomes his constant companion. When he visits his ailing abuela (Grandma) she asks him to write her a song. He takes this mission very much to heart.

Sailboat writes a song so captivating, it changes the lives of all who hear it. It brings hope, love and a deepened sense of community. The most intriguing thing about the film is that we, the audience, never actually hear the song. Every time Sailboat plays it, we hear radio silence. The filmmaker has left us with the grace of our own imagination. Rare indeed!

The story is full of quirky characters and hilarious subplots. Sailboat narrates parts of the film peppered with his little profundities, like, “Sometimes things happen so that other things can happen.” His innocent wisdom informs the storytelling.

Following the film was a Q & A session with writer/director, Cameron Nugent who had wonderful anecdotal stories about how this little independent film with a budget of less than a million dollars ended up with an Oscar winning actor, JK Simmons, and a soundtrack by two of the world’s greatest classical guitarists. It came down to uncompromising vision, hope and cheek. Priceless.

Saturday night was a rare treat. Well done to Frankston Arts Centre for making this pick!

A Boy Called Sailboat can be viewed on iTunes.

ANDREA LOUISE THOMAS