“Sometimes You Have to Attack”

Writer-producer Stephen Vagg discusses the origin of his new movie, All My Friends Are Back in Brisbane.

A defeated spirit can be a contagious thing, and few industries are more prone to that infection than moviemaking.

Every day, people who work — or want to work — in film are faced with disappointment and negativity. You pitch for jobs and miss out, or get them only for the project to collapse; you secure a star necessary for finance who suddenly becomes unfinanceable, or gain traction on a movie only to discover an identical one hits the market and flops — or [insert any one of a million other things here]. Filmmaking is basically the ability to survive one setback after another.

In November 2024, director Louise Alston and I endured a string of reversals that seemed endless. Neighbours, which had provided me with a steady-ish income for over a decade, was axed. Two other shows I’d worked on had their “definite green lights” downgraded to “a green light any day now, we swear” (as of writing, those days have yet to come). Two fully funded features Louise was set to direct that “just needed a last bit of gap financing” never found the gap. Throw in the international situation as well, and you had a lousy month.

We felt overwhelmed, pessimistic and helpless.

But, as US Army General Anthony McAuliffe once said, being surrounded by the enemy means you can attack in any direction.

So we went on the attack.

Instead of focusing on what we couldn’t do, we looked at our resources and thought about what we could do.

I had two final scripts for Neighbours scheduled, which would give us $13,000.

We were in Brisbane and figured we could source a decent cast and crew willing to work on deferrals.

And I had a stage play that could be turned into a movie — All My Friends Are Back in Brisbane, the tale of a female lawyer returning to her hometown after a decade away.

The ultra-low-budget model does not suit every story, but this one did. Most scenes were two-handers, there were limited locations, and no stunts, choreography, action scenes, extras, guns or fancy costumes. That still left us with plenty of elements we could put in the movie, including character, story, gags, sex, romance, dialogue, the outdoors, friends’ houses, attractive actors and a little bit of violence.

It was even “pre-existing IP”, being based on a stage play that was itself a “spiritual sequel” to our 2007 film All My Friends Are Leaving Brisbane — different characters, same universe.

There is always a good reason to spend money on a film, but after working in the industry for two decades, we knew what we could do without on this script, at least — continuity, a first AD, design, costume — and what was essential: catering, insurance, workers’ comp, location permits and gear hire.

And so we made the picture over nine days in April 2025.

It wasn’t easy, but it’s never easy. Locations fell through, crew dropped out, rain threatened, and so on. But the simpler an operation, the less chance there is for things to go wrong, and enough things didn’t go wrong for the movie to be completed.

All My Friends Are Back in Brisbane had its world premiere at the Gold Coast Film Festival in May 2026. The screening sold out, we walked the red carpet with our mums, the audience laughed and cried in all the right places, and the Q&A was a hit. We won the award for Best Queensland Feature and secured a cinema release starting May 29.

It’s very easy these days to feel overwhelmed — not only within our industry, but simply living in a world that at times seems overly dominated by grifters, sociopaths and slugs, not to mention economic, environmental and industrial problems that are completely fixable, should there be the political will to address them (hello, climate change).

Louise and I would, in all honesty, rather be making fully funded features complete with first ADs, per diems and all the trimmings — not least of which is “someone else pays for this who isn’t me”. All we have ever wanted to do is sell out.

But we didn’t want to sit around waiting for the cavalry to arrive either. As filmmaker Mark Duplass once declared, you have to be your own cavalry.

Anyway, we’re very proud of our $13,000 film — made from the heart, with a lot of love — that audiences seem to genuinely enjoy. We’ll be doing Q&As at screenings over the next few months, so if you come along, please say hello.

All My Friends Are Back in Brisbane is in cinemas now.

Stephen Vagg is a Brisbane-based writer and producer.