Film review: ‘I’M WANITA’ by Nick Gardener from ‘Built For Speed’

Documentary I’m Wanita is one of those films that reveals a fascinating character living in our midst who most people, including this reviewer, knew nothing about.  The film details the remarkable, troubled but courageous life of country singer Wanita Bahtiyar who is referred to as ‘Australia’s Queen of Honky Tonk’.  Like its subject, the film has an engaging mix of warmth, passion and fidgety energy.

Wanita evokes the classic ‘outlaw country’ persona with a troubled past well outside most people’s experience.  She reveals at the beginning of the documentary that, in addition to being a singer, she’s spent years as a sex worker. She talks about the way Hank Williams’ self-destructive stardom and her idol, Loretta Lynne’s sonorous voice and emotion-filled performances inspired her to become a country singer.  Just to prove how country she is, Wanita has a daughter named Ellymay.  Wanita’s no caricature, though, she seems to be following a pre-destined path and is clearly a remarkable talent with a powerful and evocative voice; luminaries like Kasey Chambers call her ‘a hell of a singer’.

The film doesn’t spend a lot of time on Wanita’s background which feels like a loss although there are hints that it was tumultuous. It briefly mentions her emergence from the hard grind of touring and toiling in relative obscurity to some prominence in country music’s capital Tamworth but focuses on her present ambitions and struggles.  She’s always dreamt of playing Nashville and eventually gets a chance to record an album there.  In the US, though, her self-destructive tendencies, including drinking, take hold, dragging away from the recording studio and threatening to torpedo her lifelong dreams.  As her friend and manager Gleny Virus says, ‘her heart is in the right place but her mind is in a million places’.

Wanita’s situation gives this film an intriguing but uneasy sense of disconnection.  She says she feels she is living in the wrong era not just for the type of music she wants to play but for her personality.  She proudly announces to promoters that she has no engagement with the internet, not even for promotional photos.  The film consciously shows how far her life is from glamourous stardom as Wanita’s often shown cleaning, doing domestic chores and dealing with life’s frustrations.   She suffers crushing self-doubt and she sums up her approach to touring America as ‘I want to not look like an @#%&wit’.  She also talks plainly about her fears of never reaching her potential as a singer, being autistic and undergoing psychiatric treatment as a child.

She also attracts an interesting coterie of characters, often helping homeless people including one guy who she says was living under a bridge but sings like Robert Johnson. Her kind-hearted nature toward those less fortunate creates friction with her more fiscally-minded husband Baba who appears jealous of Wanita’s generosity and engagement with other people and her obsession with her music; he also frets about who’s going to make his dinner when she goes to Nashville.

Despite Wanita’s numerous troubles, this is a mostly upbeat documentary. Amid the manic chaos of her US jaunt there are magical moments like her recording with a New Orleans jazz combo or when she shows kindness to a tearful homeless man and serenades a woman at the airport who’s had a family tragedy.

There’s plenty of fine music with Wanita belting out old school country tunes as well as tracks that sit outside country music and sound more like acoustic versions of bluesy 60’s acid rock such as Jefferson Airplane or Janis Joplin.

Even those who don’t normally have time for country music should find this energetic Australian documentary a fun and often moving ride.

Nick’s rating: ***1/2

Genre: Music documentary.

Classification: MA15+.

Director(s): Matthew Walker.

Release date: 6th Jan 2022.

Running time: 88 mins.

Reviewer: Nick Gardener can be heard on “Built for Speed” every Friday night from 8-10pm right here on 88.3 Southern FM.  Nick can also be heard on “The Good, The Bad, The Ugly Film Show” podcast. http://subcultureentertainment.com/2014/02/the-good-the-bad-the-ugly-film-show

 

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