Filmmaker wins landmark case to be acknowledged as ‘principal director’
In a highly unusual case, a director has taken a producer to court, alleging he was denied his rightful credit. And in a major decision, he won.
A judge has decreed that all versions of Never Get Busted!, an Australian documentary at the centre of a bitter dispute between two men who each claimed to be the principal director, must carry the credit “directed by Stephen McCallum”.
The Federal Court ruling represents a resounding victory for McCallum in the years-long row over filmmaking credits that has included skirmishes at the Sundance Film Festival and Melbourne International Film Festival (MIFF).
In orders handed down last week, Justice Yaseen Shariff decreed that all versions of the film must carry the credit “directed by Stephen McCallum” in such a way that it is clear he was its principal director.
Shariff also declared that producer David Ngo is to be prohibited from identifying himself in any way that suggests he was its principal director.
Projector Films, the production company run by Ngo and his business partner Daniel Joyce, must pay McCallum $25,000, the outstanding portion of his fee for the film on which he worked over a period of four years before being sidelined from the project in 2023.
In a concession to Ngo’s argument that he exercised significant authorial control over the film about Barry Cooper, a former US drug cop turned pro-drug activist, the judge ruled that Ngo can be identified “with the term ‘director’ provided [that]… a credit reading ‘directed by Stephen McCallum’ [is] the last directing credit card before the title at the beginning of the documentary [and] the first directing credit card after the fade-out at the end”.
In the conventions of filmmaking credits, those positions make it clear that McCallum is the principal director of the film.
The orders follow Shariff’s decision in favour of McCallum in February. In his 284-page ruling, the judge wrote “I am satisfied that Mr McCallum is the sole principal director of the documentary,” adding “while I am satisfied that Mr Ngo is a director of the documentary, I am not satisfied that he is a principal director”.
Shariff found in February that Projector Films had engaged in deceptive and misleading conduct, had breached McCallum’s moral rights, and had breached its director’s agreement with him. Friday’s orders set out the remedies Ngo and Projector must make in response to those findings.
The case is a rare instance of a credit dispute – which is not an uncommon occurrence in the screen industry – making it to court.
Australian Directors Guild president Darren Ashton hailed the result as significant for not only recognising the role of the director but also because it sends “a clear message to producers wh
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