from vk & associates

“Sometimes getting people to laugh is the most political thing you can do.” – Jools Topp

“I realized I was making a film that was not just a profile of talented individuals but a story that traversed the history and tenacity of an entire nation … The Topp Twins have managed to use humor to explore serious subject matter in a way that even the most cynical observer couldn’t ignore.” – Director, Leanne Pooley

The Topp Twins: Untouchable Girls, released in New Zealand in April 2009, has taken nearly $2 million at the NZ Box Office making it the Top Documentary Film ever released there. Premiering in North America at TIFF 2009, the film won the Cadillac People’s Choice Award for Best Documentary. The has also won audience awards at the Melbourne International Film Festival, the Gothenburg International film Festival in Sweden, and won Best Feature Documentary at the Portland International Film Festival.

The Topp Twins: Untouchable Girls is the first time that the extraordinary story of Kiwi entertainment double act Jools and Lynda Topp has been told. This feel good film offers a revealing look into the lives of the World’s only comedic, country singing, dancing, and yodeling lesbian twin sisters.

It has often been said that if the story of the Twins was fictional nobody would believe it. From rural backwaters to busking on the streets of Auckland, to performances at the Rugby World Cup and London’s West End stage, their appeal is infectious. The twins have morphed from radical activists into Kiwi ‘national treasures’, ‘cultural ambassadors’, and finally, according to the Glasgow Herald, into New Zealand’s ‘finest artistic export since lamb cutlets!’

‘Untouchable Girls’ follows the girls from their happy childhood on a Waikato dairy farm to the Territorial Army. They came of age performing on the streets of Auckland during the days of political protest marches in the early 80s, and quickly joined the forefront of progressive social change.

The Topp Twins: Untouchable Girls is not just the story of two sisters, but also of 50 years of New Zealand history; half a century of cultural changes and the foundation of a national identity. Part concept film, part biopic, part historical record, part comedy, the Twins share their journey from “coming out‟ to Jools’ recent brush with Breast Cancer with much laughter, honesty and wisdom. It is a film about two truly unique New Zealanders which ends up saying as much about us as it does about them.

It is also a film with true international appeal, as its success at more than 80 film festivals has shown. The twins authenticity and down-to-earth humour speaks to a broad cross-section of people, and will strike a chord with Canadian audiences.

Director, Leanne Pooley

Leanne Pooley is one of New Zealand’s most accomplished documentary filmmakers. Born and raised in Winnipeg, Canada, she immigrated to New Zealand in the mid-1980’s and began working in the New Zealand television industry. In 1992 she moved to England where she made documentaries for Britain’s major broadcasters as well as PBS in the US.

Previous documentaries include the Qantas “Best Documentary” Award winning Relative Guilt, The Man Who Has Everything for the Discovery Network, Kiwi Buddha, New Zealand Screen Award, Best Documentary Haunting Douglas (2005) about choreographer Douglas Wright, New Zealand Screen Award, Best Documentary The Promise (2006), Try Revolution (2006) and Being Billy Apple (2007).

For more info check out www.topptwins.com