Summersault 1995: Tamra Davis On Her New Film ‘The Best Summer’

The funnest fact I learnt this week is that Tamra Davis directed both Adam Sandler’s breakout film, the 1995 comedy, Billy Madison, and Sonic Youth’s 1994 music video for ‘Bull in the Heather’, my favourite music video of all time.

Now, she’s back with The Best Summer, a feature length documentary acting as an intimate tour diary of the infamous Summersault Festival - a legendary 1995 touring festival which brought Beastie Boys, Sonic Youth, Foo Fighters, Pavement, Beck, and more legends of 1990s rock all around Australia - giving the world an all-access pass into arguably the coolest festival to ever hit Australian shores through her mostly unseen point of view. She takes you everywhere from the side of the stage as the Beastie Boys play Sabotage to backstage, where, alongside Bikini Kill’s Kathleen Hanna, they candidly interview the likes of Kim Gordon and Beck. 

Thirty-one years after the festival took place, you can relive it in The Best Summer, which is premiering in Australia as part of the Sydney Film Festival. 

Photos courtesy of Tamra Davis.

You found these tapes while evacuating the Palisades fires last year. What was your reaction when you found them?

I’d been dragging this footage around, but I didn't know what was on the tapes. I knew I had a lot of Beastie Boys stuff because I gave a bunch to Spike [Jonze] and he used it for the Beastie Boys film. I knew I had Bikini Kill footage because I used some of it when I did The Punk Singer, but I had no idea I had shot Foo Fighters or those interviews. I didn’t remember shooting any of it. It seriously felt like a Black Mirror episode where someone went into my brain and retrieved an entire tour. When you watch the film, it’s not about me; it’s what I was observing. I tried to make it so that for the audience, you are as conscious as I was experiencing it firsthand. That’s why I tried to keep it without context. I wanted it to feel like how I did when I found the footage, just diving into the past and seeing this incredible memory where we all had the best summer.

When you brought your camera along on tour and did the interviews, were you planning to do something with the footage? 

No, I had no idea. It wasn’t like I went on the tour wanting to do a documentary. I’d just finished working on a movie. I always had my camera with me and would be filming Mike [Mike D of the Beastie Boys] on the road. I never wanted to be the wife just standing there, and bringing my camera along gave me something to do. Then being with Kathleen, we just wanted to make something. It was the energy of two girls who were excited and wanted to do something funny, creative and go talk to boys. We were just like, let’s just go into people’s dressing rooms and talk to them. That’s what touring was about, especially in those days when there was no social media; there was nothing else you could do but make a friend, meet up and hang out.

It’s really funny with Kathleen, at the start of the film, being like, ‘There are no cute boys on tour,’ and it ending up being the tour she met her husband, Ad-Rock.

It’s so funny. It’s so adorable to see them together and think that they’ve been married for thirty years.

Is that why you put it as the first clip?

Yeah, but also that’s the first thing you do when you get to summer camp, you’re like, let's scope out who the cute boys are. I was married, so I loved hearing what her thoughts were, but also Kim Gordon and I were also really into matchmaking the two of them. We knew Adam wasn’t doing too well because he was in the process of separating from his partner, and we knew they were opposites, but at the same time, they are the same kind of funny punk rock people. I’m so happy it worked out, they’re the cutest ever.

That’s so sweet. It’s so must be crazy seeing them still together now. Was it as soon as you guys started hanging out that you came up with the idea to do the interviews together?

Yeah, totally. It’s like when you meet a friend you really want to hang out with and are just like, let’s start a band. We just wanted to make something together and have fun. 

What was it like directing Billy Madison and going straight into that tour?

Yeah, I was in Toronto shooting Billy Madison, so I was gone for a couple of months, and Mike was on tour, so I was like I want to go see my husband. Billy Madison was a really fun shoot; I had so much fun. Also, being on a film like that, that’s full of so many funny people, it has the same feeling as being on tour with a bunch of your friends. So going to Australia felt like an extension of that.

In the introduction of the film, you wrote that Pav [Stephen “Pav” Pavlovic] wanted Summersault to feel like a summer camp more than a tour, which is how it felt watching the film. Was that what it felt like when you were there?

Yes, a hundred per cent. We just had the best time, and we all really bonded. I also really wanted to show this incredible time with the Beastie Boys and how they all really hung out together, when they could’ve all gone separate ways, they went on a vacation together. I wanted to show how close they were at that time.

I like that with the live footage at the festival, it’s the most handycam on the side of the stage footage ever. In one of the performances, it just cuts and skips. There’s something nice about how raw it feels.

Yeah, that’s definitely what my footage looked like. While I was doing a test screening, I showed my kids, who are in their early twenties, and they really liked that it had those bits where it felt really real. They liked it when it went out of focus or jumped. I thought that was a cool aspect of it.

When you found the tapes, were you instantly like I’m going to make something with these?  

It was more that I found them at the right time. I’m normally constantly working on a film or TV show and am so busy, but right now, Hollywood is ground to a halt. I’m a filmmaker, and I can’t stop making movies. I’ve done it my whole life, and I just love it. I knew that when I found the footage, I wanted to make something myself. I taught myself how to use Davinci Resolve and outlined what I thought it could be on a timeline, and then hired an editor to finalise it all.

It's so nice editing it yourself, too. It makes it feel more real.

I also know these bands are all so particular, and the only way to have gotten anything approved with any of them is to make it really personal. It was important for me to get their approval and make something they would want to represent them.

How was it showing everyone the film?

I showed each band member because, as much as I see it as the best summer, there’s also a lot of history there. It’s when Sonic Youth were still together, so there’s a lot of history on the stage. When I showed Kim, my stomach was doing somersaults; I was sweating and freaking out. I originally had a lot of commentary on the film, and she said ‘Will you be quiet, you’re distracting me. I don’t need Tamra from the future telling me about the past. If anyone wants to know anything about this, they can Google it.’ She was right. At the time, there was no context, but it’s only now that there is this context of everything that happened.

Totally. She was so right about that. I think a lot of the people who are watching the film are big fans and are also all aware of that context. Like so many stories have been told about the festival in the past.

That’s what I mean, when I showed it to Beck, he wouldn’t stop talking about the tour the entire time. He had a million memories about being on that tour. Each one of these people on the tour had a crazy adventure. It was so fun to hear their takes as well. I almost wanted to do a podcast and record all of their moments. 

What is your personal favourite moment from the tour?

I loved watching Adam and Kathleen fall in love. That was super beautiful. I loved hanging out with Kim and watching her look after Coco, who was two at the time, being like this is what it’s like to be a mom on tour.

Do you have any last words about the film?

I’m really excited to show it in Australia because I really want to meet some of the people in the film. I want to meet the bubble girls, people from all over are like my favourite thing are the bubble girls.