Hi there Travel Tarters, today I’ve got an interview with Sabour Bradley. Sabour is an award winning film maker and journalist from Australia who’s travelled around the world to make some great documentaries. He’s done some crazy s*(% in the past like audition for Afghanistan Idol, travelling across war torn borders with local fixers to find ‘the real story’ and has even written for the famous Australian soapies – Neighbours and Home and Away! Hence, he likes to tackle things Head First!
You might know him from Extreme Tourist: Afghanistan which was aired in over 150 countries and was featured on Nat Geo TV.
I really like his shows because he likes injecting a bit of humour into the subject matter, whilst showing a pretty accurate portrayal of a place and it’s people. You should check them out as they make a refreshing alternative to the drab ‘reality’ TV shows that are around on the box.
He currently has a new documentary series out called Head First, where he gets stuck into all sorts of subject matter from transgender teens to why you really need to make a sex tape to make it big in Hollywood.
You can follow @SabourBradley on Twitter and on Facebook. Also check out his website.
Here it is! Also, thanks to the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) for supplying the photos.
The Sabour Bradley Head First Interview!
The Travel Tart: Hi Sabour, thanks for the time to chat. For those of you out there who aren’t as familiar with your work, what’s your best (and silliest) one paragraph description of yourself?
Sabour Bradley: My best and silliest? Hmm… what an intriguing combination. ‘I’m a doco maker who likes to dive in to different worlds as deep as I possibly can and take the audience with me, but in a way that people are taken away by the entertainment of the ‘dive’ and only realise later just how far they travelled.’
The Travel Tart: Your shows like Extreme Tourist: Afghanistan and Head First tend to go quite deep into the culture of the place – I like the way you try to show the ‘real’ place when you travel somewhere. What was your motivation behind this style of documentary making?
Sabour Bradley: We all look at the world differently, but the picture I see when I look at a place is often the one that’s behind the images the media always give us. So that’s the picture I want to show to the world – without ever glossing over the darker reality. So when I think of Afghanistan I think of humour and colour and confusion and crazy and emotional and inspiring and all these things… and when I first arrived, I also saw what we always see – burka, Taliban, bloodshed, fear, war. We showed that in Extreme Tourist but we showed the stuff behind that as well.
The Travel Tart: You’ve done some really hard core stuff in your life – and that’s just from reading your bio! What has been the single most defining ‘brown underpants’ moment for you so far? I hope you have really good life insurance, that is, if you’re lucky enough to find a company who’s willing to issue you a policy!
Sabour Bradley: I have no life insurance. 🙂 The single most defining ‘brown underpants’ moment – and I like your way with words Anthony 🙂 – has to be shared equally by two different things. In my ABC2 series Head First we went into Syria and had to cross the border unofficially. We got chased by the Turkish Military going in and going out – and on the way out they nearly got us. But for the cover of darkness we were gone. And the second situation was trekking to Tora Bora in Afghanistan for Extreme Tourist – that was scary because even though we had 9 of the Provincial Governor’s toughest bodyguards, if we’d been attacked by militants I think we would have been in big trouble. We got back fine though and the resulting documentary was amazing.
The Travel Tart: I don’t think Afghanistan is going to be a hot spot for package tourists any time soon. Yalda Hakim gave me some fascinating insights about going back to the place where she was born for the first time. In Extreme Tourist: Afghanistan, you head over there because your girlfriend is working for an aid agency and asks you the check the place out. Whilst you were out and about, did you come across Frosty The Snowman and the Kabul version of KFC?
Sabour Bradley: I didn’t come across Frosty the Snowman or I definitely would have included him in Extreme Tourist, but I did eat at Kabul Fried Chicken KFC all the time, and in fact was good friends with the owner because I spent about 12 months in Kabul all together. I remember it when it was a small place in a side street and got burnt down, then re-opened bigger and better than ever near the centre of town and he made it look EXACTLY like a KFC shop. Great chicken!
The Travel Tart: You’ve produced a TV show in Africa called Bobo and Kipi which has been described as ‘Sesame Street for the Congo’. Just wondering, did this series have the same sexual innuendo that the north American series has? For example, Super Grover saying to famous female guests ‘You must want the biggest thing I can find!’
Sabour Bradley: Ha ha. You ARE a ‘tart’ aren’t you? 🙂 No, definitely no sexual innuendo. A lot of songs, a lot of stories based on the virtues program and traditional Congolese tales, a lot of animation and a whole lot of puppets (made by Jim Henson’s company interestingly) and all in French in the first season (later dubbed in English in Canada and available online dear reader if you’re interested). An incredible experience for me, honestly. A huge hit in the Congo and across parts of Africa and now going into a third season in Canada, helmed by its creator Susan Sheper.
The Travel Tart: One thing I picked up on your Hollywood episode in Head First is that the whole industry seems to be more fake than the plastic surgery enhanced faces (and breasts!) running around the place there. Ironically, I did spot some plastic surgery businesses in Rodeo Drive when I checked it out a couple of years back which tragically reinforces the stereotype! And basically, the bottom line is that there are 2 ways to make it in Hollywood – the hard way with hard work, or make a sex tape with someone famous. Were you ever offered to do a sex tape for the sake of advancing yours, or someone else’s career there? ;P
Sabour Bradley: No, not yet, and believe me that tape would have a VERY niche market indeed. No-one’s lining up.
The Travel Tart: Ha ha. I reckon yours would sell truckloads more than mine… ;P Anyway, from what I can gather, you seem to like saying ‘yes’ to whatever crazy opportunities land in your lap. Have you actually ever said no to one? I know saying yes opens yourself up to loads of great experiences, but sometimes, I need to say no!
Sabour Bradley: I say yes as many challenges as possible, but within those challenges when the locals I’m travelling with (or the fixers as journos call them) say ‘enough, no further, you can’t go that way,’ then I listen. I’m not a traveller/tourist… I’m a film/tv maker so fear would never stop me from pursuing a story, but once that hurdle is crossed, believe me I prepare and follow instructions.
The Travel Tart: And finally, where and when did you first think, ‘hell yeah, I love this travel thing?’
Sabour Bradley: When I was a kid I knew it was what I wanted to do. My mum used to put me and my two sisters on a Greyhound bus from Bunbury to Kununurra to see my Uncle/Aunt/Cousins who are farmers in Kununurra. That’s a 2 or 3-day trip (I think)! We got to rule the bus and meet lots of people on our own. I think that’s where my love of the freedom of travel and the excitement of meeting new people started. So next time you put your child on a Greyhound bus, remember that it won’t be long before they’re traipsing off to Afghanistan or sneaking over a border into Syria.
The Travel Tart: Thanks for your time Sabour! And looking forward to some more entertaining television! I’ve really enjoyed the Head First series!
More Head First Stuff
Have a look at the Head First trailers on You Tube, and the ABC website.
Great interview – will need to check some of Sabour’s programs out!
Do it! They’re really good!
Great interview!!! I saw one of his docos when he went to India with people getting stem cell treatment or something and it was excellent, must check out his other stuff.
Yeah, they’re all good!