‘I’m Wanita’ Australian country music documentary

Making it big in the music industry is not quite as easy as it may seem as 47-year-old Aussie Country singer Wanita, also known as Australia’s Queen of Honky Tonk, discovered.

This inspiring documentary won the Best Australian Documentary Award at the Sydney Film Festival and will be screening in cinemas. Audiences will be introduced to a woman who has lived in Tamworth for 25 years and who has entered a few talent quests. Her talent cannot be denied, and she believes that this will be her final chance to realise her dream – to achieve success in Nashville.

This close-up and personal (and at times ugly) documentary offers a candid look at her life. A woman who ran away from home at the tender age of 17, worked as a prostitute for 18 years to make ends meet, suffered with alcoholism and wants to be remembered as a renegade. Her comment to those who believed she was living a fantasy? “Fuck everyone! Fuck everything! I’m going to Nashville to record my next album!”

Basically a good person, vulnerable and soft hearted, Wanita married a Turkish man who had no faith in her potential to become a successful singer in Nashville. Her daughter also believed she was living in a dream world.

This is an absorbing documentary that shows the energy and determination a singer instilled in her never-ending dream of becoming a famous county singer in Nashville. The cameras follow her around as she plans her visit to the US to find fame and fortune and to meet her idol, county singer Loretta Lynne. Old photos and videos and interviews with family and friends offer an insight into who exactly Wanita is – a strong and resilient woman who is passionate about her singing.

Audiences will warm to Wanita who may have a foul mouth at times but unquestionably has a heart of gold, determined never to give up on achieving her goals.

★★★ ½