Daniel Johns To Star In New Documentary 'The Musical Mind' Premiering At Adelaide Film Festival

18 October 2023 | 9:26 am | Mary Varvaris

Daniel Johns has described the documentary as "the antithesis of click-bait tabloid bullsh*t."

Daniel Johns

Daniel Johns (Credit: Luke Eblen)

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Next Friday, 27 October, at 6:30 pm, the new documentary starring Daniel Johns, The Musical Mind: A Portrait In Process, will premiere at the Adelaide Film Festival.

Starring Johns alongside his “dear friend”, Australian concert pianist David Helfgott, Simon Tedeschi and Ben Folds, the Tomorrow singer has teased that Director Simon Hicks created a documentary that is “the antithesis of click-bait tabloid bullshit”.

“Sometimes art comes easy, sometimes it’s hard work but unless it’s honest, it’s not art,” Johns wrote on Instagram yesterday (17 October).

“My visionary friend Scott Hicks has created a beautiful film about the artistic process and I’m honoured to be one of 4 artists featured. It’s called ‘The Musical Mind - A Portrait In Process’”.

The Musical Mind won’t just feature interviews with its four subjects but will contain portraits of its artists painted on camera by renowned painter Loribelle Spirovski.

Johns continued, “Scott wanted to make a film that was the antithesis of click-bait tabloid bullshit. He wanted to put a camera in front of me and talk about art and nothing else. That’s one of the reasons I said yes to doing it.

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“My dear friend David Helfgott was the other reason, he made magic happen on Emotion Sickness and I’m forever in awe of his genius.”

Johns then offered a shout-out to his co-stars Simon Tedeschi and Ben Folds, commenting, “You are both inspiring and it’s a privilege to share the screen with you both.”

He added, “This is a film for anyone who wants to dig deeper into the minds of creators, I think it’s powerful because we as humans are all imminently capable of creating art, all we need is a little inspiration. Perhaps ‘The Musical Mind’ might be that inspiration for you?”

You can book tickets to watch The Musical Mind: A Portrait In Process at the Adelaide Film Festival here. Check out the movie trailer below.

Daniel Johns wasn’t involved with the making of his former Silverchair bandmates Ben Gillies and Chris Joannou’s new memoir, Love & Pain, which was released at the end of September. He recently wrote a response post about the book and the removal of Gillies and Joannou’s episodes of Australian Story from ABC iView, offering “the facts” of the situation.