Andrew Leavold, a multifaceted individual, owned and managed Trash Video, the largest cult video rental store in Australia, from 1995 to 2010. Besides being a store owner, he is also a filmmaker, published author, researcher, film festival curator, musician, TV presenter, and an ardent fan of genre cinema.
Leavold's filmmaking career began with his debut feature, Lesbo A Go Go, a no-budget exercise in recreating a Sixties' Doris Wishman style exploitation film, released in 2003. This was followed by the long form short, Bluebirds Of Peace And Destruction, a hyper-real reconstruction of a famous Brisbane vampire slaying, released in 2006.
In 2013, Leavold embarked on a worldwide tour with his feature-length documentary, The Search For Weng Weng, which chronicles his quest to uncover the truth behind the midget Filipino James Bond. His extensive research on genre filmmaking in the Philippines served as the basis for Mark Hartley's documentary, Machete Maidens Unleashed!, released internationally in 2010, in which Leavold also acted as Associate Producer. Leavold's expertise in the subject matter has been recognized globally, and he has taught Philippine film history at university levels in Australia, the United States, Europe, and the Philippines.
Currently, Leavold is a PhD candidate at Brisbane's Griffith University, with his thesis soon to be published as a book, Bamboo Gods And Bionic Boys: A History Of Pulp Filmmaking In The Philippines.
In addition to his documentary, The Search For Weng Weng, Leavold co-directed The Last Pinoy Action King, a feature-length documentary on the late Filipino action idol Rudy Fernandez, and a dissection of film royalty, politics, privilege, idolatry, and the Philippines' pyramid of power, with Daniel Palisa. The film premiered as the Opening Night film at Quezon City's QCinema International Film Festival in October 2015.
As of April 2019, Leavold is working two on new feature-length documentaries, The Most Beautiful Creatures On The Skin Of The Earth, the third in his Filipino trilogy, about erotic cinema under Marcos, and Pub, a history of the vibrant St Kilda music scene as told through its most outrageous progeny, Fred Negro. Both films are scheduled for release in 2020.
