Now the prime minister, Anthony Albanese appears as a shadowy Labor fix-it man in Rats in the Ranks, the iconic documentary by Bob Connolly, and Robin Anderson, which will be screened at the Arc Cinema at the National Film and Sound Archive in Canberra next week.
The special screening will be followed by a Q and A with Connolly who says Albanese later became enamoured with the access-all-areas documentary, about the gripping, bruising mayoral vote at Leichhardt Council in 1994, the film released in 1996.
So much so, Albanese turned up to the 10th and 20th year celebrations for the film, a long way from his brief appearance in the documentary when he refused to be filmed when faced with the cameras one night on a Sydney street 30 years ago.
"We shot the film in '94 and I think he was either the secretary or assistant secretary of the state branch and, of course, when the Labor party split asunder [in the mayoral vote], they called him in to try to adjudicate," Connolly said.
"The story there is that they used to go to Bar Italia, that was the councillors' watering hole and they were going to meet [Albanese] there in secret to sort all this out and we were with them, milling around on the road. Filming, of course. And he turns up. I'd never seen him. I don't think I'd even heard of him. He came up to us and he saw us there and he went pale and he said, 'Who are these people?'.
"I mean, given the nature of the meeting's subject, it was a reasonable question to ask and [Labor councillor] Kate Butler just said, 'Oh, that's just Bob and Robin, they've been with us for a year, don't worry about them'. And he said, and I won't repeat the exact words, to the effect of, 'Piss off now'." Connolly laughs down the phone three decades later.
Back then, Connolly thought Albanese would put the kibosh on the film, which was nearing its crescendo, of the 12 councillors' vote for mayor after frantic campaigning for numbers by all sides.
"I rang Kate Butler afterwards and asked her, 'Are we still allowed to film you?'. Because this was two weeks before the election and we'd been there eight or nine months at that stage and I thought we were going to get the boot, which would have been a catastrophe," he said.
"And she said, 'Oh no, of course you can still film'. Albo said, 'It's on your heads, not mine'."
Connolly said Albanese grew to love Rats in the Ranks, speaking at its 10th anniversary and turning up to the 20th anniversary at a Sydney pub, with the main players.
"He loves the film. The whole bloody Labor party loves it. In fact they used to screen it on their buses during their election campaigns," he said, with a laugh.
Connolly said he could have never contemplated that a minor Labor official in his film would one day become PM, but he was glad he had.
"I think he's terrific. I've always greatly admired him," he said.
"He struck me as just a fundamentally decent man, smart as a whip, very good people skills, relatively humble. Just a nice guy."
The film was such a success, Connolly said, because he and Robin Anderson won the trust of the councillors and captured an incredible tale of play and counter-play for the prized mayoral position.
"The film, basically, is a study of the numbers game and the extent people will go to if they are passionately committed to the outcome," he said.
The film-makers never went in with the intention to do a job on anyone. They owed something to the film's subjects, he believed.
"You spend so much time with these people and you get involved in their lives in such an intimate way that you sort of develop a duty of care. Because they're just revealing so much of themselves and they're doing it because they trust you," he said.
People in their films were acting as their "true sense", which made them less likely to criticise the end result, Connolly said. In Rats in the Ranks that included all the double-crossing, coups, broken promises and skullduggery that had more to do with high-stakes politics than roads, rates and rubbish.
"This was the third feature documentary that we made and in each of them, I would be looking through the camera and saying, 'I don't believe what is unfolding in my lens'," he said.
"You couldn't make this stuff up."
Robin Anderson sadly passed away in 2002 due to cancer. They have two daughters, Joanna and Katherine, now both lawyers working overseas.
"It's their mother's genes, of course," Connolly said, of their success.
"They were 10 and 14 when Robin died, and it really knocked us around, so I'm very pleased and proud with the way they've come through it all."
For more than 20 years, Bob's partner has been Sophie Raymond, with whom he made the documentary Mrs Carey's Concert. They have an eight-year-old daughter, Phoebe.
"In my low moments, I say, 'All my friends are on boats to Antarctica and having fun and going to the cinema, and here I am taking her to drama lessons and soccer'. I mean, I love it. It keeps me sane and, in an odd sort of way, it keeps me young," he said.
Connolly, who is writing his memoir, says he probably won't make another film, content with the seven he has made.
"Because it is a big undertaking, these long-form observational films," he said.
But, three decades later, Rats in the Ranks continues to elicit a passionate response from fans who, perhaps, really can't grasp how much access the film-makers were granted. A scenario brought into sharp relief against the media-managed world of current politics.
"It makes you think all that struggle is worthwhile," Connolly said.
- Rats in the Rank will be screened at the National Film and Sound Archive in Canberra at 6.30pm, on Thursday, May 23, followed by a Q and A with director Bob Connolly. Tickets are at www.nfsa.gov.au/ The link is here.
