It is hoped a special screening of the Darby McCarthy documentary ‘In a Life Time’ will spark renewed interest in the film

Cunnamulla will host a director’s cut of the film In a Life Time, celebrating the extraordinary feats of the late Indigenous jockey Darby McCarthy.

AJ Close plays a young Darby McCarthy in the film In a Life Time.

Director David Waddington hopes a special screening of the highly anticipated Darby McCarthy documentary ‘In a Life Time’ in outback Queensland this week will spark renewed interest in the project which desperately needs an injection of funding.

A director’s cut of the film will screen in the 30-seat Railway Cinema in Cunnamulla, where the Indigenous trailblazing jockey was born, on Tuesday (fully booked) and Wednesday night.

Waddington and producer Chris O’Reilly are about $94,000 short of the $200,000 needed to make the film which tells the extraordinary tale of the late, great McCarthy, who rode more than 1000 winners around the world.

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“This is not the final version of Darby’s story,” Waddington said about the director’s cut being screened in Cunnamulla, about 750km west of Brisbane.

“I’m calling it a biopic. We’ve still got re-enactments that we need to shoot and we need funding to do that.

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“The time frame (to finish the film) has gone out the window so many times. It’s so demoralising, I can tell you.

“It’s all the people that are involved and put in their time and effort - actors, technicians, whatever - and it’s been a very difficult road to be on.

“We haven’t got any money from Queensland in the production, except for Racing Queensland who were the first cab off the rank.

“The reason the screening is happening at Cunnamulla is because Darby was born there and rode his first winner as a jockey at age 10 at Thargomindah, which is up the track a bit.

“I’m hoping something comes from this (in terms of funding for the film) because it’s such a positive story.

“I’ve been making films my whole life and this particular film is all about becoming something from nothing which Darby did. He was an incredible human being.

“The story needs to be told and the only way to do that is what we’re doing now.”

Jockey Darby McCarthy unsaddles racehorse There You Go, watched by trainer Terry Courtney, at Victoria Park Racecourse in August 1977.

Waddington said a prominent Indigenous organisation had offered $100,000 in writing to help fund the film but the money never materialised.

“I’m talking about a huge organisation,” he said. “There’s going to be a federal election (on Saturday) so there’s still hope.

“Everyone who’s out there now and the previous politicians, they all knew Darby one-on-one and he was highly regarded, not just for his riding ability but as an uneducated kid out of Cunnamulla who made it to the top.”

McCarthy later moved to Brisbane to try his luck as a teenager and success came quickly for the Indigenous jockey, who eventually went to Europe where he rode for the Rothschilds and mixed with Hollywood royalty, including Frank Sinatra, Mia Farrow and Lee Marvin.

He won the 1969 AJC Derby and the Epsom on the same day in Sydney and rode in three Melbourne Cups.

McCarthy died in May 2020 at age 76. He was inducted into Queensland Racing’s Hall of Fame in 2004 and was awarded a Medal of the Order of Australia in 2016 for his services to racing and his work with Indigenous youth.

Originally published as It is hoped a special screening of the Darby McCarthy documentary ‘In a Life Time’ will spark renewed interest in the film