The making of The Last Breadbox is perhaps as rough and gritty as the film itself. In early 2001 Sam Voutas and Melanie Ansley set about on a documentary tentatively called Beijing Taxi. Of the one hundred Australian companies and government bodies approached for funding, not one was interested in providing financial or technical support. The project, it seemed, was dead in the water. In April 2001, Sam’s film, The Still, was awarded Best Tertiary Film at the Riverina Flickers Film Festival. The prize was $2000, the exact price of two economy tickets to Beijing.

By June the two filmmakers were in China. They had no crew, no characters, and no money. What they did have was a video camera. Melanie and Sam began to spend their days in the backseats of taxis, driving to places they didn’t need to go, if only to meet drivers. Upon returning to Australia the filmmakers once again found themselves hitting a wall. First they took to the road to promote the film to distributors. When that ignited little interest, they began a four-month application for post-production funding. The application was rejected. Sam, now broke, sold the last of his assets. The extra three thousand Australian dollars raised would be just enough money to finish the film.

In January 2003, following selections in Florida, Detroit, and Amsterdam documentary
festivals, The Last Breadbox was acquired by Canadian distributor BuzzTaxi.

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