NEVER GET BUSTED! w/co-director David Ngo

To celebrate the Australian premiere at the Melbourne International Film Festival of NEVER GET BUSTED!, the utterly compelling documentary about narco-officer turned activist Barry Cooper, I talked with co-director David Anthony Ngo about this true American original, who subjects either "love, hate or have never met."

Synopsis: 

Written and directed by Australia’s David Anthony Ngo, director Stephen McCallum and produced by Erin Williams-Weir and Daniel Joyce, Never Get Busted! is the utterly compelling story of Barry Cooper, a highly decorated Texas narcotics officer - until he turned on the police force, busting crooked cops and teaching drug users how to hide their stash. Never Get Busted! is a high-octane, no-holds-barred documentary into the world of drugs, seen through the life of a man who has experienced all sides of the Drug War. Taking more than six years to make, and with filming across nine States of America, Mexico, the Philippines and Australia, the story takes the audience into covertly filmed police corruption, scenes of religious fervour, Hollywood pitch meetings, and the ultimate downfall of one of America's most brazen activists. In personal home videos, clandestine recordings, Barry’s own police dash cam footage, prime-time news, and present-day interviews, we see his story unravel in a form of macabre and exhilarating entertainment.

NEVER GET BUSTED! will be screening at the Melbourne International Film Festival on August 8 and 10, 2025.

Facebook: Never Get Busted

Instagram: Never Get Busted! (@nevergetbustedfilm)

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Blake Howard

Blake Howard is a writer, film critic, podcast host and producer behind One Heat Minute Productions, which includes shows One Heat Minute, The Last 12 Minutes Of The Mohicans, Increment Vice, All The President’s Minutes, Miami Nice and Josie & The Podcats. Endorsed and featuring legendary filmmaker Michael Mann, One Heat Minute was named by New York Magazine and Vulture as one of 100 Great Podcasts To Listen To and nominated for an Australian Podcast Award. Creator of the Australian film collective Graffiti With Punctuation, Blake is a Rotten Tomatoes-approved film critic with bylines in Empire Magazine, SBS Movies, Vague Visages, Dark Horizons, Film Ink and many more.

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