Cinema Papers No.87 March 1992 by UOW Library

R E G I S T E R E D BY A U S T R A L I A P OST P U B L I C A T I O N NO. VBP 2121

MARCH A P R I L 1 992 NO. 87 S T E V E N S P I E L B E R G . ROBI N W I L L I A M S AND DUS T I N HOF FMAN. PUBLICITY STILL FOR S P I E L B E R G S ' S HOOK

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C I N E M A PAPERS CONGRATULATES

ON ITS

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ANNIVERSARY FILM V I C T OR I A

HAS BEEN I NVOLVED IN 64 FEATURE FILMS, 40 M I N I - S E R I E S AND T E L E M O V I E S , MORE THAN lOOO HOURS OF T E L E V I S I O N DRAMA, 56 I N D E PE N DE N T D O C U M E N T A R I E S , 23 SHORT FILMS AND TWO " R E N A I S S A N C E S ” OF FILM

V IV A VICTORI A!

M A R C H -A P R IL

1 9 9 2 N U M B E R 87 IN C O R P O R A T IN G F IL M V IE W S

C O N T E N T S 2

BRIEFLY

ACROSS THE RED UNKNOWN WITH GEORGE NEGUS INTERVIEW BY SCOTT MURRAY

HOOK: STEVEN SPIELBERG INTERVIEW BY ANA MARIA BAHIANA

RICHARD LOWENSTEIN’S SAY ALITTLE PRAYER INTERVIEW BY EVA FRIEDMAN

COVER: STEVEN SPIELBERG. ROBIN WILLIAMS AND DUSTIN HOFFMAN.

JEWISH CINEMA

PUBLICITY STILL FOR SPIELBERG'S HOOK. SEE ARTICLE P. 12.

JAN EPSTEIN

EDITOR

ADMINISTRATIVE

Scott Murray

M U L T I-C U L T U R A L C IN E M A : A S U P P L E M E N T

MANAGER

Debra Sharp TECHNICAL

SYLV IE SHAW

EDITOR

Fred Harden

EDITORIAL

MTV

BOARD

FILMS IN COLOUR: ABORIGINAL REPRESENTATIONS ARCHIE W ELLER

ASSISTANT

R affaele Caputo

CANNONS IN THE CAMERA JOHN HARDING

DESIGN Ian Robertson

THE ASIAN SCREEN TEST

DIRECTORS

JAMES RICKETSON’S DAY OF THE DOG PICTURE PREVIEW

John Jo st [Chairm an], Patricia Amad, Gil Appleton, R o ss Dim sey, Natalie M iller,

Chris Stew art LEGAL

ADVISER

N icholas Pullen

BLACK SCREENS: ABORIGINAL TELEVISION PHILLIP DUTCHAK

ETHNIC STEREOTYPES IN TELEVISION CRAIG BROWN

Holding Redlich, S olicito rs ADVERTISING

Debra Sharp

BLACK ROBE GREG KERR

Raffaele Caputo FOUNDING

FILM REVIEWS BARTON FINK ADRIAN MARTIN

SUBSCRIPTIONS

DINGO RAYMOND YOUNIS

PUBLISHERS

FRANKIE & JOHNNY ROSE LUCAS

Peter Beil by, Scott Murray, Philippe Mora

PURE LUCK JIM SCHEM BRI DISK

PROCESSING

SACRED SEX GREG KERR

On The Ball

SPOTSWOOD KARL QUINN

PRINTING Jenkin Buxton

BOOK REVIEWS FILM AT WIT'S END: EIGHT AVANT-GARDE FILMMAKERS

DISTRIBUTION

JORGE DAVID REMY

Network Distribution

TECHNICALITIES FRED HARDEN

CINEMA PAPERS IS PUBLISHED

PRODUCTION SURVEY

ELEATIC ELEVEN

WITH FINANCIAL ASSISTANCE FROM THE AUSTRALIAN FILM COMMISSION AND FILM VICTORIA COPYRIGHT 1 9 9 2 MTV PUBLISHING LIMITED. Signed a rticle s represent the views o f the authors and not n ecessarily th a t o f the e d ito r and publisher. W hile every care is taken with m anuscripts and m a terials supplied to the m agazine, n eith er the e dito r nor the pub lish e r can accept lia b ility fo r any loss or damage which may arise. This magazine may not be reproduced in whole or part w ith o u t the express

C O N T R I B U T O R S ANA-MARIA BAHIANA is a Brazilian film writer based in Los Angeles; CRAIG BROWN is a freelance writer specializing in television; PHILLIP DUTCHAK is a freelance writer and film historian; JAN EPSTEIN is the film reviewer for The Melbourne Report EVA FRIEDMAN is a freelance journalist who often writes for The Age’s EG: JOHN HARDING is a playwright and performance poet, as well as administrator of the llbijerri Aboriginal-Torres Strait Islander Theatre Co-operative; GREG KERR is a freelance writer specializing in the entertainment industry; ROSE LUCAS is a senior tutor in Literature and Cinema Studies at Monash University; ADRIAN MARTIN

perm ission o f the copyright owners. Cinema Papers is

is the film critic of Business Review Weekly: KARL QUINN is a freelance writer on film; JORGE DAVID REMY is

published (approxim ately) every tw o m onths by

based in Georgia, U .S., and has contributed to such magazines as Living Blues, Art Papers and The Georgia

MTV P ublishing L im ited, 4 3 Charles S treet, A bbotsford, V ictoria, A ustralia 3 0 6 7 . Telephone (03) 4 2 9 5 5 1 1 . Fax (03) 4 27 9 2 5 5 . Reference ME ME 230.

Review, JIM SCHEMBRI, despite his new year’s promise in The Age, has still to make his bed; SYLVIE SHAW is the film consultant to Asialink; ARCHIE WELLER is an author, whose novel Day o f the Dog has ju st been filmed; RAYMOND YOUNIS is a lecturer at the University of Sydney.

A N EDITOR’S PICK

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This list includes 1991 world releases, even if glimpsed early January '92. It is based on a less-than-complete record of films seen.

BEST FILMS Texasville (Peter Bogdanovich) The Comfort of Strangers (Paul Schrader) Le Mari de la Coiffeuse ( The Hairdresser’s Husband, Patrice Leconte) Porte Aperte (Open Doors, Gianni Amelio) Mr and Mrs Bridge (James Ivory)

RUNNERS-UP The Sheltering Sky (Bernardo Bertolucci) La Double Vie de Véronique ( The Double Life of Weronika, Krzysztof Kieslowski) Aux Yeux du Monde (The Eyes of the World, Eric Rochant)

BEST PERFORMANCES (FEMALE) Irène Jacob (La Double Vie de Véronique) Anna Galiéna (Le Mari de la Coiffeuse)

BEST PERFORMANCES(MALE) Jean Rochefort (Le Mari de la Coiffeuse), Philippe Noiret (Faux et Usage de Faux)

BEST ENSEMBLE CAST Texasville

BEST PHOTOGRAPHY Vittorio Storaro’s for The Sheltering Sky

BEST PHOTOGRAPHY (AUSTRALIAN) David Eggby’s for Quigley

BEST MUSIC SCORE Zbigniew Preisner’s for La Double Vie de Véronique

BEST CONFIRMATION OF A NEW TALENT Eric Rochant with Aux Yeux du Monde

MOST ENCOURAGING RETURN TO (NEAR) FORM Claude Chabrol with Madame Bovary

MOST TECHNICALLY STUNNING

SECOND AUSTRALIAN DOCUMENTARY FILM CONFERENCE

One also sawthe screening of Dennis O’Rourke’s

29 November to 2 December 1991

The Good Woman of Bangkok. Film Australia was very particular in advising

P H IL L IP D U T C H A K R E P O R TS

that the showing of The Good Woman of Bangkok was “a non-critical press screening”. Unfortu

The Australian National University in Canberra

nately for O'Rourke, this condition applied only to the press and not to the delegates. This was

was the place where more than 400 people came to be part of the Second Australian Documentary Film Conference. Held over the weekend through late November to December, the conference’s heavy schedule kept delegates on the move to keep up with the various lectures, screenings and meetings. A late rush of applicants had Film Australia organizers trying to cope with the sudden influx. That everyone was taken care of, and that the conference proceeded smoothly, is a credit to all those working behind the scenes. The conference gave each of its three days of sessions a broad theme. They were “The Market place of Ideas”, “Cultural Representation” and “Brave New World” respectively. On any of the three days, delegates had a choice of lectures and film or video screenings to choose from. For in stance, on Day One a panel consisting of the ABC’s Peter Manning, television personality and director George Negus and filmmakers Dennis O’Rourke and Gillian Coote debated whether cur rent-affairs programmes on television had made documentaries a “luxury”. In another building, filmmakers Kathryn Millard, Philip Tyndall and Don Bennetts, with Pauline Webber from SBS, screened portions of their art documentaries and gave opinions about getting art projects ‘up’. Day

unfortunate as O’Rourke found himself under at tack the next day by some members of the audi ence for having made a “cultural” film in Thailand and not Australia, among other things. Some of the other films screened during the conference were Light Years by Kathryn Millard, Daryl Dellora’s Mr. Neal Is Entitled To Be An Agitator and the well-received Sacred Sex by Cynthia Connop. Video productions were also on show, with some delegates taking the opportunity to screen productions they had brought with them. The Australian Film Commission provided a spe cial issue of the Documentary Checklistwhich gave titles of documentaries made since 1988, listedthem by subject and provided a survey of sales contacts. Other printed matter given to those who at tended were a discussion paper from Arts Action Australia Inc. on Australian culture, and the exten sive Conference Papers, which is strongly rec ommended reading to those unable to attend. The sessions, while varied and numerous, had at times an academic tone which left some of the audience a bit cool. Still, on a very practical level, the event allowed a good deal of networking to happen. Representatives from and heads of the CONTINUES

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Prospero’s Books (Peter Greenaway)

MOST UNDER-RATED Texasville, The Sheltering Sky

MOST OVER-RATED Ju Dou (Zhang Yi-Mou) Thelma & Louise (Ridley Scott) The Grifters (Stephen Frears) Cape Fear (Martin Scorsese)

As full and sympathetic obituaries have already been printed in many newspapers and maga zines, let it then be just noted here the sad deaths of Australians Dame Judith Anderson, Greg Tepper

Bonfire of the Vanities (Brian de Palma)

and Brian Robinson. All three, in vastly differing ways, contributed to the world film culture.

CORRIGENDA In the production report on The Nostradamus Kid, there were two unfortunate errors. First, speed was incorrectly transcribed from the interview with Bob Ellis as methadone instead of methadrine. The second error (the editor's) had Miranda Otto starring in The Place at the Coast. The actress concerned was Tushka Bergen. Le Mari de la Coiffeuse was misspelt in the “Tenebricose Ten”, p. 80.

CONTENTS Due to the space demands of the Multi-cultural Cinema Supplement, the proposed Part II of the “Australian Feature Production Overview” is being spread over the next few issues. Film Censorship Listings have not been pub lished in the past few issues due to the Common wealth Film Censor no longer publishing its deci sions. These are available only through a user-pay computer-phone service. Cinema Papers is pres ently evaluating the situation to see if it can con tinue publishing the listings.

Dame Judith was an exceptional actress who will always be especially remembered for her role as Mrs Danvers in Alfred Hitchcock’s Rebecca

PAPERS

also a producer in his own right ( We of the Never Never, 1982). Brian Robinson was a filmmaker (co-director with Phillip Adams of Jack and Jill: A Postscript, 1970) and passionate film lover who inspired many filmmakers at the Swinburne Film and Tel evision School. That Swinburne films have long been regarded as braver and more visually cin

(1940). Born in Adelaide in 1898, she made her Australian stage debut in Sydney in 1915 and her

ematic than those from Sydney's Film Television & Radio School is, to many, a tribute to Robinson.

American on Broadway in 1918. Her first film was Blood Money (1933), which was followed by strik

His legacy will thus live on in the work of the many filmmakers who came under his nurturing wing.

ing performances in such films as Kings Row(1942), Laura (1944), The Strange Love of Martha Ivers (1946) and Cat on a Hot Tin Roof( 1958), to almost randomly select a few. Her sole Australian credit was in Terry Bourke’s thriller, Inn of the Damned (1975). Greg Tepper worked for a long time at the Victorian Film Commis sion (later Film Victoria). A quick, sometimes ascerbic, wit, he was greatly loved by his fellow workers, RIGHT: THE LATE DAME JUDITH ANDERSON (WITH ALEX CORD) IN TERRY BOURKE’S INN OF THE DAMNED.

2 • CINEMA

as he was by many filmmakers he helped. He was

FILM FIN A N C E CO R P O R A TIO N FUND ING D E C IS IO N S N O VEM B ER 1991 - J A N U A R Y 19 92

F E A T U R ES EXCHANGE LIFEGUARDS (90 mins) Avalon Films.

Producer: Phillip Avalon. Director: Maurice Murphy. Scriptwriter: Phillip Avalon. Distributor: Beyond Films. In this upbeat comedy, Bobby McCain, the environmentally-conscious son of an American mega-resort developer, finds himself on an ‘Ex change Lifeguard’ programme. Set at an isolated NSW coastal community, Mullet Beach, Bobby meets the strangest group of people this side of the twilight zone. D O C U M E N T A R I E S MEN AND WOMEN - THE DIFFERENCE (4

X 60 mins) Robin Hughes & Associates. Producers: Ian Munro, Robin Hughes. Directors: Ian Munro, Robin Hughes. Scriptwriter: Robin Hughes. This television series examines the difference between men and women, using the latest scientific knowledge to explode myths about gender and to discover what lies at the heart of the battle of the sexes. BLOOD BROTHERS (4 x 60 mins) City Pictures. Ex ecutive producer: Barbara Marlotti. Producers: Ned Lander, Rachel Perkins. Directors: Ned Lander, Rachel Perkins. Scriptwriters: Marcia Langton, Eric Willmot, Tjanara Williams, Ned Lander, Rachel Perkins. This documentary series profiles four prominent Aboriginal men whose lives are interwo ven with significant events in the history of the A boriginal struggle. The stories of Darby Jampinjimpa Ross, Rupert Max Stuart, Charles Perkins and Bart Willoughby are told in this produc tion made from an Aboriginal perspective. SEARCHING (60 mins) M & A Film Corporation. Producer: T ristram M ¡all. D irector: Nicola Woolmington. Scriptwriter: Nicola Woolmington. Filmmaker Nicola Woolmington, who was an adopted child, uses her own quest as the core of this film about the personal search by adopted children for their natural parents. WHEN MRS HEGARTY COMES TO JAPAN (55-59 mins) Tenchijin Productions. Producer: Noriko Sekiguchi. Consultant producer: BqbiConnolly. Director: Noriko Sekiguchi. Scriptwriter: Noriko Sekiguchi. This documentary focuses -on Mrs Hegarty’s first en counters with the people and culture of Japan, which she once held as alien, and with the parents of her adopted “Japanese daughter”, who belong to a generation she once regarded as enemies. The filmmaker is the “Japanese daughter” portrayed in the film.

19 DECEM BER

F E A T U R E S DECAYS OF OUR LIVES (9.0 mins) Oilrag Produc tions. Producers: Chris Kennedy, Patrick Fitzgerald. Director: Chris Kennedy, Scriptwriter: Chris Kennedy. This stylized .docu-drama unravels the bizarre events which led; Australian dentist Gordon Fairweather to defraud-tbe- British health system

and become an international fugitive, leaving be hind a trail of overtreated teeth and pursued by a love-struck dental nurse. M I N I - S E R I E S ON THE BEACH (2 x 90 mins) Southern Star Sullivan.

Producer: Errol Sullivan. Line producer: Rod Allan. Director: Ian Barry. Scriptwriters: Bill Kerby, David Williamson. Australia is the last remaining place on Earth as yet unaffected by the nuclear fallout of World War III. As Melbourne awaits the deadly radiation cloud, the remnants of the American navy straggle into port. While time runs out, the survivors find despair, tragedy and love in this mini-series based on Nevil Shute’s classic book. D O C U M E N T A R I E S

THE TENTH DANCER (60 mins) Singing Nomad Pro

ductions. Executive producer: Denise Patience. Producer: Sally Ingleton. Director: Sally Ingleton. At the end of Pol Pot’s reign of terror, only one in ten classical dancers of Cambodia’s Royal Court had survived. This is the story of two of the survivors and of their efforts to rebuild a destroyed culture. LIVING IN THE n e v e r n e v e r (60 mins) Sorena. Producers: John Mabey, Rhonda Mabey. Director: John Mabey. Cook is one of the last remaining railway settlements built in the Nullarbor Plain to service the transcontinental line. This documentary shows howthe people of Cook (population 69) thrive in this harsh, remote environment. GUMSHOE (60 mins) M & A Corporation-Dakota Productions. Producers: Malcolm McDonald, Tristram Miall. Director: Malcolm McDonald. Script writer: Malcolm McDonald. This documentary ex plores the bizarre world of private detectives. 23 JAN UAR Y

F E A T U R E S ALEX (90 mins) Total Film & Television. Producers:

Philip Gerlach, Tom Parkinson. Director: Megan Simpson. Scriptwriter: Ken Catran. Based on the novel by Tessa Duder. Winning has always been easy for Alex, a 15-year-old champion swimmer from the wrong side of the tracks. Then comes love and tragedy and the loss of innocence. In 1959, she faces her toughest challenge: qualifying for the Rome Olympics. COPS AND ROBBERS (90 mins) Total Film & Televi sion. Producers: Philip Gerlach, Tom Parkinson. Director: Fane Flaws. Scriptwriter: Timothy Bean. A bankrupt man bungles his suicide attempt and em barks on a career of crime in this action-packed cops and robbers comedy involving murder, may hem and marriage. M I N I - S E R I E S THE MIRACULOUS MELLOPS - THE SEQUEL (20 X 30

mins) Millenium Pictures. Executive producer: Ian Fairweather. Producers: Posie Graeme-Evans, Andrew Blaxland. Director: Karl Zwicky. Scriptwrit

ers: Anthony Ellis, Ray Harding, John Hugginson, Peter Kinloch, Maureen Ann Moran, Sharyn Rosenberg, Alister Webb. The sequel to the popular fantasy-comedy series for children continues the adventures of the Mellop family. Using Pan Galactic windows-of-opportunity (a secret mode of space travel) the Mellop children battle to save civilization on earth. THE NEW ADVENTURES OF BLACK BEAUTY 2 (26 X 30 mins) PRO Television. Executive producer: Richard Becker. Producer: Sue Wild. Story editors: Harold Lander, Roger Moulton. This period chil dren’s drama series follows the adventures of Is abella Barrett, a 13-year-old orphan, whose life changes dramatically when she is rescued by Black Beauty. Black Beauty, Isabella and her new friends band together to untangle the mysteries surround ing her arrival in an Australian country town and the discovery of a lost gold shipment. D O C U M E N T A R I E S THE BETTER LIVING SERIES (3 x 60 mins) David

Flatman Productions. Executive producer: David Flatman. Scriptwriter: David Flatman. The series of three documentary specials examines the quality of life in the developed world and looks at some of the pressures and inequalities created by the push for higher living standards. How can we improve our lives and make better use of the health systems designed to care for us? The programmes will focus on nutrition, injury and ageing. PRESERVING FOR THE TASTE OF IT (13 X 30 mins) CM Film Productions. Executive producer: Jon Sainken. Producer: Margaret Musca. Director: Carmelo Musca. Scriptwriter: Carmelo Musca. The series shows how Australia’s multi-cultural groups approach the art of preserving food. The programmes are also about the handing on of culture and tradi tions from one generation to the next and their integration into the Australian way of life. CRYING FOR t h e DREAM (60 mins) Kennedy White. Executive producer: Barbara Mariotti. Producer: Kate Kennedy White. Director: Kate Kennedy White. As sociate producer: Janine Haynes. Janine Haynes was separated from her Aboriginal mother at the age of two and placed in a foster home. She wants to understand more of a world denied to her and embarks on a journey to the heartland of her moth er’s people, the Kukutu tribe, travelling along the trail of the Eagle Dreaming, from the southern coast of Australia to Uluru.

THE 1 9 92 FILM FUND The FFC anounced late January the shortlist of six projects for the Film Fund. This list will be cut down to up to four films. No budget is to exceed $2.5 million. MADONNA Producers: Roger Le Mesurier, Roger Simpson, Terry Jennings. Director: Nadia Tass. Scriptwriter: Chris McCourt. . GINO Producer: Ross, Matthews. Director: Jackie McKimmie. Scriptwriters: Vince Sorrenti, Larry Buttrose. MUSHROOMS Producer: Fiona Cochrane. Director: Alan Madden. Scriptwriter: Alan Madden. RIO AND KATZ Producers: Terry Charatsis, Trevor Farrant. Director: Baz Luhrmann. Scriptwriter: Trevor Farrant. SPEED Producer: Daniel Scharf. Director: Geoffrey Wright. Scriptwriter: Geoffrey Wright. BLANCHE Producers: Jenny Day, Lynne McCarthy. Director: Bill Bennett. Scriptwriter: Bill Bennett. ‘BRIEFLY’ CONTINUES

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ON P A G E

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AC A \ While at GO Minutes, George Negus became one of Australia’s most popular and respected pub lic-affairs reporters, with a strong international ist perspective. Then, after a stint as co-host of Today, Negus left network television to set up with partner Kirsty Cockburn their own produc tion company. The first project was G'day Com rade (1989), a three-hour look at the effects of perestroika on Soviet citizens. This was followed by the hour-long Kids First (1990), which cel ebrates the first-ever UNICEF World Summit for Children held at the United Nations in New York. Negus’ latest venture is Across the Red Un known: A Wilderness Journey in Russia, a twohour record of a journey from Nahodka, south of Vladivostok, to Moscow. Undertaken in August and September last year, the six-week adven ture covered 13,000 km of some of the world’s least-travelled roads. While in the depths of Siberia, filming where no one had before, dramatic events overtook the Soviet Union with the failed coup to topple

i¡w ?

Gorbachev. Negus’ journey thus became one of filming ordinary Soviets reacting to the extraor dinary changes in their country as news slowly filtered through. By the time Negus reached Moscow, the Soviet Union existed only lit name, the fragmentation well begun. The following interview, conducted by Scott Murray in late December, discusses first that dramatic journey, then moves onto a discussion on the coverage of socio-political journalism on television, including the role of the presenter. 4 • CINEMA

PAPERS

W hy did you undertake to cross the R ed Unknown?

Because the Russians asked me whether I would be interested in trying to drive across the Soviet Union. I found the idea an irresistible challenge, especially since nobody had filmed it before. In fact, very few people had actually done the journey, fullstop. My automatic inclination is to analyze what’s going on in a place through ordinary people, not through official channels. So this idea appealed to me. If I cou ldn ’t drive across the Soviet Union and, by talking to ordinarypeople, find out what perestroika and glasnost were all about, then I couldn ’ t do anything. I literally just had to stay on my feet and keep breathing to get something worth watching. What I didn’t expect was that, ten days into the trip, the Soviet Union would com e to a screaming halt and the whole tenor o f the journey would be different. I started in the outer limits, as far away from Moscow as I could get, to find out what the Gorbachev factor had been and what the Yeltsin factor was; instead, I found myself in the middle o f a tumult which set the country o ff on another amazing tangent. So, while the film started out to be a political odyssey, it finished up being a piece o f living journalism, o f watching a country change before on e ’s very eyes. The scriptline summary is that “We started the journey in the Soviet Union and finished it in Russia”, or “We started it in the Red Unknown and finished it in a Pink Uncertainty” - not that people regard it as being a pink uncertainty. They regard it as no longer even pink. But that is a very simplistic view. LEFT TO RIGHT: ON THE BOAT FROM JAPAN TO NAHODKA, SOUTH OF VLADIVOSTOK. PACKING THE VEHICLES AT THE BEGINNING OF THE LAND JOURNEY AT NAHODKA. GEORGE NEGUS, FEODOR KONIUKHOV (RUSSIAN ADVENTURER AND GUIDE), AND GRIGORI DAVYDOV (RUSSIAN ADVISER AND INTERPRETER) HEAD UP THE BILKIN RIVER TOWARDS THE UDEGAI ABORIGINAL PEOPLE OF EASTERN SIBERIA. A BOY HOLDS A SALMON WITH A BELLY FULL OF RED CAVIAR IN THE PRIMORSKY REGION, WHICH WAS PREVIOUSLY OFF-LIMITS TO WESTERNERS, COURTESY OF THE KGB. ACRO SS THE RED UNKNOW N.

Most o f that country is still operating, if it’s operating at all, under the auspices o f the old communist structure. They d on ’t want it, but they have n o choice except to keep using it. You can’t change from a centrally-controlled totalitarian system to a freemarket econom y overnight. But that’swhatwe ratbags in the West have asked them to do. W hy did the Soviets approach you in particular?

Because o f G ’day Comrade. Rightly or wrongly, they regard me as something o f Kremlinologist, as an observer o f their country who takes it seriously. They think I understand what’s going on there. They may or may n ot be right. D o the Soviets fe e l there are few W esterners with a real interest in and know ledge o f their country?

Because they are far m ore politically sophisticated than their critics, yes’ they do. They also know that I have none o f the conventional prejudices and predeterminations about Russia, the Soviet U nion, communism, etc. They would regard my pol itics as being as critical o f the West as they are o f totalitarianism. Because I am occasionally verbally violent about what I see as being wrong in the West, in the old days they probably saw that as my being pro-Communist. I’m not, but I’m certainly not antiSoviet or anti-Russian. I have always regarded them as a huge group o f people stumbling around like the rest o f us, trying to find away o f organizing their society. They happened to get itvery wrong in the first instance, but they’veJhad the guts to recognize that. The difference between them and us is that we haven’t had the guts to recognize that ours doesn ’t work either. W e still rush around with blinkers on, pretending that all the ills o f Western capitalism have nothing to do with capitalism, but that they have something to d o with people.

“The Russians are caught between a system that didn’t work and one they haven’t got, which they’re not even sure they want. They’re caught between a rock and a rock, the poor bastards. And ali the West does is gloat and say, ‘Isn’t it wonderful that capitalism works better than communism. ’ Bullshit; neither of them works.”

It has always amused that when the Communist Bloc started to fall apart it was because “the people were wonderful and the system was dreadful”. W hen Western capitalism is in crisis, as it is now, it’s n ot because there’s anything wrong with the system, it’s because “people are fucked”. What we will find is that the people who overthrew the Eastern Bloc system will have just as much difficulty in getting another system up as.we have. W e’re hearing already about the crime, the corruption, the inefficiency and the shortcomings. W e rushed to tell them all that was wrong with their system, encouraging them to knock it over, and now we sit back watching them flounder in this awful never-land. The Russians are caught between a system that didn’t work and one they haven’t got, which they’re noteven sure they want. They’re caughtbetween a rock and a rock, the p oor bastards. And all the West does is gloat and say, “Isn’t it wonderful that capitalism works better than com m unism .” Bullshit; neither o f them works. The only reason capitalism has survived longer than communism is because we propped it up with trade unions, governments and social welfare systems. Had we not had those three things, capitalism would have fallen on its face decades ago. The reason communism didn’t succeed is because they stuck pigheadedly to a system instead o f adapting it. Had they let Gorbachev have his head and adapt their system, they would probably have had far less chaos than they’re going to have. But no, we had to see the end o f communism. It is simplistic and superficial to say you can solve p eople’s problems after 75 years o f an inadequate system by simply killing that system stone dead. I’ve travelled the world too much to imagine that kind o f nonsense would ever be effective. Yet that’s what we’re doing, and just about all that’s going to be wrong in the Soviet U nion and the Eastern Bloc countries over the next

decade is our fault. W e encouraged them to take that path when we knew damn well the trouble they were going to get into. I have a sneaking suspicion that there might be a little bit o f self-interest involved in a fragile, chaotic Soviet Union. It makes it much easier for Western countries to justify their enormous defence bills. There are a lot people in the world who still need the world tense. Now that the communist bogeyman has disap peared, the only two things that will keep things tense for the militarists o f this world are an unstable Soviet U nion and an unstable Middle East with an aggressive Islam. Without those things there are n o justifications for the extent o f military spend ing and activity in the world. There are a lot o f people who stand to lose a lot if the world is too peaceful. H ow big a crew did you take with you?

Television-wise I’ve always worked with a bare minimum. But this time, apart from myself, we had a cameraman, a sound recordist and a production supervisor-cum-second cameraman, plus a stills photographer for the book o f the journey [to be published by W eldon Publishing (International)]. W e also had three Rus sians: an interpreter [Grigori Davydov], a guide [the famous Russian adventurer, Feodor Koniukhov], and a mechanic. So, the television operation was four, with three other people as interested observers. The stills photographer made it eight and

LIFT: KONIUKHOV DANCES WITH A GUEST AT A WEDDING THE CREW CAME ACROSS ALONGSIDE A WAR MEMORIAL (A COMMON OCCURRENCE IN RUSSIA) NEAR BIROBIDZHAN. ACRO SS THE RED UNKNOW N. BELOW: A "PIG O U T" IN CHITA: NED DAWSON (SOUND RECORDIST), LEFT; RICHARD

BALUE-MACE (CAMERAMAN); TO NY HILL (PR FOR TNT); MALCOLM YO UNG (PRODUCTION SUPERVISOR); GEORGE NEGUS.

the mechanic nine. That was more people than I’ve ever had to work and deal with before, so it was an education in itself. I probably could have done it with five: four o f us and one Russian. H ow many vehicles did you have?

Four. We couldn’t have done it with less. We had to cany' enough film stock and equipment for what amounted to twenty hours o f film. That in itself was enough o f a load, but we also had to take fuel and water in case we couldn’t find any. Then there was the camping equipment and some extra food. It would be difficult enough for anyone to drive across that country with those roads without filming, so it was a pretty delicate balancing act between travel and filming. We managed to pull it o ff because o f the huge amount o f journalistic research done beforehand on what I thought we could get along the way and dovetailing that with what we didn’t expect to get. They came together fairly well. W ere you given freed om to travel wherever you liked?

The only place we were told we cou ldn ’t film was a military zone called Cheliabinsk, which for many years was a munitions manufacturing area and is still KGB controlled. They told us not to film there, but we tried them on when we came across some o f the 40,000 KGB agents who have been turned into an anti corruption squad. W e ran across them at a roadblock, where they were looking for drugs and gun-running. They were wearing black uniforms and looked very dramatic, very Miami Vice. We started filming, and eventually they got into the spirit o f things. We got a very funny piece out o f it. 8 • CINEMA

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A lot o f what I have done in my work, apart from tilting at the odd windmill, has been to hopefully break down mythology. And let me tell you it has never been as difficult to film in the Soviet Union as people would like you to believe. It’s part o f the rom ance o f the old Cold-War mentality that everywhere there is restriction and surveillance. I’ve filmed in Russia three times and you really have to go looking for trouble. Also, I’ve never met obstruction from Soviet intelligence and the military outside the Soviet Union, whereas I ’ve had obstructions from the Americans just about everywhere. Basically, the Russians d o n ’ t stop you filming anything that the Americans w ouldn’t stop you filming. W hat other myths about the Russian peop le do you want to break down?

That they’re dour, that they’ve been brainwashed. They are, in fact, the most good-hum oured, innovative, politically-sophisti cated group o f people I’ve met in a long time. They are anything but brainwashed. Anybody who has the impression that under the so-called yoke o f com munism they stopped thinking inde pendently and politically isjust too ridiculous for words. They are politically very sophisticated because they were living in a system they didn ’t agree with. We live in a system we agree with and we are very apathetic and lethargic about it all. W e kid ourselves that we have m ore freedom than we really do. W e d o n ’ t recognize the econ om ic constrictions that our own system places upon people. The Soviets are ingenious because they had to be. They remained good-hum oured under the most dire o f circumstances; they are politically fascinating. Now they have b ecom e even more o f all o f those things, because the opportunity is there for them to express themselves. Before it was so constipated and constricted. They are the nation - the nations - o f the future. I just hope they d o n ’thurtle themselves towards the West. I d o n ’ t think they will. Maybe the Baltic states will, but Russians are very cagey.

LEFT: NEGUS IN THE BURYAT CAPITAL OF ULAN-UDE IN FRONT OF THE LAST STILL-STANDING LENIN STATUE SEEN ON THE JOURNEY. BELOW: O N OLKHON ISLAND IN LAKE BAIKAL, THE

LAiv-r 1 t

WORLD'S LARGEST RESERVE OF FRESH WATER. ACRO SS THE RED UNKNOW N.

They’re not going to accept lock, stock and barrel Western industrialized capitalism as the answer to a maiden’s prayers. They can see the deficiencies in our system, like they now know about their own. I d o n ’t think that they’re so stupid as to fall into the same employment, inflation, high-interest, high-debt, mort gaged trap that the West has. There are lots o f aspects o f their system worth keeping. They should go through a sifting and a blending process now. They are ideally placed to create a whole new way o f organizing power, money and people. T o merely superimpose a defective Western system on theirs would be asking for trouble. I’d like to think that they’re too bright for that. I also hope they d o n ’t get influenced by every oil-can Harry from the bloody Westwho tells them he has the answer to their consum er dreams. Ifwe d o n ’t try to force them to go down our path without question, they could create a new society. Gorbachev was on the right track when he talked about a regulated socialist market econom y at one stage. I think it is one o f the most fascinating and original politico-econom ic phrases to have emerged. It suggests a com bination o f systems which also suggests an acknowledgement that both are open to serious question. I d o n ’t know what a socialist market econom y is, but, by Christ, I’d like to be around when they try to make one work. It

So, you are basically an old-fashioned, rom antic humanist.

[Laughs] Yes, I am, and I think there’s a place for them. Having said that, I’m also a very political and ideological animal. I d o n ’ tjust waltz into the situation saying, “All we have to be concerned about here is the human factor.” I see humanity in political and ideological terms. Or, if you like the other way around, I see politics and ideology in human terms, which is the only way to see it. In this bloody country, all we ever see is politics in econom ic terms. We have no social or human goals, just an idiotic preoccu pation with econom ic matters. This doesn’t exist anywhere else in the world. No other country has the same level o f selfinterested preoccupation with econom ic matters. In sophisti cated countries, West and East, they regard econom ics as being something you have to cop depending on whom you elect to govern you. In Australia, there is an ideological desert with no political values at all. Politics is purely a battle by politicians who h ope they can appeal to the self-interest o f the voter. We all just stumble through life, voting every few years and wondering why the hell we’re disappointed. Our politics are vacuous. Politics in the rest o f the world is search for meaning. If a politician said that in this country, h e’d be laughed out o f town.

would be amazing. So, are you going to do a film on Australia? W hat do you think will be the m ain response o f television audiences to your film ?

That they feel they have found out things about that part o f the world they didn ’t know before; that a lot o f things which are just words in a newspaper, or minute-and-a-half reports on television, will becom e humanized. The whole business o f what’s going on in the Soviet U nion will hopefully be seen as an enorm ous human adventure, as distinct from a political shambles.

Strangely enough, we have one on our books. I never thought we would, because I’m an internationalist. But I think it’s possible to take an internationalist view o f Australia. I want to make a series on Australia which appeals to an overseas audience as well as an Australian. That internationalist perspective is n ot that com m on to the feature film industry, especially if one takes away film s such as

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Walkabout and. Wake in Fright, which were m ade by foreign direc tors. Y et every culture needs that perspective and m ost countries other than Australia have it.

Yes. And what a wonderful idea it would be to have an Australian director and a foreign director work together on something. The Australian director could tell the foreign director what he obvi ously doesn’t know about Australia, and the foreign director can tell the Australian director what he thinks he knows about Australia and has got wrong. There is a kind o f parallel situation to that with yourself and Vitali Vitaliev: you on Russia, he on Australia.

Yes, though I disagree entirely with Vitali’s view o f Russia. And I think he has to get his rose-coloured glasses o ff as far as Australia is concerned. But I’ve read some o f his pieces about Arm co and the demos at the armament factor)'. He reveals there a picture o f a different Australia, so I think h e’s waking up. T E L E V ISIO N A N D T H E R E P O R TE R This is your third docum entary. W hy did you branch out into what is fo r you a new field o f reportage?

I d o n ’t consider them documentaries, rather television journal ism. T o me, the word “documentary” immediately connotes a certain sort o f project, in a certain kind o f timeslot, with a certain sort ofviewing audience. That’s not the sort o f television I’ve ever been involved in. What I’ve done, and am still doing, is prime timejournalism. I have taken from what has always been regarded as a current-affairs approach and turned it into a lengthier format. H as the increased length m eant you are able to go into greater depth and cover differen t sorts o f subjects?

I’d be dishonest if I said thatfor years and years I wasn’t frustrated by the constrictions o f the current-affairs format. At 60 Minutes, we had progressively turned the whole encapsulation process into an art form. But there are some things thatyou can’ideal with in that stylistic structure and time length. What I do now is give things the length and approach they deserve. D o you intend to m ake program m es o f a particular style, or are they going to be fairly eclectic?

No, I am not eclectic. I am very socio-political. Having said that, I’d like to think the treatment we give things is not just straight socio-political analysis. They’re not treatises at all, but socio politics seen through the daily lives o f the inhabitants o f the particular area o f the world. If you like, it’s socio-politics with a human face, for the want o f a better cliché. W hich raises the role o f personality o f the presenter. T o what degree is your being presenter a factor in what you’re intending to do?

In Australia it’s probably a plus. Internationally, at this stage, it’s m ore likely a minus. I’ve always been quite unapologetic about presenter-led tel evisionjournalism. The usual accusation about the presenter and

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the reporter becom ing m ore important than the story is just a heap o f spurious shit. It’ s usually uttered by people who have never really sat down to think about the philosophy behind what is called “personality cult” journalism. Television is a very visual and audience-oriented medium. Audiences identify with characters they see on television, whether they’re actors, newsreaders, soap stars or journalists. That being the case, a presenter-led style o f programme-making is a huge advantage. The audience can identify with the subject matter through another human being. If it’s a human being that they know, that’s even better, and if it’s som eone they trust and regard as having credibility, then that’s an enorm ous advantage. So, while I understand the accusation about reporters becom ing more important than the story, I’d like to think thatit’s never been true in my case. People know that I am there for a reason, to be, ifyoulike, the audience’s emissary in a situation. That’swhy I’ve always intruded into my own stories quite consciously: it stops them from becom ing a lot o f pictures vaguely related to a subject matter, with a disembodied voice floating around the top that doesn’t really relate to an audience. Having said that, we ’re making products for the international market and we have to be careful o f how we introduce ajoumalistic character to an uninitiated audience. G iven that you’re less known overseas, are audiences going to w onder who is this person they see wandering around?

The same could have been said o f David Attenborough at some stage o f his life. But now h e ’s becom e a character, a part o f his stories, and not as many people would watch his material today if he weren’t involved. I’m not so precocious as to suggest that I am absolutely essential to my stories, but I do think that I add to them. If the sort o f journalistic character I’ve becom e - in the nicest sense o f the word character-is transportable, then I think that’s a marvellous LEFT TO RIGHT: FILMING THE BLACK DIRT OF THE STEPPE OUTSIDE OMSK. A TYPICAL TRUCKIE, AND TOURIST, STOP NEAR TASHET. NEGUS DUBBED IT "A HALF-STAR HOTEL". ARRIVAL IN MOSCOW: MEDIA AND FRIENDS. ACRO SS THE RED UNKNOWN.

*Tve always been quite unapologetic about presenter-led television journalism. The usual accusation about the presenter and the reporter becoming more important than the story is just a heap of spurious shit. Itfs usually uttered by people who have never really sat down to think about the philosophy behind what is called ‘personality cuitrjournalism . ”

thing. I would be delighted if Across theRed Unknown turned myself and my product into an export product. W hereas A ttenborough is English and com es from what is per ceived as a prom inent culture, do you think there’s a resistance to a presenter com ing fro m Australia? W orld audiences m ay well query why they should listen to what an Australian thinks about Russia?

My reaction to that is: Why should we only listen to what a Brit or an American says about Russia? W e do because we’ve becom e used to it, but, has our cultural cringe also becom e an intellectual, journalist and professional cringe to the point where we really believe that the Poms and the Yanks are better equipped to tell us about what’s going on in the world than we are ourselves? We are as qualified to speak to the rest o f the world as they are to us. I d o n ’t think the transporting o f Australian talent at the popular level should be restricted to Paul Hogan, John Cornell and Crocodile Dundee. But-there is still the reality o f m arketing your product overseas.

So we have to bite that bullet and be prepared to say to people in New York and London, “We understand your prejudice; it happens to be wrong. The people at the top end o f our market are as g ood as anyone you have. ” I’m not necessarily talking about myself; I’m talking about the cameramen, sound recordists, producers, researchers, writers. I’ve been floating around the world now for twenty years and we have absolutely nothing to be ashamed o f at that level. We d o n ’t have to go cap-in-hand to the international market saying, “Sorry, sir, that we have an Australian presenting this; we really wish he were an American or Englishman.” It’s a tough nut to crack. It requires clever, persistent, courageous marketing. People like Bob Loader, our executive producer, are more capable o f pulling this off.

In Kids First, you shared the presenter role with Sir Peter U stinov. W as that by coincidence or design?

It was a lucky coincidence. Having Peter involved, we hoped, would make the product more marketable internationally. But it was also the case that Peter was the UNICEF Ambassador for Children, so having him in there was a totally legitimate exercise journalistically. T o put the two o f us together was a way o f easing into the international market, rather than beating them around the head in the first instance. But that was a particular sort o f p rod u ct it wasn’t a general market product; it was largely a humanitarian response rather than a journalistic effort. In Across die Red Unknown, was it difficu lt finding the correct balance o f how m uch G eorge N egus to put in?

My approach to everything I do is, quite deliberately, naturalistic and realistic. There should be no credibility gap between what you d o if there’s a camera around and what you do when there isn ’ t. That being the case, I guess I set out to let my presence find its own level, and I think it has. H ow naturalistic can one get when, seeing som e Russians drink ing vodka in the m iddle o f the Siberian w ilderness, you stop your caravan o f vehicles, turn on the cameras and film yourself getting drunk with them?

Let me assure you, drinking vodka anywhere in the Soviet Union, whether you’re Australian or not, is very natural! The other people on the trip were there to make the journey; I was there to make a television programme. It was never meant to be a boys’ own adventure across the Soviet Union; it was meant to be a geographic and political expedition. CONTINUES

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J t w a s a lm o s t lik e a m y t h ic a l H o lly w o o d t a le , o r p e r h a p s a r u n n in g jo k e : S t e v e n S p ie lb e r g w a n t s t o d o a c o n t e m Â p o r a r y P e t e r P a n . O f c o u r s e , lik e n o o t h e r A m e r ic a n f ilm m a k e r o f h is g e n e r a t io n , S p ie lb e r g s e e m s e n t h r a lle d b y t h e p o s s ib ilit ie s o f e t e r n a l y o u t h , b y t h e c o s m ic r e s o n a n c e s n o t o n ly o f c h ild h o o d in g e n e ra l b u t o f h is c h ild h o o d in p a r t ic u la r . It w o u ld o n ly b e f i t t i n g t h a t h e w o u ld b e t h e o n e t o t r a n s p o r t t h e s e v is io n s

s o c le v e r ly

e x p r e s s e d b y t h e D is n e y a n im a t o r s in it s la t e -1 .9 5 0 s P e te r Pan ^ t o liv e a c t io n . B u t t h e y e a r s p a s s e d a n d S p ie lb e r g â&#x20AC;&#x2122;s m o s t o b v io u s p r o je c t n e v e r s e e m e d t o c o m e vto f r u it io n . A n d a s h e e x p la in s in t h is in t e r v ie w , t h a t h a s m o r e t o d o w it h p e r s o n a l

l p s y c h o lo g ic a l r e a s o n s t h a n w i t h t h e u s u a l H o lly w o o d p itfa lls o f c o m p lic a t e d n e g o t ia t io n s , t a n g le d d e a ls a n d h ig h -r o t a t io n p r o d u c t io n e x e c u t iv e s .

interviewed by Ana Maria Bahiana

ffoolc Finally, in late 1990, it was announced that Hook, a modern-day retelling ofjam es Barrie’s Peter Pan myth, was firmly under way, with Spielberg at the helm, Dustin H offman in the title character, and Robin Williams - a natural Pan, if ever there were one - as a 1990s Boy W ho W ouldn’t Grow Up (but eventually did and here lay the twist in the tale). Written by Jim Hart (with additional material provided by several other writers, even though only OnceAround s Malia Scotch Marmo gets on-screen credit) and based on an original idea o f his eight-year-old son (“What would happen if Peter Pan leftNeverland and grew u p?”), Hook proved to be a more arduous task than anyone envisioned. “We didn’t really realize the size o f the project until we were smack in the middle o f it”, says Hart, who is also the film’s producer. Building Neverland according to stage designer John (Cats, Miss Saigon) Napier’s luxuriously com plex blueprints was a gi gantic task in itself. But then there were the matters o f making grown-ups fly in a convincing way, controlling a dozen utterly uncontrollable pre-teens (who play the new, multi-ethnic. Lost Boys) and, last but by n o means least, handle the tangled overexposure o f Julia Roberts (who plays Tinkerbell), her m o mentous unmarriage and sudden illness, right in the middle o f the shoot. Was it worth it? On the opening week in Los Angeles, Spielberg shows up for this intendew wearing his signature pilot jacket and baseball cap, with the relaxed and glowing attitude o f

a content man. He brought Hook in at a w hopping cost o f $75 million (and counting) but the film, in spite o f lukewarm reviews, is a hit in the rich holiday market: almost $100 million in tickets over a mere 6-week period. It is enough to make anyone fly.

W hat are your earliest m em ories o f P eter Pan?

My m om read PeterPanto me when I was, I guess, three-years-old. W hen I was eleven-years-old, I, along with other kids, directed a shortened version ofjam es Barrie’s Peter Pan in my elementary school, with all the parents watching in the audience. I actually staged it and did it as a kid, just like in the opening scene from Hook. I put that scene in almost only for that reason. Peter Panstayedwith you throughoutyour career. T h ere are many references to it in E. T .: The Extra-terrestrial, fo r instance. In away, it is surprising that you didn’t do this m ovie earlier.

I was going to do itas early as 1985.1had been pursuing the rights and in 19851finally acquired them from the L on d on Children’s Hospital. I was going to make a Peter Pan movie based on the novel, a live-action version like the 1924 Peter Pan silent movie. But then something happened: my son (Max) was born and I lost my appetite for the project. W hy?

Because suddenly I cou ldn ’t be Peter Pan any m ore. I had to be his father. That’s literally the reason I didn ’t d o the movie back then. A nd I had everything ready and Elliott Scott hired to d o the sets in London.

In away, my son took my ch ildhood away from me. Buthe also gave it back to me. W hen he was b o m , I suddenly became the spitting image o f my father and mother. All the parental clichés, all the things I said I would never say to my kids if ever I had them, I began saying to my own kids. But, as I was raising my kids, the appetite for Peter Pan came back, and stayed with me. W hat kind o f childhood did you have that you seem to celebrate it so m uch?

I d on ’t know that any o f our childhoods were completely happy —from our own memories. My ch ildhood was bad and it was good. It was chaotic; it was noisy; it was real loud. I have a big family, with three younger sisters. People yelled and screamed at each other. Now that I’m a dad and have four kids - the fifth is on its way, actually —they scream and yell at each other all the time. I guess now I can appreciate even m ore whom my parents were. What-is, fo r you, the m ost enduring quality o f the P eter Pan myth? Eteriial ybuth, perhaps?

It’sráHtuaEy flying. T o me, anytime anything flies, whether it’s Superfnan, Batman or E.T., it’s got to be a tip o f the hat to Peter Pan.PeterPan'was the first time I ever saw anybody fly. Before I saw Superman, before I saw Batman, and o f course before I saw any superheroes, my first memory o f anybody flying is in Peter Pan. W hat does fligh t m ean to you? T h ere is a treniendous am ount o f flying in your film s.

I am absolutely fascinated and terrified by flying. It is a big deal in my movies. All my movies have airplanes in them. You name the

FACING PAGE: ROBIN WILLIAMS AS PETER BANNING, A "TYPE A " PERSON W H O RETURNS TO NEVERLAND. ABOVE: CAPTAIN HOOK (DUSTIN HOFFMAN), RIGHT, AND HIS SIDE-KICK, SMEE (BOB HOSKINS). STEVEN SPIELBERG'S HO O K.

movie —they all fly. T o me, flying is synonymous with freedom and unlimited imagination but, interestingly enough, I’m afraid to fly. I have two hundred hours in flight simulators, I love them, and once I even landed a two-engine Cessna based on my experience in the flight simulator. Butitwasmore ou toffear, abjectfear, and the need to control that fear that I did it. I’m only not afraid to fly in my dreams and in my movies, but, in real life, I’m terrified o f flying. Just like the Peter Banning character in the beginning o f Hook. That scene in the airplane? That was me; that’s how I fly. I get white knuckles. H ave you ever analyzed your relationship with flying?

You mean psychoanalyzed? No, I haven’t. I’m aware o f the psychoanalytic implications o f flight but, no, I have never been analyzed. I think we all need it, though. I think I need it, but I’m always afraid that if I get psychoanalyzed my movies will suffer because I’ll becom e m ore intellectual about them. I’ll all o f a sudden figure out what it is I do and then I would probably screw it up. W hat m ade you pick up this specific project, Hook, after all these years n ot tackling Peter Pan?

I decided to d o it when I read the Jim Hart script. It was a great idea, even though my first reactions was “This isn’t exactly what CIN EM A

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It’s n ot conscious. I d o n ’t sit down and say, “N ow I have to look for a movie that is just for families”, because I had m ade three films for adults. A nd we only got adult audiences, actually, for the last three films, except that I d id n ’t think o f them that way. W hen Hook came by I was actually planning to direct Schindler’s Ark, which is very m uch an adult film, and which I’m finally goin g to direct early in ’92. H ook was also an extrem ely expensive m ovie to m ake. W as that a concern o f yours at any poin t during the shoot?

I’m real apprehensive about finances on every movie n o matter what it costs. E.T. cost $10 million, and I was saying, “Gee, why can’t we make it for $8 m illion?” But basically on ce a m ovie starts, the last thing you want to be aware o f is the responsibility to the financiers because that would com pletely interrupt the idea that w e’re making a movie, thatwe’re telling a story together. Itw ould get in the way every day, so I d o n ’t think that was in my m ind at all in the making o f this movie. W hen the movie is don e the studio reminds m e how m uch I’ve spent making the movie, and then, o f course, I start to worry. I worry at the end but not during the making o f the movie. W hat was so expensive about it?

Well, creating a world is always expensive. A nd this is what I was trying to do: create a world. W hen G eorge Lucas created a world for Star Wars, n obod y had ever seen anything like that before. It was the same thing here. W e all have expectations fo r Neverland so we needed to put our heads together to create a Neverland that you would believe in, that would look like Neverland and notjust Laguna Beach [a beach suburb o f Los A ngeles]. Y o u m entioned Schindler’s Ark as your n ext proj ect. W o u ld that be b efo re Jurassic Park? TOP: PETER AND CAPTAIN HOOK FIGHT IT OUT IN THE BATTLE TO SAVE PETER'S CHILDREN. H O O K. AND, JULIA ROBERTS, W HO PLAYS TINKERBELL, WITH DIRECTOR SPIELBERG.

I want to do, but this is a great idea for a m ovie.” But then I took the idea and I rewrote the script with Jim and another writer [Malia Scotch Marmo] and, based on the rewrite, I went ahead and made the movie. W hat was it about it that attracted you so m uch?

I guess I related to the main character, Peter Banning, the wayjim wrote him —a “type A ” personality. I think a lot o f people today are losing their imagination because they are work-driven. They are so self-involved with work and success and arriving at the next plateau that children and family almost b ecom e incidental. I have seen this happen to friends o f mine. I have even experienced it myself when I have been on a very tough shoot and I’ve n ot seen my kids except on weekends. They ask for my time and I can’tgive it to them because I’m working. A nd I’ve been both guilty and wanting to do something about it. So, when Jim Hart wrote that script, and wrote a “type A ” personality in Peter Banning, I related to it. I said, “Gee, that’ s quite a character arc for this character. Could this person ever have been Peter Pan? Wow, what an interesting challenge!” C ou ld it also be that you were interested in returning to youthoriented pictures after a couple o f adult projects? 16 ’

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Yes. I bought the b ook eight years ago, but I haven’t been able to get a writer to d o a script. It’s a drama about the Holocaust, about the real-life story o f Oscar Schindler, who was a German Catholic profiteer w ho saved twelve hundred Jews in Poland. It’s a fascinating story. It’s also interesting that I would pick, o f all the H olocaust stories I could tell, the on e that has one glim mer o f hope. Schindler’s Ark has a very interesting statistic: there are six thousand descendants from the twelve hundred Jews that Schindler delivered to safety, and that out-numbers the surviving Jews in Poland. That’s an idea worth making a movie about, I thought. W e’re shooting in Poland and Czechoslovakia, in blackand-white. W h y black-and-white?

Because I d o n ’t see the H olocaust in colour. I’ve been indoctri nated with documentaries and they’re all black-and-white. Every time I see anything in colou r about W orld War II, it looks too glamourized, too antiseptic. I think black-and-white is almost the synonymous form for W orld War II and the Holocaust. A last and m aybe obvious question: A re you P eter Pan?

No, no. I think my m om is the quintessential Peter Pan. She even looks like him. Seriously. My m other has a restaurant and she literally flies around it. She’s 72 years old and she moves faster than I ever could. B

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REPORT BY EVA FR IED M A N ichard Lowenstein has always been a wunderkind o f the Australian film industry. Since he won the Erwin Rado Award at the 1980 M elbourne Film Festival fo r his half-hour, dramatized documentary Evictions, Lowenstein has been some thing o f a golden boy. His recreation o f the evictions that took place during the Great Depression, when tenants cou ld n ot pay their rent, indicated that Lowenstein cou ld com bin e historical verisimilitude and the art o f storytelling to create powerful cinema. In 1984, Lowenstein burrowed on ce m ore into history with his first feature, Strikebound, this time recreating Australia’s first ever sit-in strike in W onthaggi, Victoria. T he film went to the New York Film Festival and was nom inated for an astounding nine Australian Film Awards at hom e. H e has also m ade innu merable rock music videos, for such artists as INXS, U2 and Belinda Carlisle. 18 • C I N E M A

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Say a Little Prayer But Lowenstein is perhaps best rem em bered for Dogs in Space, his evocation o f the post punk sub-culture which had its brief ‘m om ent’ in M elbourne in the late 1970s. Starring Michael Hutchence, Dogs in Space got g ood exposure for a relatively lowbudget film in both the U.S. and Britain, and looked set to buffet Lowenstein’s career abroad. Since then there have been endless murmurs in the press that Lowenstein was set to direct the big-budget “Crimes o f Patriots” - about the Nugan Hand Bank scandal and its alleged links with organized crime —with Hollywood producer Ed Pressman. But funding proved to be a problem . In the meantime, Lowenstein received offers to direct teen films in Hollywood. However, Lowenstein did not get sucked into H ollyw ood’s maw by either directing teen pics or making big-budget bonan zas. Instead, it would appear, that Lowenstein’s career has gravitated back towards Australia where he is currendy working on his latest home-grown venture, Say a Little Prayer. The $3 million film, based on Robin Klein’s award-winning children’s book, Came Back to Show You I Could Fly, is being funded by the 1991 Australian Film Finance Corporation’s Film Fund scheme. There is a lot riding on this film and Lowenstein knows it, for Say a LittlePrayermarks Lowenstein’s directorial return to features after five years. Moreover, the film signals a departure for the director who has always anchored his work, in one way or another, in history. Lowenstein, who adapted the screenplay, acknowl edges that the project represents new turf for him: 20 • C I N E M A

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Dogs in Space and Strikebound are both based on social history, on chronicling an era. Say a Little Prayer is a different thing. It is a conventional, fictional narrative and is quite a challenge for me. It is an exercise in the direction o f action and the direction of character. It’s very rare to get a film where there are basically two leads and almost no supporting cast, as in this film. Dogs in Space was an ensemble piece, whereas in this film I am telling a story about two people. I have concentrated on getting a performance out o f them and developing the characters. Say a LittlePrayeris a story about an introverted 11-year-old boy, Seymour (Sudi De W inter), and his growing friendship with a spirited young woman, Angie (Fiona Ruttelle). Angie is a 20-yearold drug addict learning to cope without her boyfriend while she endures the miseries oflife on am ethadone programme. Seymour, who inhabits a barren, lonely environment, flees his hom e by day and meets up with the effervescent Angie. Together they escape into a fantastical world o f their own design. However, Angie does n ot tell Seymour that she is a drug addict. Instead, she tells him she is “sick”. Seymour takes it upon him self to nurse Angie through her ‘sickness’ , and their b o n d intensifies. While Say a Little Prayer explores A n gie’s heroin addiction, Lowenstein is quick to fend o ff suggestions that the film mines similar terrain as Dogs in Space. With Dogs in Space the drugs were very literally handled. In Say a Little Prayer, the drugs are seen from Seymour’s point o f view and it isn’ t the focus at all. This isn’t a social issue: it is part o f the plot development which relates to the pivotal question o f whether Angie should lie to the boy, and threaten their friendship, or explain that she is sick, because she’s taking heroin. The film is about what is important in a friendship, about trust and respect,

LEFT: FIONA RUTTELLE, SUDI DE WINTER AND BEN MENDELSOHN IN A PUBLICITY STILL. ABOVE: LYNNE

and that is where the conflict comes from. The film charts the growth o f a friendship between the classic ‘od d cou p le’ : Angie, the tireless extrovert, and Seymour, the boy crippled by a debilitating inwardness. The film charts Seymour’s journey towards growth. The best way to describe Seymour is that he is very much like a spirit waiting to break free. The winged idea, the idea o f flight, is very important in the film. The flying horse is an important thematic thread that keeps coming back visually and represents Seymour’s unleashed spirit. Angie is the one who gives Seymour the wings so that he can fly. Much o f the film ’s potency is to be derived from the fact that the audience sees the world from the m in d’s eye o f a litde boy. The film is not over-the-top fantasy, but it is from the boy’s point o f view, and that is interesting. I have gone for touches o f fantasy, playing with the light and shade and sparkles. Also, it is always his perspective o f the drug-taking, which is something he doesn’t really understand. The film explores the way children distort the world in sometimes unpredictable ways. It is something, according to Lowenstein, that adults lose: Seymour is always trying to make something fantastical out o f the mundane, which is a very idealistic and naive thing, and which we tend to lose when we grow up. When Angie first meets Seymour, she takes him into her world full o f colour and light, and everything between them is fun. Together they have this ability to make the ordinary somehow extraordinary. Kids have a sense o f wonder about the world. I think the film really takes a good look

(REBECCA SMART), ANGIE'S IMPUDENT LITTLE SISTER, AND SEYMOUR. SAY A LITTLE PRAYER.

at the things in life that are worth idealizing and wondering about. Lowenstein was attracted to the story primarily on account o f its sharply-delineated, idiosyncratic characters. While he has added scenes and changed some o f the original novel, he believes that he has been faithful to the essence o f the characters: The characters are not archetypes. They are very idiosyncratic. They are not like the girl or boy next door. Seymour is not even able to go into a shop and ask for what he wants because he’s too scared. Angie is the opposite. She almost accosts people in the street with her extroversion. The contrast between them is wonderful. What they do share is that, with their intense charac teristics, the world doesn’t have much time for either o f them. Casting the pair proved to be a difficult task. Lowenstein interviewed more than 1500 boys for the part o f Seymour and saw countless female actors for the part o f Angie. Says Lowenstein: Casting took ages. It didn’tjust need a good actress; it needed the right person. There might have been only two or three people in Australia who would have been rightfor the role, and because our population is so small it’s very hard for people to play these idiosyncratic characters. We tend to get homogenized actors and we tend to see the same good faces playing this type or that. We don’t have the selection o f character actors as they do in America and England. In the end, Lowenstein chose Fiona Ruttelle for the role o f Aaigie because he recognized traces o f Angie in her.

LEFT: DIRECTOR RICHARD LOWENSTEIN, SECOND FROM LEFT, DURING THE FILMING OF SAY A LITTLE PRAYER. WITH TOBY PEASE (1ST ASSISTANT DIRECTOR), GRAEME WOOD (DOP) AND ROBIN PLUNKETT (FOCUS PULLER). BELOW: ANGIE HELPS TEACH SEYMOUR 'TO FLY'. S A Y A LITTLE PRAYER..

performer, but it’s still work getting the right thing out o f her. The film also boasts Ben M endelsohn in the role o f a nursery attendant and R ebecca Smart as A n gie’s im pudent little sister. Lowenstein, who is renow ned fo r favouring fluid camera movements, has opted for more static frames in Say a Little Prayer. H e explains:

The book describes the character in extraordinary detail, so it was very easy to pick Fiona. It was all there in front o f you. No one else really had it, though we tested many girls. She has a childlike naïveté about her. Once you work around her a bit longer, you realize she has an upfrontedness. You’ll be walking along with her in a crowded street and she’ll be going up to people and talking with them at the top o f her voice, and this is very much the character as well. She’s a real extrovert who wears very loud clothes. It’s very much like a child who hasn’tyet learnt the rules o f society, so she doesn’t know that she’s breaking them. Sudi De Winter, who has worked in television before, was the very first boy that Lowenstein saw. In the end, Lowenstein came back to De Winter on account o f his intensity. “Sudi seemed to have these adult eyes in the body o f a ten-year-old, which is exactly what we wanted from Seymour”, enthuses Lowenstein. Sudi was very aware. There is a part o f him that is and there is a part o f him that isn ’ t Seymour. He has a lot o f understanding and he has incredible control over his facial expressions. His eyes are a big plus. I tend to go on visual appeal. With some boys it would not be believable that he would be hanging around with this girl. It just seemed with Sudi that he had this incredible depth and intensity behind the eyes. He seemed to have this incredible knowledge just from a look that could break through all the stupidity and senselessness o f the adult world. Lowenstein is aware that he has taken a risk in casting two newcomers. However, he has made choices on ‘visual appeal’ in the past, casting Michael H utchence as the lead in Dogs in Space. Lowenstein knows he has his work cut out for him. What’s more, he seems to have transgressed one o f H ollyw ood’s oldestmaxims: never work with children. Lowenstein admits that the nine-week shoot has been difficult: We have been falling a little behind schedule because we’re stuck on an eight-hour day because o f child welfare. We rarely go over time because Sudi has to go home right on eight hours or child welfare will come and arrest us all. It is a real challenge working with people who have had little experience. It’s like psychological warfare because you don’tjust say what you want. You can say all the technical stuff up front, but you have to play little logistical games. With little Sudi, you do have to play little psychological games. It really is important to keep the characters in the m ood that they’re playing the scene in. I have my work cut out for me keeping them on set in the m ood that they’re supposed to be in that shot. Fiona is a natural

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In Dogs in Space, I tended to use a lot o f moving cameras but, because there is a lot more intense acting in this, I tend to let the characters pull that o ff in a lot more static frames than I normally use. I’m tending to use a lot more tripods in this film. But when Seymour escapes from his little world, I have tried to go for some height and use lots o f cranes. We start to soar and use more exciting angles and moving cameras. Shot in and around R ichm ond, production designer Chris Kennedy has gone for a naturalistic look, highlighting the subur ban setting. Notes Lowenstein, We have put a lot o f effort into Angie’s bungalow, which was built in the studio. W e’ve tried to create a magic wonderland, trans forming something mundane into something whimsical, with all her little knick-knacks and coloured ornaments and things that attract light. Lowenstein believes that while Say a Little Prayer has a simple, linear storyline in the final account, the film ’s strength is derived from its quirky characters. M oreover, he believes that it is pre cisely this new emphasis being placed on characterization which is fuelling the ‘new wave’ o f quality films com ing out o f Australia. In the past, I think we were so excited that we’d made a wonderful period film, for instance, that we thought maybe that was all we could do. Now characterization is suddenly being thought about in Australia. We suddenly realize that not everyone is the girl on Neighbours. The archetypal Australiansjust aren’t there anymore. People are weird and now we’re letting them be weird on screen. That’s a change for the better. ■

WINNER

Best Foreign Language Film

A change in the air. Before taking to the air, the butterfly will spend some four to six weeks as a caterpillar before making its colorful change. And as with many things that take time, it’s usually worth the wait. Here, at Open Channel video resource facility, it was also time for a change. In the past six months we’ve been updating our video production equipment, film/video post production facilities and extending our training resources for both professionals and amateurs. A change that’s bringing us up to date. And like the butterfly, it’s also been worth the wait.

N ew Y o rk C ritics C ircle N ational Board of Review

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Video Production, Post Production and Training OPEN CHANNEL CO-OP 14 VICTORIA ST FITZROY 3065 TEL 03/419 5111 FAX 03/419 1404

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EURQPH EU R O P E T h e tru e story o f a Jew ish boy's struggle to survive N azi G erm any.

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A p p lican ts should have strong leadership qualities, managerial and financial competence, together with advocacy and public relation skills. Industry knowledge is desirable. Confidential applications should be directed to the Chairperson, Open Channel, 13 Victoria Street, Fitzroy, Victoria, 3055 by 12th March, 1992, or telephone (03) 419 5111 for further details. __________________________________ 26897

15+ RECOMMENDED FOR MATURE AUDIENCES 15 YEARS AND OVER MEDIUM LEVEL VIOLENCE AND SEX SCENE

AUSTRALIAN PREMIERE SEASON APRIL 1992 SYDNEY - Greater Union Pitt Centre. MELBOURNE - Hoyts Forest Hill • Longford Cinema CINEMA

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ineteen Ninety O ne was a bonanza in Australia for those interested in Jewish cinema as an art form, as well as a vehicle for a rich and diverse commentary on Jewish experience, past and present. In O ctober 1991, the Festival ofjewish Cinema, presented by the Jewish Film Foundation in association with Premium Films, screened 19 high-quality features and documentaries. A month later in November, the Australian Film Institute’s Second Australianjewish Film Festival showed 25 features and documentaries o f a similar high standard and breadth o f view, as well as several Israeli shorts and a welcome Children’s Programme. A breakdown o f where these 44 films came from is revealing but hardly surprising. Eleven were from the U.S. and eight from Israel, the two post-Holocaust epicentres ofjewish culture which

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have com e to dominate the Jewish world. Four were made in the UK, three in France, two each in Canada, Austria and Germany, while one each came from Australia, Holland, Belgium, Poland, Czechoslovakia, Italy and the USSR. Two films were pre-war co productions between the U.S. and Poland, two were co-produc tions between Germany and France, and one was a historic USSRIsrael-France collaboration. What is disappointing is the realization that Australian-Jewish culture has not been as forthcom ing as other comparable cul tures, Canada for example, in producing films which character ize and celebrate either the unique features o f AustralianJewish life or the com ing o f Jews to this country, a notable exception being Ben Lewin’s mini-series, TheDunera Boy$Sf.ii Stimulated by the AFl’s successful screening in 1990 o f the

Yiddish classic, Dybbuk ( The Dybbuk, Michael Waszynski, Poland, 1938) ,1991 saw the screening o f four pre-Holocaust films, all o f them painstakingly restored by the National Centre for Jewish Film at Brandeis University, Massachusetts, which was foun ded in 1976 following the acquisition o f a private collection o f Yiddish feature films. The Second Australian Jewish Film Festival (JFF) screened two films prod u ced and directed by Polish-American Joseph Grefeii, and film ed in Poland: YidlM.it ’n Fidl ( Yiddle with hisFiddle, U.S.,1936), the classic Yiddish musical which becam e an interna tional hity starring the famous Y ddish actress-comedian Molly Pieoh. as a; young woman, forced to take to the road with her father, w ho cross-dresses to jo in a band o f wandering musicians (klezmerim) and falls in love with on e o f them; and Der Purimspieler

{TheJester, Poland-U.S., 1937), a whimsical romantic com edy set in ajewish village in Galicia, about a dreamer who falls in love with a shoemaker’s daughter during Purim. Green went to the U.S. in 1923 as a m em ber o f the renowned Vilna Troupe, a company o f Y ddish actors who were influenced by Stanislavski’s Moscow ArtTheatre, and who themselves became famous for their avant garde performances o f such European and Yddish classics as Ibsen’s The Ghosts, and S. Anski’s Dybbuk. After working in Y ddish Theatre in New York for some years, and in Hollywood playing small parts in films, Green set up his own international production company, with offices in New York and

ABOVE:

spur PEREL (MARCO HOFSCHNEIDER), THE POUSH-JEWISH BOY WHO BECAME A GERMAN

WAR HERO IN AGNIESZKA HOLLAND'S EUROPA EUROPA.

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Warsaw, and returned to Poland in the mid-1950s with a small troupe o f New York Yiddish actors, where he produced four films. His first was Yidl M it’nFidl, which he wrote especially for Picon, and co-directed with Jan Nowina Przyblski, his co-director on Der Purimspieler. His fourth was A Brivele der Mamen (A Little Letter To Mother, 1939), one o f the lastfilms made in Poland before the war. The firstJewish films made with Jewish actors were produced in Warsaw at the beginning o f the century. Invariably these were film versions o f Yiddish plays and novels. In 1910, the Jewish producer Aleksander Hertz, considered the father o f Polish cinema, founded Sfinks, Poland’s first film production house. Few o f the thousand features and shorts produced by Sfinks had Jewish themes. Nonetheless, Yiddish films continued to be made in Poland during the 1920s, many o f them finding their way to America where they were considered superior to the cheap melodramatic Yiddish films being made in the U.S., and then subsequendy distributed in Poland. Qualityjewish films continued to be made in Poland up to the m om ent when war erupted in 1939, and it is this persistence o f Jewish filmmakers to continue to make Jewish films on Jewish themes in the face o f mounting, virulent anti-semitism through out Europe that gives such films as Yidl M it’nFidl, Der Purimspieler and The Dybbuk their particular poignancy and power. Yidl M it’nFidl and Der Purimspieler reflect the illusion o f self containment. Both were shot in small peasant towns in the Polish countryside and, in the case o f Yidl, in nearby Yiddish-speaking Warsaw. But because we watch these films with a prescience b o m o f hindsight, the innocence o f the surroundings, the other worldly quality o f the restored prints and the simplicity and quaint hum our o f the stories take on the quality o f denial. They remind the audience that what we are watching are the last moments o f a d oom ed civilization caught in celluloid, like insects trapped in amber. O ne o f the most interesting films screened at the Festival o f Jewish Cinema (FJC) was Eleanor Antin’s contemporary silent film, M an WithoutA World (U.S., 1991), a post-Holocaust homage to the East European Yiddish silent films o f the 1920s. It is a blackand-white melodrama about an aspiring young poet in a Polish shtetl vAxo falls in love with a Gypsy ballerina and absconds with 26 • C I N E M A

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W ith o u t q u e s tio n , ‘D o c te u r P e t i o t ' is a n im p re ss ive wo\ fro m th e fu ll h o rro r o f g e n o c id e b y s u g g e s t in g genocid th e m in d o f a d e ra n g e d in d iv id u a l, ra th e r th a n confront fu n c tio n it is o rd in a ry p e o p le w h o h a v e to b e persuade

her, thereby creating em otional havoc in his family who see him as forsaking his roots. N ot only are all the traditional themes o f Yiddish theatre and film present in the story - the hum our and colou r o f shtetl life, weddings, funerals, seduction, a dybbuk —but so too are included the realities: racial hatred, poverty and repression. An tin, an artist-filmmaker from University o f California, San Diego, uses the traditional silent film genre, com plete with intertitles, rudimentary cinematic techniques and exaggerated facial expressions to recapitulate and reconstruct herjewish past through a vehicle which for her is the most potent expression o f that past. She causes the d oom ed Jewish Eastern Europe to live again and, by doing so, grafts onto it a virility that was seldom expressed in its films. Something o f this sense o f a vanished culture is also present in the two American Yiddish films screened at the FJC: His People (U.S., 1925), a silent m elodrama on the theme o f the Prodigal Son, set in New York’s Lower East tenements, and directed by Edward Sloman, a silent film master who directed m ore than fifty H ollywood features between 1916 and 1938; and Uncle Moses (Sydney M. Goldin and Aubrey Scotto, U.S., 1932), a powerful, Y ddish early-sound classic, based on a play by Sholem Asch, about a Lower-East-Side sweat shop boss who employs workers from his old shtetl in Poland, starring the famous Y ddish actor Maurice Schwartz in a com plex, bravura perform ance.

LEFT TO RIGHT: JOSEPH GREEN'S CLASSIC YIDDISH MUSICAL, Y/DL MIT'N FIDL (YIDDLE WITH HIS FIDDLE). MICHEL SERRAULT AS THE SINISTER DOCTOR IN

CHRISTIAN DE CHALONGE'S DOCTEUR PETIOT. JIRI WEISS' MEMOIR OF GROWING UP IN CZECHOSLOVAKIA BEFORE THE WAR, MARTHA AND I.

: k o f a rt, y e t , s tra n g e ly , i t d is ta n c e s th e a u d ie n c e it is an a b e rra tio n , i t lo c a te s th e c u lp a b ility fo r e v il in ng the re a liz a tio n th a t fo r te rrib le re g im e s to 51to do h o rrib le th in g s .

Over three hundred films were produced during this ‘golden age’ ofYiddish cinem afrom 1927 to 1940, the majority in the U.S. It is interesting to note, however, that although many o f the key figures in the emerging H ollywood film industry were European Jews, their names rarely appear on the credits o f these Yiddish films. Nonetheless, these films are reminders o f the connection between America and East-EuropeanJewry, which from the great influx o f the 1880s onwards saw not only the burgeoning in the U.S. o f a newjewish culture, but also the establishment o f a film industry in which Jewish producers, directors and screenwriters played a vital role as architects o f the celluloid version o f the American Dream. The other non-Israeli features screened at the two festivals were based on true stories about the Holocaust and related events, or dealt with problems ofjewish identity or the resurgence o f anti-semitism. O f the Israeli films, m ore later. DocteurPetiot (FJC, Christian de Chalonge, France, 1990) was the most stylish o f the H olocaust films, a real-life horror story about a Parisian doctor, Marcel Petiot (Michel Serrault, in the performance o f his life), guillotined in 1946 for the mass murder o f Jews and others on the run from the Gestapo. It is brilliantly conceived in the genre style o f such early German horror classics as F. W. M u m au ’s Eine Symphonie dies Nosferatu (Nosferatu, 1921) arid Fritz Lang’s Doktor Marbuse, Der Spieler (Doctor Marbuse, The Gambler, 1922).

During the German Occupation, ‘Dr Eugene’ lured 27 des perate Jews and members o f the Resistance to a deserted house on the Champs Elysees on the pretext that he could arrange their safe passage to Argentina. For a handful o f money and the contents o f their suitcases, he killed them with a cyanide ‘vacci nation’ (for theirjoum ey) and disposed o f their bodies, partially dissolved in acid, in a furnace. It was the clogging o f the chimney and the belching o f foul smoke that finally alerted the authorities to his crimes, which bore an uncanny parallel to those o f the Third Reich. De Chalonge’s master stroke is to use this parallel as a metaphor to illustrate the criminality and moral bankruptcy o f both the Nazi genocide machine, and those in France who collaborated with it. The impact o f Petiot as a Nosferatu, preying on his victims and spreading the contagion o f Nazism, is heightened by the deca dent, expressionist poetry o f the visuals, drained o f colour and tinted. Natural colour impinges only at the end o f the film, where in a chilling reminder o f the mountains o f shoes, spectacles and shorn hair at Auschwitz, the families o f Petiot’s victims file past tables crowded with the clothing taken from 53 suitcases, search ing for the belongings o f their loved ones. Without question, Docteur Petiot is an impressive work o f art, yet, strangely, it distances the audience from the full horror o f genocide by suggesting genocide is an aberration. It locates the culpability for evil in the mind o f a deranged individual, rather than confronting the realization that for terrible regimes to function it is ordinary people who have to be persuaded to do horrible things. The actions o f ordinary people who manage to be decent in terrible times is the focus o f Martha and I (JFF, Germany-France, 1990), a witty, acutely observed, warmly affectionate m em oir o f growing up immediately prior to the war, by Czechoslovakia’s leading filmmaker o f the 1950s and ’60s, Jiri Weiss. Emil (Vaclav Chalupa) is sent by his abandoned mother to stay with his sophisticated, urbane Uncle Ernst (Michel Piccoli) in Prague. Ernst, a gynaecologist with a passion for B occaccio and Bach, scandalizes his family when he divorces his unfaithful young wife, and marries his hefty German housekeeper, Martha (Marianne Sagebrecht), who is a Gentile. A nice touch is the deft CINEMA

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depiction o f Ernst’sJewish sisters as narrow-minded and selfish. The years which see Martha’s awkward transition from servant to wife, and Emil’s growth from adolescence to m anhood, also sees the Anschlùss, tensions within Martha’s Sudeten-German family and the Nazi invasion. Martha and I, though conventionally structured, has m em o rable perform ances by first-class actors who are the vehicles for the director’s deeply-liberal humanist observations about human nature. Piccoli conveys with consummate skill and subdety a man who loses his professional and social position, yet still retains his compassion and kindness despite im pending tragedy, while Sàgebrecht’s Martha personifies decency, as innate in her as evil is in Dr Petiot. AgnieszkaFLolland’sEuropaEuropa (France-Germany, 1990), screened at both festivals, is the story o f how a Polish Jewish boy born in Germany survived the war by becom in g first a m em ber o f a Communist youth organization, then a German war hero, which led to him being sent to an élite H ider Youth school. This extraordinary tale, m ore amazing in its details than a Steven Spielberg story, is based on the life o f Salom on (Solly) Perel, who now lives in Israel. Solly survived because o f a com bination o f instinct, personal charm and luck. W hen his sister is killed during Kristallnacht, his family decides to relocate in Lodz, a fatal move which sees Solly separated from his family, seemingly forever. Born with quick wits and a pretty face (as played convincingly by M arco Hofschneid e r), Solly has several opportunities during the war to abjure his Jewishness, but the reasons he does not d o so, the film suggests, lie as m uch with his tell-tale circumcision as with his loyalty to his form er upbringing. H olland, as she demonstrated in Angry Harvest, sees contra diction as the essence o f human nature. She handles the com plexities o f Solly’s youthful situation sympathetically and with lightness and hum our, but she is also clear-sighted. W hen Solly weeps for the death o f his friend, a German soldier, and asks him self later in confusion, “W ho are his friends? H ow can they be 28

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so kind to him and so horrible to others?”, he is asking fundam en tal moral questions. H olland understands his conflict and with out labouring the point, as Solly’s story unfolds with mounting suspense, she describes skilfully (through his encounters with all those who are drawn to him: the female Kom osol leader, Horvath the German, the German captain who adopts him, his Nazi girlfriend Leni and her sympathetic m other) his loneliness and his ambivalence, his desire to belon g and his need to live. In his forew ord to Annette In sd orf s b o o k on H olocaust films, Elie Wiesel says o f such films as Das Boot ist Voll ( The Boat is Full, Markus Im hoof, Switzerland, 1981) and Obehod od na Korze ( The Shop On M ain Street, Jan Kadar, Czechoslovakia, 1965): ‘They reveal to us, like a secret imprint, human beings undergoing the curse o f the gods, and that’s all.”1W ithout doubt, this applies to Couturier (JFF, Leonid Gorovets, USSR, 1990), the most moving feature at the two festivals, which captures, in the great tradition o f Russian cinema, 24 hours in the life o f a Jewish tailor and his family prior to their certain death at Babi Yar. Couturier, taken from Alexander Borshagovsky ’ s play and with the screenplay written by the playwright, makes n o attempt to portray the massacre, which resulted in the murder, in 1941, o f m ore than 33,000 Kievjews. Rather, from the outset, the film is stamped with poetry and dream. In a series o f lyrically-lensed establishing shots, an old Jew is seen praying, then packing his bag. H e stands at the d o o r and hears the sound o f marching soldiers. A little girl steals the o ld je w ’s cart. “If you n eed it badly, take it”, he tells her. Leaves flutter to the ground. It is autumn. There are fires in the street, and people are picking over piles o f debris. Birds sing. T he o ld je w ’s hat blows o ff in the wind, and he retrieves it from under a soldier’s foot. Across the road some soldiers pull down an old m an’s trousers, and shoot him. T h ejew is shocked. T h rough the doorway o f a house, a woman, the Jew’s married daughter, is kneading bread. These are dream fragments which cloak the nightmare to com e, which the audience never sees. Two hom eless Russian w om en and a ch ild are skulking in the shadows outside the house

at night, waiting for thejew s to leave. They have been promised thejew s’ house, and Isak (Innokenty Smoktunovsky), the ladies’ tailor, invites them in. This encounter between the two families provides most o f the substance o f the film, and allows for its most poignant m om ent: Isak measures the older Russian woman for a winter coat that he will cut for her from his most precious cloth. He will never see it made, but in measuring the arms and bust o f this handsom e woman, Isak, for the last time, gives expression o f his form er self as both a man and tailor. M ichel P iccoli’s perform ance in Martha and lis masterly, but it is one thing to portray an urbane, cosm opolitan Jew, and quite another to capture a shtetlox traditional Jew, without resort to caricature. Smoktunovsky accords Isak both his dignity and his Jewishness. The film has a powerful final sequence: Isak and his family are join ed on the road to Babi Yar, first by a trickle o f Kiev’sjews, then by a torrent which becom es a sea. As they advance upon the camera, our gaze is distracted by the sight o f m od em sedan cars waiting for them to pass, and the road suddenly becom es m od em as they walk into history. Gorovets was prom pted to direct Couturier out o f a concern for rising anti-semitism in the Soviet U nion and, on ce his debutfeature was made, he left the USSR to live in Israel. The most fascinating feature screened, because it confronts head-on the problem s o f Jewish identity in the Diaspora, was David Mamet’s Homicide (JFF, U.S., 1991). As with Mamet’s House o f Games (1989), nothing is what it seems: life is filled with irony and surprises. Bobby G old (Joe Mantegna) is a hom icide cop, and he defines his very existence by his jo b . W hen he is drawn o ff an important case to investigate the m urder o f an old Jewish lady who owns a pawnshop in a black neighbourhood, Gold suddenly feels very uncomfortable. The old wom an’s family, wealthy and influential, see G old as on e o f ‘them ’ , and, fearing an anti-semitic conspiracy, they pull strings to get him assigned to the case. G old is annoyed and protests. He wants to be where the real action is, back where he really belongs, with his team and his Irish partner Sullivan busting a black murderer. Mamet admits to seeing him self as ajewish Spike Lee. He has recently rediscovered his Jewishness, and, with the veil lifted, he is brutally honest about what he sees. G old doesn ’t want to be a Jew. H e ’s insulted, frightened at the thought ofb ein g tarred with the same bm sh as weak and inferior people who speak and look funny, and have a shameful past. As he retorts over the phon e in the house o f the dead woman, ‘T h ey ’re not my people, baby. Fuck ’em !” However, G old ’s hostility changes to interestwhen hefindsan empty tommy-gun case in the old lady’s cellar, and learns that in her youth the dead woman was a m em ber o f the Irgun, ajewish underground organization in Palestine that fought for the crea tion o f the Jewish state. Evidence increases for the existence o f a secret neo-Nazi organization in the black ghetto, and by the time G old’s investigations lead him to a deserted building where a

The m o s t fa s c in a tin g fe a tu re s c re e n e d , b e c a u s e i t c o n fro n ts h e a d -o n th e p ro b le m s o f J e w is h id e n tit y in th e D ia s p o ra , w a s D a v id M a m e t's 'H o m ic id e ' (JF F , U .S ., 1 9 9 1 ). A s w ith M a m e t's ‘H o u s e o f G a m e s ' (1 9 8 9 ), n o th in g is w h a t i t s e e m s : life is fille d w ith iro n y a n d s u rp ris e s .

FACING PAGE: A NAZI RALLY IN EUROPA EUROPA. ABOVE: JOE MANTEGNA AS BOBBY GOLD, A COP WHO TRIES TO DEFINE HIS JEWISHNESS IN DAVID MAMET'S HOMICIDE.

Jewish Defence League meets at night, com plete with machine guns and yamulkas, Gold is ripe for ‘satori’ . Dramatically, G old’s instant conversion to militantjewishness is clumsily handled, but psychologically it is p rofou nd and con vincing. Like Solly in EuropaEuropa, G old ’s essentialjewishness is under siege. He wants desperately to belong, but he rejects his Jewish past because it brings him trouble and he believes it to be shameful. He is not on the run like Solly is, facing extermination. G old can realistically attempt to lose his Jewishness by burying himself in the police force as one o f a team comprising blacks, whites, Latinos and Asians - or so he deludes himself. Early in the film, a black m em ber o f the FBI, senior to Gold, calls him “a kyke”. What Mamet is doing here and elsewhere in the film is bringing to the surface the growing tension between blacks andjews, and exposing the unfairness o f the black identi fication o f the Jew as being responsible for their oppression. For Gold, the opportunity to rid himself o f self-doubt, and exchange the stereotype o f the passive Jew, the pawnbroker feeding parasitically o ff the poor, for that o f the virile Jewish patriot, machine gun in hand, is irresistible. He jum ps at the chance, but by doing so he becom es m ore firmly immired in a no m an’s land. W hen he takes partin an attack on premises publish ing anti-semitic literature, Gold experiences a giddy sense o f belonging, o f having ‘com e h om e’ at last. But it is soon made clear to him that beingjewish involves m ore than planting a bom b in an empty building. Total loyalty and com m itm ent is dem anded o f him, which Gold, the Jewish cop, cannot give. G old may have rediscovered his Jewishness, but the result o f his actions leads to disillusionment: the militantjews reject him because he refuses to betray his loyalty to the police force; and he is rejected by his police ‘family’ because his involvement with the ‘Yids’ results in the death o f his partner Sullivan, for which Gold is blamed, and subsequently ostracized. CINEMA

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Mamet’s film is radical, handsome and brooding. It is the first American film to demythologize and explore the situation o f American Jews, who find themselves under attack for their Jewishness, through traditional anti-semitism, and its offshoot, anti-Zionism. Divided loyalties, Mamet is suggesting, isn’t the answer. Jews must get o ff the fence, shed their blinkers and com e to grips with who they really are. In this light, Homicide can be seen as having a similar significance for Jews as Spike L ee’s films have for Afro-Americans: to raise Jewish consciousness and combat negative self-images. Two Austrian films were screened, Axel Corti’s television adaptation o f thejewish writer FranzW erfel’s story, EineBlassblaue Frauenschrift (A Woman’s Pale Blue Handwriting), and Paulus Manker’s screen version ofjosh u a Sobol’s play about the Jewishb o m Viennese philosopher Otto Weininger, Weininger Nacht ( Weininger s Last Night). W eininger was a crackpot who wrote a b ook called Sex and Character, in which he stated his belief that neither Jews nor women were capable o f having ideas. His deeply pessimistic ideas had a profound influence on the intelligentsia o f fin desiecleNienna, prompting Wittgenstein, so it is said, to write a great work proving both his own m anhood and his Christianity (Weininger was a homosexual and a Protestant convert). Weininger commit ted suicide at the age o f twenty three, in the same room in which Beethoven died. Manker’s film (JFF, Austria, 1989) is a noisy, repetitive, sensationalist version ofW eininger’s life which verges on incomprehensibility Corti’s film is altogether different. Though not as rich and original as Corti’s great trilogy Wohin und Zuriick ( Where and BacP), A Woman’s Pale Blue Handwriting (FJC, Austria, 1984) is a limpid examination o f an opportunist, a man without qualities who, despite his affectation o f introspection, has n o com prehension o f the depths o f his own shallowness. In confessional tone, Corti narrates how Tachezy (Friedrich von T h u n ), a civil servant in the Austrian Ministry in 1936, believes the truth has caught up with him at last, when he receives a letter from a Jewish woman with whom he had an affaire eleven years ago, requesting that he help her with the schooling o f an eleven-year-old boy. At first he is shocked. How is he to explain this? Everything is at stake: his marriage to his rich wife, his jo b which he manages to maintain through juggling and appeasement, his self-esteem. After the panic com es the accom modation, the adjustment. Guilt 30 • C I N E M A

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assails him and atonement beckons: what better time than nowto becom e the man he always could be. O nce the danger passes, however, and thejew can be put in her place, Tachezy reverts to being the man he always was: “With the necessity for changing his life gone, the superiority he had lost that m orning came back to him .” This is a masterly interpretation o f W erfel’s cynical story which illuminates the Austrian soul. Two films from Canada were am ong the most entertaining films: True Confections (JFF, Gail Singer, Canada 1991), a polished, quirky, coming-of-age story about growing up Jewish and female in W innipeg in the 1950s; and Falling Over Backwards (JFF, Mort Ransen, Canada 1990), a wry, accomplished com edy set in Montréal, about a thirty-some thing Jewish man who yearns for the security o f living with his parents again. The Jewish element colours both o f these Canadian films, which revolve around personal growth and the struggle for independence from family, towards whom the central characters in both films — one female and the other male —have strong attachments. The key issues touched upon —class, sexism, abor tion, sexual violence towards women, racism in True Confections, and safe sex in Falling OverBackwards—are not the preoccupations o f Jews alone, but issues o f general concern. However, in both these films, thejewish content adds flavour to the stories, ajewish lens through which aspects o f contem porary society can be perceived. Mel (SaulRubinek) in Falling OverBackwards andV em a (Leslie H ope) in True Confections are com fortable with their Jewishness. Unlike Bobby Gold {Homicide), they are at hom e in the world. They exhibit none o f G old ’s paranoia or angst about being Jewish. This prom pted me to wonder whether Canadianjews, like their Australian counterparts, feel m ore at ease about being Jewish and, if so, why? Asking this question led me to feel the lack o f Australian films that capture the unique flavour o f Australian Jewish experience: an amalgam o f gum trees, elderly Holocaust survivors, Glick’s bagels, Caulfield and Bondi. Literature has made a start. Why has the feature film n ot b ecom e a m edium for Jewish self-expression in this country?

LEFT TO RIGHT: MEL (SAUL RUBINEK) AND HIS DAD, HARVEY (PAUL SOLES), IN MORT RANSEN'S WRY COMEDY ABOUT A THIRTY-SOMETHING JEWISH MAN WHO YEARNS TO LIVE WITH HIS PARENTS AGAIN, FALLING OVER BACKWARDS. ERAN RIKLIS' G'MAR GAVIYA (CUP FINAL), ABOUT WARRING

ISRAELIS AND PALESTINIANS FINDING COMMON GROUND IN A LOVE OF SOCCER. DIANE PERELSZTEJN'S DOCUMENTARY ABOUT JEWS WHO FOUND REFUGE IN SHANGHAI, SURVIVRE À SHANGHAÏ (ESCAPE TO THE RISING SUN).

The dom inant aspects o f Jewish life in Australia that we believe characterize the Jewish com munity here seem to be irrelevant, or at best peripheral, to the major preoccupations o f Israeli filmmakers. Israel has b ecom e a militarized culture out o f necessity, and as its film industry has com e o f age, weaning itself from foreign dependency and developing g ood scripts, the most interesting films are those made by left-wing filmmakers which address the social and political issues arising out o f Israel’s numerous wars, and the claims o f the Palestinians. AvantiPopolo (PJC, Rafi Bukaee, 1986), Israel’s entry for Best Foreign Film at the 1986 Academy Awards, was criticized at the time in the Knesset by cabinet minister Ariel Sharon, who called it self-destructive. Set in the Sinai Desert in 1967 at the end o f the Six-Day War, the film ’s central figures are two Egyptians, the lone survivors o f a routed com pany o f soldiers whose only desire is to reach the Suez Canal and hom e. There are two powerful meta phors in the film: the desert, which represents the human state, a theatre o f war in which enemies —Israelis and Egyptians —keep bum ping into each other and, despite themselves, recognize a com m on humanity; and Haled, one o f the Egyptians, an actor who on ce played Shylock in a production in Cairo o f The Merchant ofVenice ( “ajew sent to fightjews”) , who becom es a potent symbol o f the futility and absurdity o f war, humanity at war with itself. Despite technical roughness, Avanti Popolois a remarkable film, an eloquent, powerful plea for human solidarity and sanity. Haled is played by Salim Daw, a well-known Palestinian actor, and his delivery o f Shylock’s most famous speech - “I am ajew. Hath not a je w eyes ...?” - is at on ce mocking, ironic and profoundly disturbing. G ’mar Gaviya {CupFinal, FJC, Eran Riklis, Israel, 1991), the most popular film at the Jerusalem Film Festival in 1991, though not as poetic in con cept as Avanti Popolo, is similarly powerful. Set during the Israeli invasion o f Lebanon in 1982, it tells the story o f Cohen (M oshe Ivgi), an Israeli soldier and soccer fan, who is captured by retreating Palestinian guerrillas and taken with them as ahostage as they pick theirway north to Beirut, through terrain patrolled regularly by Christian and Israeli troops. The film ’s

focus is the seven days Cohen spends with the Palestinians, and the friendship that grows between him and his eight captors, based first on a shared love o f soccer and support for the same W orld Cup team, Italy, and, later, on a recognition o f a shared humanity. Like Avanti Popolo, Cup Finalps sympathy is directed at the vanquished and dispossessed. The Palestinians are shown as dignified, decent men: Ziad, the tall, light-skinned leader o f the unit, lives abroad in Italy, and was trained as a pharmacist; Omar, intelligent, dark and bespectacled, is nearly a doctor; Mussa is a wiry-haired, quick-witted family man; Abu Eyesh, with his heavy, ambling gait possesses a kindly soul; Fatri, young and vulnerable, is a diabetic. Only one o f the group is needlessly violent, and he is restrained by the others. Stereotyping has been rigorously avoided. So convincing are these portraits, in fact, that we are num bed by their deaths, and, like Cohen who weeps for them at the end, we find it difficult to emotionally adjust to their being picked off, one by one, by bullets and mines that randomly snuff out their lives in an instant, without regard to personality. Echad Mishelanu ( One of Us, JFF, Uri Babash, Israel 1990), set in the O ccupied Territories during the Intifada, offers a com plex, sometimes confused, perspective on the impact o f the Arablsraeli conflict on young people. W hen Rafa (Dan T oren ), a young military police officer, is sent to a paratrooper base to investigate the death in custody o f a Palestinian prisoner, he is unaware that the Palestinian, said to have been shot while trying to escape, was responsible for the horrifying death o f his close friend. Rafa is expected by his friends at the base to be loyal to the memory o f his dead friend and his old unit, and only conduct a routine examination. Rafa, however, feels morally boun d as an investigator to discover the truth, even if it means implicating his friends and im pugning his past. Babash handles several themes in One o f Usr. the primacy o f male friendship in group solidarity, sexism in the army, peergroup pressure and the abusive behaviour o f officers. As a consequence, the film loses focus at times, and the story becom es muddled. The ending is ambivalent: Does Rafa bow to the demands o f group loyalty and b u m the tell-tale tape implicating his friends, or does he follow the dictates o f his conscience and b ecom e an outcast forever, n o longer ‘one o f us’? For all its faults, however, One ofUshzs energy, and a finger on the pulse o f what is happening in Israel today. It pits abstract CINEMA

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Jewish Cinema notions o f principle against the reality o f how military culture operates, and exposes the pressure on individuals within the group. Young Israelis, in order to survive physically and psycho logically, turn to each other and form strong bonds, a tradition developed in the Zionist youth movements in Europe and very m uch alive in civilian society, as well as in the army. Faced with the choice o f obeying a distant com m and, or betraying a friend, primary allegiance is to the group. This makes the ambivalence expressed at the end o f the film understandable. Other notable Israeli features were Gesher Tsar M e od (On a Narrow Bridge, JFF, Nissim Dayan, 1985), set on the West Bank, which explores the intractability o f Arabjewish hostility through a R om eo and Juliet story; and Shuru (FJC, Savi Gavison, 1990), a semi-serious com edy about a self-help group, led by a small time entrepreneur (Moshe Ivgi o f Avanti Popolo) trying to com e to terms with sexual dysfunction and loneliness in Tel Aviv. The most interesting documentaries screened at the two festivals were odysseys in search o f new information and fresh insights. Diane Perelsztejn’s attempt to com e to terms with her own response to the Holocaust led to the making o f Swrvivre a Shanghai (Escape to the Rising Sun, FJC, Belgium 1991), a documentary about 20,000Jews who foun d refuge during the war in Shanghai, one o f the few places in the world that could be entered without a visa. Perelsztejn tells the story o f the Shanghai Jews through interviews with 15 elderly survivors, and retraces with them on film the circuitous route they took to Shanghai via Vilria, Russia and Japan. Some extraordinary facts emerge that may forever reshape the way we viewjapanese behaviour during the war. T o reach Shanghai it was necessary to travel via the Soviet U nion and Japan. T o enterjapan a visa was needed, and unless one had a visa forjapan itwas notpossible to enter Russia from Vilna. Thousands ofjews owe their lives to thejapanese Consul in Vilna, who against express orders from Tokyo continued to issue visas to desperate Jews up to the m om ent o f his recall to Berlin. A forest has been dedicated to the memory o f this ‘righteous gentile’ outside Yad Vashem in Israel. Equally remarkable is the hospitality received by the refugees during their stay in 1938 on thejapanese island o f Kobe, and in Shanghai, where even under thejapanese occupation, despite being ordered to the ghetto at Honghew, they fared better than the Jews o f Europe. FREDERIC BRENNER AND STAN NEUMANN'S EXAMINATION OF A PORTUGUESE COMMUNITY WITH JEWISH PRACTICES DATING BACK TO THE 15TH CENTURY, LES DERNIERS MARRANES (THE LAST MARRANOS).

Pierre Sauvage’s Weapons o f the Spirit (JFF, U.S., 1986), seen first at the M elbourne Film Festival in 1988, is on e o f the most inspirational documentaries ever made about the Holocaust. Sauvage returned to Le Chambon-sur-Lignon in 1985, to under stand better his own history and to pay tribute to this small French H uguenot village which during the war saved the lives o f 5,000 children, Sauvage included. Following their Pastor in the simple belief that it was the right thing to d o becausejesus was ajew, each family in the village harboured a Jewish child, participating in a monumental act o f resistance which could n ot have escaped the cognizance o f the Gestapo located a small distance away in Vichy. Sauvage doesn ’t try to explain goodness, or the Gestapo’s inac tion. H e simply shows that sometimes goodness has the power to paralyze evil, and makes the point that 75,000Jews were handed over to the Germans by French collaborators. LesDemiers Marranes ( The Last Marranos, JFF, Frederic Bren ner and Stan Neumann, France, 1990), a visually engrossing film em bued with respect for its subject, sheds light on the secret religion o f a contem porary Marrano com munity in a village north o f Lisbon. Its rituals, orally transmitted, date back to the time when the Spanish and Portuguese Jews o f the 15 th Century publicly converted to Catholicism during the Spanish Inquisi tion, and practised their Judaism underground. Interviews with gentiles and Marranos alike from the village o f Belmonte give a fascinating picture o fa world n otso rem ovedfrom the dangerous past: a painting behind glass doors in a church depicts Judas betraying Christ with big-nosed Jews m ocking him; a local priest describes Jews as “fat, obese. Anyone who is used to Jews can recognize them by their physical appearance [...] their sibilant pronunciation, their noses, the way they curse and swear”; a Marrano, Emilia, a large pensive woman with a small nose, describes how as a child she would enter a church for a christening or wedding and say silently, “I enter this house but I worship neither w ood and stone. I worship only the 73 names o f the Lord who rules over us. ” Cut o ff from their culture for hundreds o f years, the cryptoJudaic religion practised by the Marranos is female-centred and eclectic, an amalgam o f half-remembered stories and prayers, tailored by their experience. As the women prepare the unleavened bread for Passover, their most important festival, they pray that they may be delivered from “evil, torture and death”. During the baking o f the bread they cover their eyes and sing, “Harm n o man by telling lies [...] Above all, h on ou r your parents, they are respectable people who brought you into the w orld.” An old woman with a lined face gives a Jewish perspective on history: “The Lord gave the Jews Jesus, but he betrayed us.” These Belmonte Jews are the last Marranos in Portugal. For centuries they have kept their faith alive without a synagogue, rabbi or books. Recently, however, things have changed. Ashke nazic Judaism has com e to the village, dispelling mystery and shame at the same time. The Marranos o f Belmonte are now prepared to circumcise their sons, observe the ‘new’ festivals, wear hats and yamulkas in the hom e, and jettison the ‘goy’ calendar to follow the Hebrew. ‘T his is g o o d ”, says Elias, Emilia’s son-in-law who has been to America and Israel. ‘T h e m en were estranged from religion before. N ow m en are in charge.” Emilia thinks it is right for the young to m ove on to the new rites, but she will continue to practise her parents’ religion. “It’s all the same,” she says, “but the prayers are n ot ours.” C O N T IN U E D

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This Supplement is the firs t step

Th an examination o f various as pects o f Australian cinema from ahindigenous or ethnic perspec tive. D Aboriginal writers Archie W hiter and John Harding look a t Koori (Aboriginal/Torres S trait Islander) cinema, but not from

mmm

ML I

the usual view p o in t

how

whites have rep resented blacks. Rather, both look forward to a tim e when black filmmakers w ill be part o f the mainstream, when Koori stories are told by Kooris without any pretence o f a gjwhite face”. Already there are positive signs, not only in film but Aboriginal broadcasting (here examined by Philip Dutchak). E Australia's cultural attitudes to Asia is another area explored (by Sylvie Shaw). When w ill Australian film and television learn to represent our Asian neighbours in an intelligent and non-stereotyped way? W ill Australia ever see its e lf as part o f that Asian neighbourhood? B

Finally, Craig Brown examines the use o f stereotypes on Australian

television. D Also in this issue, but not specifically part o f this Supplement, is coverage o f other m ulti-cultural, or related, issues. Specifically, there is George Negus’ account o f film ing in Russia and Jan Epstein’s look a t Jewish Cinema. Thus, this Supplement is not only a partial attem pt a t commenting o f some m ulti-cultural issues, but also a catalyst to new ideas, new

As the federal government moves closer to Asia economically, will this new policy shift Australia closer to Asia culturally as well? What will be the response of the film industry? Can it pass the Asian Screen Test? Sylvie Shaw, an independent filmmaker and film consultant to Asialink, investigates.

ABOVE, LEFT TO RIGHT: AUSTRALIANS ABROAD: MORGAN KEEFE (BRYAN BROWN) IN HIS FILIPINO BAR, WITH WALKER (BILL HUNTER) TO HIS RIGHT. JOHN DUIGAN'S FAR EAST. "NATIVE AS STUD": jiAKA (JOHN LONE) AND MARIA (WENDY HUGHES). PHIL NOYCE'S ECHOES OF PARADISE.

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n the past 12 months, the Australian film and television industry has begun to op en up links towards Asia. Suddenly it seems production com panies are devising scripts with Asian themes, and creating films and television programmes that are helping to raise the profile o f Asia in Australia. Already some sectors o f the industry are lookin g to Asia, especially Japan, as the new fairy godm oth er o f film finance. The changes com e in the wake o f the federal govern m ent’s com m itm ent to strengthen our ties with the Asian region. O ur destiny lies with Asia and there is a real need, based on econ om ic imperative, to move Australia’s focus from Europe closer to hom e. But econ om ic imperative (and gov ernm ent rhetoric) alone will not bring about a change in attitude.

Asialink, a small M elbourne organization com m itted to raising the profile o f Asia through film and television, wants to speed up the process and believes the media, particularly popular-culture media, is on e means to this end. But it w on ’t be easy as the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade, Senator Gareth Evans, suggested recently: “H ow d o you instil that feeling o f ‘b elon gin g’ into the hearts o f ,17 m illion people? H ow d o you make an entire population feel com fortable with its neighbours?”1 Perhaps Neighbours is the appropriate word. Asialink asks if and when the popular shows on television will begin n ot only to have an Asian perspective, but also a face which represents the broad com m unity in this country.

Evans was launching the new Asia-Pacific Policy o f the Australia C ouncil which earmarks fifty per cent o f the C ou ncil’ s international budget to projects involved in the region. The decision recognizes how im portant cultural understanding is to e con om ic success and sets the scene for an exciting, new cultural perspective for Australia. T h e Chair o f the Perform ing Arts Board, Carrillo Gantner, puts it this way: “Now we have the opportunity and responsibility to create a new and powerful Australian culture that truly bridges East and W est.”2 If the Australia C ouncil can introduce such a progressive policy change, what about the film industry? There is cause for optimism, with collaborative projects, worthy o f support, in their infancy. But care should be exercised in case this sea change becornes another vehicle fo r an unequal pow er rela tionship —Australia to Asia, rather than a real East-West fusion. K A N G A R O O S A N D S C E N IC V IE W S

The federal govern m en t’s Garnaut Report, Australia and the North-east Asian Ascendancy, com m issioned research on Asian attitudes about Australia. T h e report con clu d ed that Australia was better known fo r its furry animals, w ide-open spaces and beaches than its intellect.3 But in trying to im prove ou r image in Asia, how d o we move away from yet another docum entary o f the great outback, or our curious koalas? H ow can we encourage Asian filmmakers and broadcast networks to program m e som ething different abou t Australia, especially contem porary Australian drama?

W ARS, W HORES, SECTS AND SEX

W hile the Garnaut Report states that our perceptions o f N orth east Asia are increasingly better inform ed, the image o f Asians in the m edia is largely still based on the traditional stereotype: the enemy, the gaoler, the thug, the prostitute or the victim. Professor Annette Hamilton o f Macquarie University is one o f the very few academics to look at the image o f Asians in our films. In her paper “Fear and Desire: Aborigines, Asians and the National Imaginary”, she makes the poin t that, “right back to the original Tarzan films, it is apparent that any Asian native can substitute for any oth er”.4 This is also confirm ed by ou r attitude to shooting films in Asia and we have been guilty o f what Sydney producer, Mike Fuller, describes as “steamrolling the host culture”. W hile it is not solely the dom ain o f the Australian film industry, we have a track-record o f painting all o f Asia with on e brush - o f shooting a film about on e country in another, o f transplanting on e exotic Asian landscape for another (all paddy fields look alike), o f replacing on e specific ethnic group with another (all Asians look alike) and o f transposing on e culture for another (n o on e will know the differen ce). T he local population and landscape serve only as an exotic yet interchangeable backdrop where a country’s own cultural, historical and ethnic diversity has been annexed by the Australian film industry for conven ience. But while we continue to paint all Asians with on e brush, we should rem em ber that they too have trouble telling us apart.

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The Asian Screen Test

E X O T IC A / E R O T IC A

T he mystery o f Asia tugs at ou r primitive heartstrings. Tropical beaches, magical cultures, exotic landscapes, sexual en cou n ters - an escape from ou r everyday lives. But in many o f our films the exotic also becom es the erotic. As Freda Freiberg suggests, the heroes g o tropp o and awaken the “hidden native in themselves”.5 Sometimes like in TheYearofLivingDangerously (Peter Weir, 1982) or Far East (John Duigan, 1982), the lead characters fall in love with each other, but generally they suffer what Freiberg calls the “native as stud” mentality (c f Echoes o f Paradise, Phil N oyce, 1988). They unleash the repressed sexuality o f the suburbs and, after a whirlwind holiday rom ance, or flirtation with spirituality, they return to their families and their mun dane existence. Only rarely are Asians ‘real p e o p le ’ , or stars in their own right. Films like Ay a (Solrun Hoaas, 1990), the short Tigers Eyes (Teck T an ), or the far-sighted mini-series In Between (Chris Warner, Maureen McCarthy and Earn Dalton) are leading the way. But beware the token Asian, particularly the stereotyped version. M ORE BAD G UYS?

There is now a fear that a new genre o f films will em erge depicting Asians again as the bad guys. The Triads and Yakuza might b ecom e popular images on our screens, and we should be wary o f this developm ent. Already proposals are being submitted to film -funding bodies about shady Japanese busi nessmen buying up potential tourist treasure islands o ff Aus tralia’s sunshine coast, or portraying Chinatown as a hotbed o f nasty Triad drug dealers. Perhaps there is a lesson here from the Am erican film Year o f the Dragon (Michael Cim ino, 1985), where the Chinese characters are both goodies awcfbaddies, and where the intrepid, female Chinese-American investigative reporter tracks down the inscrutable drug barons. T he way we represent Asians in our media com es in for scrutiny from our near neighbours. The Malaysian govern m ent has already expressed considerable con cern about the ABC series Embassy and its representation o f a fictional Asian society. This has soured relations between Australia and on e o f our im portant trading nations, and has led the federal gov ernm ent to openly dissociate itself from the production. Ian Bradley o f Grundy’s Television, co-executive prod u cer o f Embassy, says he expected som e controversy, but n ot from Malaysia. It stemmed from on e o f the early episodes where “there was the reference to threatening to shoot the boat p e o p le ”: What we didn’t realise was [...] that the person who supposedly made that threat in the 70’s, had subsequently become the Prime Minister o f Malaysia, and that really is the basis o f all the problems. To this day - and I’m being honest - I d on ’t know whether he ever made the threat or not [...] I have no doubt that Dr Mahathir is sincere in being upset about that reference to that one incident. And had we been advised o f it, had we known where it came from -w ell, obviously we wouldn’t have used it.6 36

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M ore recently there has been disquiet again from Malaysia about the feature Turtle Beach (Stephen W allace, 1992). The film, based on the novel by Blanche D ’A lpuget, focuses on an Australian journalist w ho covered the race riots in Malaysia in 1969 and ten years later returns to cover the plight o f the boat p eople. T h e film shows a massacre o f the Vietnamese refugees by Malaysian villagers, although there is som e argument whether this is historical fact or dramatic licence. Last year, the then Prime Minister, B ob Hawke, indicated to Dr Mahathir that the governm ent w ould make a public statement also distancing itself from this produ ction . As well, the Australian Film Finance^ C orporation (FFC), which was an investor in the film, has withdrawn its lo g o from the film ’s credits. A ccord in g to the FFC’s ch ie f executive, John Morris, The FFC took this step beacuse it might be hard for the Malaysians to comprehend that a government agency, such as the FFC, is a strictly ‘hands o f f investor and maintains a completely independent position on the contents o f films and programmes in which it invests.7 T W O S T E P S F O R W A R D . ..

O ur political and cultural naivety is transparent. H ow d o we im prove that? Both the Australian Film Com m ission (AFC) and the De partment o f Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) organize Aus tralian film festivals and visits o f Australian filmmakers to the Asian region. In 1991, DFAT sponsored Cascade Films (Nadia Tass and David Parker) to travel to India, while Curtis Levy and Chris Olsen organized a docum entary festival across Indonesia and ran workshops in Jakarta with Indonesia filmmakers. But the involvement o f these two governm ent bodies in such ventures has been criticized on the grounds that the left hand does n ot know what the right is doing. T he AFC prom otes the Australian film industry, while DFAT develops cultural relations. If we want to im prove ou r image in Asia via showing Australian films, then whose responsibility is it? Is it marketing or bettering cultural relations?

B y ra is in g th e p r o file o f A s ia n s a n d A s ia n th e m e s , th e re can b e a te n d e n c y to o v e rlo o k th e ‘c u ltu ra l s p e c ific ity ' o f th e d iffe r e n t A s ia n n a tio n s a n d e th n ic g ro u p s w ith in th o s e c o u n trie s . A d ra m a s e rie s d e a lin g w ith a n o n -s p e c ific A s ia n c o u n try ru n s th e ris k o f ig n o rin g th e n u a n c e s th a t m a k e e a c h c o u n try s p e c ia l.

Films travelling to Asia have to be chosen with care, taking into account the political, m oral and religious sensitivities o f the countries involved. The same considerations need to be followed when Australian crews are working in Asia: making positive contacts, breaking down stereotypes, enhancing g o o d relations —on both sides. Bangkok Hilton provides a g o o d example. Part o f the series was shot in India where the crew cou ld n ot disclose they were making a film about “drug-running - the Indian con n e ctio n ”. So while they were shooting, the crew wore T-shirts printed with the words “East meets West and they fall in love. A 12-part docum entary.” At the m om ent, there is sparse knowledge about the best ways o f working in various Asian countries. Australia does n ot have a specific film industry agency that offers advice about working in Asia. W here d o you go for precise inform ation? What are the pitfalls to watch out for? Should one offer ‘financial incentives’ and how m uch? What about our attitude to cheap labour in Asia? H ow d o you avoid exploitation? How does on e avoid religious, moral, cultural and political fa u x pas and so on? Is it the role o f DFAT, Austrade or the AFC to provide such inform ation? Action-m ovie producers favour Asia because o f the low labour costs, though working in Asia can also have huge disadvantages, the most obvious being that Australia is seen in a negative light. Filipino filmmaker Nick D eocam po from the Mowel Film Institute points out that, in his country, Australians are either identified as Americans or as ugly tourists only interested in the sex trade.8 In a sense, this negativity has been reinforced by the legacy o f films like The Year o f Living Dangerously (set in Indonesia but made in T he Philippines) and the mini-series on Cory A q u in o’s rise to power, A Dangerous Life. By shooting in a different country from the setting, the film loses its credibility. For political reasons, A Dangerous Life finished production in Sri Lanka, but the local Filipino audience cou ld n ot take the film seriously when a crowd o f Sri Lankan extras shouted “Cory! Cory! C ory!”

T o avoid such problem s, The Philippines governm ent is now considering setting up a ‘ O ne Stop A gency’ for all foreign films made there. It is easy to see why. What is our response when we see Australia wrongly or narrowly interpreted by overseas media? Can we blame the various countries in Asia for being disinterested in our produ ct if we do n ot represent them correctly? By raising the profile o f Asians and Asian themes, there can be a tendency to overlook the ‘ cultural specificity’ o f the different Asian nations and ethnic groups within those cou n tries. A drama series dealing with a non-specific Asian country runs the risk o f ignoring the nuances that make each country special. A nd while we continue to set films and mini-series like Far East, Bangkok Hilton, Vietnam and Turtle Beach in Asia, they tend to be m ore about our search for identity and say m ore about Australia than they do about Asia. N E W T R E A T IE S

In an exciting developm ent by the AFC, Charles Hannah from Pacific Link Communications has been em ployed as a consult ant for the next two years to open up markets in Japan and Korea, and lift the profile o f Australian film and television there. Already, through the newly-opened Pacific Link Com munications O ffice in Tokyo, he is negotiating the sale o f Yoram Gross’ Blinky Bill (1992), as well asjapanese involvement in a children’s drama series from Grundy’s Mission Top Secret, an international drama about a group o f com puter smart kids in different countries out to save the world from environmental and other destruction. The AFC is also pursuing the area o f co-productions with Japan. This was one o f the major recom m endations to com e out o f Asialink’s N o Koalas Please C onference in 1990. Because Japan has n o equivalent organization to the AFC, there were some teething problems, but now links are being forged with both the Japanese broadcaster NHK and with the governm ent itself. Peter Sainsbury (AFC) com m ^ ^ ^ fh a t his initial investigations have been encouraging enoi^gpte warrant a request to the federal Minister for the Arts, T^prism and Territories to enter into formal negotiations with the Japanese Ministry o f International Trade and Industry.9 S TR EET G ANGS AND DRAGONS

A nother exciting developm ent this year has been Children o f the Dragon, a television co-production between the ABC, BBC and Xanadu Productions. This mini-series, based on N icola sjose’s novel Avenues o f Eternal Peace, revolves around the fate o f an Australian d octor who gets caught up in the dem ocracy m ovem ent in Beijing in 1989. Tiananm en Square was recon structed in a disused airfield on the outskirts o f Sydney and one o f the most rewarding aspects o f the production was uncover ing the wealth o f talent in Australia. FACING PAGE: CHINESE-AMERICAN REPORTER TRAZY TU (ARIANE) AND POLISH-AMERICAN COP STANLEY WHITE (MICKEY ROURKE) WORK TOGETHER TO FIGHT THE BAD FORCES OF CHINATOWN. MICHAEL CIMINO'S YEAR OF THE DRAGON. LEFT: AUSTRALIANS KATRIONA (NICOLE KIDMAN) AND MANDY (JOY SMITHERS) AT THE MERCY OF FOREIGN JUSTICE IN THE LUM JAU GAOL. KEN CAMERON'S B A N G KO K HILTON.

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The Asian Screen Test

Two thousand extras were n eeded to re-create the scene in Tiananm en Square and they were gathered through advertise ments in local newspapers, radio shows, via Chinese organiza tions and student associations. O n on e occasion, the casting agents took over a disco and hired the 400 patrons as extras. The producers em ployed M elbourne director W ang Ziyin (New Gold M ountain) to act as a liaison between the crew and the cast, especially with the huge num ber o f extras. M egaphone in hand, she translated the directions to the enorm ous cast. It was an exhausting process. Line p rod u cer Wayne Barry, who coin cidentally was in Beijing the day after the massacre, and W ang Ziyin were able to evoke a strong feeling am ong the extras, many o f whom were also in Tiananm en Square that night. As the fires and the explosions started, the cast began to re-live their experiences and acted out their roles with extraordinary passion. W ang Ziyin tells the story o f on e o f the extras, who, knowing he was to re-create the scene in Tianamen Square, wore exactly the same t-shirt he had worn on the night o f the massacre. He fou n d it hard to understand that wardrobe wanted him to wear som ething else. H e thought the drama was supposed to be real. A nd while the title Children o f the Dragon has been criticized as yet another stereotyped vision o f China, it is in fact the name o f the song the students were singing in Tiananm en Square. O ne o f the recom m endations o f the Asialink N o Koalas Please C onference, which brought together filmmakers from Asia and Australia, stressed the im portance o f hiring a consult ant to avoid social, cultural or religious misunderstandings when working in Asia. The sm ooth p rodu ction on Children o f the Dragon showed just how im portant this is even when working in Australia - for solving language problem s and for bridging cultural gaps as well. W ang Ziyin also m entioned having to raise awareness with the crew that “n ot all Chinese are the same.” People from Mainland China, from Taiwan, Singapore or Malaysia all have different backgrounds and experiences, and these cultural differences should be respected. Congratula tions to the producers fo r their foresight in em ploying a sensitive cultural-liaison consultant. A noth er local feature with an Australian-Asian theme is Romper Stomper (G eoffrey Wright, 1992), a film about neo-Nazi skinheads angry that Vietnamese gangs are taking over their territory. In casting the Vietnamese actors, the produ ction com pany, Seon Films, said they had “n o problem s whatsoever”. Casting agent Liz Mullinar advertised for and fou n d experien ced actors from Vietnam. She took ads in the local Vietnamese newspaper and spoke to leaders o f the Vietnamese com m unity who put up flyers around the area. A mixture o f g o o d research and com m unity support and networking. A nd next year there will be m ore. T he ABC has also com m issioned Sydney writers Nicolas Jose and William Yang to research and write a six-hour drama series about the Chinese in Australia called The China Story. T he series, set in Darwin, focuses on on e Chinese family and spans several generations from 1910 to the present. Production is still twelve months away. 38

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W A R R IN G F A C T IO N S N O L O N G E R

T he recent films Blood Oath (Stephen Wallace, 1990) and Aya still have their roots in the turmoil ofW orld War II, but Ay« tackles som ething different: the experiences o f ajapanese war bride in Australia during the 1950s. D irector Solrun Hoaas believes: Our media are obsessed with the war, neglecting the occupa tion and the treatment o f the Japanese war brides, who were the first Japanese allowed to enter Australia after the war.10 But while Aya was selected for screening at many prestigious film festivals around the world, the Departm ent o f Foreign Affairs and Trade w ould n ot sponsor Solrun Hoaas to partici pate in the Singapore Film Festival because, it is suggested, the film does n ot depict Australians in a sufficiently positive light, despite the fact that the film won a special ju ry prize fo r art and innovation at the 1990 T orin o Film Festival. Hoaas feels that perhaps her representation o f the leading Australian male characters - on e violent, but sensitively portrayed, the other gay - is perhaps the reason. Hoaas speaks fluentjapanese and this eased many potential problem s and language misunderstandings in working with the leadingjapanese actress, Eri Ishida. A lthough Hoaas says it was an exhausting process switching back and forth constantly* the rewards are shown in Lshida’ s sensitive portrayal o f a woman in an alien culture. Japan is bein g viewed as the film finance bank o f the world and we are having som e success in gaining access to their coffers. Aya and the mini-series Rose Against the O d d s-the story o f Lionel R ose’s b oxin g fame - were partly fu n d ed by Japanese sources. Blood Oath was able to corn er a slice o f the Japanese market, grossing $250,000 within six weeks o f op en in g in Tokyo thanks to the amazing efforts o f publicist Toshi Shioya, who Charles H annah says, “almost single-handedly cajoled and bullied the film ’s distributors, and thejapanese m edia, to share his b elief in it”.11

D e s p ite p re s s u re on te le v is io n n e tw o rk s to p ro d u c e s to rie s w hich r e fle c t b o th th e m u lti-c u ltu ra l a n d A b o rig in a l m ix o f th e A u s tra lia n c o m m u n ity , th e c h a n g e s h a v e b e e n m in im a l. There s e e m s to b e a s u g g e s tio n th a t *m id d le A u s tra lia ’ w ill tu rn o f f i f i t s e e s a m u lti-c u ltu ra l s o c ie ty . B u t h a s a n y r e a l m a rk e t re s e a rc h b e e n d o n e o r is i t ju s t th e g u t fe e lin g 9 o f th e e x e c u tiv e p ro d u c e r?

T he feature film Greenkeeping (David Caesar, 1992) is a com edy about “sex, drugs and lawn bowls”. It also has an Asian focus. Caesar says the inspiration fo r the film came from a radio broadcast o f the Com m onw ealth Games lawn bowls final be tween a 17-year-old Chinese b oy from H on g K ong and an older Italian-Australian. H e believes the film is “a m etaphor fo r the wdy Australia is ch an gin g”.12 T h e 1991 M elbourne Film Festival further expanded Australia’s Asian links with the screening o f several films o f the H on g K ong genre o f martial-arts films. But the highlight o f the Festival was the session fo r the film JuDou by renow ned Chinese “5th G eneration” director Zhang Yi-Mou. Festival-goers turned up in droves. T h e organizers cou ld n ot con trol the crowd and the p olice were called in. Dem and fo r Chinese cinem a is very strong in M elbourn e and this rush to see a banned Chinese film, incidentally bankrolled by the Japanese, flies in the face o f cinem a chains which believe there is n o market here for Asia film. There is an audience and it can be fostered.

Other producers argue it is im portant to see beyon d the rhetoric and concentrate on the dramatic and passionate elements o f a story, regardless o f its authenticity or worthiness. But d o we have to wait until network executives understand that program m es with an Asian focus can be dramatic and passionate, ratings-positive, n ot offensive to advertisers and keep them in their job s. D o we have to wait until the decision makers themselves are Asia-literate? 6 O ’C L O C K S H O C K

News and current-affairs program m es are supposed to present accuracy and truth. But the image o f Asia we see is limited to natural disasters, riots, drug hauls, plane crashes and wars. A nd this occurs only if there is a news crew to shoot it. Similar images o f street fighting in South Korea, mud-slides in Th e Philippines and poverty in Bangladesh inure us to the real problem s. T he viewer becom es bored and desensitized to events in that country. “ P L E A S E C O N S ID E R ”

M A R K E T P L A C E R E A L IT Y

But if cinem a chains are slow to change, television networks are even slower. Despite pressure on them to p rod u ce stories which reflect both the multi-cultural and Aboriginal mix o f the Australian com m unity, the changes have been minimal. There seems to be a suggestion that ‘ m iddle Australia’ will turn o ff if it sees a multi-cultural society. But has any real market research been d on e or is it just the ‘gut feelin g’ o f the executive producer? H ow often have we heard that there are “n o g o o d story lines”, “n o actors available” or “the image isn’ t g o o d for our overseas markets”. Ian Bradley from the Grundy Organization believes that television executives are often motivated by fear - “fear o f not getting ratings, fear o f offen d in g the advertisers, and in the end fear o f losing their jo b s ”.13 In other words, fear o f d oin g som e thing different.

Advertising still represents stereotype images - o f w om en, o f Italians and o f Asians. “Can you keep a Seclet?” and “Sunright L ice” make fun o f Asian pronunciation o f English words; Singapore Airlines advertisements refer to its “girls” as a “great way to fly”; and Fuji Films present a bow-tied, smiling, cutesy image to make us ch oose its product. W here d o you draw the line between what is gently funny and what is racist? “Mr Okim ura” (NEC) and “N ot So Squeezy” (Mitsubishi) are parodies ofjap a n ese national characteristics, but the ads are also made for Japanese com panies. W hen will LEFT TO RIGHT: NEO-NAZI SKINHEADS PREPARE TO DEFEND THEIR 'FORTRESS' AGAINST AN ATTACK FROM A VIETNAMESE GANG. WITH SONNY JIM (LEIGH RUSSELL), GABE (JACQUELINE MCKENZIE), AND DAVEY (DANIEL POLLOCK). GEOFFREY WRIGHT'S ROMPER STOMPER. A JAPANESE-AUSTRALIAN MARRIAGE IN SOLRUN HOAAS' AYA. WITH AYA (ERI ISHIDA) AND FRANK (NICHOLAS EADIE). A PERCEPTION OF WAR: SERGEANT KEENAN (NICHOLAS EADIE) AND 1KEUCHIO (TETSU WATANABE). STEPHEN WALLACE'S BLOOD OATH.

The Asian Screen Test the advertising industry see the real person behin d the big smile? I T ’S A L L IN T H E G A M E

If advertising presents a skewed view o f Asians, gam e shows rarely include Asians in their program m es. W hile an Australian Broadcasting Tribunal survey fou n d that gam e shows are near the bottom o f viewer preferences, there is n o obvious reason why Asian or Australian-Asian contestants can ’ t be ch osen .14 Apparently an Australian-Chinese student did very well on Sale o f the Century this year, but examples are few and far between. SOAP

An interesting change has been taking place in som e o f the soaps and let’s h op e that it is a taste o f things to com e. Congratulations to A Country Practice for recently including a storyline about a Chinese-Australian acupuncturist w ho per form ed an operation on the matron o f W andin Valley hospital and had a love affaire with on e o f the nurses. W hile Dr. Yip left the show after only a cou p le o f episodes, executive p rod u cer James Davem says it is possible he may yet return. A num ber o f scriptwriters have spoken o f som e fascinating stories about scripts they’ve written and how the program m e producers have reacted with the same old response. W here do we get the actors from ? This was on e o f the issues raised at meetings o f writers and actors in M elbourne and Sydney in D ecem ber, organized by Asialink. Actors Equity in Sydney reports that it now has a data base listing actors by ethnic group, so on e m ore excuse bites the dust. Several writers m entioned that, although they would like to write about Asian themes, they are n ot familiar with the com munity involved. They recom m en d ed that residencies in Asian countries be provided by the AFC, along the lines o f the Australia C ouncil, and that special ethnic consultants be em ployed to give back-up research and expertise at storyline meetings. A nother possibility would be to have writers working in tandem: collaboration between a native speaker with a writer from a particular ethnic group. Most p eop le at the meetings believe that the decision makers, the executive producers and the network owners, need to be made aware just how damaging discriminatory or stereotyped views o f Asians are, especially when it com es to the image we present in those countries considered so im portant to trade relations. As M elbourne writer Yu Ouyang poin ted out, many Asians view Australia as “a cultural desert”. . .. O N E S T E P B A C K

O n another level there have been disappointments, too. T he educational series Asiawise has been on e o f the victims o f the A B C ’s cutbacks and the current-affairs program m e Asia Report has been d rop p ed by SBS. There is a real need for m ore educational background material fo r schools. Last year I prepared a filmography, Visions o f Asia, which lists the availability o f about 1000 films and videos throughout Australia.15 But very little o f it is m ade specifically with education in m ind, particularly for primary schools. What curriculum -specific material is available is now hopelessly out o f date. As Australia moves closer to Asia both econom ically and culturally, it is essential that the Australian com m unity has a solid understanding o f life in Asia. Teachers have expressed a real interest in visual material that will assist children op en 40 ■ C I N E M A

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their eyes to Asia and assist them to b e co m e Asia-literate. Teachers are lookin g fo r updated and accessible inform ation, in a language that the children themselves use and understand. So how d o children view Asia? W hen on e teacher asked her students to draw pictures o f Asians, m ost drew Ninja Turtles and Ninjas, the horrors o f war or old-fashioned images o f Chinese wearing straw hats and pigtails. Th ere is a desperate n eed to develop an awareness o f w ho Asians really are and to break down the old stereotypes. M IS S IO N IM P O S S IB L E

In D ecem ber 1991, the Screen P roduction Association o f Australia (SPAA) look ed at the developing Asian television market. It’s n o coin cid en ce that the South-East Asian market is still look in g fo r American-style action movies, CNN-style news and current-affairs program m es, sport and docum entaries which can be dubbed into Asian languages about Australia’s marvellous sea-world and ou r cuddly koalas. So it’s a two-way process. W hile we are lookin g to enhance the image o f Asia in Australia, we can ’t overlook the image o f Australia in Asia. It seems that all too often the tourist image is the only on e represented abroad. This image will n ot advance until the p erception o f Austra lia as a p eop le changes. Many in Asia still see Australia as a country o f whites, when in fact we are a dynamic m ix o f Aboriginal, European and Asian ethnic and cultural back grounds growing together in this huge southern continent. T h e easy cliched image that we are westerners is both literally and m etaphorically wrong. W e are n ot Westerners. If anything, we are “Southerners”. There is an exciting evolution within ou r film and television industry, and it is gaining m om entum . T here is n o d ou b t that things will change. Even the television executives say so. T h e opportunities are there now. Can the Australian film and television industry take them up and pass the Asian screen test with flying colours? *1 0 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 NOTES

Gareth Evans launching the Australia Council Policy, “Asia Pacific Connections”, October 1991. 2. Carrillo Gantner, quoted in the Australia Council Press Release “A Vision for the Future - Now”, 42/91, September 1991. 3. Ross Garnaut, A u stra lia a n d the North-east A sia n Ascendancy, Com monwealth o f Australia, 1989. 4. Annette Hamilton, “Fear and Desire: Aborigines, Asians and National Imaginary”, in A u s tra lia ’s C u ltu ral H istory Jou rn al, 1990. 5. Freda Freiberg, Monash University Department o f Visual Arts, in conversation with author. 6. Jim Schembri “Actors’ ‘Exit Visas’ Raise Queries on Em bassy’s Future” in Green Guide, The Age, 14 November 1991. 7. In letter from Judith Rich, Public Relations Manger at the FFC, in response to a faxed query from the Editor. 8. Sylvie Shaw, “Report from the first Filmlinks Conference”, in Shaw, N o K oalas Please, Commonwealth o f Australia 1990. 9. Correspondence with author, 14 November 1991. 10. Quoted in Annette Blonski and Freda Freiberg, “Suburban Fever”, Filmnews, October 1991. 11. Charles Hannah, “Thanks Toshi”, Encore, 27 September - 1 0 October 1991. 12. G. Knapp, “Sex, Drugs ... and Lawn Bowls”, Encore, 1 - 1 4 November 1991. 13. Ian Bradley, quoted in Seeingis B elievin g -S crip t W ritin g in a M u lticu ltu ra l Society, Office o f Multicultural Affairs, April 1991. 14. Com m unity Views o f B roadcastin g R egulations, Monograph 1, Australian Broadcasting Tribunal, 1991. 15. Sylvie Shaw, Visions o fA sia : A film ograph y o f A sia n Film s a n d F ilm s about A sia, Commonwealth o f Australia, 1990.

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Aboriginal-Islander playwright and performance poet John Harding queries the definition of “Black Films” There’s a question out there in here Through a camera it would blur, or sink to the bottom o f obscurity with its leadweighted ironies. A spotlight would not assist, as the pain reflects light back into your narrow vacant eyes, m ore help than needed will paralyse T o stand m otionless is to be shot, wrapped cut and sold, yet our cloud o f fluidity will not be housed. W hen the question is in the eyes that can tell the story, the story will speak, and the question will begin to be answered, and the camera m erges and blurs with sudden forward m otion. - UNTITLED, J O H N H A R D IN G

am constantly amazed at how often in my life I have watched the simple path be sacrificed for the long and conflict-ridden road. Maybe it is because along simple paths there are simple truths, and life wasn’t meant to be peaceful or over that quickly. Having said that, to look at Kooris* and film a necessary step is to see how this country reflects itself and the international arena. Is the cultural cringe alive and well and com muting between Sydney and Melbourne? Will we forever rate the per fection o f imitation higher than the development o f local crea tivity and fund it accordingly? The optimist in me says that the current upswing in the support o f Australian content may be something m ore than temporary. The Melbourne film industry is thriving on producing stories that reflect the societal idiosyncrasies, the sexual tensions and the cultural contradictions that this great city was built on, and winning awards in the process. It is also encouraging to see that the gap between the general public and the Australian film industry is continuing to slowly close. I rem em ber notso long ago, when attending a cinema com plex, that I would look straight past known Australian film titles to see what Hollywood had flung across the seas for our cultural gratification. Yet here I am in 1992 knowing that, out o f the four films I want to see at the present moment, two o f them are local product. Now if this a genuine plateau we have reached, and the local and international production partners are starting to believe that the general public can tolerate Australian content, then does this mean, dare I say it, that Koori issues could even be on the * Read Aborigines/Torres Strait Islanders.

shopping list when new ideas are being bought and sold in the marketplace for feature films? Even if this were so, it presents one o f the many problem s that exist in the processes o f depicting Koori issues and images. I always have great difficulty making it clear to non-Kooris the inappropriateness o f them writing Koori characters or issues into a story. There is often disbelief that I have any right to impinge or stem their creative juices, whether they be writers, playwrights or poets. It may be a different situation if they made it clear that the images they conjure are their perceptions, their reality, but this is rarely the case. Instead, white values and perspectives are put on black characters and issues. This serves to reinforce the one-dimen sional view that white Australia has o f Kooris, when the physical aspect o f being one is put up there on the screen alone. The film industry should n ot be singled out here, as it encompasses the wider community, and is reflective o f the fact that a very different perspective and psyche exists between the black and white communities in this country in 1992, and has always been there. O ne o f the strongest elements o f Koori life is the totality o f our world view. Everything is interconnected and affects eveiything else. The arts in general for White Australia seem to be a very separate entity to the mainstream community. Elements o f ac countability and responsibility do not bind the two together. Thus, a community sees n o link between the arts body its taxes pay for - spending the majority o f its funding supporting activities that a minuscule percentage o f the population participate in and the fact that they should be irate about it. Koori arts has never been a separatist ideal, refiningfor its own sake, but m ore a vibrant, integral com pon en t on which our culture was based. It was as important to the social cohesion o f a family as a steady supply o f food ; and elevated to the status o f ceremonies. As we have adapted into the 1990s, the one thing we cannot afford to lose is our artists, and their place in the scheme o f the struggle we face. I place Koori filmmakers firmly in this group. O f course, in these liberated times, it sounds almost fascist to say that black artists should be accountable to their community. If a Koori filmmaker’s work is adored by the wider community, what possible weight would the black com m unity’s disapproval carry? It would seem the potential for retribution is minimal. The Koori filmmakers have the ball in their court in regards to this aspect. Only they can know to what extent their work reflects the Kooriness in themselves. This sense o f accountability is something

amera that Koori artists carry in their hearts, rather than fear as an enforced decree. Here I would like to touch on the politics o f the film industry, in reference to Kooris and films, as I see this as flowing on from the previous point. I feel the time has com e where we have to begin to define what a “black film ” or a “Koori film ” is, and when does it b ecom e o n e . Is it a black film due to the material it presents or the origins o f the filmmaker, or both? The reason I have decided not to turn this article into an historic look at “Aboriginal films” is because the distinction must be made loud and clear by Koori filmmakers between “Kooris in films” and “Koori films”. While there have been several decent films about Kooris by non-Kooris (albeit with Koori consultants), the agenda must be written by us. I feel enough has been written about them. W hen they are not films made by Kooris, but simply films in which Kooris appear, why is the Koori community always made to feel so grateful? So grateful, in fact, that some o f these films are given black money, so the black actors can be paid, while less acclaimed black filmmakers are denied. The continuance o f this helps create the dangerous illusion that a lot o f time and effort and m oney has gon e into the areas o f “blacks ’n ’ films”, when in fact it has not. Books on “Aborigines in Film” add to the distorted view, albeit unintentionally. Let’s spell it out: “Films made by non-Kooris about Kooris”! There, now we can all get some sleep. At the other end o f the spectrum, there is the equally confus ing issue o f Kooris who make films that aren’t necessarily about Kooris, and so may classify themselves as filmmakers who happen to be Kooris. Perhaps it is to the Koori filmmakers and the funding bodies that we will leave the problems o f definition, as it may be through the developm ent o f this relationship that the Koori community may find its niche. The importance o f the Koori filmmaker maintaining credible links with h is/h er community is evident in the self-development o f the artist, but also in providing a medium whereby stories that have to be told are told accurately, and interpreted from a Koori perspective. T he third benefit is the opportunity to train other Kooris, thereby building up our resource base. All this can com e from one Koori making one film. Another stepping stone in the river o f Koori filmmaking is whom d o you make the film for? As a playwright, I was often asked whom d o I pitch my play at? My reply was that I write for Kooris, as I can write n o other way when I am writing for myself. If the nonKooris d o n ’t get thejokes orjargon, they can com e up and ask me later. But putting a “white face ” on a black message is as outdated

as A ljolson . If a Koori filmmaker has it in mind to accurately reflect and interpret a community issue or issues, whether it be through drama, documentary or animation, the logical yardstick is the community itself. A real black film is a political expression because its mere existence, despite accolades or criticism, means we are still here, reclaiming the images o f our identity, and still at war for land rights and compensation. A thought-provoking reminder o f this is the fact that the federal government has recently established the Reconciliation Council, made up o f black and white mem bers o f this multi-cultural society. Their mission, should they decide to accept it, is to com e up with a list o f p olicies/recom mendations on how we can reconcile the past, in time for the centenary celebration o f federation. Although it will permeate all aspects o f Aboriginal Affairs in its ten-year life-span and $10 million budget, how could it affect Koori artists? Although the Reconciliation Council may prove to be a toothless tiger, an enterprising Koori filmmaker could suggest for reasons o f equity that the AFI allocate a percentage o f its annual budget to Koori communities, in line with the population ratio (i.e. 2.5%). This principle could be applied to all governmentfunded arts bodies across the country. The logistics o f distribu tion could well be a long and com plex one, but it at least would be our problem. It will only be when econom ic justice o f this kind is achieved that the stories will unfold that have been kept for so long in the heart o f the country, and in her caretakers, the oldest race in the world. And they will be able to be told at the qualitative level that they should be, because they will be researched adequately, and Koori filmmakers will have the resources needed to enable them to achieve their full potential. T o achieve this, the pooling o f resources will eventually becom e essential to the development o f Koori film. The Koori con cept o f “caring and sharing” must extend into the arts arena, where it has been replaced by competition. Koori artists are adapting and hopefully recognizing the difference between getting caught up in the politics o f the arts, and utilizing the arts for the politics o f survival. Arts for art’s sake? W e haven’t the time!

P.S. What are we going to be reconciled to accept? There’s scope there for a sci-fi: one million people mysteriously disappear off the face o f Australia in 1770 headed for the planet Terra Nullius ...

CINEMA

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• 43

Films in Colour O R , BLACK AND WHITE PERSPECTIVES OF SCREENPLAY? aving just com e back from South Africa and observing, am ong other things, the use o f black South Africans on television and in cinema, I have an added interest in studying the images used by white Australia for black Australia. The white manipulation o f the European-controlled media, television and cinema oudets has, o f course, an effect n ot only on Aboriginal issues but on Asian, Eastern Mediterranean, Arabic and other non-white races. But it is the Aboriginal race that is most affected. It was interesting to learn that the Zulu people (who are the ones most portrayed on television) have their own television station, where Zulu is the official language and Zulus are the principal characters. But despite this - and despite the fact that blacks outnum ber whites some 20 to 1 - they are still portrayed as foolish people. There is something m ore to be desired in the plots written about and for them. This situation is solely because, despite apartheid being dismantled bit by bit, the administrative positions in all walks o f life are controlled by whites. However, because whites are in a minority, there are powerful voices in the newspapers, political parties and the unions to speak up for the black majority. In Australia, there is a greater discrepancy o f power, where the Aboriginal population is outnum bered some 100 to 1. There is very little chance o f the Aboriginal nation getting a clear, fair and objective portrayal on either television or in film. In fact, shows like Prisoners ould have been an ideal forum for Aboriginal issues, since it is well known prison populations are heavily based on the Aboriginal people. Yet there was only ever one Aborigine in the whole show, a type o f token black, if you like, reminiscent o f the American television shows o f the 1960s and early ’70s before AfroAmerican Civil Rights enforced a better code o f conduct for television and film - as in Tn the Heat of the Night. Also, in Bellbird there was only ever one Aboriginal actor, who played the town drunk. There have been many essays and talks about these specific problems over the years, ranging from outright racism in the early days (as in the argument that Aborigines cannot act as they d o n ’t have the will-power to do the strenuous work) up to the paternalisticjoumals and com ments o f today. So, I will not dwell too long on this subject. But, even today, we still get white people portraying Aborigines and editors cutting out a scene o f one o f the main white actors kissing an Aboriginal woman because it is believed ratings would fall. It really is time to look at ourselves as creators and realize that for Australia’s indigenous population there is a lot to be desired on the cinema front. For, as I have said elsewhere, film is the white m an’s dreamtime - and m ore often

44 • C I N E M A

PAPERS

than not it turns out to be the A borigines’ nightmare. The time has com e to portray a true picture o f Aboriginal life. This is especially so on television, which reaches outwards to a greater variety o f people. It is not to say that this is n ot happening now. There are several g o o d programmes on SBS and the ABC, and there is, o f course, the Central Australian Aboriginal Media Association, all o f which are positive and informative. As for film, there are people like Tracey Moffatt, Michael Riley, Jerry Bostock, Ricky Shields and Lorraine Mafi-Williams —to name a mere few —who are busily making small-budget films and winning awards with them. However, it is the big-budget films that are going to be seen by the majority o f the world, films like The Last Wave, (Peter Weir, 1977) The Chant o f Jimmie Blacksmith (Fred Schepisi, 1978), A Faithful Narrative o f the Capture, Sufferings and Miraculous Escape of ElizaFraser (Tim Burstall, 1976) and so on. W e see the same old stereotypes again and again, with Aborigines relegated to second fiddle. Where is the interest in making big-budget Aboriginal films, such as Kevin Costner’s Danceszvith Wolves (1990) aboutthe Sioux, which most H ollywood producers said would never work? And yet, there are at least four big-budget native American films in production right now. The native Americans have the same problem s as the Aborigi nal people with n o real conference with those whites w ho make

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NUMBER 38 (JUNE 1982) G e o ff Burrowes, G eorge Miller, James Ivory, Phil N oyce, Joan Fontaine, T on y Williams, law and insurance, Far East.

NUMBER 39 (AUGUST 1982) H elen ¡Morse, Richard M ason, Anja Breien, David Millikan, Derek Granger, N orw egian cinema, National Film Archive, We O f The Never Never.

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NUMBER 129 SPRING 1986 Reinhard Hauff, N ick Z e d d , T on y Ravns, Australian Independent Film, Public Television in Australia, Super 8

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NUMBER 131 AUTUM N 1987 Richard Lowenstein, N ew Japanese Cinema, Ken Russell, Richard Chataway and Michael Cusack

NUMBER 132 WINTER 1987 Censorship in Australia, Rosalind Krauss, Troy Kennedy Martin, N ew Zealand Cinema, David Chesworth

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NUMBER 80 (AUGUST 1990)

Charles Dickens’ Little Dorrit, Australian Sci-Fi movies, Survey: 1988 Mini-Series, Aromarama, Ann Turner’ s Celia, Fellini’ s La dolce vita, W om en and Westerns

Cannes report, Fred Schepisi career interview, Peter Weir and Greencard Pauline Chan, Gus Van Sant and Drugstore Cowboy, German Stories.

NUMBER 73 (M AY 1989)

NUMBER 81 (DECEMBER 1990)

Cannes Issue, Phil N o y ce ’ s Dead Calm, Franco N ero, Jane C am pion, Ian Pringle’ s The Prisoner o f St. Petersburg, Frank Pierson - Scriptwriter, Australian films at Cannes, Pay TV .

Ian Pringle Isabelle Eberhardt, Jane Cam pion A n Angel A t My Table Martin Scorsese Goodfellas, Alan J. Pakula Presumed Innocent

NUMBER 74 (JULY 1989)

Francis Ford C oppola The Godfather Part III, Barbet Schroeder Reversal o f Fortune, Bruce Beresford’s Black Robe, Ram ond Hollis L ongford , Backsliding, Bill Bennetts, Sergio C orbucci obituary.

NUMBER 75 (SEPTEMBER 1989)

NUMBER 83 (M AY 1991)

Sally Bongers, The Teen M ovie, Animated Edens Lost, Mary Lambert and Pet Sematary, Martin Scorsese and Paul

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NUMBER 76 (NOVEMBER 1989)

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NUMBER 85 (NOVEMBER 1991) Jocelyn M oorhouse: Proof, Blake Edwards: Switch, Callie Khouri: Thelma & Louise-, Independent Exhibition and Distribution in Australia, FFC Part II.

NUMBER 78 (MARCH 1990)

NUMBER 86 (JANUARY 1992)

George Ogilvie’s The Crossing, Ray Argali’ s Return Home, Peter Greenaway and The Cook...etc, M ichel Cim ent, Bangkok Hilton and Barlow and Chambers

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Special John Farrow profile, Blood Oath, Dennis Whitburn and Brian Williams, Don McLennan and Breakaway, “ Crocodile” Dundee overseas.

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NUMBER 82 (MARCH 1991)

of the Civil Dead, Shame screenplay.

Debi Enker,

Gibson,

Film M usic, G rou ch o’ s Cigar, Jerzy

NUMBER 72 (MARCH 1989)

The Delinquents, Australians in H olly wood, Chinese Cinema, Philippe M ora, Yuri Sokol, Twins, True Believers, Ghosts...

W o m en o f the Wave;~R.oss

ORDIR FÒRI»

~ Y r1

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Author Archie Weller looks at who controls images of black Australians and a recent attempt to change the stereotyping with Day of the Dog. BELOW, LEFT TO RIGHT: DAVID NGOOMBUJARRA, KELTON PELL, TREVOR PARFITT AND JOHN MOORE. JAMES RICKETSON'S DAY OF THE DOG, FROM ARCHIE WELLER'S NOVEL .

films about them. Indeed, for many years the ‘bad Indians’ in those Westerns we all loved to watch as kids were really Italians and Mexicans because it was thought the real Indians were too demoralized and drunk to ride horses. A nd n o w onder since they always got the sharp end o f the stick with any encounters they had w ithjohn Wayne and his like. W here are all their heroes? They no longer existed as neither did a single native American actor, except for C hief Dan George. Dances with Wolves, although not perhaps a masterpiece, is a more-than-usually-fair portrayal o f Indian life. It can only be h oped that the other films follow the same path. After all, the more feet that g o down a path, the sooner it becom es a highway. It will be great seeing native Americans making films about their champions and people and ways o f life, o f how they cop e with m odern life. It is to be h op ed they make it out into the big world o f Super Movies to be seen the world over. This is what has just happened with Day o f the Dog. Although it is still n ot strictly speaking an Aboriginal film, it is close enough to be held p rou d in any A borigin e’s eyes as our film. The producer (David Rapsey) and the director (James Ricketson) are necessarily white, but it has a huge am ount o f Aboriginal input into the film. T o begin with, it is from an Aboriginal b o o k and also the author (myself) worked very hard with the writer-director to

develop the script. W e worked for about three years, although the actual beginning o f the process was even earlier. In fact, there was interest ten years ago in making the film. Many times the script changed either abruptly or subtly, and there were many fine ideas from many fine people in those hectic days spinning around and gradually coagulating together into a workable film. Even though the final draft had many p e o p le ’s ideas in it, it was still essentially an Aboriginal story, and n ot a story about magicians or people rushing about in their skimpy outfits, but a story o f ordinary city people who just happen to be Aboriginal (or Nyoongahs, if you like). This is the second big breakthrough, for Day o f the Dog is the first commercially-made film that shows there are urban A bo rigines living a different type o f life within the greater confines o f the city, with their own laws, rules and language kept from days o f old when Aborigines were a nom adic peoples living in the bush. In this respect, we resemble the Gypsy people o f Europe and, m ore especially, England who face the same problem s o f police harassment, trouble from councils and distrust from their neighbours as d o Aboriginal people. The other aspect that will help the Aboriginal cause is that behind the scenes there was quite a bit o f Aboriginal input into the sound, lighting and camera: indeed, every aspect o f the administrative and technical sides o f making a film had some input. This was great for Aboriginal people because now we can build up our own technical staff so that the day we reach the third stage (Aboriginal producers using Aboriginal m oney) we can truly make our own films for the wider market. This film is also a breakthrough in that there are m ore Aboriginal than white main roles. Actually, there are only two main white roles: Mrs Dooligan (Julie Hudspenth) and Silver (Attila Oszdolay). That wonderful actor John Hargreaves plays a small though important part as a Detective Sergeant, and that will only add spice to an already enjoyably bubbling stew. O f the five main Aboriginal roles, only three are professional actors and this adds a fresh new look to a fresh new concept. I personally am glad it was made in my h om e city o f Perth and so, I think, was the rest o f the N yoongah cast. However, I’m sure everyone will agree that there were n o better or worse actors in this film, that they all did their best. Th e film was made by our people about our people for our p eop le, and that really is the crux o f the matter. M uch thanks should be given to Barron Films for stepping into this production, because as one television executive told our director, “N o one wants to see a film about A borigines.” I believe we will be the first to prove him wrong.

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J A M E S R I C K E T S OIM â&#x20AC;&#x2122; S

Day o f the Dog A rch ie W e lle râ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s novel, D a y o f th e D o g , has been re ce ntly film ed by w rite r-d ire cto r Jam es R icketso n ( C a n d y R e g e n ta g , 1 9 8 9 ). It te lls of a yo u n g Aboriginal ex-con w h o is torn betw een th e bad influence of old friends, the love of a you ng w o m a n and th e th re a t of gaol if he returns to his old w a ys.

ABOVE LEFT: D O U G D O O LIG A N (JO H N

Film ed in Perth from O cto b e r to D ece m ber last year, the film stars John M oore (a s D o u g D o o liga n ), David N goom bujarra,

MOORE) A N D POLLY YARRUP (JAYLENE RILEY). RIGHT: TIN Y (TREVOR PARFITT), PRETTY BOY FLOYD (DAVID N G O O M B UJAR R A), SILVER (ATTILA

Jaylene R iley, Lisa K incheia, John H argeaves and Ernie Dingo. Th e

O ZSD O LA Y), POLLY A N D D O U G .

directo r of photography w a s Jeff M alouf and the editor Christopher

(LISA KINCHELA), PRETTY B O Y FLOYD AN D

BELOW, LEFT TO RIGHT: VALERIE YARRUP

D O U G . DETECTIVE MAXWELL (JO H N

Cordeaux.

HARGEAVES), C O N W A Y (DAVID M O R A N )

Produced by David R apsey, for Barron Film s, D a y o f th e D o g w as financed by the Australian Film C o m m issio n and the Film

AN D D O U G . DIRECTOR JAMES RICKETSON W ITH ACTORS JO H N MOORE A N D JAYLENE RILEY. ROY (FRANK N A N N U P ), D O UG A N D PRETTY BOY FLOYD. JAMES RICKETSON'S

Finance C o rpo ration .

ph o to g r a ph s

b y s k ip w a t k in s

D A Y O F THE D O G .

Black Screens Phillip Dutchak reports on Aboriginal Television

There was a tribal matter that needed the elders from one community to talk with the elders o f another community some distance away. At the time, we had a test t r a n s m i s s i o n set-up between these two places. So instead o f travelling to a meeting, the parties decided to try the set-up. The two elders where I was came in, sat on the floor in front o f the video camera and started talking to the elders o f the other community via the monitor. They weren’t camera conscious or intimidated by the technology. They just got on with it as if it were a normal occurrence. It was a magic moment. - IAN PICK, SENIOR TEC H N IC IA N W ITH THE TA N A M I NETWORK

and overseas film festivals. The range o f what is happening goes from isolated Aboriginal communities using a video camera to record an event o f cultural im portance for themselves to an individual filmmaker o f Aboriginal birth directing a feature for com m ercial release. It is tribal and federal, black and white, independent and dependent, big and small - all at the same time. Part o f the reason for this situation is that Aboriginal film and video is reliant on forces outside its control. W hile this arguably applies to anyone working in the field, the Aboriginal m edia has to keep one fo o t in its own world (with its own aims, problem s and solutions), and on e fo o t in the com m ercial and technological world o f the white m edia (for the technology, m oney and training). M ore and m ore, Aborigines are making inroads into these areas but when, as in the case o f the Tanami Network, the technology used is extremely sophisticated, the gap becom es obvious. A dd in the involvement o f governm ent bodies like AUSSAT, for the satellite hook-up, or business for the hardware, and the Aboriginal screen starts splitting up into a num ber o f screens.

sing satellite transponders, compressed video signals and com puter-enhancem ent technology, a num ber o f A bo riginal communities in the centre o f Australia are moving to link up their transmissions. This networking promises vast cultural and social benefits to those in the system, including medical diagnosis by video camera, education via television monitor and allowing broadcasts from one community to another. On a broader level, it is part of, and one solution to, the entirety At Emabella V ideo Television (EVTVj in South Australia, o f Aboriginal film and video. there is n o technological gap. As Neal Turner notes for the In the film Satellite Dreaming, Philip Batty from the Central Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara Media Association, Australian Aboriginal Media Association (CAAMA) goes further In April 1985, EVTVcommenced local broadcasting on the world’s when he makes the point that the most powerful tool ever put into cheapest community television transmission system (less than a Aboriginal hands has been the video camera. That Aborigines $1,000 worth o f equipment purchased from a 10 cent surcharge want to be working in the m edium com es from cultural and on cool drinks in the store). contem porary motivations: cultural, in that Aborigines can lay claim to a visual and oral tradition which surpasses any European What was at issue was the need for locally-made videos and heritage; contemporary, as a way o f telling transmissions to strengthen the com m u their stories to other Aborigines and anyone nity’s culture, language and history. At else. present, EVTV, apart from producing 125 H ow Aborigines are gaining the equip hours o f community television ayear, offers m ent and training necessary to work in this a list o f cassette videos. Ernabella carries medium, or the projects they are undertak titles such as Kampurarpa (on wild tomato ing, cannot be neatly summed up in a sen collection and grinding), or Tjukurpalntitjatence or two. Aborigines in film and video Oral History (first contact stories: Tom m y are operating at many different levels. In the Manta, Nellie Patterson, A rm u n da). It is bush and city, in groups, associations and very unlikely that these cassettes and the individually, Aborigines are involved in a many others are to be fou n d at your local vast media footprint. video store. Yet, they are important and sell For the m om ent let the unfamiliar terms in the Aboriginal market, and com m ercial glide by. There are places such as Yuendumu, video never could or would make them, Bidyadanga and Batchelor. There are the given the small returns. organizations with initials like CAAMA, EVTV’svideos are an Aboriginal answer TAIM A, DEET, CDEP, BRACS, BIMA, to an Aboriginal need. As Marcia Langton, NIMA, AFC, FFC, ABC, ABT and SBS. There Aboriginal lecturer from Macquarie Uni LOGO FOR CENTRAL AUSTRALIAN ABORIGINAL are advanced technologies, business deals, versity, pointed out in a paper given at the MEDIA ASSOCIATION (CAAMA). governm ent strategies, television networks S econ d Australian D ocu m en tary Film

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FAMILY VIEWING IMPARJA TELEVISION AT YUENDUMU.

Aboriginal. The Ernabella, Bidyadanga, Kintore and eighty other com munities are part o f the Broadcast for Rem ote Aboriginal Com munities Scheme (BRACS). In 1984, the now defunctDepartment for Aboriginal Affairs published Out o f the Silent Land, the findings o f its Task Force on Aboriginal and Islanders Broadcasting and Communications. It has been the blueprint which has guided government policy on Aboriginal communications. BRACS is on e o f the fifty recom m endations to com e out o f the report. Simply, it allows isolated communities to receive the television signal o ff the satellite. It has the further facility o f allowing each com munity to interrupt the satellite transmission and insert material o f its own, should it find the incom ing transmission culturally inappropriate. In some instances, this

Ernabella quickly realized the opportunities and dangers o f television, and created a media association to take charge o f the situation. Another community that is involved in making its own videos is the Warlpiri Media Association (WMA) in Yuendumu. A letter from the WMA states the association usually “broadcasts a couple o f hours a day”, and they make “the children’s television pro gramme in [their] language, Manyu Wana”. N ot all communities create their own videos or programmes due to reasons o f training or money. Still, BRACS has allowed some Aboriginal settlements to becom e involved in video and program m ing production, if only on a VHS scale. At the other end o f the spectrum is the Central Australian Aboriginal Media Association and Impaija TV Pty Ltd. CAAMA is one o f the five Aboriginal media resource centres created for the outlying BRACS stations. Quoting from a 1989 CAAMA information brochure:

may mean the com m unity playing a videotape. Ernabella’s making o f its own videos and programmes for broadcast is in some ways a particular case. The Aborigines o f

In 1980 the Central Australian Aboriginal Media Association was run by three volunteer workers, capital assets consisted o f a second-hand car, some donated equipment, and a typewriter [...]

Conference, these videos “cannot b eju dged by white standards”. They may use the tools o f all filmmakers, but how they are made, why they are made and the stories they have to tell are uniquely

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Black Screens

operations [...] on 2nd January, 1988. Imparja is a 100 per cent Aboriginal owned and controlled private com pany incorporated in the Northern Territory”. Its broadcast area covers most o f Central Australia, from north o f Darwin to south o f Adelaide (excluding those centre covered by com mercial broadcasters). Out o f a potential viewing audience o f 120,000, the station estimates that approximately 30 per cent are o f Aboriginal descent. It is one o f the three Remote Transmission Commercial System licensees (the other two being the Golden West Network in Western Australia and Queensland Satellite Television). Like CAAMA, Imparja is in a dilemma. As a commercial broadcaster, it must try to service all o f its viewers, but its Aboriginal ownership gives it the added responsibility o f providing Aboriginal programmingwhile trying to be commercially viable. It is a high-wire act made m ore com plex by Im paija’s being regulated into satellite transponder usage. At present, according to station manager Mr Dion Weston:

Today, nine years later, CAAMA operates a Radio Broadcast ing network servicing all o f Central Australia; runs a thriving Aboriginal Arts and Crafts business; has a Television Production company, and holds a major shareholding in Imparja Television Pty Ltd [...] Located in Alice Springs, CAAMA is the Aboriginal face that the general public is most likely to recognize. The previously noted Satellite Dreaming came from CAAMA Productions with assistance from the Australian Film Commission. A separate unit within CAAMA Productions, its Aboriginal Unit, made up o ffou r Aborigines and one white, is responsible for making Nganampa. Made as a series o f thirteen, half-hour programmes “mosdy in one o f four main Aboriginal languages in Central Australia with English sub-tides”, it is screened regularly on Impaija Television. SBS currendy airs a series o f the programme as well. CAAMA has further expanded activities past any Aboriginal production by moving into corporate video production. The recently-completed discussion paper, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Broadcasting, noted that CAAMA was “ambitious” and “opportunities” existed for it in the production o f commercial videos, but “a lack o f capital” and “limited resources” were hindering CAAMA’s efforts. The shortage in funds has been partly caused by the Department o f Education, Employment and Training (DEET) reducing its financial assistance for CAAMA with recent changes to its guide-lines. Elere again is the situation o f the Aboriginal media, in this case CAAMA, having to be in two places at once. CAAMA has an obligation to train and employ Aborigines. T o do this it needs government support. When that funding is reduced, it must try to find the monies from its own limited budget. As things are stretched in these recession times, cutbacks in personnel and an inability to take on an “opportunity” have resulted. The whole matter comes into sharp focus when talking about the CAAMA-owned Imparja Television. Impaija “com m enced SO > C I N E M A

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Impaija presently broadcasts two first-release Aboriginal pro grammes. The primary Aboriginal programme telecast at 8.00 pm each Thursday and re-screened on Sunday afternoon is Nganampa/Anwemekenhe {Ours [Pitjanljatjara] /OurWay ofCulture [Arrente]). The other aboriginal programme currently on air is called Mana-Wana (Justfor Fun [colloquial Warlpiri]) and is aimed at pre-school and early primary school children. This award-win ning programme is produced by the Warlpiri Media Association at Yuendumu. Impaija has only recently completed screening o f a festival o f documentary and dramatic film and video, either made by Aboriginal people or, by far the bulk, about Aborigines by others. This series titled Talking Strong was telecast over a seven-month period each Saturday night at 9.00 pm. While Imparja does not produce any programmes itself, apart from awell-received news programme, it does provide m oney for the production o f Nganampa. The station, with the Department o f Education, Employment and Training, has “an on-going training agreement” and 10 o f its 35 full-time employees are Aboriginal. Weston notes that one per cent o f Im paija’s air time is specifically for Aboriginal programmes while costing over 30 per cent o f “total rights purchasing expense”. This one per cent is roughly equivalent to the amount o f telecast time given Aboriginal programmes by the other two Remote Transmission Commercial Service licensees. The Golden WestNetwork, operating throughout Western Australia, exclud ing P erth, broadcasts roughly an hour o f Aboriginal programmes a week. It makes the half-hour Aboriginal program me Milbindi. Having an Aboriginal presenter and some crew, the program me is concerned with important Aboriginal issues. It also makes Mamum, a short news insert for Aborigines which appears twice a week. Itscreens the Canberra-made Aboriginal Australia, and an Aboriginal special about once a month. Queensland Satellite Television used to make the Aboriginal programme My Place, My Land, My P eop les a thirteen-part, halfhour series until budget cutbacks forced its closure. In 1989-90, QST was showing up to about two-and-a-half hours o f Aboriginal programmes a week, but now does about an hour a week. It has

A b o rig in e s in film a n d v id e o a re o p e ra tin g a t m a n y d iffe r e n t le v e ls . In th e bu sh a n d c ity , in g ro u p s , a s s o c ia tio n s a n d in d iv id u a lly , A b o rig in e s a re in v o lv e d in a v a s t m e d ia fo o tp rin t.

created the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Program Committee, an all-Aboriginal advisory panel to help in the making and screening o f Aboriginal material. Apart from CAAMA, there are four other regional media centres funded by the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island Com mission (ATSIC). O f these four, only the Townsville Aboriginal and Islander Media Association (TAIMA) is actively engaged in video production. TAIMA “was incorporated on the 8th ofju n e, 1982, and then had three [radio] broadcast and production staff, an administrator and a secretary”. Today video titles include Moments like These, part o f a three-part series made for Australia Post, and Dancing in the Moonlight, which was sold to the ABC. TAIMAruns training schemes in conjunction with the Australian Film Television & Radio School in Sydney, supports four students attending Batchelor College in Northern Territory and helps in training for the communities involved with BRACS in Northern Queensland. The remaining centres have varying degrees o f involvement with video. The B room e Aboriginal Media Association acts as a centre for BRACS in Kimberley and the Pilbara, Western Aus tralia. For a time, the training and making o f videos was done with the B room e Musicians Aboriginal Corporation. The Torres Strait Islander Media Association, based on Thursday Island, supplies via its media co-ordinator training for the seventeen communities involved in BRACS. A ccording to Aven Noah, seven o f these seventeen are making their own videos. Finally, the Western Australian Aboriginal Media Association is largely fo cused on training in radio production, though there are plans for video training and production. Before leaving regional media altogether, two community media organizations should be made m ention of: O pen Channel in M elbourne and Metro Television in Sydney. Both have con ducted training courses specifically for Aborigines. O pen Chan nel has a continuing dialogue with TAIMA in assisting with its video productions, and has recently com pleted Blackmen’sHouses about Tasmanian Aborigines. Metro was recently responsible for showing a collection o f Aboriginal films at the Australian Film Institute Cinema in Sydney called “Control Track, C olour Black”. It has also been involved in making a series o f videos for the NSW Health Department called Koories Have a Say and Have You Got What it Takes'?. The ABC is the other television service which beams its signal into BRACS communities and across Australia. The ABC, through itsAboriginal Film Unit, makes the Aboriginal series Blackout. With a staff o f six Aboriginal director-producers, one researcher and a production assistant, it is one o f the few places where Aboriginal work is part o f the mainstream media. As well, the ABC runs the series First Australians as part o f the Aboriginal programming. The ABC and SBS both regularly screen films and videos by and about Aborigines. A nd both are committed to training and equal em ploym ent opportunities for Aborigines. SBS was responsible for making the Aboriginal series First in Line. At present, its A bo riginal Unit o f three full-time staff is in pre-production on the four-part drama-documentary series Blood Brothers. SBS has also published guide-lines for producing film and television on A bo rigines and Torres Strait Islanders entitled The GreaterPerspective.

In film, all state film bodies have the stated policy o f consider ing submissions solely on their merits. At a quick glance, the Western Australia Film Council co-funded with the Australian Film Finance Corporation Day o f the Dog, with an attachment scheme for six Aborigines. The NSW Film and Television Office gave initial funding for Blood Brothers and Film Victoria was in volved with Koori Culture, Koori Control. The Northern Territory, via the Office o f Aboriginal Communications, used to regularly produce a magazine format video on Aboriginal news and issues. The AFC has been involved on a num ber o f levels with Aboriginal film and video. It provides funds to CAAMA for its programme Nganampa. It has funded films by Aborigines such as Tracey Moffatt’s Night Cries: A Rural Tragedy and has given funds for Aboriginal film festivals overseas. At present, the AFC is working through an Aboriginal consultant to develop guide-lines and policies for Aborigines in relation to film and video. While the FFC receives any num ber o f submissions that for cultural or national interests deserve funding, by its guide-lines it becom es involved in projects on the strength o f the financial package offered. Still, it has been involved in a num ber o f ventures either by or about Aborigines. They include Holding On, Holding Tight with CAAMA, Deadly, Blood Brothers and the mini series on the life o f Lionel Rose, Rose Against the Odds. There are a num ber o f Aborigines working individually in com mercial film and video. For example, Wayne Barker in B room e continues his involvement with the Aboriginal media as FACING PAGE: CLARA INKAMALA AND MICHAEL LIDDLE WORKING ON THE IMPARJA SERIES N GANAMPA. BELOW: THE IMPARJA SATEUTE FOOTPRINT.

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well as making documentaries, information videos and television advertisements for various clients. In 1991, he was invited to exhibit four o f his films at the Festival de Cinéma de Douam enez in France. Tracey Moffatt, apart from making films and videos for various Aboriginal organizations, has done her own films and photography. She is currently preparing her first feature, Bedevil, which she hopes will be funded by the AFC. With a large body o f ethnographic films surviving from as far back as Baldwin Spencer’s 1901 trip into the desert o f Central Australia, and the growing body o f Aboriginal-made film and video, the preserving and cataloguing o f Aboriginal work also needs to be considered. At present, the Australian Institute o f Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies is the official archivist for some material. But, as Aboriginal projects appear from so many different places, there is a danger that some o f the m ore valuable or creative work may becom e “lost” unless col lected and organized as soon as they are made.

At present, no one body exists which can tie all the different threads o f the Aboriginal screen together. There is the Aborigi nal and Torres Strait Islander Commission, which is the govern ment’s primary administrative and funding body. However, ATSIC falls short o f having a sweep large enough to encompass all o f Aboriginal activity in film and video. The best option for the m om ent is the National Indigenous Media Association. NIMA has already expressed the need to develop a system o f representa tives on a state level to act as a co-ordinating body for Aborigines working in the various media. Some o f the Aboriginal centres like GAAMA, TAIMA and TSIMA have training programmes in conjunction with other bodies such as DEET, the AFTRS or state educational depart ments. The only institution offering a course expressly for A bo

SOUNDTRACKS

rigines in media is the above-mentioned Batchelor College. The three-year course offers varying levels o f accreditation in either o f radio or video and enjoys full enrolment. Students are primarily from communities that are part o f BRACS. James C ook University in Townsville is planning to offer a similar course in the near future. Finally, the Second Australian Documentary Film Confer ence, held in Canberra in late Novem ber 1991, started by asking an Aboriginal representative for permission to hold the confer ence at the Australia National University. ItendedwithaNational Aboriginal Media C onference planned for non-Aborigines working on Aboriginal land or with Aboriginal people, and a recom m endation that non-Aboriginal filmmakers should em ploy Aboriginal filmmakers as consultants or trainees on related films. The conference also held sessions by Aboriginal filmmakers and representatives. The high profile o f Aboriginals and Aborigi nal film and video at the conference, while encouraging, is still a few steps away from Aboriginal work becom ing simply part o f mainstream film and video. It should be mentioned that there exists a large body o f film and video made by non-Aborigines about Aboriginal people. While not meaning to suggest that this material does not form part o f the whole Aboriginal film and video picture, for the purpose o f this article it was necessary to put some limits on what was to be included in this survey. As well, Aboriginal actors working in both Aboriginal and commer cial film, video and television are very much part o f the Aboriginal screen. This article, then, is not a comprehensive overview, but a look at the prominent elements and players. To all those deserving mention, and there are many who have not been so accredited, my apologies. The author also wishes to express his appreciation to the many parties, organizations and individuals who provided information and advice in the writing o f this article. A U T H O R ’S N O T E

M o d e r n Image M a k e r s A s s o c i a t i o n Inc. presents

(MIMA)

N E W & U N U S U A L S O U N D T R A C K R E C O R D IN G S FR O M O U R L A R G E R A N G E JFK • John Williams • $30.00 Medecine Man • Jerry Goldsmith • $30.00 To Kill A Mockingbird • Elmer Bernstein • $30.00 A Path of Blue • Jerry Goldsmith • $30.00 The Collector • Maurice Jarre • $30.00 Cape Fear • Bernard Herrman • $30.00 Star Trek VI • Cliff Eideman • $30.00 Black Robe • Georges Delerue • $30.00 Bugsy • Ennio Morricone • $30.00 The Proud Rebel • Jerome Moross • $33.00 Billy Bathgate • Mark Isham • $30.00 From Russia With Love • John Barry • $30.00 Goldfinger • John Barry • $30.00 DAVID SHIRE AT THE MOVIES Selections from Norma Rae, The Conversation, Farewell M y Lovely and more • $30.00

READINGS * SOUTH YARRA OPEN 7 DAYS A WEEK 153 TOORAK ROAD • 867 1885 • BOOKS /LPS/ CDS/CASSETTES 73-75 DAVIS AVENUE • 866 5877 • SECONDHAND LPS/CDS/CASSETTES

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52 • C I N E M A

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Melbourne,

Nov.17-29,

1992

CALL FOR ENTRIES Australian artists working with film and/or video, including its application in performance and/or installation, are invited to submit works for inclusion in EXPERIMENTA 1992. MIMA will consider written proposals, works in progress, and completed works. Artists' fees will be paid for all exhibited works and, in some cases, subsidised travel and accommodation will be provided for artists invited from interstate. Sight-specific proposals will also be considered for inclusion.

CALL FOR CURATORS

EXPERIMENTA 1992 will consider proposals for guest-curated cinema screenings, including recent and historical national and international experimental film, video and intermedia works. Proposals for Seminars and/or Special Lectures addressing the issues surrounding film/video art practice are also welcomed for consideration.

ENTRY DEADLINES: INSTALLATION,

PERFORMANCE, CURATORIAL - MAY 15th CINEMA SCREENINGS - JULY 15th Further information and application forms from:EXPERIMENTA Manager; MIMA, c/o Linden Gallery, 26 Acland Street, St Kilda, VIC. 3182 Tel: (03) 525 5025 Fax (03) 525 5105

MIMA is funded by the Australian Film Commission, Film Victoria, the V A C B of the Australia Council, and the Victorian Ministry for the A rts.

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PAPERS

> 53

Ethnic Stereot} The potential for the television industry to portray the Australia is enormous. However, most of the networks Craig Brown reports.

nly SBS, partially designed to cater for a “new” Australia, has any sort o f active participation in the concept o f multi-culturalism. For the most part, the m ore main stream networks—including the ABC—are still languishing in the misguided belief that Australia is populated almost solely by white Anglo-Saxon-Celts. A ccording to these networks, there are not enough members o f ethnic groups in Australia to bother repre senting them on television. The p ro o f is in the viewing. Turn on the television and try to find evidence o f a multi-cultural Australia. Most dramas are under the impression that n o ethnic groups would live in their mythical suburbs: for instance, how many minorities live in Ramsey Street or Westside? Also, there are very few members o f any ethnic group lolling about on the beaches o f Summer Bay currently, which is quite ironic. The last ethnic character o f major standing on an Australian soapie was Home andAway s Ben Luciano,

played by the very Australianjulian MacMahon. T o make matters worse, there were few examples o f ethnic representation before Ben, and fewer since. Consequently, the view o f Australia that television presents is severely distorted. Occasionally ethnics and their contribution to society might be referred to in a glib, accidental manner: for instance, an involved couple in asoapie mightargue overwhether they should eat Chinese or Italian that night. This seems to sum up the ethnic content on most programmes; minority represen tations are pushed out o f mind, out o f sight, particularly in their human form. Ethnics - as opposed to ethnic ideals or culture may sometimes b ob up in a crowd scene, but even then you would be doing well to spot them. N otonly do we rarely see ethnic groups offoreign descent, but it would be even rarer to see significant Aboriginal representation on ou r television screens. Ernie Dingo made a regular run o f appearances on Fast Forward during 1990, but that hardly classi fied as a significant Aboriginal com ponentin Australian television. This is rather surprising considering that on e successful Austra lian drama is set in the outback. That is not to say that all Aborigines live in the outback but, one would suggest, if a series is trying to present a realistic view o f life in the outback, it might think to include an Aboriginal input on a regular basis. N otso TheFlyingDoctors. Although an episode late in the 1991 season did feature Ernie Dingo in a guest role, an Aboriginal presence in this series is still weak. Quite possibly the producers have mistaken the area in which they shoot the series (rural Victoria) for where the series is set. O r maybe they are trying to suggest that the white invasion o f Australia is so com plete that the Aboriginal nation has been wiped out from the very heart o f the country? If not, why d o n ’t Aborigines feature m ore prominently in the series? Surely n o one is suggesting that central Australia is devoid o f a significant Aboriginal population; if so, this is the most misguided o f representations - it ceases to becom e careless as it borders so closely on racism in its dismissiveness. Th e question arises: W ho initiates this lack o f representation: we, the viewers, who won ’ t watch anything that isn ’ t predominantly Anglo-Saxon, or is it the industry, reluctant to try anything new for fear o f offending their sponsors? It is my belief that the television industry has been most reluctant to present ethnic cultures, characters or beliefs on our television screens. O n the od d occasion that this has actually happened, the representations are almost claustrophobic in the

54 • C I N E M A

PAPERS

tpes in Television ! reality of multi-cultural i have ignored this potential.

FACING PAGE: THE CAST OF KINGSW OO D COUNTRY: LAUREL M cG O W A N , LEX M ARIN OS, PETER FISHER (BACK R O W ); JUD I FARR, G R A H A M K ENN ED Y (A GUEST) A N D ROSS H IG G IN S. ABOVE: MIMO (GEORGE KAPINIARIS) IN ACROPOLIS NOW, "THE ONLY CURRENT AUSTRALIAN SERIES TO PLACE ETHNIC CHARACTERS AND CULTURE AT THE FOREFRONT OF POPULAR TELEVISION". JO H N BLUTHAL A N D ARIA NTHE G A LA N I IN HOME SWEET HOME.

way they are stereotyped: perhaps this is merely a “bridging” process on behalf o f the networks, as they test to see whether audiences will respond to, and accept, ethnic minorities during prime time. Unfortunately, that is wishful thinking o f the highest order. Programmes such as AcropolisNowhave been running long enough —and successfully enough —to have acted as that bridge for multi-cultural program ming in its truest form. So far we have been stuck with the most appallingly obvious stereotypes: Aboriginal park rangers, Chinese acupuncturists and Greek waiters. This careful avoidance o f representation out o f the norm is synonymous with the lack o f innovation Australian television is suffering from on the whole. The position o f ethnics on television appears to be this: obscure or stereotyped. Unfortunately, when it com es to analyzing ethnic stereotypes

on Australian television, one is forced —by the lack o f examples - to look closely and critically at Acropolis Now, which is the only current Australian series to place ethnic characters and culture at the forefront o f popular television. Although as likeable as Jim (Nick Giannopoulos) , Effie (Mary Coustas) and Mimo (George Kapiniaris) are, it cannot be said that they break many stereotypi cal traits. Jim in particular falls most easily into a stereotypical grouping: he is portrayed as a product o f the “Monaro sect”, which is perceived to be com m on among Greeks and Italians. This is to say that Jim’s only concerns in life are cars, “chicks” and fluffy dice. Although a charmer and go o d natured, he does not work well as a positive example o f an ethnic group; looking atjim, one might be tempted to feel that his culture centred on superficial values. The same criticism can be levelled at Effie, although she is more concerned with hair gel than cars. This “light and fluffiness” could be considered dangerous if it were not for the fact that Acropolis Now is com edic —its main pur poses are to make people laugh, and to possibly bridge that gap CINEMA

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Ethnic Stereotypes in Television

between ethnic and Anglo-Saxon-Celtic cultures on television. N o serious examination o f the ethnic lifestyle cou ld be possible within the confines o f Acropolis Now’s hum our; after all, it is busy sending up the very stereotypes it is portraying. Possibly this accounts for its success, the fact that it does not challenge the perceptions o f the Australian public about ethnic minorities; narrow concepts o f culture are only reaffirmed. That is, o f course, a general view o f the characterizations on Acropolis Now; on closer inspection, there needs to be a recogni tion that this program m e has given Australian television one ethnic character that has broken the stereotype significantly. The character o f Rick (Simon Palmores) is a m ore well-rounded and believable character due mainly to the fact that his function within the seiies is to play the straight man to Jim and company. Rick is a sensible, intelligent, university-educated character who generally keeps the café from goin gbroke. This character oudine is on e television would normally grant to an Anglo-Saxon charac ter, n ot an ethnic one. In this light, Rick is on e o f the most important ethnic representations that Australian television has produced: his character was given human traits first, rather than forced into the limited m ould o f the ethnic stereotype. Attitudes towards wom en by ethnic males on television are also portrayed uniformly. W om en are nothing m ore than sex objects and potential conquests -ju s t look at the attitudes o fjim and M im o, as well as ofW ayne, from All TogetherNow. Here again, Rick is presented as som eone quite different: he actually has some sensitivity towards members o f the opposite sex. Still, the bulk o f male ethnic stereotypes on television could be described as “sleaze” regarding their attitudes towards women. Certainlyjim and Wayne pride themselves on this characteristic, but, without many examples o f the opposite, we have a distorted view o f male ethnics as portrayed on television. A nd female ethnic views o f men? Well, female ethnics are so under-represented on television that it would be ridiculous to attempt an oveniew on their perceived attitudes with only the com edic Effie as an example. O ne o f the main problem s with ethnic representation on television is that its history is both recent and predominantly com edic. Kingsiuood Country, which also dealt with Australian stereotypes, such as T ed Bullpit (Ross H iggins), included an ethnic character (Lex Marinos) to bring forth T e d ’s - and possibly Australians’ - xen op h obic attitude. It seems strange to

say that, for its “tim e”, Kingswood Country was a brave series, which may have paved the way for such shows as Acropolis Now—strange because Kingswood Countrywas first run barely a decade ago. Aside from it, the only ethnic offering before Acropolis Now was the rigidly stereotypical Home Sweet Home, which attempted to show the clash between “old country” parentage and children intent on shedding their traditionalvalues and culture. Although clumsily written and exaggerated, Home Sweet Home was the first Australian series to place ethnic issues in such a prom inent position. Again, it was a com edy, which is by its nature overplayed for the sake o f making people laugh, or to simply poke fun at popular percep tions about stereotypes. Australian “drama” has lon g consisted mainly o f soapies, and it would be very rare for that genre to include a realistic represen tation o f an ethnic group, considering most d o n ’t deal with realism fullstop. O n e cou ld possibly expect a drama series, o n the other hand, to include an ethnic group in anything but a stereotypical form . A lthough The Flying Doctors has neglected Aborigines as a group, it does include a Greek radio controller, imaginatively called D. J. (G eorge Kapiniaris). W hile on e cou ld n ot call D. J. stereotypical, neither cou ld you say that he was a major character, or even a particularly well-written one. As yet, n o Australian drama series has strayed from m iddleclass Anglo-Saxon views o f Australian society; most are m ore con cern ed with the portrayal o f the m edical profession than with ethnic minorities. W hen ethnics are slotted in, usually as m inor characters, they are generally stereotyped as totalitarian u ph old ers o f tradition. It seems m ore likely that a drama series is goin g to be able to break the ethnic stereotype, balancing the concepts o f tradition and “Australianism” to give a true account o f the ethnic experi ence in Australia. Com edy sitcoms such as AcropolisNoware acting as successful bridging program mes, getting the networks, the public and sponsors used to the idea o f ethnic culture o n popular television. However, com edy is limited as it can m ost easily draw laughter from stereotypes, whether o f an ethnic, religious or occupational nature. W ithout an accurate, or at least a balanced, portrayal on television most likely via a dramatic vehicle —the television audience may still exclusively link the sounding o f a M on aro’s horn with ethnic contributions to Australian television.

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PAPERS

F 11 M

RE V I E W S

BARTON FINK; BLACK ROBE; DINGO; FRANKIE & JOHNNY; PURE LUCK; SACRED SEX; AND, SPOTSWOOD

A B O V E : B A R TO N (J O H N TU R TU R R O ) A N D

BARTON FINK

HIS H O TEL N E IG H B O U R (J O H N G O O D M A N ). JO EL C O E N 'S BARTON FINK.

ADRIAN

MARTIN

the C oens’ work, it is stuffed with such refer ences alm ost to the point of being wholly constituted from them. It is as if the Coens see

t could be argued that the film m aking team

their essential artistic vocation as one of an

of Joel and Ethan C oen1 alternate genre

elaborate ‘rew riting’, reweaving, re-im agining

films with genreless ones. Both Blood Simple

of other, pre-existing books and films. Thus,

(1984) and M ille r’s Crossing (1990) are films

Barton Fink would be the residue of a dream-

steeped in the history and conventions of par

w o rk th a t b rin g s to g e th e r the n o vels of

ticular story-telling genres (both cinem atic and

Nathanael West, Stanley Kubrick’s The Shin

literary), respectively the ‘pulp’ thriller and

ing (1980), biographical stories about famous

gangster fiction. Raising Arizona (1987) and

writers in Hollywood, Roman Polanski’s Re

Barton Fink (1991) are a different proposition;

p u ls io n (1965) and doubtless much else. But, in

they do not trace out the lines of a single genre,

essence, it is faithful to no particular model or

nor are they cut-and-paste assem blages of

genre.

successive ‘quotations’ from different genres,

Barton Fink is a film that burns up bits of

which would be a fashionable but woefully

many genres as fuel for its maiden voyage into

inaccurate description of their method. Calling Barton Fink a “film with no genre”

a zone without genre. A certain kind of quietly wild, hallucinatory fiction-spinning is a higher

(in the way that Raymond Durgnat described

principle for the Coens here than genre. The

Robert Altman as a “man with no genre”) does

film has an anything-m ight-happen-next air and

not. mean that it is a film without references to

a faith in strange associative leaps that take the

previous movies, their genres, plots, auteurs,

plot in unforeseen directions, qualities which

iconographies and oft-told tales. Indeed, like all

recall another of Durgnat’s remarks on Altman CINEMA

PAPERS

• 57

(specifically Three Women, 1977): “insofar as

these characters of tinsel town are represented

Thus, against the “life of the m ind” - too

dreams resemble free association, they disre

by Barton’s neighbour, Charlie (John Goodman,

much head - the film arrays the signs of a

spect genres”2 Yet it is not (as one might have

in a m arvellously physical perform ance). For a

reality which is all body: peeling wallpaper,

expected) an especially kinetic, spectacular or

long time, the film plays out a fairly elem entary

leaky ears, an unstoppable ocean of blood. In

visceral film; continuing the tendency towards

diagram of mainly com ic contrasts: B arton’s

B arton’s phantasm (which is the film itself),

‘classical’ restraint practised in M ille r’s Cross

hypersensitivity against the system ’s callous

troublesom e heads get chopped off by Charlie

ing, Barton F/rt/cis almost a cham ber piece, and

ness; then, from a n othe r angle, B a rto n ’s

as he obligingly m etam orphoses Into a serial

certainly the Coens’ most engagingly thoughtful

self-im portance and probable artistic delusion

killer, while sex and death swill and growl

film to date. The critical discussions of the Coen oeuvre

against C harlie’s salt-of-the-earth naturalness,

around together at the bottom of a hideous

and Audrey’s down-to-earth pragmatism.

drainpipe down which the cam era travels. As

which have so far appeared are rarely Interest

All this turns out to be an elaborate set-up

Barton struggles ever more fiercely to hold his

ing or persuasive. This is because, on the one

for a much more interesting film. Once the story

ego or his ‘s e lf together, the world around him

hand, when reduced to bare (and painfully

tips explicitly into the territory of dream, fantasy

fills up with m ock-horrific im ages and revela

fam iliar) them atic propositions, the films can

and psychodram a, everything before it takes

tions of a ‘tru th ’ according to which no self is

seem astonishingly banal. Blood Simple is about

on a different, retroactive function. Suddenly, it

whole or secure or singular: Audrey confesses

the ‘return of the repressed’. Raising Arizona

becomes nightm arishly clear that all the ele

to being M ayhew ’s ghostw riter; the rushes of a

shows sim ple folk dreaming of a better life.

ments of the story exist as various sorts of

random ‘wrestling pictu re’ obsessively replay

M ille r’s Crossing dram atizes the paradoxes of

projections of B arton’s inner com plexes and

the same brute signifiers of obscene shouting

trust, loyalty, friendship and love. Barton Fink

problems. Barton brings all events into being,

and bodies crashing to the canvas.

invites one of the great non-questions of art

whether as w ish-fullfilm ent fantasy, com pen

cinem a: How much really happens and how

s a to ry

s p e c u la tiv e

peril, as we discover in B arton’s case. It travels to the extrem es narcissism , self-delusion and

m e c h a n is m

o r p u re

Egomania forgets the real world - at its

much is Barton’s fantasy? On the other hand,

projection. Like Severine (Catherine Deneuve)

the post-literary invocation of the mannerist,

in Belle de Jour, Barton's unconscious hurls

paranoid projection. Yet Barton Fink explores

hyper-kinetic Coen-Raimi ‘house style’ as a

those around him into dam nation, and then

still another fact of this dream -logic when it adm its the possibility that, at the height of his

pure cinem atic event com plete unto itself is

benignly rescues them, w illy-nilly, so that, in

clearly wearing thin both as a critical stance

one especially improbable scene, Lipnick kisses

individual delirium , disintegration and psycho

and a mode of film m aking (viz. S onnenfeld’s

Barton’s feet after firing his assistant, Lou (Jon

sis, Barton might in fact receive privileged

Polito), while later it appears that Lou has been

access to a true vision of the madness and

The Addam s Family, 1991). W hat is so difficult to pin down and ade quately account for in the Coens’ work is the

m iraculously re-hired.

horror of History itself. This is the extraordinary

Jean-André Fieschi has said of Bunuel that

insight that the film grasps at in its clim actic

strange form that their film s take - a form that

“this cinem a of manifold fictions is not a narra

apocalypse, no doubt inspired by a comparable

might be described as the sim ultaneous com bi

tive cinem a”, since any attem pt at synopsis

fatal vision in both novel and film of Nathanael

nation of an apparent meaningfulness with an

inevitably and artificially lineates what is in fact

W est’s The D ay o f the Locust {John Schlesin-

insistent hollowing out of any directly articulable

a complex dream -logic. ‘U nfolding’ narrative

ger, 1975): we could call it a kind of social or

meaning. This form gives their work both its

analyses (what most film critics pursue) offer

political psychoanalysis, aiming to express the

dream like ephem erality and its uncanny em o

“verdicts on a meaning still under litigation” and

profound interconnection (so hard to convinc

tional resonance. This is not a new form in

“reduce that meaning to meaningful intent”5.

ingly locate) of the large-scale forces of history

cinema, but it is certainly one that has evaded

Barton F ink\s very alive to the superimpos-

and the sm all-scale actions of ordinary indi

most styles of criticism . We find it, supremely,

ing, b a ckw a rd and fo rw a rd , p a ra d o x ic a l

viduals. Barton F in k ’s epigraph could be this

in Luis Buñuel (whose Belle de Jour, 1967, like

hyper-logic of the unconscious. In one brilliant

phrase from Jam es Joyce’s Ulysses : “History

Barton Fink, makes airy nonsense of the ques

associative chain of sequences, the traum a of

is a nightmare from which I am trying to aw aken.”

tion “W hat’s really happening?”), and also in

A udrey’s death unexpectedly breaks Barton’s

Much of the latter half of Barton Fink re

Bernardo Bertolucci’s least assim ilable films,

w rite r’s block; yet (as Richard Jameson has

volves around a certain m ysterious box. I will

like Luna( 1978) and The Sheltering Sky(1990).

observed), the film maintains a perfect d e li

be neither the first nor the last critic to invoke

Indeed, Robert Phillip Kolker’s typical critical

cate am biguity over whether this passionately

psychoanalyst Jacques Lacan’s theoretical

slur on the form er - that in it “the recurrence of

outpoured script is ‘really’ genius or junk. The

concept of the p e tit objet a (small object a) to

the image of the moon [...] raises it to the point

Coens know that, since eitherjudgem ent would

discuss this pesky prop. The p e tit objet a is like

of symbol with nothing to sym bolize”3 - should

be purely subjective (the script is bound to be

the fam ous MacGuffin of Alfred H itchcock’s

be taken as the trium phant motto of this almost

genius to Barton and junk to Lipnick no matter

films; it is that curious plot device, that little

subterranean film m aking tradition.

w hat’s actually in it), neither position can be

nothing, which seems so em pty and banal, but

endorsed as narrative ‘truth’. And this strategy

by which, nonetheless, the whole story and all

takes us to the very heart of the film.

the am bivalent desires of the characters are

Thus, one must approach the matter of what Barton Fink is ‘about’ with caution, if not trepidation. For it is not sim ply 'about nothing’

Barton Fink is about an individual subjec

driven. For Lacan, it is a symbol (which can be

- neither just a joke on those critics out hunting

t iv ity

equally tragic or comic) for that which eludes

for the same old ‘big them es’, nor exactly (as

com prehends, contains and creates the entire

our feverish attem pts to com prehend it, that

Tom Ryan has argued) a sly, m odernist exposé

world - in short, egomania, or, as the film calls

which forever gratingly escapes our clum sy

of the cinem a medium as “the suprem e illu

it, the m onstrous “life of the m ind”. Barton as

sion”4. For a dream is never sim ply an illusion,

writer, richly comparable to Jack Torrance (Jack

and doomed attem pts to map and confine our ‘selves’.

th a t g ro w s

so b ig

it b e lie v e s

and Barton Fink is a dream -film par excellence

Nicholson) in The Shining and Clive Langham

I don’t expect the Coens are avid readers of

- indeed, it is a frankly psychoanalytic film, in

(John Gielgud) in Alain Resnais’ Providence

Lacan, but they certainly have their own poetic

(1977), stands for all artists who share in what

understanding of the p e tit objet a. The box in

the freest, most creative and poetic sense. For perhaps the first hour, Barton Fink

has often been construed as the fundam entally

Barton Fink not only remains a damn m ystery

seems to be about not very much at all. We

‘evil’ im pulse of a r t - t o steal from the world and

as it moves from hand to hand and place to

observe the life of the ‘serious’ w riter Barton

make it the mere material of an egocentric

place, it also never really ‘belongs’ to anyone

(John Turturro) amid the gaudy realities of

design. The Coens sim ultaneously follow the

who gives or receives it. C harlie’s om inous rem ark (“By the way, it isn’t m ine”) and the off

1940s Hollywood, including a gregariously

path of Barton’s mad ego as it hauls in the

vulgar studio boss, Lipnick (Michael Lerner), a

world, and prepare for the terrible moment

hand query of the girl on the beach to Barton in

g o n e -to -s e e d

(Jo h n

when this world, in all its overlooked and

the final scene (“ Is it yours?”) m ockthe attempts

M ahoney), and his long suffering partner,

seething reality, will takes its revenge on the

of the protagonist or ourselves to definitively

Audrey (Judy Davis). The ‘real people’ beyond

artist’s folly of creation.

attach any ‘identifications’ to this im possible

58 • C I N E M A

n o v e lis t,

PAPERS

M ayhew

object, whether personal or symbolic. The box behaves as if it were an item in one of those especially irritating and endless dream s where every bundle of elem ents uneasily comprising a person, thing or situation slowly becomes 'unglued' - and the re’s also a lot of glue that w o n’t stick to the wall or hold any two things together in Barton Fink. This is not the first p e tit objet a in the Coen oeuvre. Mark Horowitz recounts in Film Com m ent how, when actor Gabriel Byrne inquired as to the significance of the fugitive, windblown hat in M ille r’s Crossing, Joel Coen merely, drolly, replied, “The hat is very significant”6 which returns us to the essential meaningful m eaninglessness of the C oens’ work. The pe tit objet a is not just a recurring device in their films. It is the very emblem of the cinem atic form which they practise, this form which artfully raises all to the point of symbol with nothing to sym bolize. In the last, unforgettable moments of Barton Fink, there suddenly m aterializes before the hero’s eyes a tableau he has often stared at on his wall: a woman on the sand, with her back turned, looking out into the ocean. Still, mysterious and disquieting, this appa rition is like a perfectly abstract diagram of the dram a of identity we have so far witnessed, distilled down to the bare bones of a witness, a

FATHER LAFORGUE (LOTHAIRE BLUTEAU) A N D

BLACK ROBE

DANIEL (A D EN Y O U N G ) A M O N G THE A L G O N Q U IN IN D IA N S . BRUCE BERESFORD'S BLACK ROBE.

GREG

KERR

scene and an elusive signification. Left abruptly lack Robe is a visually stunning, bloody

whose novel of the same name is based on

however, detect the faint echo of a larger and

and relentless film that engrosses one to

17th-C entury accounts of Jesuit missionaries.

no less calam itous reality. For, to again adopt

the point of believing there can be no other

The huts, costumes and canoes are authentic;

Jean-André Fieschi on Bunuel, “This fictitious

world. S e tin Q u e b e c in 1634, it tells the story of

even the cam pfires are real. While the French

setting in which the unrem itting prosecution of

a Jesu it priest, Father Laforgue (Lothaire

spoken by the Jesuits in New France has been

ignorance is played out is a surrogate for other

Bluteau), who travels into the wilds of North

replaced by English for com m ercial reasons,

Am erica to convert Indians.

original dialects are used by the Indian-speak

at the calm centre of B arton’s storm we may,

stages, where other forces clash with other arm s.”

The film is the culm ination of Australian

ing characters.

Bruce Beresford’s talents as a director, techni

Shot in Quebec, Black Robe is the first feature film co-production by an Australian-

1. E d.: T h e film s d is c u s s e d as b ein g by th e C oe n s

cian and storyteller. With an $11 million budget,

have b ee n d ire c te d by J o e l C oe n , p ro d u ce d by E than

a hard-working crew and an exceptional cast,

Canadian crew. The locales afforded director

C oe n a n d w ritte n by both .

Beresford has created an outstanding period

of photography Peter James the opportunity to

2. R a y m o n d D u rg n a t, “ F o re w a rd : T h e M an W ith No

piece which recalls the potent eloquence of his

capture wilderness footage which is integral to

1979 film, ‘B reaker’ Morant.

the story rather than a brochuristic distraction.

G e n re ” , in N orm a n K a g an , A m erican Skeptic: Robert

A ltm a n ’s G enre-Com m entary Films, P ieria n P ress, L o n d o n , 1982. 3. R o b e rt P h illip K o lke r, Bertolucci, BFI P u b lish in g ,

Intrinsically, Black Robe reworks a fam iliar

Each jagged mountain backdrop, icy river and

theme: the conflict of Christian ethics versus

forest reinforces the unquestioning power of

L o n d o n , 1985.

the pragm atic concerns of mortal life. The film

nature over humans. In this department, Jam es’

4. T o m R yan , re v ie w o f Barton Fink, The Sunday Age,

does not break much new ground on this well-

evocative style echoes the cam erawork in John

19 J a n u a ry 1992.

worn topic; its strength lies more in the manner

Boorm an’s D eliverance (1972) and Mikhail

5. J e a n -A n d ré F ie sch i, “ Luis B u n u e l” , in R ich a rd R oud

it weaves the journey of its protagonist into the

Kalatozov’s Neotpravlennoye Pismo (The L et

(e d.), Cinem a: A C ritical Dictionary, S e e ke r & W a r

frontier it recreates.

b urg , L o n d o n , 1980. 6. M a rk H o ro w itz , “ C oen B ro th e rs A -Z : T h e Big T w o H ea d e d P ic tu re ” , Film Comment, S e p te m b e r-O c to b e r 1991.

In the opening, two senior Jesuits discuss

ter That Was Never Sent, 1962) about four geologists searching for diam onds in Siberia.

plans to send one of their own 2500 km up river

The M ontreal-born actor Bluteau was cho

by canoe to spread the word of God. “Death is

sen for the key role after Beresford saw his

almost certain”, one says.

portrayal of a torm ented homosexual in the London stage play, Being at Home with Claude.

BARTON FINK D ire cte d by Jo el C oen. P roducer: Ethan

The young Father Laforgue is chosen, with

C oe n . E x e c u tiv e p ro d u c e rs : Ben B a re n h o ltz , T e d

a group of Algonquin Indians and a young

In Black Robe, Bluteau is a torm ented hero

P e d as, Jim P e d as, Bill D u rkin . A s s o c ia te p ro d u c e rs :

French carpenter and translator, Daniel (Aden

whose ill-fated mission to show the Indians “the

Leslie M cD on a ld , Bob G o ldste in . C o-p ro d uce r: G raham

Young), to accom pany him.

way to paradise” dram atically alters the destiny

P lace . S c rip tw rite rs : E th a n C o e n , Jo e l C o e n . D ire c to r o f p h o to g ra p h y : R o g e r D e a kin s. P ro d u ctio n d e s ig n e r:

The journey into New France commences

of those around him.

with a m asterly establishing scene of canoes

By degrees, the black-robed Jesuit learns

heading into the silver-grey of the unknown.

his mission is failing; he, too, is doubting his

C o m p o s e r: C a rte r B u rw e ll. C ast: Jo h n T u rtu rro (B arton

The fluidity of the paddle strokes and the sym

own faith and his ability to fend off earthly

F in k), J o h n G o o d m a n (C h a rlie M e a d o w s), J u d y D avis

metry of the canoes suggests a resolute desire

desires, such as the sin of “intent” over an

(A u d re y T a y lo r), M ic h a e l L e rn e r (Ja ck L ip n ic k ), Jo hn

D en n is G a ssn e r. C o stu m e d e s ig n e r: R ich a rd H orn u n g. S o u n d re c o rd is t: A lla n B yer. E d ito r: R o d e rric k Ja y n e s .

to accom plish; yet a powerful scent of appre

Indian girl, Annuka (Sandrine Holt), who has

M a h o n e y (W . P. M a y h e w ), T o n y S h a lh o u b (B en

hension hangs in the air, promising danger for

fallen in love with the French translator.

G e is le r), J o h n P o lito (Lou B re e z e ), S te ve B u sce m i

all involved.

(C h e t), D avid W a rrilo w (G a rla n d S ta n fo rd ), R ich a rd P o rtn o w (D et. M a s trio n o tti). C irc le F ilm s. A u s tra lia n d is trib u to r: H o yts. 3 5 m m . 116 m ins. U .S . 1991.

In Black Robe, there is not one cathartic

Black Robe is a work of economy and ac

moment to rival that of Roland Joffe’s The

curacy due largely to a thorough production

M ission (1986), when a novitiate (Robert De

team, and a taut screenplay by Brian Moore,

Niro), liberated from the burden of sin, coll CINEMA

PAPERS

• 59

apses and weeps at the feet of his mentor

Laforgue’s hat and begin using it as a frisbee,

The initial setting is Poona Flats, 1969.

(Jeremy Irons). Father Laforgue’s battle to keep

but even here confrontation and conflict is

John Anderson (Colin Friels), who will be known

his personal demons beneath the surface might

lurking a frame away.

later as Dingo, is talking to his friends, Peter

seem too restrained to some, but it faithfully

It is perhaps fortunate that some scenes

(Joe Petruzzi) and his future wife, Jane (Helen

reflects the customary Jesuit obsession with

depicting human cannibalism were omitted from

Buday), when a strange sound is heard. Signifi

self-denial.

the final cut. For one, the film could not have

cantly, John is the first to hear it. Even at this

Beresford demands that one go the dis

withstood the weight of this grim subject on its

early stage, the three children are clearly differ

tance with Father Laforgue, and be sustained

already bleakcanvas; second, even afe w more

entiated: John is more sensitive to sound, a

by his ability to endure. This is made somewhat

minutes on top of its 100-minute duration could

point that is worth rem embering; Jane is inter

easier by the tensions Laforgue arouses with

have rendered the film a little long for many.

ested in being kissed (especially, it seems, by

his acco m p a n yin g e x p e d itio n party. The paganistic Algonquins live only fo rth e moment

BLACK ROBE D ire c te d by B ru ce B e re s fo rd . P ro d u c e rs: R ob e rt L a n to s, S te p h a n ie R eich e l, S ue M iliiken .

Peter); Peter, though he seems to like kissing, insists that he is not a kissing m achine (a claim that will be explored in term s of his life as an

and their next meal; in their afterlife, the souls

E xe cu tive p ro d u c e rs : J a k e E b e rts, B rian M oore, D enis

of men can see in the dark and hunt animal

H ero u x. S c rip tw rite r: B rian M o ore . B a se d on th e novel

adult). W hat John and then the others hear is

souls. The sceptical Indians frown and mutter

by B rian M oore. D ire c to r o f p h o to g ra p h y : P e te r J a m es.

the sound of a jet approaching and landing on

when Father Laforgue tells them of a paradise

P ro d u ctio n d e s ig n e r: H e rb e rt P inte r. C o s tu m e d e s ig n

the runway at Poona Flats.

where the love of God prevails. The negative

e rs: R en e e A p ril, Jo hn H ay. S o u nd re c o rd is t: G a ry

karma surrounding the Jesuit graduates to outright suspicion among the Indians when a sorcerer pronounces him a “dem on”.

W ilk in s . E d ito r: T im W e llb u rn . C o m p o s e r: G e o rg e s D e le ru e . C a s t: L o th a ire B lute au (F a th e r L a fo rg u e ), A d e n Y o u ng (D a n ie l), S a n d rin e H olt (A n n u k a ), A u g u s t

Billy Cross (Miles Davis), acclaim ed jazz man, steps off the plane and performs a number in front of the motley but not unduly perturbed

S ch e lle n b e rg (C h o m in a ), T a n to o C a rd in a l (C h o m in a ’s

pubgoers and the children. Significantly, once

Ultimately, Black Robe becomes more a

w ife ), F ra n k W ils o n (F a th e r J e ro m e ), B illy Tw o R ive rs

again, it is John who is most responsive. It is an

quest for survival than a test of faith. Death

(O u g e b e m a t), L aw re n ce B ayne (N e e h a tin ), H arriso n

experience that will shape his life.

strikes fast and brutally; the survivors are left to

Liu (A w a n d o ie ), Y van L a b e lle (M e s tig o t). A llia n c e

The entire scene is one of the highlights of

rely on their base instincts and an element of

C o m m u n ic a tio n s (M o n tre a l)-S a m s o n P rods. (S yd ne y)

the film: the townspeople who gather and dis

good fortune. As the drama escalates, so to do

co -p ro d u c tio n . A u s tra lia n d is trib u to r: H oyts. 35 m m .

the themes: betrayal, honour and sacrifice, among them. Father Laforgue is a Christ-like figure whose mission to preach and convert seems no less extraordinary than Bluteau’s portrayal of the 20th-Century Messiah in Denys Arcand’s Jésus de M ontréal (1988). Certainly, the biblical al legories abound. Jesus’ journey to Calvary is evoked by a torture scene in which Father Laforgue and two other captives are beaten and ridiculed as they stumble through a human crush. Later, and depending on one’s point of interpretation, there are veiled references to the scourging at the pillar and the crucifixion. A highlight of Black Robe is the strength of its acting. The brooding Lothaire Bluteau is the perfect incarnation of the Jesuit martyr, Father Laforgue. Two notable secondary roles are that of a dying priest played by Frank Wilson, and the dwarf sorcerer played with menacing edge by Yvan Labelle. Overall, the roles are drawn to believable conclusions, although the unknown but seemingly gloomy fate of the story's lovers may leave some viewers cold. Technically, the film cannot be faulted. Beresford does not deviate far from orthodox filmmaking techniques, yet any scenes that introduce a degree of logistical d iffic u lty - stunt sequences included - are pulled off convinc in g ly. T he p o w e r of his w o rk is a m p ly demonstrated by a flash-forward depicting the dream of an Indian chief. W hite-washed im ages of a stark hill, a raven and death mask convey a sublim inally disturbing picture. In charting the early colonial experience in North America, one might have expected a predictable indictment of the Jesuits and their well-m eaning but destructive harvest of coloni zation. Thankfully, the story develops free of such em otional leanings. In one trenchant double blow, an Indian chief laments that he is “as stupid and as greedy as any white man”. Black R obels a serious film which does not offer much in the way of comic relief. In one scene a trio of young Indians pinch Father 60 • C I N E M A

PAPERS

100 m ins. C a n a d a -A u s tra lia . 1992.

quite amusing, and the arrival and departure has the force alm ost of an epiphany, a vision of

DINGO RAYMOND

culture and creation in the desert (wilderness). YOUNIS

W hat is offered to John is the opportunity to

reams, according to Freud, are the sym bolic expressions of a person’s innermost

desires. Now it must be said that filmmakers have not been slow to grasp this point. Indeed, the relations between subconscious and con s c io u s

perse as if nothing unique has happened are

d e s ire s ,

d re a m

s y m b o lis m

and

wish-fulfilment are salient aspects of Dingo, and the extent to which the film succeeds depends on whether or not the film m aker has succeeded in avoiding hackneyed themes and cliched structures. Marc Rosenberg, the scriptwriter, has said that the “m asterpiece” took eight years to complete, and the extended effort is evident in the final product.

transcend the banality of life as a “dogger” - in short, an incentive to pursue his most fanciful dream, a gig with Cross in Paris. But the film, thankfully, is not just about a dream that is realized. It makes some interest ing points about the effects of such things on the life of a family, and about the effects of learning and the ways in which pain and adver sity can lead to a greater capacity to endure. The latter point is made quite forcefully in relation to a dingo which has had a leg injured in one of Joh n’s traps. It is never clear whether the title of the film refers to Dingo the aspiring musician or to the injured animal, but this am-

biguity is not a problem because the two are

but m ysterious scheme which is quietly but

poignant gift by Johnny (Al Pacino) of a potato

often linked by im plicit or explicit analogy in the

unam biguously affirmed, at least by Cross.

rose, dipped in beetroot, as an offering to his

film. The animal, it turns out, is som ewhat too

Finally, of course, there is Miles Davis the

lady love (Michelle Pfeiffer). However, despite

clever for John: it uses stones to release the

perform er and his music. The soundtrack, for

the depiction of these characters as somewhat

traps. But John is too clever to be what he is,

which he and Michel Legrand were respon

older than the rom antic norm, despite their

and both are too slow to chase anything but

sible, is a vivid and vividly functional part of the

struggling working-class lives and their cheq

sheep (in its literal and m etaphorical senses).

film ’s drama. Though it does not really recap

u e re d p a s ts , and th e d e ta ils of urb an

In the words of Cross, both are “too smart, too

ture the glory of Davis’ perform ances with

verisim ilitude - such as run-down apartments,

slow” in their own ways.

C harlie Parker, C o ltran e and C annonball

prostitution, AIDS anxieties, “rear-w indow ”

The film , though, is not the perfectly pro

Adderley, the music does provide some m o

views into other people’s lives - the rosy glow

portioned edifice that it is som etim es made out

ments of illum ination: “The Dream”, used as a

of idealized Hollywood love actually remains

to be. The first problem - though, to be fair, this

leitmotif, evokes the insistence of memory,

untarnished in all its false and deceptive glory.

may be unavoidable in a film of this kind and of

desire and the song of the siren in Dingo’s life;

The film ’s narrative never leaves us in real

this length - is a certain elem ent of contrivance,

the “Jam S ession” provides a dazzling and

doubt that romantic resolution will take place,

especially towards the end, when the transfor

con cen tra te d sum m ation of the unfolding

thus offering a clear indication of this ideologi

mations seem to occur with bewildering speed

drama; and so on. Indeed, the film gains extra

cal impulse towards the disguised bourgeois,

(to say more would be tantam ount to giving

poignance from the fact that the lives of Billy

heterosexual, fantasy conclusion. The first five

away the ending). Moreover, the contrasts be

Cross and Davis intersect at various points: like

minutes consist of parallel alternations between

tween the naïve outback boy and Peter, the

Cross, Davis may have thought of himself as a

the two main characters: although they haven’t

cynical city dweller, seem to be too neat and

“museum piece” in the early 1960s when he

met yet, both are clearly dissatisfied with their

familiar. And, though it is a source of some pain

was playing the same old material; like Cross,

pasts; both are travelling, searching for a way

to say this, Miles Davis’ career as an actor was

he suffered from ill-health and the fear that his

out of the mire of old patterns. As the alterna

not particularly successful.

creative powers were in decline. But, of course,

tions continue, the likelihood of intersection

But Dingo stim ulates on a number of levels.

the film is affirm ative: what it suggests is that

and the integration of their lives and aspirations

The central perform ances by Colin Friels, Helen

Dingo and Cross are transformed by their fateful

becomes more and more blatant, and expected.

Buday and Joe Petruzzi are carefully crafted.

relationship and by the inscrutable workm an

In addition, these down-at-heel characters also

The dram a is enriched by a streak of larrikin

ship that rejuvenates one and fulfils the other.

happen to be recognizable to audiences as

humour and by the em ploym ent of irony (too

DINGO D ire c te d by R olf de H ee r. P ro d u c e rs : R olf de

Michelle Pfeiffer and Al Pacino, who signify as potent sexual symbols within the Hollywood

many film s about dreams and the pursuit of

H ee r, M a rc R o s e n b e rg . E x e c u tiv e p ro d u c e rs : G io rg io

fulfilm ent are weakened by the absence of

D rasko vic, M arie P a scale O sterrie th . S c rip tw rite r: M arc

star system, despite th e film ’s portrayal ofthem

this). The film also raises some tantalizing

R o se n b e rg . D ire c to r of p h o to g ra p h y : D enis L enoir.

as a greasy-haired, depressed waitress and a

possibilities inasmuch as it includes the ten

P ro d u ctio n d e s ig n e r: Ju d i R u s s e ll. C o s tu m e d e s ig n e r:

desperately lonely ex-crim.

sion between fate or determ inism , individual

C la ris s a P a te rs o n . S o u nd re c o rd is t: H enri M o relle.

However, by evoking the popular song about

E d ito r: S u rre s h A y y a r. C o m p o s e r: M iche l L eg ra n d.

fam ous star-crossed lovers, the film ’s title

freedom and coincidence, but these are not really developed. Cross Insists that there is no

C ast: C olin F rie ls (Jo hn A n d e rs o n ), M ile s D avis (B illy C ro ss), H elen B u d ay (Ja ne A n d e rs o n ), Jo e P e tru zzi

perhaps contains the only possible narrative barb or obligatory uncertainty: that is, although

such thing as accident whereas Dingo likes to

(P e te r), B e rn a d e tte L a fo n t (A n g ie C ro s s ). G e v e s t

consider other possibilities - the paths not

A u s tra lia P ro ds. (S y d n e y )-A O P ro d s .-D e d ra Film s-

chosen or traversed. And it is striking that the

C in e C in q (P a ris ) c o -p ro d u c tio n . A u s tra lia n d is trib u

love, love may be “true”, “right” and “forever”,

film tends to reinforce C ross’ view. For exam

to r: R on in . 35 m m . 109 m ins. A u s tra lia -F ra n c e . 1992.

such potent intensity may not always translate

FRANKIE & JOHNNY

O stentatiously carrying a copy of Romeo and

into an easy-going, day-to-day relationship.

ple, the car crash in Paris occurs in front of the nightclub where Cross made his debut as a jazz trum peter. Events which seem to be acci

in the Hollywood honoured tradition of romantic

ROSE

LUCAS

dental become, in fact, parts of an overarching

Juliet in his pocket, Johnny reinforces this one potential narrative hitch in the progress of trué

arry M arshall’s Frankie & Johnny opened

love - in m elodramatic terms, neither of them

in the U.S. just a few weeks after the nat

may survive such passion, and they may in fact

ionally televised senate hearing for Clarence

pull each other down.

Thom as’ nomination to the Supreme Court and

Frankie & Johnny is not merely entertain

the allegations of sexual harassment brought

ment, and, as any examination of the products

there by Anita Hill. The irony is marked and

of popular culture reveals, there is no ideologi-

tragic in its ram ifications, for, while Frankie &

cally-innocent statem ent or work of art. Like

Johnny may serve the purpose of providing an

most Hollywood inspired romantic m elodra

evening’s lightweight entertainment, its covert

mas, it reeks with the dangerous ideology of

ideology actually reinforces some of the more

romantic love its e lf-th a tfa n ta s y system which

insidious aspects of sexual harassment, espe

appears to promise that all sexual dreams will

cially in the workplace, which the Thomas-Hill

suddenly come true in a socially acceptable

debacle brought briefly and dram atically to

fashion; or, as Frankie’s fellow waitress, Cora

national attention, before being swept away

(Kate Nelligan), longingly puts it, where women

again under the political carpet.

are always waiting for that “one Mr Right”, and

On one level there is nothing apparently

where once that “right” person is found, love

complex, let alone disturbing, about Frankie &

occurs at first sight and all miraculously falls

Johnny. It is a relatively straightforward boy-

into place. In addition to clogging the lives and

m eets-girl romantic melodrama, where, after a

relationships of real women and men with these

few insignificant hiccups, all is relatively (at

skewed and unreal expectations about inti

least in this fallen, urban world) happy ever after.

mate interactions, Frankie & Johnny is also an

There are even some quite sensitive and witty

appalling indictm ent of the confusion regarding

portrayals of the labours of love the second

gender roles, and expression and the extent to

time round, perhaps epitomized in the rather

which this is rom antically and sexually ex ploited in social interactions, particularly within

CROSS (MILES D A V IS), FAR LEFT, JA Z Z ES IT U P A T A N AIRFIELD.

the workplace.

ROLF DE HEER'S D IN G O .

CINEMA

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• 61

W A IT IN G FOR MR R IGH T: CO R A (KATE N ELLIGA N) A N D FRANKIE (MICHELLE PFEIFFER). G A R R Y M ARSHALL'S FRANKIE & JO H N N Y .

conception of love as som e thing fixed and determined, as a p rio ri truth that needs to be brought to the attention of the suspecting - or otherwise - recipient of that love as an already self-evidentfact, and not as s o m e th in g w h ich emerges from the dialectic of relationship. His attitude to wards Frankie also assumes a conventional gender posi tion where the male has the active role, and where the expression of such active desire is not seen as a lu stfo r power or as sym ptom atic of an

a lm o s t

p a th o lo g ic a l

neediness, as Frankie tenta tively identifies, but rather as the culturally desired stere otype of a virile and romantic masculinity. However, at least in the 20th Century, in order forthe unrequited Romeo fig When Johnny first asks Frankie out - and,

back into the toilet while he rings the late-night

in conventional genderterm s, it is unshakeably

radio to romantically request a song for lovers.

predictable that this will be the direction of the

The film ’s prevailing ideology of romantic love

initiative - it is over the body of a convulsing

and its attendant, pervasive gender roles asks

customer in the Apollo restaurant. Despite the

us to see these intrusions as acceptable be

gross inappropriateness of this situation - and

cause they are ostensibly done in the name of

Johnny’s “Y ou’re so cute when you’re efficient”

true love, and because the narrative o u tc o m e -

response to Frankie’s knowledge of how to

Frankie’s final capitulation to Johnny’s roman

manage the e p ile p tic -w e are asked to see this

tic demands - would seem to validate them.

intrusive proposal as winning, as reflected in

Interestingly, Johnny’s style of ‘desirable’

the dewy-eyed comment of another customer

courtship is at several points contrasted to

and in defiance of Frankie’s clear refusal. And

what can be easily identified as the “unaccept

like Johnny, we the audience are asked not to

able” style of physical coercion and violence -

be discouraged by the wom an’s “No”. She may

that employed by Frankie’s ex-boyfriend who

say “No” now, the narrative suggests, but re

hits her on the head with a belt buckle, and the

ally, being possessed of the superior knowledge

man in the opposite apartment who beats his

of their inherent “rightness” for each other,

female partner. Although this comparison is no

which justifies no end of badgering and har

doubt consciously designed to boost Johnny’s

assing, Johnny is arrogantly confident that the

character as more caring and concerned, thus

“No” will eventually give way to a “Yes”.

qualifying him as the trustworthy “Mr Right” for

Thus, Johnny’s ‘courtship’ of Frankie may

Frankie (when she finally allows herself to

be seen to consist of a series of intrusions upon

“recognize” it), there is, nevertheless, seeping

her privacy and her integrity: for example, he

through this structural opposition, an uncom

looks up her address on private work records,

fortable residual sim ilarity between the two

turns up uninvited at her apartment, arrives at

modes of male-to-female wooing. After all, both

her bowling evening when expressly asked not

Johnny and the “uncaring” earlier boyfriend

to (this is a particularly insidious example as we

harangue Frankie and battle over her body and

are asked to see it as perfectly reasonable

her mind in an attempt to impose their desires

because he has had a hard day), pursues her

and perceptions upon her.

into the ladies room, and stops only at the

In the final analysis, we must ask if there is

cubicle door while yet hammering her verbally

such a significant ethical difference between

and em otionally with assertions of “love”, and

the imposition of emotional harassment and

demands for marriage and children.

the physical battering of a body? There is

Even in the film ’s final scenes where, in

certainly no difference in the attitudes towards

sudden desperation for him to leave, Frankie

power and domination which constitute the

throws something across the room, breaking

actual motivations of both behaviours and which,

one of the “good luck” elephants whose oedipal

although perhaps cloaked in the garb of intimacy

trunks are raised in homage to her absent father, Johnny insists on “just one phone call”,

and relationship, in fact have nothing in com mon with love.

and drives her, literally and metaphorically,

Johnny’s behaviour partly results from a

62 • C I N E M A

PAPERS

ure, who serenaded under the beloved’s window at all hours, to be seen as lover rather than harasser, he needs to have some positive re sponse from the cloistered, passive lady in her urban tower. This is where Frankie & Johnny is most revealing about why both sexes seem to be utterly and dangerously confused about what constitutes sexual harassment. If we read this film as almost entirely taking up the narrative of courtship from the perspectives of a distorting romantic love and an anachronistic quasi-courtly love tradition which positively thrives upon the apparent unavailability of the lady, and if we recognize the primary point-of-view or gaze in the film as belonging to J o h n n y -e s p e c ia lly as evidenced in his voyeuristic fifteen-second “view ing” of the spectacle of Frankie’s recalci trant body, and in his original identification of the “true love” of which he must convince his would-be partner - then not only do Frankie’s “No”s not register seriously on Johnny’s scale, but the narrative reveals these apparent refus als to be part of the elaborate ritual of romance which actually had a provocative and titillating effect rather that an off-putting one. Thus, in instances of sexual harassment, as indeed in the classic rape defence, saying “No” is not heard to mean “No” ; at most, it may sug ge sttha tth e male take another, perhaps an even more aggressive, line of approach. For women to occupy the active position of actually saying “No”, and meaning it, would be to radi cally challenge and divest the stereotyped gender role of a fem ininity which requires com pliance and/or coquettishness from fem ales towards males, especially where that conven tional gender relationship is compounded by the pow er d yn am ic of s u p e rio rity in the workplace, as was the case with Thom as and Hill.

The rom antic “new daw n” which is offered

while holidaying in Mexico and she gets am ne

just do the punchline.” That idea was certainly

in the film ’s narrative closure suggests that

sia.2 To try and find her a detective, Ray

respected in Malcolm and The Big Steal, but not

either Frankie didn’t mean those initial “No”s,

Cam panella (Danny Glover), is made to team

here.

or that she was finally glad that he bullied her

up with a sim ilarly accident-prone accountant,

In the restaurant scene, for example, Ray

into changing her mind. Johnny’s persistence,

Eugene (Martin Short), the idea being that this

tests Eugene’s bad luck by planting a m alfunc

which the film allows to slip quite nakedly into

will somehow lead them to her.

tion in g salt sha ker on his table. Eugene

condoned (because unrecognized) harassment,

Thus the scene is set for a lot of slapstick

inevitably ends up with salt all over his dinner

makes clear that she was just “shy” , “defen

shtick, like falling off chairs, bumping into doors,

plate. The bee-sting allergy sequence is sim i

sive” and needed to be “brought out”. Under

dropping matches into groins and so on and so

larly laboured, resulting in Eugene being

J o h n n y ’s b a rrag e of e m o tio n a l pre ssure ,

forth and such like. Fine. Banana-skin comedy

bloated by the prosthetics team. There is also

Frankie’s “true” feelings of love are eventually

will always have appeal.3 Trouble is you can’t

some old “God, what did we do to deserve

revealed, thereby reaffirm ing this film ’s ugly

just do it. It’s not like changing a fuse. You have

this?” castration comedy when a snake ap

ideological message of the legitim ized place of

to have style, you have to have someone who

pears between Ray’s legs and Eugene aims a

male harassm ent of women within the con

is great at physical comedy. O bviously som e

gun to shoot it. Guess which snake Ray clutches

stricting paradigm s of courtship and the “good

one thinks Martin Short is the new Buster

with both hands while yelling “N ooooo!”?

cause” of rom antic love.

Keaton. News flash ...

W orst, though, is the scene late in the film

Another big problem is G lover and Short.

when their jeep breaks down on a clifftop. They

FRANKIE & JOHNNY D ire cte d by G a rry M a rsh a ll.

Martin and Lewis they ain’t. T here’s not a lot of

engage in a highly unlikely argument that makes

P ro d u c e r: G a rry

point wasting too much space on this expen

nonsense out of the relationship that was

M a rs h a ll.

E x e c u tiv e

p ro d u c e rs :

A le x a n d ra R ose, C h a rle s M u lv e h ill. C o -p ro d u c e r: N ick A b d o . S c rip tw rite r: T e re n c e M cN a lly. B a se d on his p la y , Frankie and Johnny in the Claire de Lune. D i re c to r of p h o to g ra p h y : D a n te S p in o tti. P ro d u ctio n d e s ig n e r: A lb e rt B re nn e r. C o stu m e d e s ig n e r: R osa n n a

sive glossy paper on why the coupling doesn’t

supposed to be developing between them and

work, but here’s a quick post-m ortem : they

which merely serves as an excuse for Short to

start out, predictably enough, as antagonists.

practise some martial arts and crunch his groin

Soon, however, they becom e close when

into a tree. The film suffers from a haphazard tone

N o rto n . S o u n d : K e ith A. W e b s te r, A n d re a L a kin ,

Eugene is mugged by a woman and Glover

S a m u e l F. K a u fm a n . E d ito rs : B a ttie D a vis, J a c q u e lin e

goes into Lethal Weapon mode by waving a

borne of its obvious confusion about where its

C a m b a s . C o m p o s e r: M a rvin H a m lis c h . C a st: Al P a c

gun around and hitting people in the face. This,

comedy level is - buddy film, slapstick, action

ino (J o h n n y ), M ic h e lle P fe iffe r (F ra n k ie ), K ate N e llig a n

presumably, is the way to make friends and

- and is clearly illustrated by the jarring use of

(C o ra ), H e c to r E liz o n d o (N ick), N ath a n Lan e (T im ),

influence people.

violence. In one scene in a Mexican prison, Ray

J a n e M o rris (N e d d a ), G re g L ew is (T in o ), Al Fann (L u th e r), G le n n

P lu m m e r (P e te r), S e a n O ’ B rya n

(B o b b y ), F e rn a n d o L o p e z (J o rg e ). A u s tra lia n d is trib u to r: U IP . 35 m m . 118 m ins. U .S . 1991.

PURE LUCK

But the comedic electricity between them

is repeatedly taken out of his cell by the guards

couldn’t jum p start a loaded mousetrap. Note,

to be either bashed or raped and is returned

as evidence, the heated exchange when their

each time without much fuss. In another he

car gets bogged in the sand. Like the numerous

puts a gun into the mouth of a villain and

other sim ilar w anna-be-funny scenes between

threatens to blow his brains out. Y ou’d think

them, it seems to be predicated on the theory

that somewhere along the line in the making of

SCHEMBRI

that good screen comedy is basically any dia

a film like this that someone would actually sit

kay, I give up. W hat’s the big secret?

logue, however flat, delivered in a loud voice in

down and say, “Hey, this just doesn’t belong.”

W hat did Nadia Tass and David Parker

high-key lighting. Fortunately, the scene is cut

Apart from the obvious shortcom ings of

get in return for making Pure Luck? W hatever

short when some guys drive by and start

Nadia T ass’ direction, it is a disheartening

it was I hope it was fabulous.

shooting at them, presumably to shut them up.

surprise that none of David Parker’s visual

Presum ably this film was supposed to have

The film reeks of desperation. Some of

style and wit so evident in Malcolm and The Big

the word “com edy” written all over it. Instead,

Short’s pratfalls are excruciatingly predictable

Steal was brought to bear anywhere in the film.

what it seems to have written all over it is the

and often extensively telegraphed just to make

With all those pratfalls, you’d have thought he’d

word “deal”, for it bears that one unm istakeable

sure everyone knows something funny is about

have had at least a little fun.

tradem ark of a deal film : it has no heart or brain.

to happen. It’s like tha t line from M artin

The one good thing about Pure Luck is that

Tass and Parker like these organs in their

Scorsese’s The King o f Comedy (1983): “You

it ends with a shot of Martin Short’s character

films. T hat’s what helped distinguish Malcolm

don’t say ‘Hey folks, here’s the punchline’, you

about to go over a waterfall. This, presumably,

J IM

(1986) as one of the best com edies ever made in A ustralia and The Big Steal (1990) as one of the best com edies ever made in Melbourne. W ith M alcolm they proved their ability to be ingeniously funny, and in The Big Steal they showed a mastery of observational, suburban humour. Any trace of those virtues in Pure Luck couldn’t be found with an electron microscope. I know; I tried. Life does deal out some nasty blows. After two enorm ously successful. Lethal Weapon film s1, Mel Gibson w ent on to do H am let( 1991) with Franco Zeffirelli. Danny G lover got to costar in Pure Luck as second banana to Martin Short. The film ’s premise, written by Herschel W eingrod and Tim othy Harris (two members of the com m ittee that wrote Ivan R eitm an’s K in dergarten Cop, 1991), sets up a typically broad screw ball com edy fram ework. The accidentprone daughter of a rich man has an accident R A Y (D A N N Y GLO V ER ) A N D EUGENE (M A R TIN S H O R T) IN N A D IA TA S S ' B A N A N A -S K IN C O M E D Y , PURE LUCK.

CINEMA

PAPERS

• 63

will kill the chances of a sequel and allow Tass

solem n-sounding narrative cuts in, reminding

In another scene, Sprinkle opens her legs

and Parker to go into something a little more

us that we are all sexual creatures born through

before a live audience and invites guests to

worthy of the work that attracted the attention of

the act of love.

walk up to the stage and shine torches up her

the American film machine in the first place. Then again, why not a Pure L u c k 2? Hmm. Is Jocelyn Moorhouse busy? 1. Ed.: Lethal Weapon (R ich a rd D on n e r, 1987) and

Lethal Weapon II ( D on n e r, 1990). 2. T h is is a re fre s h in g ly n ew p lo t d e v ic e th a t I p e rs o n ally w o u ld like to see a lo t m ore of. 3. I s w e a r on my p a re n ts no pun in te n d e d .

This amusing non-sequitur is the first of

gaping cervix. S prinkle’s frank and, at times,

many contradictions in a docum entary which is

amusing approach to sex may be refreshing for

a confused, voyeuristic look at extrem ists try

some, but she is really no more than an over

ing to do som ething different with sex. It

inflated, blow-up bimbo doll with crooked teeth

contrasts the exploits of Annie Sprinkle with the

and more front than Kings Cross. W hat’s more,

goings-on of a bunch of individuals who get into

she is a glaring antithesis to the notion that

things like heavy breathing, and staring into the

there is something noble in the elusive “higher

eyes and chanting as a precursor or a substi

sexuality” C onnop’s docum entary tries to cap

tute to the real thing. One way or another, they

ture.

PURE LUCK D ire cte d by N a d ia T a ss. P ro d u ce rs:

all subscribe to ancient Tantra and Taoist sex

The prim ary flaw of Sacred Sex is not so much what is shown on the screen, but how it

Lan ce H ool, S ean D an ie l. E xe cu tive p ro d u ce r: F ra n cis

techniques which emphasize sexual harmony

V eber. A sso cia te p rod u ce r: C onrad H ool. S crip tw rite rs:

as a road to higher consciousness and spir

is shown. It is weighed down by its own self-

H ers c h e l W e in g ro d , T im o th y H arris. D ire cto r o f p h o

ituality.

importance and a constant suggestion that the

to g ra p h y : D avid P a rker. P ro d u ctio n d e s ig n e r: P e te r

Directed and produced by Australian Cyn

W o o le y . C o stu m e d e s ig n e r: G ra m a P re sto n . S o u nd :

thia Connop, Sacred Sex was funded by a

light. Narrator Tanya Gerstle tries valiantly to

$ 2 06 ,0 00 gran tfro m th e Film Finance Corpora

convince the viewer that Sacred Sex-should be

tion and a $65,000 pre-sale deal with the ABC

taken seriously, while a U.S. academic from the

F e rn a n d o C am a ra . E d ito r: B illy W e b e r. C o m p o se r: J o n a th a n S h e ffe r, m ain title th e m e by D anny E lfm a n. C a s t:

M a r tin

S h o rt

(P ro c to r),

D anny

G lo v e r

sex practices it depicts are the way and the

Sam

(a censored version has been made for televi

Kinsey Institute is used at several junctures.

W a n a m a ke r (H ig h sm ith ), S co tt W ilson (G rim e s), H arry

sion). The project was never going to be an

The academic talks rather dispassionately about

S h e a re r (M o no so ff), Jo rge R ussek (In sp e cto r Segura),

easy one, given the dichotomous branches it

how well the ancient Indians and Chinese got it

R o d rig o P u e b la (F e rn a n d o ), Jo hn H. B re nn a n (T yle r),

represents within the New Age movement. Upon

together - both spiritually and sexually - but

release, it was criticized by some as a misuse

one suspects she is merely a talking prop.

( C a m p a n e lla ) ,

S h e ila

K e lle y

( V a le r ie ) ,

J o rg e Luke (P ilo t). A u s tra lia n d is trib u to r: U IP. 35 mm. 104 m ins. U .S. 1991.

of taxpayers’ money and a film that revels in bizarre and deviant sexual practices.

SACRED SEX GREG

KERR

acred Sex, so the advertising grabs imply, is a documentary about the search for sex

ual fulfilm ent on a higher, spiritual plane. Es sentially, it is just that: a search so unclear of its motives that its revelations become an unholy mess. Early on, the film ’s star, American porno queen Annie Sprinkle, talks coyly about devot ing orgasms to special causes in her life, such as her pet cat. Just as the audience is working out whether to take her seriously or not, a

S a cre d Sexunfolds in straightforward form interspersing action - if one permits such a

Connop, no doubt, would like to think Sa

euphemism for sexual activity - with inter

cred Sex causes viewers to re-think and expand

views. For the most part it sticks to showing

their own sexuality. However, much of the

things as they are, although Connop occasion

footage, particularly that depicting the dildo-

ally takes leave of her objectivity. At one point,

obsessed Sprinkle, is graphic and designed to

the camera highlights a rainbow on the horizon

shock rather than enlighten. In one scene,

as a group spiritual sex session is in process.

Sprinkle introduces Lance, hertransexual lover

One can only assume the rainbow is meant to

who has female sex organs as well as a male

symbolize the fulfilm ent and mystical energy

appendage. Not content to leave anything to

generated by a good, old-fashioned orgy.

the imagination, the camera hones in as Lance

The soundtrack makes an attempt to con

removes his strides to reveal all - even the New

vey the predictably inane Muzak one expects to

Age crystal he uses to keep his penis erect. At

hear in New Age bookshops; afew tribal rhythms

least Lance sees the funny side of it when he

are thrown in when things get heated up. Mostly,

says “Hi Mom” to the camera.

the music fits in quite well with ethereal dia logue such as, “I bless your door of pleasure and may it bring you great ecstasy.” Later, though, comes a scene involving a tech niq u e w h e re lo v e rs b re a th e heavily and place their feet on each other’s sternums in order to achieve orgasm. Strange as it looks, even stranger is the music: a sleazy-sounding concoction of keyboards, bass guitar and flute that may well have been lifted from a John Holmes porn flick. A c ru c ia l c h a lle n g e of a documentary dealing with afringe subject is making it accessible to a broad spectrum of viewers. S a cre d Sexsurely does deal with the most popular cinem a com modity of all, but does so in a way that is beyond the reach of the ordinary person. Aside from one or two exceptions, most of its characters lack credibility and wear the jaundiced mark of perN EW A G E SEXUAL BLISS IN C Y N TH IA C O N N O P 'S D O C U M E N TA R Y , SACRED SEX.

64 • C I N E M A

PAPERS

sonal despair and disillusionm ent. One Tantra convert begins to make sense out of the maze when he says som ething to the effect that if you’re going to have sex, why not make it good sex? Right on. The bearded one had me inter ested for at least half a minute, then he began describing a source for his sexual and spiritual energy: a phallic-shaped stalactite he’d souvenired from a cave. The most annoyingly hollow part of Sacred Sex is the inclination of its characters to apply a pseudo-religious creed to their sex practices. When she is not flashing her breasts or waving a dildo, Annie Sprinkle occasionally tries to weave a few meaningful words together. Her thoughts on Tantra philosophy? “ If it is true or not it doesn’t m atter because it is good to believe it.” Another “star” of Sacred Sex, English psy chologist Alan Lowen, assumes the mantle of a religious icon at sem inars he runs for people wanting to experience spiritual sex. He ser monizes, he ceremoniously hands out condoms on a platter, he even cleanses his converts in water. In spite of the religious im plication, the end product of Lowen’s sem inars is nothing more than a pagan flesh cult in which love is a transferable commodity.

SPOTSWOOD

CAREY (BEN M EN D ELSO HN ) A N D W ALLACE (A N T H O N Y

KARL

IN M A R K JOFFE'S SPOTSWOOD.

QUINN

H O P K IN S ), THE PR O D UC TIV ITY E N H A N C EM EN T C O N S U L TA N T

Earlier in the piece, the documentary makes n his book A History o f the Cinema: From its

Intercut with W allace’s trips to Ball’s are

views of the man on the street. The question

Origins to 1970, Eric Rhode describes the

scenes of his less than harmonious home life -

“Have you experienced spiritual sex?” meets

Ealing comedies of the 1940s and ’50s as m an

quite clearly the result of the hours and the

with a string of nonsensical replies about one-

ifesting a “belief in the capacity of gallant little

nature of his work - with wife Caroline (Angela

night stands, wet dreams and belief in God.

amateurs to muddle through any difficulty”.

Punch McGregor), and visits to Durm ack’s, a

The responses are a fair indication of the rel

This description can readily be applied to

company where his consultation has resulted

an attem pt to contextualize its theme with the

evance of the docum entary in mainstream

Spotswood, and indeed, since the film ’s first

in the recommended shedding of 480 posi

circles. Connop would have been wiser to ex

screenings in early 1991, repeatedly has been.

tion s. The m odern business approach of

pand the focus of the vox-pop segment and

Spots wood is set in the late 1960s, in the

Durmack’s is enshrined in the sleek black-

extract some solid feedback on what people

Melbourne industrial suburb of the same name,

glass exterior of the com pany’s headquarters,

are really thinking about sex these days, the

and centres on the life of a small moccasin

against which W allace parks his Rover in a

im pact of AIDS, the com eback of monogamy

factory, Ball’s. The ancient patriarch, Mr Ball

perfect parody of the car-com m ercial morality

and the like.

(Alwyn Kurts), decides to call in Errol W allace

of the 1980s. By contrast, the driveway of Ball’s

Sacred Sex would have us believe that the

(Anthony Hopkins), a “time and m otion” man, in

is a clutter of wrecks and broken machinery,

sensitive, new sexual philosophies it explores

a bid to modernize the factory. Despite a vari

succinctly sym bolic of the reticence to shed the

are shining beacons in a modern, post-AIDS

ety of obstacles being put in his path, W allace

past that characterizes the factory and its work

jungle. It tells us to confront our fears and

soon discovers that the business is running at

practices as a whole. In a rare early scene of

inhibitions, let the oxygen run to our brains and

a massive loss, and has not made a profit for

something like compassion, W allace tells his

reach out so that w e ’ll be on the way there

years. Ball has only kept it afloat by selling off

wife that walking into Ball’s was like “visiting my

(wherever that is). The finished canvas, how

his assets, and it seems inevitable to W allace

G randfather’s house, only my G randfather isn’t

ever, is blurred by images of faked orgasms,

that the only possibility of turning the company

there”.

lustful forays disguised as spiritual journeys,

around rests in reducing the workforce and

The contrasts between the old m anage

Annie Sprinkle’s dildo collection and those going

increasing the productivity of the remaining

ment style of Ball’s and the new management

the grope at orgies.

staff.

approach advocated by W allace and his part

W allace - who prefers to be known as a

ner are what structure the film, much more than

conviction to tackle an issue certain to arouse

productivity enhancement consultant - wishes

any straight sense of narrative. Television ad

elements of moral disapproval and ridicule.

to remain anonymous, but is soon introduced

vertisem ents talk of it as a “clash of cultures”,

Unfortunately, in its confusing, contrived form,

by Ball to all the staff, who seem to th in kth a tth e

and, while this is not inaccurate, it by no means

Sacred S ex confines itself to a few egocentric

newcom er’s prim ary function is in facilitating

does justice to the com plexity of Mark Joffe’s

sex gurus m asquerading as prophets of human

the fulfilm ent of their interior design fantasies.

m ulti-layered film. Spotswood utilizes the full

One must admire Connop for having the

potential, and their burnt-out Me-generation

He enlists a young employee of the factory,

array of film ic possibilities, from set design,

disciples w ho’ll try anything to fill a void in their

Carey (Ben Mendelsohn), as an assistant, be

through lighting and photography to acting,

lives.

lieving the young man will be eager to take the

music and direction, in order to bring a poten

leap into management. But Carey is reluctant,

tially very simple story to a rich fulfilm ent.

SACRED SEX D ire cte d by C y n th ia C o n n o p . P ro du ce r:

and is only won over to the proposition when he

This com m itm ent to making the most of all

realizes he will be sharing a desk with the boss’

the possibilities of the medium is evident from

C y n th ia C on n o p. D ire cto r of pho to g ra p h y: T o n y W ilson .

youngest daughter, the not-as-fantastic-as-she-

the moment the opening credits begin to roll.

S o u n d : M ax H e n sse r. E d ito r: S u rre s h A yya r. C o m

thinks-she-is Cheryl (Rebecca Rigg), who is

The visuals are unrem arkable - red writing on

p o s e r: N ic k P a lm e r. N a rra to r: T a n y a G e rs tle . C ast:

tem porarily working at the factory as a secre

black screen - but the soundtrack is not. An

A n n ie S p rin k le , A la n L ow e n . A u s tra lia n d is trib u to r:

tary “before she leaves to take up a career as

amateur band is performing a horrendous cover

P re m iu m . 3 5 m m . 96 m in s. A u s tra lia . 1991.

a full-tim e m odel”.

of The Anim als’ version of “The House of the

C y n th ia C o n n o p . E x e c u tiv e p ro d u c e r: R on a ld S. T a n ner. A s s o c ia te p ro d u c e r: M ich a e l M u rra y. S c rip tw rite r:

CINEMA

PAPERS

• 65

Rising Sun” . We do not see them until the last

haps in this cosy harking back to “the good old

few bars of the song, after the credits have

days” Australian audiences will find some sort

effects on hundreds of lives that his recom m en

finished, when they are revealed playing to the

of com fort which Prime M inister Keating’s talks

dations will have, he determ ines to redeem him self at Ball’s, and in consequence redeems

severely duped. Suddenly conscious of the

near-empty Spotswood Social Club. W hile the

with business and union leaders looks unlikely

scene is immediately comic, it also neatly frames

to bring. Presumably, the film ’s producers are

himself with his wife, who has been on the brink

one of the film ’s central concerns: the way in

hoping that the old claim that there is no better

of leaving him. The only personnel change he

which Australia in the 1960s voraciously con

time to make money in the theatre (substitute

ends up instituting at Ball’s is the shedding of

sumed anything emanating from overseas (in

“cinem a”) than during a depression still holds

one employee, the proto-yuppie salesman Kim

this case, a song from the U.S. via the UK).

true.

(Russell Crowe), who in turn replaces W allace

Although H opkins’ W allace is of uncertain na

Perhaps it is unfair to suggest that what

tionality, it is clear too that both he and his

Joffe’s film offers is a return to paternalistic

W hat the film finally offers is a catharsis, in

management techniques are not of native ori

capitalism. After all, if the preferred view of

which ail the worst nightm ares of the workers of

gin. The implication, of course, is that they are

running a business is embodied in Ball’s, what

A ustra lia are exorcized. Unem ploym ent is

better as a direct result of their foreignness,

are we to make of the fact that the first time the

beaten by a more sym pathetic approach by

and it is this assumption which the film largely

camera enters the factory (along with Wallace,

management, which finally recommends the

seeks to address.

who is obviously meant to represent our “mod

formation of a co-operative venture, with w ork

as a m anagement consultant at Durm ack’s.

It is perhaps a little ironic, then, that much

ern” perspective) we hear and then see an

ers as owners. The despised yuppie is cast out

of the pre-publicity for the film centred on the

employee dancing around a stock room singing

of the w orkers’ paradise and into the hell of

coup of signing Hopkins given the (later) enor

“Who Wants to be a M illionaire? (I Don’t)”? The

industrial confrontation. And the illusory lustre

mous success of The Silence o f the Lambs

film, in fact, very nearly eschews the values of

of the outside world is replaced by an even

(Jonathan Demme, 1991) - ironic because the

capitalism entirely, replacing them with a tra

stronger sense of cam araderie and belonging,

main point being used to sell the film is the

ditional working-class sense of community. The

embodied in the final shot of W endy and Carey

presence of a foreign star. Joffe defends the

Social Club, with its clim actic (and hilarious)

having finally realized the importance of their

use of an import on the them atic grounds out

slot-car race, provides an external focal point

bond to each other. The possibility that this

lined above and, in this case at least, the

for this sentiment. The factory itself, and the

somewhat utopian vision is intended as a pic

argument seems sound. It is also very probably

staff canteen in particular, are equally im por

ture of innocence and opportunity lost, and not

true, since the film was fully-funded by the Film

tant as sites of community. In fact, only the

as a vision of how we might still be, is cast into

Finance C orporation’s Film Fund, and thus did

suburb of Spotswood itself, where the film ’s

doubt by the fact that, in that final shot, there is

not have the perennial problem of pre-sales to

main focus is on the unhappy home life of

a third (and, according to Joffe, quite deliber

contend with. This unusual degree of freedom

W endy (Toni Collette), offers little warmth.

ate) figure - the W est Gate Bridge, which was

from market forces in turn leads to another

Hence work and work-related social activities

not opened until 1978.

irony: with forty prints in distribution in Aus

are to the employees of Ball’s self-contained

tralia, and with a guaranteed opening in 100

means of escape from the drudgery of urban

U.S. cities, Spotswood is well positioned to

existence, rather than the worst aspect of it.

garner a degree of commercial success which few Australian films can match.

It is significant that W allace’s conversion to a more ethical, com passionate view of man

SPOTSW OOD D ire c te d by M a rk J o ffe . P ro d u c e rs : R ich a rd B re n n a n , T im o th y W h ite . S c rip tw rite rs : M ax D ann, A n d re w K n ig h t. D ire c to r o f p h o to g ra p h y : E lle ry R yan. P ro d u c tio n d e s ig n e r: C h ris K e n n e d y . C o s tu m e d e s ig n e r: T e s s S c h o fie ld . S o u n d : Llo yd C a rric k . E d i

Yet one wonders just how an Australian

agement practices follows from his inability to

audience beset by the fear of redundancies is

maintain anonymity. He is drawn into the social

likely to take a film which portrays such a

as well as the economic life of Ball’s, and the

(C arey), A lw yn K urts (M r Ball), B runo Law re n ce (R ob e rt

situation comically. Certainly, the resolution of

clear-cut distinction between the two which has

S p e n c e r), Jo h n W a lto n (F in n ), R e b e c c a R igg (C h e ryl

the film is relatively optimistic; but will people

been crucial to his handling of the dispute at

B a ll), T o n i C o lle tte (W e n d y ), R u s s e ll C row e (K im

go to see a movie which seems to suggest that

Durmack’s breaks down. W allace himself suf

B a rre tt), A n g e la P u n ch M c G re g o r (C a ro lin e W a lla c e ),

the way to deal with the harsh economic reali

fers a sort of breakdown at a cocktail party at

ties of the 1990s is to return to the paternalistic

Durmack’s to celebrate the satisfactory conclu

capitalism of Ball’s version of the ’60s? Per

sion of the dispute, in which the union has been

to r: N ich o la s B e a um a n . C om p o se r: R icky F ataar. C ast: A n th o n y H o p k in s (E rro l W a lla c e ), Ben M e n d e ls o h n

Dan W y lie (F ra n k F le tc h e r), Jo h n F la u s (G o rd o n ), J e ff T ru m a n (R on ). A u s tra lia n d is trib u to r: H oyts. 35 m m . 9 7 m ins. A u s tra lia . 1992.

PROFESSIONAL NEGATIVE MATCHING MATCHING to TAPE EDIT or CUTTING COPY, USING ‘EXCALIBUR’. The latest technology in COMPUTERIZED NEGATIVE MATCHING: SCANNING BARCODE SUITE 105, CROWS

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BOOK

FILM AT W IT’S END: EIGHT AVANT-GARDE FILMMAKERS Stan Brakhage, Documentext & McPherson, New York, 1991, pp 200, pb, rrp $17.95

R E V I E W S

Filmmakers such as Marie Menken marked an era in film history by m arshal ling their wit and intelligence to create art under the most demanding of circum stances. Once, Menken supplied the lens she needed to film a close-up of the

JORGE

DAVID

REMY

human body by taping a magnifying glass onto her camera, so determined w asshe

onceived initially as a series of lectures on

to see her project through to completion.

film history, Film at W it’s End: Eight Avant-

Bruce Conner is yet another artist

Garde Film m akers pays homage to the au

whose inventive ways forged new per

th o r’s m en to rs and co n te m p o ra rie s as it

spectives in American cinema. Conner

recounts the origins and accom plishm ents of

fostered the social context in which we

Am erican independent cinema. W ithout com

view his film com m entaries by incorpo

mercial pressures to restrict their artistic vision,

rating excerpts from newsreels and other

the independent film m akers of the 1940s, ’50s

media into his work.

and ’60s pioneered the direction film was to

The strength of Maya Deren’s films,

take as a form of art and a medium for popular

on the other hand, rests upon her ability

entertainm ent.

to use a variety of cam era speeds to

The author underscores independent cin

attain the images she envisioned, though

em a’s influence on the commercial film industry

this was not always according to plan.

with elem ents of biography and cultural history,

W hilefilm ing Choreography for Camera,

leaving the reader with a vivid sense of the

Deren panned the cam era at a setting

struggles these artists endured to make their

different from the one she thought she

film s. Maya Deren, whom one film m aker has

had selected: the film strobed, creating

called “the mother of us all” because of her

the im pression of trees swaying in visual

p re v a ilin g e ffo rts to p ro m o te the a rt of

counterpoint to the movem ents of a

filmmaking, first explored the phenomenological

dancer. A more desirable outcome could

potential for film in such works as M eshes o f the

not have been orchestrated. In relating

A fternoon and R itual in Transfigured Time.

this episode, the author observes that,

Juxtaposing highly-stylized images with those from daily life, Deren dem onstrated “the charge and [...] power of perfectly ordinary household objects” , creating, like the Surrealists whom she admired, an art rooted firm ly in the un conscious mind.

one, figuratively speaking, “somewhere be

The greatest moments in art are often the result of an unforeseen difficulty: there is an

tween the chair and the screen” , so that an

accident, or funds are cut off, or something

image, bursting with contradiction and vitality,

breaks. And then something unsought-for

leaves the viewer “hanging”. There is no at

happens. It is the mark of a genius to recognize

tempt at disguise. As confrontation yields to

it and use it with consistency.

com prehension, the audience becomes par

expansion of life with an uncontrollable m irth”,

Brakhage draws an interesting distinction

ticipant rather than observer.

Marie Menken once said. Using a hand-held

between the role of “seduction” in commercial

Sidney Peterson described this quality of

camera, Menken expanded the poetical vo

and independent film as he profiles the careers

independent cinem a best in reference to The

cabulary of film with an “incredible energy”

of eight film m akers who shaped American cin

Potted Psalm, a film he made with James

visible throughout her work. Her style of cin

ema. W hereas most commercial films appeal

Broughton: “[The] images are meant to play,

ematic collage later became a prominent feature

to the view er’s aesthetic sense with an array of

not on our rational sense, but on the infinite

of such films as Godfrey Reggio’s Koyaanisqatsi

images rich in special effects, winning the au

universe of am biguity that is within us.”

and W alter R uttm an’s Berlin.

dience’s attention through craft, seduction in

Nearly half a century since they first ap

“ I want to impart hilarity, joyousness [...]

Another innovator of the early independent

independent film, if any, arises from a con

peared before the American public, independent

cinem a was Jerom e Hill, whose hand-tinted

sciousness of the camera that is both captivating

film s continue to confound and delight audi

negatives produced an im pressionistic effect

and disturbing. Many tim es the actors used in

ences with a mixture of comedy and outrageous

on screen for the first time. O ther innovations

an independent film are not professionals.

sincerity that defies expectation.

attributed to independent cinem a are the use of

M oreover, independent film m akers are

Stan Brakhage has written a book that

slow and accelerated m otion, split-screen

likely to illicit a response from an audience with

captures the spirit of independent cinem a and

visuals and the addition of m usique concrète

images that are stark in their presentation, as

the tim es in which it was created. Film at W it’s

as an accom panying soundtrack for film.

compared to their counterparts in the com m er

End is a valuable introduction to independent

W hether com m enting upon Haitian dance

cial film industry who seldom, if ever, reveal

film m aking which may be enjoyed by the w eek

or the atom ic bomb, the “im possible silence” of

their techniques. Unaccustom ed to seeing

end m oviegoer as well as the serious student of

a Kansas cornfield or the “great epic” that was

s p lic e s and o th e r te c h n ic a l a s p e c ts of

film. The film ographies that conclude Film at

the Beat generation, Stan Brakhage conveys

film m aking, an audience may question the ar

W it’s End are a welcom e reference now that

the spirit of artistic experim entation that is an

tistic credibility of not only the actors but the

more independent films are appearing on video

essential ingredient of independent film.

film in which they appear. Such film s engage

cassette. CINEMA

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• 67

lectures that have since 1980 become a regular COMPILED

RAFFAELE

CAPUTO

and popular feature of the NFT program me in London. The G uardian eleven are: Robert Mitchum, Jack Lemmon, Satyajit Ray, Raymond

THE ABC OF DRAMA 1975 - 1990

directors. The biographies are surprisingly

W illiams, Delphine Seyrig, M argarethe von

Liz Jacka, Australian Film Television & Radio School, Sydney, 1991, 147 pp., pb, rrp $19.95

comprehensive, as are the appraisals of key

Trotta, Gene Kelly, Yves M ontand, David

films and television shows.

Puttnam, Michael Cimino and Dirk Bogarde.

This over-view of ABC television drama, with invaluable checklists, will be reviewed in the next issue.

A LTER N ATIV E SCR IPTW R ITIN G : W RITING BEYOND THE RULES Ken Dancyger & Jeff Rush, Focal Press, Boston-London, 1991, 212 pp., pb, rrp $53

FEATURE FILM S ON A LOW BUDGET John Randall, Focal Press, Boston-London,

Also included are lists of Oscar winners

The lecture by Raymond W illiam s stands

since 1927, as well as award winners from the

out, for it is indeed a lecture in the strict sense

Berlin, Cannes and Venezia film festivals.

of the word, addressing the notion of the

Understandably, the emphasis is on the con

‘popular’ in cultural history, though particularly

temporary, and there are so few comprehensive

in cinema. The others are not so formal, seem-

reference books around that this handbook is a

ingjy impromptu talks between interviewer and

valuable update and companion.

interviewee which, in most cases, are finally opened out to the audience.

CO N VER SA TIO N S W ITH MARLON BRANDO

stimulating, for, on the whole, the discussions

Lawrence Grobel, Bloomsbury, London, 1991, 177pp., hb, rrp $39.95

els. Robert Mitchum, to take one example, is by

After a few colourless chapters describing the

far the most amusing.

1991, 136 pp., pb, rrp $40

FILM & VIDEO FINANCING Michael Wiese, Focal Press, Boston-London, 1991, 3 0 7 pp., pb, rrp $49

FILM M AKING FOUNDATIONS Jerry Bloedow, Focal Press, Boston-London, 1991, 188 pp., pb, rrp $53

This does not make the collection any less make worthwhile reading on a number of lev

details of negotiating and finally meeting with

Typical questions and responses are as

Brando for interviews, this bookfinally picks up

can be expected in such situations, but Andrew

the pace with a question-answer format. The in te rvie w s, w h ich to o k place on

B ritton’s editing manages to keep the talks brisk, interesting and entertaining.

Brando’s Tahitian atoll over a ten-day period, make up the bulk of the book. For a man whose

UNIQUE BLACK -& -W HITE

reluctance in interviews is legion, Brando is

Gordon Aachen, John Howard Reid, Sydney,

SCREEN AD AP TATIO N : A SCREEN W RITING HANDBOOK

open and forthright about his profession and

1991, 224 pp., hb, rrp $40

Kenneth Portnoy, Focal Press, Boston-London, 1991, 157pp., pb, rrp $40

lifestyle, and especially his views on social

It is odd to come across a reference book with

issues. But he can be expertly cagey when

a quasi-political motivation. Unique Black-&-

The above titles are an all-em bracing selection

necessary and does not come across as the

White opens with the following sentence: “As I

eccentric he has often been made out to be. He

write these words, cinema lovers worldwide

of ‘how to ’ publications put out by Focal Press.

reveals himself as quick-witted and amusing,

are fighting a desperate rearguard action

While the film industry worldwide is in

often showing up the interview situation or

against what is euphem istically called ‘color

creasingly becoming a tougher nut to crack, the

appropriately quoting from Shakespeare’s work.

enhancement’.”

influx of students into film schools or film m ak

The conversations, however, do not cover

This is the sixth volum e in what seems to be

the past thirteen years. The interview was ac

the never-ending series of Film Index publica

ing courses has been on the rise. These publications are specifically aimed

tually conducted in 1978, portions of it appearing

tions put out by John Howard Reid (sometimes

at film students moving into independent pro

in Playboy magazine. Coming as it does on the

under the banner of Rastar).

d u c tio n . Each a u th o r is a sc h o la r or a

heels of the recent controversy over his son’s

The series is obsessively com prehensive,

professional with a long and successful history

murder trial, the book is openly opportunist.

listing full cast and crew credits, release dates

in the field, and each book provides more than

The added “Afterw ord” only routinely updates

for Australia, the U.S. and the UK, alternative

rudimentary principles. Dogma and readymade

Brando’s life in the light of the increased media

titles, loads of production information and trivia.

success formulas are avoided.

coverage which accompanied the trial.

The purpose of the series is to bridge the

But, like previous volumes, it is incredibly naive. It’s baffling to attempt to understand what the “unique” is all about. When the reader

filmmaking. The authors set out to com prehen

THE D E V IL’S CANDY: THE B O N FIR E O F THE VA N ITIES GOES TO HOLLYW OOD

sively cover all aspects of their chosen field in

Julie Salamon, Houghton Mifflin, Boston, 1991,

of this claim in the introduction: “ Imagine a film

a step-by-step fashion, and genuinely impart

434 pp., hb, (US) $24.95

noir in color! Such an aberration is obviously no

This sometimes amusing but rathertrivial book

longer a film noir.” W ell, one need not imagine

gap between what is learnt in film schools and what happens in the situation of hands-on

what they have learnt through experience with relevant case studies. For anyone seriously considering a career move into film, they are worth more than a cursory glance.

Allan Hunter (ed.), W & R Chambers, Edin burgh, 1991, 401 pp., pb, rrp $29.95 With an abundance and variety of film s and

follows in the American tradition of recounting

hundreds of film noirs in colour for one can

the troubled histories of what are perceived to

actually see hundreds of film noirs in colour - a

be (in this case correctly) great film blunders.

good deal of Anthony M ann’s westerns, for

THE FILMS OF M ERCHANT IVORY Robert Emmet Long, Harry N. Abrams, New York, 1991, 208 pp., hb, rrp $79.95 This sumptuous book (similar to the publisher’s one on David Lean), which covers the varied

television shows made readily available and

but often brilliant careers of James Ivory and

with wider appeal, this reference book is mostly

Ismael Merchant, will be reviewed next issue.

geared at the general audience gaining greater literacy with critical, artistic and technical terms, key personalities and specialist films. There are more than 700 entries, the bulk of which is devoted to biographies of actors arid • CINEMA

PAPERS

as a self-evident justification. T ake the instance

example: Don Siegel’s The Killers; Allan Dwan’s

CHAM BERS FILM & TV HANDBOOK

does get a glim m er of understanding, it comes

TALKIN G FILM Andrew Britton (ed.), Fourth Estate, London, 1991, 266 pp., hb, rrp $39.95 Talking Film collects eleven of The Guardian

S lightly Scarlet; and so on. As well, skimming through the titles, one soon realizes that not many are under “threat” of colourization, nor is it ever made clear what is so special about the use of black & white photography in each case - something the “unique” in screams for. As is usual in the series, references rarely references venture beyond the 1950s. This is a publication strictly forthose into nostalgia, where th e ir c e le b ra tio n sho uld be a p p ro p ria te ly translated into remorse for the long-gone, good ole days.

J e w is h C in e m a

FROM

j |

PAGE

The Gulf Between (JFF, M onique Schwarz, Australia, 1991), film ed in Israel immediately after the Gulf War, deals with the impact o f the war on six representative Israelis: a Russian immi grant, a Holocaust survivor, a journalist, an army reservist, a kindergarten teacher and a woman whose house was hit by a Scud missile. The thoughts, fears and disappointments o f each o f these people form a kaleidoscope o f personal responses which Schwarz has organized into six ‘chapters’ . The imposition o f chapters gives containm ent to what can be read as a cride coeur on behalf o f the Jewish p eople who, the film stresses, yet again find them selves the victim o f an unjust war: “Each war was unjust, but this was the most unjust.” The film canvasses frank and open responses to the impact o f the war, during the conflict and in its aftermath. Although a variety o f political views are sought, the predom inant m ood is generally unforgiving and pessimistic. The memory o f the H olo caust loom s heavily over the content and its imagery: a Nazi rally, the instruction “go into a sealed ro o m ”, a contemporary dance expressive o f those who died in concentration camps, and cuts to the wearing o f gas masks, by babies and children. Given recent Israeli history and the listing o f the five wars fought previously since 1948, some responses from those inter viewed seemed surprising. While Mayor Tom m y Kollek says that he knew from 2 August that the war would com e, most o f those interviewed expressed shock at the missile attack, which is surpris ing: ‘T h e breaking o f a strong belief that something like this cou ldn ’t happen [again].” This sentiment raises questions which the film does not attempt to explore. Does this mean that m od em Israelis have b ecom e com placent, or over-confident? The film dwells on the spectre o f the gas masks. Does this mean that the Israelis feel im potent still? If so, maybe these feelings o f im potence com e, not from the heritage o f victim hood (o f which the quintessential example is the H olocaust), but from being forced to sit on their hands, night after night, and n ot use the power o f their state to defend themselves - a power they have at last after two thousand years, but were persuaded by their Allies not to use. This may have been politically wise, and even saved Israeli lives, but it did nothing to eradicate the spectre o f Jewish impotence. Nonetheless, The Gulf Between draws attention to pervasive, persistent feelings o f im potence in Israeli culture, despite an outside perception o f Israeli military power. Several films were aboutjews returning to their countries o f origin to lay the ghosts o f the past to rest. In Loving theDead (FJC, MiraHamermesh, UK, 1991), the director returned to Poland to find the grave o f her m other who died in the Lodz ghetto. In her search to recover her past, she found others who like her were haunted by the demands o f the dead to be rem em bered - Polish Christians, both young and old, who in different ways seek to atone for Polish anti-semitism, or bring what has vanished to life again. Naomi Gryn’s Chasing Shadows (FJC, UK 1990) follows her father, a L on don rabbi, H ugo Gryn, to his hometown Berehovo, in what used to be Czechoslovakia. For H ugo, Berehovo is less a village from where 15,000Jews were shipped to Birkenau than the pungent m em ory o f a charm edjewish boyhood. H ugo returned to say a last nostalgic goodbye to a country that nourished him. This is n ot the case with Emanuel Rund, whose film AlleJudenRaus!

{Allfews Out!, JFF, Germany 1990) has a great deal m ore venom. Using old film footage, and photographs (like Gryn, but to different effect), Rund powerfully indicts the German town Göppingen, midway between Stuttgart and Ulm, for the way it treated its large community ofjews. He exposes the town’s venal shabbiness by tracking the plight o f G öppingen’s Jews (who helped found the town’s prosperity 100 years before), from Kristallnacht, to the shameful stealing o f their property and wealth, to their incarceration and death in Theresienstadt and Auschwitz. In many ways, R und’s attack on Göppingen can be com pared to Michael Verh öven ’s feature, Das SchrecklicheMädchen { The Nasty Girl), based on Anja Rosrhus’ exposé o f her hometown Passau, in Bavaria). What redeems two o f the inhabitants o f Göppingen, however - the telephonist at Theresienstadt and the ch ief o f the town’s fire brigade (though Rund does not let them o ff too lightly) - is their public regret o f it, and their attempts at recom pense by answering questions from local schoolchildren.

For the wealth o f valuable, beautiful and informative Jewish films that were screened during the two festivals, thanks to Les Rabinowicz o f the Festival o f Jewish Cinema, and the AFI.

1. Annette Insdorf, Indelible Shadows, Cambridge University Press, sec ond edition. 2. The trilogy is made up of God Has Forsaken Us/ GodDoes Not Believe in Us Anymore (1981), SantaFe (1985) and Welcome in Vienna (1986).

G U E S TS AT TH E FE S TIV A LS

Diane Perelsztejn (FJC); Mort Ransen, Orna Ben-Dor Niv (JFF) O TH E R FILM S S C R E E N E D FEATURES

Abraham’s Gold (JFF,Jorg Graser, Germany, 1990) Alan and Naomi (JFF, Sterling Vanwagenen, U.S.,1991) Charlotte (FJC, Franz Weisz, The Netherlands, 1980) Jen o rodinych zalezitostech {Family Matters,JFF, Jirf Svoboda, Czech oslovakia, 1990) Les Lendemains qui Chantent {SongFilled Tomorrows, FJC, Jacques Fansten, France, 1985) A Letter to Harvey Milk (FJC, Yariv Kohn, U.S., 1991) Mosca addio {Farewell Moscow, JFF, Mauro Bolognini, Italy, 1987) Passport (FJC, Georgi Danelia, USSR-France-Israel, 1990) The Plot Against Harry (JFF, Michael Roemer, U.S., 1969) Sadotyerukim { GreenFields, FJC, Isaac Zeppel Yerukim, Israel, 1989) Sanitoriumpod Klepsydra {The Sandglass, FJC, W ojciech Has, Po land, 1973) D O C U M EN TA R IE S

Biglal Hamilkhama Hahi {Because of that War, JFF, Orna Ben-Dor Niv, Israel, 1988) Forever Activists (FJC, Judy Montell, U.S., 1990) Great Cantors o f the Golden Age (JFF, U.S., 1990) Next Time Dear God Please Choose Someone Else, Rex Bloomstein, UK, 1990) The Sabbath Bride (JFF, U K 1987) Sarsah (JFF, Orna Ben— D or Niv, Israel, 1991) Yiddish the Mother Tongue (JFF, Pierre Sauvage, U.S., 1979)

CINEMA

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• 69

Travelling Light I can re m e m b e r m y a d m ira tio n (as a yo u n g p ro d u c e r) w h en th e D O P on a 16 m m d o c u m e n ta ry sh o o t to o k from out of a s u itc a s e his Low el lig htin g kit: th re e s tan d s, lig hts, b a rn d o o rs , c u tte rs , gel fra m e s , d iffu s io n sc rim , a d o o rfra m e cla m p , lead s an d a p o w e r b o ard . It w as a bo x of te c h n o lo g y ab o u t w h ic h I c h an g ed fro m w id e -e y e d a p p re c ia tio n to a p p re h e n s io n as, in tru e P an d o ra fa s h io n , it e n ab led us to b lo w th e fu s e s on a w h o le o ffic e flo o r and se em ed to ta k e us fo re v e r to repack. N ow w e are all a bit m ore c ritic al. It ta k e s so m e th in g like th e ra z z le -d a z z le of d e d o lig h ts (w ith lo w e r-c a s e d) or th e C in e K in e tic kits to im p ress m e now , y e t o n ly tim e w ill tell w h e th e r th e new item s stand up like th e Lo w el. T h e d ile m m a of p o rta b le s y s te m s is th a t at so m e p o in t th e red u ctio n in s ize /w e ig h t/c o m p le x ity s ta rts to w o rk a g a in s t yo u . H av in g to c o m p ro m is e w ith po o r to o ls d o e s n ’t a lw a y s bring o u t th e b est in us. W ith th is in m ind, I have se le c te d a fe w item s fro m a ran g e of c u rre n t e q u ip m e n t and s e rv ic e s th a t you m ig h t c o n s id e r w h en tra v e llin g lig ht. T o m ake it m o re th a n p res s re le a s e and c a ta lo g u e hype, I’ve atta c h e d so m e user c o m m e n ts ,

fred harden

winning short films. A daily need for lightweight camera mount equipm entthat could be taken in the news car led to other devices; one he de scribes as “a cross between a suitcase and a pipe dolly”, another is a small jib arm that fits a lOOmm tripod bowl and now to the Door Claw. David says the Door Claw evolved because,

A B O V E A N D FA C IN G PAGE: THE " W H Y D ID N 'T I T H IN K O F IT? "

70 • C I N E M A

DOOR CLAW

I had been using a conventional ten-inch limpet mount and sticking that onto the car doors, but with the changes and trend to softer car doors I decided to make some sort of grip. I was hanging out of the car one day and almost fell. I was using my hooked arm to hang on and that gave me the basic idea. I tested a few designs made out of wood to get the angles right and then constructed one in metal. Originally there was no adjustable plate, it was just welded at a set angle, but I sold that to another cameraman which encouraged me to make a few more. Lemac bought one for rental and over the years I’ve gradually re fined it make it more efficient.

D O O R C LA W . D A V ID BOULTER HAS

David Boulter has worked at Channel 10 for

DEVELOPED A M O U N T FOR ALL

sixteen years and as a cameraman for thirteen

REASONS

of them. W anting to expand his basic news

O riginally designed for hanging over car

photography, he took up scuba diving and then

doors or anything with an edge, it has been used

PAPERS

parachuting, for which he devised a helmet

successfully on the skids of a helicopter, and for

camera mount, and from a series of clips taken

interior car shots hanging inside the door or

over the years has made a number of award

over the seat back. One of D avid’s favourite

ratings. There is a fifth 12v outlet from the supply that can be used as a camera power feed. With a 100-watt lamp and on the high power position and flood, the output is stated as ap proximately equal to a 300-watt fresnel (if you have one!). When spotted, the output is higher. The dedolight can also be fed directly from a 12v battery belt or camera battery or via a car cigarette lighter socket. Among the accessories, there is a projec tion attachment that uses standard Rosco-M size gobos for projecting patterns, a flat alu minium plate holder with a two-way articulated arm ending in the 5/8” (16mm) stud, and a 6inch suction holder with a vacuum pump. There are adapters for on-camera mounting and stand mounting. The kitdisplayed in the photograph is one of two standard ones but kits can be individually assembled. Noel Jones has been a cameraman for about twenty years and started shooting news at Channel 7, moved to Channel 10 and then to Lemac. He has been freelance for the last two applications is on a step ladder for high-angle

THE TRAVELLING LIGHT’ LIGHT

shots.

Last year Dedo Wegart Film GMBH received a

The price for the Door Claw is $995 and for

Technical Achievement Award from the Acad

high-speed work David recommends an addi

emy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences for its

tional Bracing Kit at $325. This is basically a

development of a portable focusing-beam light

clamp that goes around the handle of the cam

ing system they called the dedolight.

era and runs to the car roof with a telescopic rod

Designed as a portable 12-volt system from

attached to a suction clamp. This takes out any

the beginning, the innovation that the Academy

movement when combined with the side brac

acknowledged was primarily the patented opti

ing straps, nylon rope that uses clamp cleats for

cal method that replaces the common fresnel

tensioning. David originally used winches and

lens. By using a quartz halogen lamp, a sepa

actual straps, but found that they had enough

rate rear mirror and a meniscus lens behind the

wind resistance to flap and gradually move the

front clear condenser lens, the dedolight has a

camera. He says,

flat lighting field from edge to edge and an

I’ve done amazingly steady shots on race cars at 180 kph, and news stories in rally cars where I’ve been able to change from a forward, reverse and an interior shot in less then twenty minutes. It takes less than five minutes to hang the mount on the door and fix the strap around it and winch it on. For Sales and Rentals inquiries telephone David Boulter on (03) 544 5769. CineKinetics gear is available through a number of outlets, including the John Barry Group and Lemac.

extraordinary focusing range. The lens system also allows the lamp to reach a standard 3200 degree Kelvin at slightly under the rated 12 volts (10.7 volts). This gives what Dedo claims is a typical 1250 hour life, an increase of 25 times the manufacturer’s rated life expectancy. The power supply unit which is switchable 110,120,220,230 and 240v, allows each of the lights to be switched individually from off, to low (3000 K), medium (3200 K), and high (3400 K at 12.2 volts). Because of good thermal design even the high voltage gives extended lifetime beyond the manufacturer’s

years shooting documentaries, commercials and corporate work. He has just started shooting what he describes as “pretty pictures” for a new television lifestyle show for Gavin Disney. He comments about his dedolights: I bought the lights for a three-month overseas job I had with an English firm, The Principal Film Company. It was two documentaries on global warming with a presenter called James Bourke. I wanted something light because I was taking quite a lot of gear, including a suitcase dolly and a mini-jib, and there were DEDOLIGHT

THE BASIC MAKE-UP KIT production crew. It requires you to take just

HELLO AND SORRY, I FORGOT YOUR BIRTHDAY Agfa XTIOO replaces the XT125

enough to cover all situations and we asked

With an exposure index of 100 ISO for Tungsten

Dawn Swane of 3 Arts Make-up Centre/Art &

and 64 ISO for Daylight with an 85 filter, Agfa

Travelling Light as a concept applies to all the

Technology of Make-up (choose one) what would

has replaced the XT 125 stock with new XT 100.

be the basic make-up artists kit to take away.

The stock is an improved fine-grain medium-

Dawn has also given us current prices of the

speed stock. It uses advanced XT grain tech

items from her make-up centre shop. She also

nology and concentrates ori a more uniform

mentioned that the Australian Film Television &

distribution of sm aller tabular grains to improve

Radio School has a 26 minute 1982 videotape

the image structure. Danny Batterham is fea

for hire that has a basic kit and is called, not

tured on the recent Agfa ads as DOP on Shot

surprisingly, Basic T.V. Make-up.

gun Wedding. He used the new stock on the

Starting with a solid professional case that only two of us. I didn’t want something where I had to worry about voltages and the dedolight has the transformer which is switchable to almost anything. They are a good light be cause of their focusing range, and I find them handy on a big lighting situation where you whack up a big light and use the dedo as supplementary to give you contrast. For trav elling there is nothing better. The case that I got with it is very compact. I was worried at the start about its strength, but it’s held together and the new ones are better. The limpet suction mount is useful when I need to put a light on a window. I don’t use it a hell of a lot, but it comes in handy when you’re short of space. I think I was the first in Australia to get a kit and, while I didn’t think they were terribly cheap, they are very well made. The globe is a 100 watt - they only cost about five dollars, and seem to last a hell of a long time. I did try to get some in Singapore and had some trouble there, but I’m sure you could find them in most places. They’re so small and cheap that I just take a dozen with me. LEMAC have dedolights also for hire, a good way to suss out new gear if you are

movie and had very complimentary things to

can cost from $250 she suggests you include:

say about it.

French brush set consisting of lipstick, eye

Accompanying the XT100 press release

shadow, blush, powder, eyeline and eyebrow

was a reminder of a significant piece of motion-

brushes from $130. Eyebrow pencil from $7.

picture history that happened fifty years ago as

Mascara (black) from $12. Lip Pencil from $12.

at October last year. 31 October 1941 was the

Eyeline pencil/liquid/cake from $12. Sharpener.

Berlin release date of a German musical com

Red neutralizer from $18. Blue neutralizer from

edy So Women are Better Diplomats. Its place

$18. Highlighter from $8. Shader from $8.

in the record books is not due to the film ic

Beardcover from $8. Blush/rouge. Lipstick

content, but the fact that it was the first full-

(should carry a full range of colours including

length feature produced with Agfacolor film, a

men’s shades). Loose powder (no colour) from

single-strip negative with dyes incorporated in

$10. Pressed powder from $14. Foundation

three layers in the photographic emulsion.

Shades (for men and women the kit must con

A film critic of the time reported, “The public

sist of pale, medium and dark bases for the

was thrilled and delighted with moving pictures

following skin undertones; pink, olive, yellow,

in colours which were really close' to nature.

aborigine/negro, and oriental. There should be around fifteen base shades.) Then there is the list of miscellane ous items, including cleanser, toner, m o is tu ris e r, tis s u e s , co tto n buds, sponges (synthetic and sea), powder puffs, and a cape and headband to pro tect the actors clothes. Art & Technology of Make-up Stu dio. Cnr. 44-46 Myrtle Street, Chippen dale, Sydney 2008. Telephone: (02) 698 1070.

thinking of purchase.

My Favourite Tool

Ellery Ryan: The Pentax Digital Spotmeter

In this column we invite industry people to nominate one item of their equipment that they wouldn’t be without. We lead off with a cinematographer, but it could just as easily be a grip, gaffer or sound recordist. Ellery Ryan has made the move from DOP on countless com mercials to features, and from Melbourne to the world. His recent credits include D e a th in B ru n s w ic k and he is currently in the U.S. shooting for director Richard Franklin . He was included a few years ago in the C in em a P a p e rs calendar featuring Australian DOPs. Unfortunately, it was ac companied with a photo of some body that we have still to identify, but it certainly wasn’t Ellery. To make amends and so that you will recognize him at the next Acad emy awards, (“Look, isn’t that Ellery next to Dean Semler?”), please study the photo of him here with his favourite tool, a Pentax Spotmeter.

72 ’ C I N E M A

PAPERS

Ellery says: “I’ve owned a Pentax Digital Spotmeter made by the Asahi Optical company of Japan for something like nine years. I’ve shot nine films with it, eight mini-series and several hundred commer cials. It has been snowed on at Arthur’s Pass, had gallons of salt water dumped on it in Auckland, been covered in dust for days in Central Australia. It has been dropped on and into every surface from mud to concrete, and even been driven over by an American tourist in Hong Kong (“Have a nice day”, she calied as she drove away.) “The serial number has dropped off somewhere along the way, most of the paint has worn off the engraved numbers, the lens barrel is so severely dented from repeated falls to rockhard studio floors that I can no longer screw on the close-up lenses, and the attractive black stipple finish has been worn smooth by hundreds of thousands of encounters with its owner’s sweaty hand. Still it persists. Other meters have come and gone, some lasting no longer than two or three months from the violent and unthinking abuse that a DOP hands out. “I understand the pathetic fallacy. I realize that a meter is only an electronic measuring device, and yet the only thing that stops me from building a small mausoleum for it down in the back yard next to the graves of Rover and the budgerigar is a near certainty that I shall be in my grave long before the Digispot will be laid to rest.”

KODAK STUDENT FILMMAKERS HANDBOOK Maybe Kodak could sell this in a plain brown wrapper or have a slipcover that says “Cinem atographer’s Refresher Handbook” because it is of

packages of unprocessed films that must be mailed across international borders: “C o n ten ts: U n p ro cessed p h o to g ra p h ic film . P lease do n o t X-ray. ”

potential interest to a lot more camera people than just students.

Short Term (less than 6 months)

If you are not too embarrassed to be considered a student, this would be a good travelling read on the plane. If you are, sneak it into your

Temperature

luggage anyway. I don’t imagine that you will use the book for reference on location, but as a basic text on just using FILM it pulls together lots of Kodak information sheets into a slim 160 pages. It is still readable, but you will need to pay attention to the sensitometric

Raw Stock (in original sealed cans)

13°C (55°F)

Exposed Unprocessed

-18°to -23°C (0°to -10°F)f

% Relative Humidity below 70

Long Term (more than 6 months) Temperature

% Relative Humidity

-18°to -23°C (0°to -10°F) Not Recommended (see text below)

technical bits, but there are small sections of interesting historical back ground, such as in the sound section, that are as up-to-date as Kodak co developed digital CDS form at (but not the digital Dolby process). There is a good section on dealing with labs, what to expect, and when and how to ask for it. In places it talks down by being a bit dogmatic (maybe it’s just good ol’ American positive thinking), such as in the section on marketing yourself or your work and in finding potential clients. The glossary needs to be expanded: it has good simple explanations, but is pretty thin on some necessary areas and includes a few bits of film history that will be of only passing interest. At the Kodak price of $14.95 it is recommended. Your local motion picture representative doesn’t have them so call Margaret McLoughlan at Kodak Sydney on (02) 870 4378.

d e w p o in t o f o u ts id e a ir (See ta b le o f w a rm u p tim e s .) -(E xp o sed film s h o u ld be p ro c e s s e d as s o o n as p o s s ib le a fte r e x p o s u re

Gases and Vapors Gases (such as formaldehyde, hydrogen sulfide, sulfur dioxide, ammonia, illuminating gas, engine exhaust) and vapors (from solvents, mothballs, cleaners, turpentine, mildew and fungus preventives, and mercury) can change the sensitivity of photographic emulsions. The cans in which motion picture film is packaged provide protection against some gases, but others can slowly penetrate the adhesive tape seal. Keep film away from any such contamination—for example, closets or drawers that contain moth balls, otherwise desensitization of the silver halide grains or chemical fogging can occur.

Relative Humidity

To give you a taste of it and in line with our theme in this issue, we are reproducing the section on Film Handling. Thanks to Kodak for permission to reprint it here.

STORAGE OF RAW AND EXPOSED FILM The sensitometric characteristics of virtually all unprocessed photographic materials gradually change with time, causing loss in sensitivity, a change in contrast, a growth in fog level, or possibly all three. In color films, the rates at which the various color-sensitive layers respond are not necessarily the same, thus the color balance of the material can also change. Improper storage usually causes much larger changes in color quality and film speed than do variations in manufacturing. Scrupulous control of temperature and humidity, thorough protection from harmful radiation and gases, and careful handling are important to long, useful film life.

Raw Stock in Original Package Temperature

Since a small amount of vapor leakage through the closure of a taped can is unavoidable, give motion picture films additional water-vapor protection if they are to be kept longer than a month in an area having high relative humidity (70 percent or higher), such as home refrigerators or damp basements. Protect unopened rolls by tightly sealing them in a second plastic container or can. NOTE: It is the relative humidity, not the absolute humidity, that deter mines the moisture content of film. Relative humidity is best measured with a sling psychrometer. [Yep, just happen to have one handy. F.H.] In a small storage chamber, a humidity indicator, such as those sold for home use, is satisfactory...

Unprocessed Film before and after Exposure General Concerns Once you open the original package, the film is no longer protected from high relative humidities that can cause undesirable changes. Exposed footage is even more vulnerable to the effects of humidity and temperature. Therefore, p ro ce s s film as soon as p o ssib le a fte r exposure.

In general, the lower the temperature at which a film is stored, the slower will be its rate of sensitometric change during aging. For periods up to six months, motion picture raw stock should be stored at a temperature of 13°C (55°F) or lower during the entire storage period if optimum film properties are to be retained. Raw stock should be stored at -18° to -23°C (0° to -I0°F) if it must be kept longer than six months or if the film is intended for a critical use that requires uniform results. Sensitometric change cannot be prevented by such storage, but it will be minimized. IMPORTANT: After removing a package of raw stock from cold storage, allow it to warm up to room temperature (70°F ± 5°F; 21 °C ± 3°C) before opening the can. This will prevent telescoping of the roll during handling because of cold-induced looseness between the layers and will prevent moisture condensation and spotting of the film. Type of KODAK

A fte r re m o v a l fro m s to ra g e ke ep se a le d (in o rig in a l c a n s) u n til te m p e ra tu re is a b o ve th e

Warm-Up Times (Hours)

Film

For 14°C

For 55°C

Package

(25°F) Rise

(100°F) Rise

8mm

1.5

super 8

1.5

16mm

1.5

35mm

Radiation Do not store or ship raw stock near X-ray sources or other radioactive materials. S o m e s c a n n in g d ev ic e s u s e d b y p o s ta l au th o ritie s a n d airlin es m a y fo g ra w sto ck. Take special storage precautions in hospitals, industrial plants, and laboratories where radioactive materials are in use. Label

Temperature Protect film in original packages or loaded in cameras, cartridges, maga zines, on reels, and in carrying cases from direct sunlight and never leave film in closed spaces that may trap heat. The temperatures in closed automobiles, parked airplanes, or the holds of ships, for example, can easily reach 60°C (140°F) or more. A few hours under these conditions either before or after exposure can severely affect the quality of the film. If processing facilities are not immediately available, store exposed films at -18°C (0°F).

Relative Humidity When handling motion-picture film in high relative humidities, it is much easier to prevent excessive moisture take-up than it is to remove it. If there are delays of a day or more in shooting, remove the magazine containing partially used film from the camera and place it in a moisture-tight dry chamber. This prevents any absorptjon of moisture by the film during the holding period. Immediately after exposure, return the film to its can and retape it to prevent any increase in moisture content over that picked up during actual exposure. Moisture leakage into a taped can is more serious when the can contains only a small quantity of film. When these circum stances exist, seal as many rolls as possible in a second moisture resistant container.

Handling Handle the film strand only by the edges to avoid localized changes in film sensitivity caused by fingerprints. Folding and crimping the film also introduces local changes in sensitivity. Keep the surfaces that the film travels over clean to prevent scratching of the film’s base or emulsion. A more detailed discussion of long-term storage may be found in The B o o k o f F ilm Care, KODAK Publication No. H-23.

CINEMA

PAPERS

• 73

SOUND EXPERIENCE

CINEKINETIC MICRO JIB

I feel I should explain why Ian W ilson’s name

The Micro Jib weighs about sixteen pdunjfe

always seems to pop up when “T echnicalities”

(6kg) and folds up within itself to a length shorter

talks about sound. He’s a friend and when I

than a standard tripod. It mounts on a tripod

need a sound recordist comment I ring friends.

bowl and can be set up by one person in a few

He also has a firm grasp on new computer and

minutes.

video technologies, and we talk for hours about

CineKinetic have been mentioned (some

the way things are going. He has travelled the

times tongue in cheek) in these pages before. I

world on documentary shoots, and worked for

believe their promotion and brochures are some

60 Minutes for years. W hat follows started as a

of the best around and they have had consider

conversation about lightweight and minimum

able success in the American market. They

gear for sound recording and the future with

have,been quick to adapt and innovate with a

digital machines such as DAT. All that will have

range of product designed for travelling light.

to wait because this anecdote was more inter

But good looking doesn’t always mean it works,

esting. I’ve always made jokes when struggling

so we asked someone who owned one of their

to help Ian carry his large silver Haliburton case

Micro Jibs.

of equipment and we all use its nickname, the

P ro d u c e r and c in e m a to g ra p h e r Ivan

“Mother Case”. Yet the accessories inside have

Johnston started in the industry fifteen years

saved many a job. Ian:

M A R IK A RÖ K K IN THE 5 0-Y E A R -O LD FILM M USICAL BILDUNTERSCHRIFT (BUT W O M E N ARE BETTER DIPLOMATS).

This represents a significant advance on previ ous attempts with colour film s.” Those previous colour experiments often had widespread view ing because of the novelty value, but were usually shorts or coloured sections cut into features. Development of the Agfacolor negative/ positive process had taken the company’s tech nicians five years from 1936, when they first introduced the “Neu Agfacolor” slide film that incorporated dye couplers in the emulsion. The process was to continue during the production of the feature. Scenes that were shot in 1939 at the start of the production had to be re-shot for the premiere, as the film stock was refined and colour techniques that we accept as common place were discovered. One of these that was recorded was surprise that the green field used for an enormous ballet sequence was repro duced with a yellow or blue tint depending on the colour temperature of the light at the various times of day. Other films using the process quickly followed: Munchausen starring Hans Albers and S is s istarring Romi Schneider. The war and military requisition of materials added another intriguing chapter to film history. The three colour layers used in these early films have now become twelve emulsion layers in the present-day Agfa XT colour negative films and the emulsions are much thinner. It was the single-strip negative that made colour feature filmmaking sim pler and cheaper and Agfa’s contribution was a vital part. (The history books say that the first threecolour process feature film was the American film Becky Sharp released in 1935 using the Technicolor 3 film strip process. The first single strip negative feature is not as easy to pin point.) 74

• CINEMA

PAPERS

The case goes in luggage, but the Nagra always goes over your shoulder with you on the plane. Anyone who doesn’t do that is an idiot and I know there are quite a few who don’t. I always put a tape on it and carry a little microphone in the pouch. If you are shooting current affairs, 60 Minutes, whatever and if the plane gets hi-jacked you have a sound report. I’ve done this since day one and it stops it getting knocked around. What you are fighting is the continual wear and tear that the gear has. Everything I own in my sound career is in that case. It is a Haliburton suitcase, it’s been around the world 65 times, it has bullet holes in it, it has every conceivable dent known in the Western world and a few other worlds, but it is very functional because it bontains what I need for any job I’m confronted with. It has evolved over the years from numbers of huge cases down to that one; it’s a process of refinement. Now for the bullet story. We were in the Hunza Valley and there was some border trouble. Suddenly all hell broke loose and I dropped to the ground behind the case. I didn’t realize that something had come close until I opened the case later, and a bullet head fell out. I was very grateful for a large case. If I’d taken notice of all you disbelievers it may have been a different story. It would be ludi crous for me to hide behind a small plastic DAT! A cameraman friend of mine once turned up for a job with a case that was six feet long by two feet wide and a foot deep. To make it manageable it had wheels on it. The attempts to get it on the plane were ridicu lous. I got so fed up that, as a joke, I went out and bought a hacksaw and came to his room and said, “OK, I’m going to fix this right now.” He wasn’t impressed, but the real ity is you have to watch things like that. If it is anything over 30 kilos in this country, the airline baggage handlers refuse to handle it. So my case teeters on 29 to 30 kilos and, if it goes slightly over, I open it up and take a tape out. The limitation of size is that you need to be able to get to things fast; if it’s too cramped you can’t.

ago at the ABC and for eight years made thè fam iliar moves from news current affairs to film docum entary and drama. He was second unit DOP on M ission: Impossible and of late he has been shooting and producing more off-beat material for shows like the SBS Eat Carpet. In 1991, he was DOP for a David Attenborough docum entary in Queensland about a naturalist painter living in the rain-forest near Cairns. It was for a sim ilar shoot that he purchased his Micro Jib, he explained: I bought the Jib for an environmental docu mentary about two years ago, because the director wanted camera moves and, with just a two-person crew, this was the way to do it. It was a very early model and I’ve suggested some changes, such as strengthening the end and changing the tightening knob to the side that you are operating from, which I think have been incorporated. I bought the canvas carrybag with it and, at one stage, we had a substantial walk into the rainforest and I used the handles of the bag to carry the jib like à knapsack on my back. It wasn’t great, but it was the only way we could have got it there. On that shoot, we did a shot that I don’t believe we could have achieved with anything else but the Micro Jib. We were on a fifty-foot (15m) long suspension bridge, one hundred feet up in the air. There was a lot of movement in it. I set up the tripod in the middle of the bridge and put the Arri on the jib arm. The shot started up high in some overhanging leaves and tongues across to pick up the presenter walking towards the camera. It’s then that the viewer realizes that the camera must have been floating out in mid-air. It was a great shot

T H E A U S T R A L IA N C IN E M A T O G R A P H E R S S O C IE T Y The Australian Cinematographers Society was formed in Sydney in March 1962, the Mel bourne branch not till 1 9 6 6 .1attended a few meetings but there seemed to nothing relevant for me as a young beginner. Priorities change, as they do for organizations, and I’ve attended the past few award screenings in Melbourne, where there is a healthy growth in attendance and a feeling of relevance to the younger industry members. We depend a lot on the strength of groups such as the I REE and SMPTE; I wonder if it’s not time for a resurgence of the other industry guilds, such as fo rfilm editing and sound. Here is the first of Marilyn M iller’s regular reports from the ACS.

A B O V E : THE C IN EKIN ETIC M IC R O JIB.

It’s no longer news that Australian cinem a

definition television), and the application of

tographers are sought after by overseas

film techniques when using videotape.

production companies because they are

These functions are free for Society

inventive, creative and they like to work

members. Non-members are welcome to

BE LO W : IV A N J O H N S T O N FROM M ELBO URNE C O M P A N Y

hard. W orking with small crews and low

attend, but some branches may charge them

K iN EG R AFFITI, L O O K IN G SERIOUS A B O U T A S H O T U S IN G HIS

budgets in Australia, our cinematographers

a small fee for each function. If you are not

CIN EKIN ETICS M IC R O JIB.

have, through necessity, developed good

a member, and you would like to attend any

lighting skills and the ability to shoot high-

of the following functions, it is advisable that

quality pictures under d iffic u lt circu m

you ring the contact person in case the

stances.

information given has changed.

and the very lightweight nature of the gear let us do it. The light weight is it’s only limitation. I believe it should be used only with 16mm gear or the lighter one-piece Betacam. When I shoot tape, I tend to put a Bosch on it but it’s really too heavy. For the 16mm it’s fantastic. That’s the weight of camera it was designed for. You have to be very careful of It travelling and look after it, but it’s often the only solution to getting those kind of shots with a small crew.

When they are not shooting overseas, they usually come home to Australia to work, rest and to pass on their knowledge to other people in the Australian film industry. The Australian Cinematographers So ciety hope to have Dean Semler ACS1 as guest speaker in one or two states in the first half of this year. Dean, who won an Oscar award last year for cinematography

THE 1992 PRODUCTION BOOK

in Dances with Wolves, and has been pre

At last, free from the binder that ties, is the 1992

paring a new feature, will be in Melbourne

Production Book, and well worth the wait.

during May for an AFI seminar. Dean is

NEW SOUTH W ALES

You will have missed the February evening with Jim Frazier ACS, by the time you read this. Jim worked with David Attenborough on the Australian shoot of the BBC series, The Living Planet. He is one of the w orld’s best nature cinematographers, well known for developing his own amazing micro lenses and a fine example of the standard of the Sydney ACS nights. For more information contact: Phil Donnison (02) 971 0036. V IC TO R IA

Don’t balk at the cover price of these books

perhaps the Society’s mostfamous member.

because you could save the same amount eas

There are others who are also well

The Award Winning Cannes Film Festival

known to producers throughout the world:

Commercials (1991) were held late in Feb

“T echnicalities” will be printing information

John Seale ACS ( The Doctor, Dead Poets

ruary.

from the Production Book, along with up-to-the-

Society and Gorillas in the Mist), Peter

Free Student Day, Saturday, 14 March.

deadline corrections or phone number changes

James ACS (M ister Johnson and Driving

An introduction to professional work in the

ily in avoiding wasted phone calls.

Miss Daisy), Peter Levy ACS (Predator II),

industry for people specifically interested in

The travelling light theme means that loca

David Parker ( The Big Steal and Pure Luck),

cam erawork. Numbers are limited. Contact

tion services are a premium and I’d prefer to be

David Eggby ACS {M adM ax, The Man from

Barry Woodhouse ACS (03) 808 6015, or

stuck in a motel room with a copy of the Produc

Snowy River II and Quigley) and Russell

Marilyn Miller (03) 817 4117.

tion Book than the other ubiquitous reference

Boyd ACS (Blood Oath).

so that you can keep your copy up to date.

work from the Gideons.

More than 900 people across Australia

Among the many production services and

belong to the ACS. Most work on features,

relevant information listings are, for example,

commercials, television news and current

all the telephone numbers for W eather Services

affairs, documentaries or corporate training

across Australia.

films. They all share a passion for the art of

Needless to say this book is highly recom mended. It is available from: PB Publishing P/L, 151 Forbes Street, W oolloomooloo NSW 2011, PO Box 705 Kings Cross NSW 2011.

cin em a to grap hy and a com m itm ent to maintaining high industry standards. The Society, whose headquarters are in Sydney, has a branch in each state and

QUEENSLAND

An evening with Dean Semler ACS on the Gold Coast in March (at a date to be ar ranged). Contact: Jane or Edwin Scragg (07) 378 0077. S O UTH A U S TR A LIA

Monthly Club trade nights, generally held on the first Tuesday of each month. Con tact: Richard Brooking (08) 362 1210.

the A.C.T. The branches hold regular

MAKE UP WITH

functions, usually with afocus on film. These functions may include a trade night at a film

There will be more information on the Dean

laboratory, a special-effects studio, or a

Semler nights and other Society functions

production or post-production house. Or

in the next issue of Cinema Papers.

the function may be an educational evening with a film and guest speaker. As many of the Society’s members who began their craft working with film now work w ith vid eo ta pe , som e fu n ctio n s cover

John Barry Group Pty. Ltd. Head Office (02) 439 6955

1. The use of the letters ACS after a cinema tographer’s name is limited to Society mem bers who have been judged by their peers and granted the honour of ACS accreditation.

videotape subjects such as HDTV (high

CINEMA

PAPERS

• 75

WATCHING THE NEWS

35MM LOCATION MOTION CONTROL

If you have been reading som ebody’s copy of Encore recently, you would have seen the article on the photography of Redheads and DOP Steve

Motion Control is a versatile technol ogy that allows precise and repeatable moves on motorized axes. Pan, Tilt, Track, Rotate, Boom and other con trolled movements can be repeated for the production o f multi-pass or sepa rate-pass elements used in videotape or film composites shot on location or in a studio. The system allows sync-sound pho tography at 24/25 fps to playback or later post-synchronization. The con troller permits frame rates from single frame open-shutter exposures creating time exposure and scanning effects through to moderate high-speed frame rates up to 150 fps on selected axes. Camera motor adapter plates are available for computer-controlled camera modes for the Fries Mitchell 35-R3-PL and the Mitchell S-35R MKII, necessary for pin-registered work. Arriflex BLs and Arriflex III can be crystal-locked to the system. Arriflex HB (Bayonet Mount) with controlled motor is also available for photography o f non-registered material. A variety o f motorized camera sup port systems have been engineered by Pride Effects Studios, Sydney. Some of these include a lightweight 18' track with dolly and crane with 7' rise; an elemack format dolly with a riser col umn centre-mounted pan and tilt head. Special custom-mount rigs also in clude lightweight and heavy-duty pro grammable turntables, a vertical track o f over 7 metres with a remote pan and tilt head. Other rigs can be modified/ built to suit individual projects. Any rig/model/light that can be motorized can be programmed for ex act control to synchronize with a pro grammed camera move. Programming time can range from several minutes for a simple pan & tilt, onwards for more complex moves. Set up time can vary due to location, cam era rigging and shot requirements. Suitable time should be allowed for programming and rehearsing moves.

Mason’s technique of modifying the bleach during negative processing of the Kodak 5296 to achieve a hard, high-contrast look. You may have wondered, as I did, which was the adven turous lab that went to all the trouble. No thanks or mention was made in the article, so I asked. It was Atlab.

SAMUELSON FILM SERVICE FREIGHT DEALS One travel topic that came immediately to mind was the problems in air-freighting gear. I re m emberfronting up to the Ansett air cargo office

A N TO N /B A U E R ULTRALIGHT SINGLE

in Townsville with the usual mound of silver

W ITH W ID E -A N G L E A D A P TO R

boxes and watching the scale numbers rise along with the counter person’s anticipation of the extra revenue. His face fell when we had him call his office for the Sammies' cargo rate. I smiled. When you move as much equipment freight around as Samuelsons, you can negoti ate special deals. Dennis Noonan, Managing Director of Samuelsons, said that they were about to make an announcement about Interna tional Freight deals that they have been negoti ating. Especially with the new Samuelson’s of fice in Singapore, the company is moving gear in and out of the country daily. Talk to them about a quote on your next job.

ANTON / BAUER ULTRALIGHTS The other high tech lighting kit that combines lightweightwith compact size is the U.S.-manu factured Anton/Bauer Ultralight. (Anton/Bauer is well known for its ni-cad batteries, and the Anton is the Anton Wilson whose columns in American Cinematographer became one of the best tech books around, Anton W ilson’s Cin ema Workshop.) They use a range of different wattage dichroic lamps which ensure sensible battery life, and have a clever system for quick lamp changes on the run. There are fully adjustable swivel and tilt movements. Sydney directorDOP Ron Windon bought a set and was enthu siastic enough to write the following piece about them: During the 35 years I’ve worked as a cinema tographer and director of television commer cials, there have been significant changes and advancements in the tools that cinema tographers have at their disposal. The vast

improvement in cameras, film stock and lenses have provided the cinematographer with the means to obtain a quality of photographic image that could only have been dreamt about in past years. The equipment is available equally to all of us, but it is in the clever use of light that cinematographers set themselves apart. I take a great deal of interest in new lighting prod ucts and developments, and make sure that I remain familiar with the latest advances. Recently as DOP and director on a series of television commercials for Caltex I was faced with lighting a number of night driving scenes (some in rain) with actors driving and deliver ing dialogue. We wanted to work with a small crew and without a lighting generator, and the small space and mobility we required sug gested battery-powered lights. I’d seen the Anton/Bauer Ultralight’s at John Barry’s and Ben Vanderlinde offered them to me for testing. I was impressed, so I made the purchase. The lights proved to be an asset on that job. They’re small, lightweight and portable, and have since been used on numerous shoots. Their compact size let me use them exten sively on a recent studio shoot for Canon Bubble Jet Printers. Most of the product pho tography was on an S-Board and the lamps could easily be hidden behind the printers, allowing me to create highlights and fill where required to supplement the main lighting source. The lamps are very well manufactured and versatile with a range of barn doors, dichroic filters, diffusers and a wide angle adapter. All in all I find them extremely useful. Ultralights are available from John Barry Group P/L. Sydney office (02) 439 6955.

MATT BUTLER - THE BUTLER DID IT

A U S T R A L I A N S O C I E T Y OF M A K E - U P A R T I S T S T H E A S M A (A U S T R A L I A N S O C I E T Y O F M A K E -U P A R T I S T S ) W IL L BE H O L D I N G M A K E -U P / S P E C I A L E F F E C T S E X A M S O N S U N D A Y 29 M A R C H 1 9 92 A T T H E Y W C A , 5 W E N T W O R T H A V E N U E , D A R L I N G H U R S T , F O R M A K E -U P A R T I S T S W I S H I N G T O B E C O M E M E M B E R S . M A K E -U P A R T I S T S W H O A R E N O T M E M B E R S O F T H E A S M A A R E S T R O N G L Y E N C O U R A G E D T O JO IN . F O R F U R T H E R D E T A IL S PLE A SE W R I T E T O T H E S E C R E T A R Y , A S M A , P .O .B O X 3 5 7 , B R O A D W A Y , N S W 2 0 0 7 .

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L IG H T W O R K S B o b W e is The introduction o f random-access editing systems is the biggest single change in film and television post-production since t a lk in g movies. Tape and laser disk based non-linear editing systems have been around

I^dedolight

doing heavy-duty volume work in North America for the past fewyears. There has been some exposure to these systems in other markets, but they have been basically transitional technologies bridging the gap between traditional film and scissors or off-line video on the one hand, and true random access systems on the other. While a number o f systems have emerged or been announced, the field seems to have narrowed to two major players: LIGHTWORKS and AVID. I don’t propose here to compare the systems or to fully outline their features. Steven Smith covered some o f this territory in the last edition from the point o f view o f an AVID user. As the Australian and New Zealand distributor o f LIGHTWORKS, I would like to give some background to this editing machine. The three partners who began the project are London-based and all have a background in film and television production. Project head, Paul Bamborough, a film director and inventor, was responsible for the SSL audio mixing desk that became a standard in serious music re cording studios around the world in the 1980s. With his partners, he set out to produce the best possible editor with the available technology.

the D.O.P’s light, puts light where you want it. 'The DEDOLIGHT has an innovative Ü fc S í optical system design (patented) surpassing Fresnel technology. 'The DEDOLIGHT has extraordinary focus range of 25:1 and a light output comparable to conventional fixtures of much higher wattage, with a flat field from edge to edge 'The DEDOLIGHT runs on economical 100, 50 and 20 watt, low cost, 12 volt.halogen bubbles. 'The DEDOLIGHT can be powered by battery, camera or car cigarette lighter or with the use of the DED0TEC 4 channel power supply, with accurate colour temperature settings of 3000,3200 and 3400 degrees Kelvin. The DT5 model power supply can also deliver 12 volt DC for cameras. 'The DEDOLIGHT weighs only 670g (about the same as a can of beer) and measures only 9 x 16cm approx, so mounting or hiding it out of shot is easy, especially with DEDOLIGHT accessories. 'The DEDOLIGHT PROJECTION ATTACHMENT provides precise light control with no trace of colour fringing. Geometric or free form shapes can be defined with extremely clean hard edges when the projection attachment Is used with the framing shutters, iris, standard Rosco M-size gobos, or even shadow-patterns cut from Cinefoil or Blackwrap.

They took the view that questions o f picture and sound quality

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should have an o n /o ff switch that didjust that without presenting com puter type screens or requiring any saving or shut-down procedures. It should have a control console that any editor could recognize and use immediately without a training course. And it should not assume that the way an editor wants to work is not the bestway for s/h e to work. Thus it needed to be flexible enough to be driven by an editor in their preferred configuration. The list o f features is extensive, but the above starting points have all been incorporated into the finished design with great success. Editors who have the machine demonstrated recognize it immediately as a tool they can use to make their job more creative and less about rolling, marking, glueing, filing or number crunching. Lately, on-line storage has become a discussion point. LIGHTWORKS uses magnetic hard disks for the storage o f digitized pictures and sound. It uses optical removable disks for archiving and retrieval o f information. In London, there has been much discussion about using

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the optical removable disks for direct editing. This is possible but, in the opinion o f the design team, currently undesirable. Their approach is to be able to recall material required from optical disks as needed. While previewing the required take from the optical disk, it is written to the hard disk in the background ready for inclusion in the current editing session. It is not necessary to recopy the whole o f the optical disk as the machine keeps track o f the whereabouts o f all the material logged to a project even when the actual picture and sound is not on-line. If a particular shot is required, the machine will advise the editor to put the optical disk into the drive and it will retrieve it. There are two good reasons for not editing direct o ff the opticals: I 1. The data transfer rates are very slow (comparatively). If fast cuts are required from the same disk, there is the likelihood that the material H will not show up when required. 2. The disks only store 500 MegaBytes per side, or 50 minutes at the lowest picture and sound resolution. If you want to access the other side, you have to physically turn the disk over and then you no longer have access to the material on the A side. If you are interested in these devices, and plan to use one on your show, take a good look at the available machines before deciding which ' way to go. Take a test drive and kick the tyres.

A MESSAGE TO ALL FILM PRODUCERS Save 25-40% of your post-production budget by using COMPUTAMATCH®. In 1981 we had already created what is called in 1991 the "latest technology". COMPUTAMATCH®, our unique and highly developed system of computerized negative cutting, has been operat ing for years in Australia, England and New Zealand. COMPUTAMATCH® has already been used on 13,000 commercials, 100's of documentaries, 100's of hours of mini series and 17 cinema/television features. COMPUTAMATCH® is compatible with all linear and non linear editing systems ie. Ediflex, Touchvision, Montage, Shotlister, etc. COMPUTAMATCH® is 100% Australian designed and developed. CONTACT MARILYN SOMMER

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• 77

FROM

But how much o f your walking up to a group o f Russians is George Negus the individual being interested in them and how much is it George Negus playing out his role in the film?

Almost without exception, what I would say to people on camera is what I would say off camera. If I saw a group o f Russians at a service station after the failed coup attempt, I really would want to talk to them anyway. The fact that you talk to them with the camera rolling just adds a filmic element, which means that you’re probably a little more careful in the way it’s done, not what you say. But take the early shot where you pat the side o f a truck and say something like, “Do you think it’s going to get us across Russia?” It is a line that could almost have been scripted for that point in the film .

Well, you know you have to say something like that and you hope that it’s also very close to what you would have said anyway. Sometimes it works and sometimes it sounds like you’re setting something up. You can find quite corny lines working their way into your on-camera performance. The beauty o f editing is that you can throw them away. But when you’ve been doing it as long as I have, it becomes almost another sense. There are friends o f mine who would accuse me o f never being off camera in my daily existence; there are others who say I behave on camera as if there’s no camera there. Who’s right? All it means is that the person and the journalist have become so entwined that there is no cut-off point; I’m one and the same. When you were doing stories for 60 Minutes, how free were you to be yourself? T o what degree were there pressures from executive produc ers and others to tailor your performance?

There were no executive or management pressures. I was completely free to do what I wanted to do, the way I wanted to do it, within the constraints o f the format and the style. What caused me to leave eventuallywas thatl saw televisionjoumalism becoming too formatized, too much a captive o f its own success and its own structure. It became a professional straitjacket. I felt I was becoming professionally stere otyped. So, you either take the extra money and wear it, or you take less money and leave. I decided to do the latter because my own profession alism and journalistic ethic are far more important to me than maintaining a commercially successful television programme for the sake o f Kerry Packer, Alan Bond or anybody else. The other danger is o f becoming not quite a caricature o f yourself, but a parody. Because o f the high profile and the continual exposure, you become the butt o f jokes, cartoonists and satirists, all o f which is flattering in the first instance, but gets to be a pain in the bum after a while. Because 60Minuteshelps delineate an image o f a presenter quickly and clearly, the custodianship o f that image is crucial. The high-profile presenters must inevitably becom e very concerned about their own images and even begin controlling themselves more than outside forces might.

That’s why I’ve always been more than willing to be outspoken in a private/professional sense. If I am asked for comment about things thatl thinkl’m qualified to commenton, I give one. I haven’tdone that as a 60 Minutes reporter or as a journalist, but as a high-profile indi vidual. But yes, you’re right. The pressure to conform, even within what is a fairly free environment, is very hard to resist. And the only way to resist is to get out. If you look at what all the original 60 Minutes reporters have done, and I say this kindly, Ray [Martin] wentffom one constriction to another, as didjana [Wendt]. Maybe they are better at handling constriction than I am. As for Ian [Leslie], he tried to go his 78

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1 1

own way and he’s had a few professional mishaps, but I’m sure he’ll find his professional feet again. I was very aware that when I left 60 Minutes and did the Today show that I was going from one constriction to another, but I needed professional breathing space. I needed time to work up, if you like, the guts to make a deliberate move out o f the system so that I could come back to it in a totally different professional form - still George Negus, but a Negus packaged in quite a different way. Was that not only a financial risk but also an emotional one, in the sense that you don’t have this huge support mechanism around you?

It was not a financial risk; it was financial stupidity, if you want to be ruthless about it. When I left, most o f my well-meaning friends in the industry, like Gerald Stone, said, ‘The thing I think you’ll find most difficult is the lack o f a support structure.” That was true to an extent, because it meant I wasn’t free to do only what I wanted. When you are on your own, you have no choice but to think about the financial aspects, the legal aspects, the hiring and firing, and all those awful, murky areas of the profession that you prefer not to know about. That being the case, people who think they could do what we did and succeed overnight deserve to fail, because you can’t. If people also expect that moving outside the structure o f the system means that they can make product and have it immediately accepted by the networks, then they are very stupid. There is an automatic antagonism, by the commercial networks at least, towards anybody who flies in the face o f the system, or, if you like, bites the hand thatfeeds them. They would much prefer you in there being an expensive maverick than out there being a competitor, or even just somebody selling product to them. The commercial networks are so unaware o f the real financial nature o f their own industry that they think it’s more expensive to buy product off people like myself than to have us working in there on a huge salary. I suspect that very few television executives understand how much their own products cost because so much lying, cheating, scheming and amortising goes on. That makes it doubly difficult for people on the outside to go in there and sell product. Did you consider at any point trying to arrange a sort o f half-in-there/ half-outside relationship with a network?

We had one and still do. I wouldn’t go so far as to say that it’s one foot in and one foot out, but we’ve maintained a toe in the water through out, first o f all with Nine. This was totally unworkable because they reallyjust didn’twant to know. Their attitude was pigheaded, silly and, in many cases, ill-informed. But that was a few years back. Hopefully, things are changing - even at Nine where commercial success seems to blur any vision o f the future. Seven tried much, much harder to deal with us and, in fact, we sell product to them. I suspect that’s a relationship that could have developed. Now we’re discussing a similar relationship with the ABC, whereby I work for them [on Foreign Correspondent] and also sell them things. There is every reason to believe that is going to work out very well. The most frustrating thing about dealing with the commercial networks is that they totally lacked any sort o f adventurism when it came to new programmes, though very recently Seven seems to be showing a bit o f bravery. But the mad rush o f blood that Nine had with programmes like 60Minutes, Sunday, Today and Wide World ofSportsten, twelve years ago has gone. The last bold thing they did was Burke’s Backyard and now, because that’s successful, they don’t want to go outside that. It is infuriating to bash your head against this wall which refuses to acknowledge the fact that people other than their programmers, their hole-fillers, can come up with ideas for programmes. There’s nothing

scientific ab ou t it at all. T h e way in w h ich they m atch p erson n el with p ro g ra m m in g need s is very adolescent.

ch an nel actually w atch ed it, SBS’ ratings w o u ld be abou t 20. Y ou n ever hear anybody say anything that isn ’ t positive about SBS,

Why don’t the television networks understand their audiences better?

as th ou gh everyone knows it intimately. T h e y have an in k lin g that SBS has som eth in g to tell them and show them , and th ey’re right.

Because they n ever talk to them ; they ju st talk to each o th er and to m ark et surveyors. T h e phrase that annoys m e m o re than anything in the television

In terms o f the audience, how do you think this bottom 85% perceives you?

industry is p e o p le saying, ‘T h a t ’s w hat the m o b wants.” Q u ite frankly,

[L o n g pause] W ell, I think they id en tify w ith w hat they see as my

I d o n ’ t k n ow m any television executives o r journalists o r p rogram m e-

norm ality. I ’m a n orm al hum an b e in g w h o happens to have p icked up

m akers w h o have a clue abou t w hat the m ob wants. T h e y w o u ld n ’ t

in fo rm atio n and d e ve lo p e d op in ion s about a lo t o f things over the

k n ow w h o the m ob is; th ey’ve spent m ost o f th eir lives trying to be

years. I ’ d also like to think they id en tify because I d o n ’ t talk d ow n to

som eth in g o th e r than on e o f the m ob . T h e ir ‘ awareness’ o f th eir own

the audience. H avin g said that, I ’ve n ever p itch ed m yself at any

m ark et is a self-perpetu ating myth. T h e y ju st w o u ld n ’ t know.

particular audience level either. I t ’s all about com m u nication. I f y o u ’re n o t com m u n icatin g with

And why would George Negus know?

p e o p le , they w o n ’t watch. I ’ve n ever had that p ro b lem , which m eans F o r m y sins as a h igh -p rofile jou rn alist, the great unwashed - fo r a m ore

that w hatever m eth o d I ’m using instinctively o r d eliberately works.

charitable way o f d escrib ing the Australian view in g au dience - think

V ery few p e o p le say to m e, “I d id n ’ t know what you w ere g ettin g at.”

they know you, an d they m ake a p o in t o f ap p roach in g m e and talking

H e n c e , over the years, th ere have b e en all those accusations o f over

to m e.

sim plification and sensationalization. T h a t’s a heap o f shit. T h e skill o f

I also regard m yself as an in credib ly n orm al hum an b e in g and I m ix

the jou rn alist on television, w h eth er it be the A B C o r com m ercial

w ith in cred ib ly n orm al p e o p le . A n d the sorts o f stories I d o m ean that

networks, is to com m u nicate in credib ly c o m p lex issues, subjects and

I m e e t a lo t o f ord in ary p e o p le . I d on ’ t h id e fro m them like m ost o f the

situations to as w id e an audience as possible, and that m eans having to

p e o p le I k n ow in television and jou rn alism .

state things in away that may occasionally appear to others as trivializing

I have b e en q u o ted recen d y as saying that television p e o p le

o r superficial.

underestim ate the au d ie n c e ’s in tellig en ce level. T h a t’ s p robably a

T o com m u nicate to a lo t o f p e o p le quite successfully, you have to

smart-ass crack. W h a t I also said, but it d id n ’ t g e t as m uch coverage, was

know a lo t m o re than you appear to know, and that’ s the way I see

that they u nderestim ate the au d ien ce’ s interest level. Q uite often

myself. P e o p le know that I d on ’ t say things fo r the sake o f it, that I d on ’ t

television m anagem en ts w ill say the television audiences w o u ld n ’ t be

m ake claims I can’ tjustify, that I d o n ’ t p reten d exp erien ces I h aven’ t

interested in story x o r story y, w h en they really m ean th ey’re not. A n d

had. T h e y know that I ’ve b een there and d o n e it, that I am n o t a

because th ey’re not, because it d oesn ’ t a ffect th eir lives in any way,

th eoretician but an activist. I like to think th ere ’s a cred ib ility factor

shape o r form , they d o n ’ t think p e o p le ou t there are particularly

that has n o th in g to d o with m e seekin g credibility. T h e y ju s t fe e l that

in terested either.

I ’m fair dinkum as an individual, so th erefore I must b e fair dinkum as

In the p a stfifteen to twentyyears o f m y life, I have b een continually astounded at the interest level o f ord inary p e o p le in w h at’s g o in g on arou n d them , n o t ju st in Australia but internationally. T h e y want to know, and they fe e l quite starved and d ep rived o f attractively-packaged in fo rm a tio n and explanation. A n d that, in the lo n g run, is w h atw e are about: m ak in g attractively-packaged in fo rm atio n and explanation.

a journalist.

To that description one might add “passionate” . There are not that many journalists who seem genuinely and passionately interested in what they’re doing. T h a t’ s true; I am passionate. T h e things that interest m e as ajo u m a list

How do you define the audience that you’re making programmes for? T h e b o tto m 85% , p e o p le w h o d o n ’ t norm ally fin d things ou t fo r

also interest m e as a hum an b eing, so I d o n ’ t have to fake it. M aybe that is an oth er exp lan ation fo r why p e o p le ap pear to react positively to what I do. I c o u ld n ’ t fake it and I w o u ld n ’t.

themselves. I on ly to ok the j o b at the A B C because I know it is consciously trying to ex te n d its audience reach fro m the 10 or 12 it n ow is to the 20s and m aybe 30s. Instead o f m y trying to m aintain an interest level fro m ord in ary Australians, what I w o u ld like to d o n ow is take ordinary Australians to the A B C audience cam p. I think the A B C was far too

ACROSS THE RED UNKNOWN Writer-producer: G eorge Negus. Executive producer: Bob Loader. Asso ciate producer: Kirsty Cockburn. Research: Jennifer Pusey. Director o f photography: Richard Daillie-Mace. Sound recordist: N ed Dawson. Edi tor: Mark Middis. Sound editor: Wayne Pashley. Assistant editors: Sue

restricted fo r fa r to o lon g. But I ’ve b e en very en cou raged by what I have

Midgley, Robert Cable, Libby Villa. Production supervisor (Aust.): Malcolm

seen in the past five to ten years. T h e A B C is n ow aggressively setting

Young. Russian adviser-interpreter: Grigori Davydov. Russian adventurer-

o u t to attract m o re p e o p le to watch its program m es, and n o t just

guide: Feodor Koniukhov. Siberian liaison: Leon id Lysenko. T itle graph

traditional A B C viewers.

ics: Graham Davidson. T itle music: Twighlight. O ther music: Russian composers and perform ers (courtesy o f M e lo d ia ). Sound mixer: Brett

Do you feel the same about SBS ?

Robinson. V ideo post-production facilities: Apocalypse. Camera suppliers:

SBS is a g rea t sham e because it is tech n ologically crippled. It can’ t

Samuelson Film Services. Negative matching: Chris Rowell Productions.

reach p e o p le . I f everybod y w h o told you that SBS was a w o n d erfu l

Laboratory: Victorian Film Lab. Production accountancy: John Flynn.

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• 79

□

SECOND AUSTRALIAN DOCUMENTARY FILM CONFERENCE

FILM FINANCE CORPORATION 1 9 9 0 - 1 9 9 1 As those interested in FFC decisions would already know, the FFC does not reveal at the time of its decisions how much money has gone to each project. One must wait to the annual report for that information. From the 1990-91 Annual Report come the following figures. The name in parenthe ses is the director(s), which is followed by the production company. Unless otherwise specified, the amount listed is an equity in vestment by the FFC. No figures were listed for Feature Film Fund projects.

TELEVISIO N b r id e s

DRAMA

w (ADULT)

OF CHRIST (Ken Cameron) Road

show, Coote & Carroll, $3,028,000 GOOD VIBRATIONS (Graham Thorburn) SSF, $1,479,718 HEROES ll - THE RETURN (Donald Crombie) TVS Films, $3,258,164 SIX PACK (Megan Simpson, Rodney Fisher, Kay Pavlou, Di Drew, Sue Brooks, Karin Altmann) Generation Films, $960,000 TRACKS OF GLORY (George Ogilvie) Barron Films, $3,610,044 TELEVISIO N

DRAMA

(ADULT)

C O -P R O D UC TIO N S F E A T U R E S

CHILDREN OF THE DRAGON (Peter Smith)

BACKSLIDING (Simon Target) Cast Films,

Southern Star Xanadu, $4,790,000

$1,530,000 EIGHT BALL (Ray Argali) Meridian Films,

TELEVISIO N

$1,130,225

(CHILDREN)

FATAL BOND (Vincent Monton) Avalon Films,

ANIMAL PARK (Mark DeFriest, Mike Smith)

$1,002,412

Sunshine Films, $1,360,000 CLOWNING AROUND (George Whaley) Barron Films, $2,498,000 LIFT OFF (George Ogilvie, Steve Jodrell) ACTF, $6,800,000 THE MIRACULOUS MELLOPS (Karl Zwicky) Millenium Pictures, $2,088,624 THE RIVER KINGS (Donald Crombie) Pros pect Productions, $2,133,465 TOMORROW’S END (Noel Price) Film Austra lia, $2,159,014

OVER THE HILL (George Miller) Glasshouse

Pictures, $4,125,326 REDHEADS (Daniel Vendramini) Roxy Films, Motion Picture Management, $1,035,000 RESISTANCE (Paul Elliott, Hugh KeaysByrne) Macau Light Film Corporation, $4,264,000 STRICTLY BALLROOM (Baz Luhrmann) M & A Film Corporation, $2,343,271 A WOMAN’S TALE (Paul Cox) Illumination Films, $570,000

DRAMA

D O C U M EN TA R IE S 1990-91

FEATURE

FILM

FUND

SAY A LITTLE PRAYER (Richard Lowenstein)

Flying Films THE GREAT PRETENDER (David Elfick) Palm

Beach Pictures HAMMERS OVER THE ANVIL (Ann Turner)

S.A.F.C. Productions THE NOSTRADAMUS KID (Bob Ellis) Simpson

Le Mesurier Films SHOTGUN WEDDING (Paul Harmon) David

Hannay Productions FEATURE

FILM

C O -P R O D UC TIO N S BLACK ROBE (Bruce Beresford) Australia-

Canada, Alliance Entertainment & Samson Productions, $3,265,855 MAP OF THE HUMAN HEART (Vincent Ward) Australia-Canada-UK-France, Map of the Human Heart, $2,909,445 ON MY OWN (Antonio Tibaldi) AustraliaCanada-ltaly, Colosimo Film Productions, $1,325,000 SECRETS (Michael Pattinson) Australia-New Zealand, Victorian International Pictures, $1,350,500

BRAN NUE DAE (Tom Zubrycki) Jotz Produc tions, $81,374 CHAINSAW (Shirley Barrett) M & A Film Cor poration, $97,693 THE DAYLIGHT MOON (Don Featherstone) Don Featherstone Productions, $60,993 FOR ALL THE WORLD TO SEE (Pat Fiske) Bower Bird Films, $211,791 GLOBAL GARDENER (Julian Russell, Tony Gailey) 220 Productions, $320,078 JOHN OLSEN: PAINTING AUSTRALIA (Don Bennetts) Don Bennetts, $196,623 KIDS FIRST (George Negus) Negus Media International, $81,873 LAND OFTHE APOCALYPSE (Bob Plasto, Ruth Berry) Mistpalm, $122,056 PAPER TRAIL - THE LIFE AND TIMES OF A WOODCHIP (Trevor Graham) Yarra Bank

Films, $200,000 THE RICH TRADITION (Carmelo Musca) CM

Film Productions, $376,585 RIDING THE TIGER (Curtis Levy) Curtis Levy Productions, $516,494 SACRED SEX (Cynthia Connop) Triple Image Films, $205,474 THE SERPENT AND THE CROSS (Chris Hilton)

Aspire Films, $156,000 LOANS

TALES OF THE SOUTH PACIFIC (James

FATHER (John Power) Barron Films, $50,000

Wilson) Juniper Films, $1,014,971

print and advertising SWEET TALKER (Michael Jenkins) Confi dence Productions, $5,114,701 print and ad vertising WAITING (Jackie McKimmie) Zarwot, $90,000 production enhancement

TRACK RECORD (John Mabey, Roy Mason)

80 • C I N E M A

PAPERS

F ROM P A G E 2

AFC, FFC, Film Australia, SBS, National Film Board of Canada, New Zealand Film Commission, British Broadcasting Corporation and state fund ing bodies, as well as overseas filmmakers, were in attendance. On a more worrying note, there was a significant lack of ‘young’ filmmakers at the conference. Black filmmakers had a high profile at the conference. Lina Gopaul of the British Black Au dio Film Collective, Tama Poata of Te Hokioi Film in New Zealand, and Aboriginal film m akers Frances Peters, Rhonda Barker, Rachel Perkins and Francis Jupurrurla Kelly all screened and discussed their work. This was and is important. When Wayne Wharton from the Townsville Abo riginal and Islanders Media Association told a packed session on Aboriginal film that all Aborigi nes were documentary filmmakers, he put into a sentence a large issue. As Aborigines until re cently have had whites make films about them, they have been denied the chance to tell their culture, their story, their way. Yet, the essence of much documentary filmmaking is the expressing and strengthening of a particular society. It seemed very appropriate, then, to be sitting at a documen tary conference and see any number of Aboriginal films and videos being taken on by a general audience. Day Three was a look to the future. There were lectures on possible markets, a new docu mentary movement, computers in the documen tary and new technology. The conference ended with delegates trying to come to terms with the present. The fragile state of documentary filmmaking throughout a recession, proposed government legislation and the need to keep documentaries squarely before the public, and industry in general, prompted the forming of a committee to act on behalf of the delegates on an on-going basis. A separate agenda was proposed by the indigenous filmmakers and media representatives. The conference accepted their proposals of establishing working arrange ments on their land or with their people. Lastly, the conference decided to make the event a bi-annual one, with the Third Australian Documentary Film Conference scheduled for 1993. And then it was over. People packed their bags, exchanged cards and had a drink to all of it. They also gave thought to the future of documentaries. There were numerous reasons given for the high turnout at the conference: the poor state of the industry, the attendance of many corporate video producers, and so on. What is probably closer to the mark is the real concern among those attending about the shrinking opportunities for documentaries in Australia.

Sorena, $322,688 VAUDEVILLE (Mario Andreacchio) Joanna

Stewart, $199,495 VITALI’S AUSTRALIA (Jon Ossher) Looking

For Australia, $161,994

CALL ( 0 3 ) 429 5511 TO A D V E R T I S E I N CINEMA PAPERS

P R O D U C T I O N

NOTE: Production Survey forms now ad here to a revised format. Cinema Papers regrets it cannot accept information re ceived in a different format, as it does not have the staff to re-process the information.

Post-production Post-production

Spectrum Film

Asst editor

Julian McDonald

MAKE IT QUICK Visual FX Australia

Producers

Shane Winter

Yahoo Serious

Stills photographer Caterers

Film Australia

Laboratory

Atlab

Distributor

Beyond Inti. Group Lionel Midford

Cast: [No details supplied] Synopsis: [No details supplied]

by hanging, a death which caused a social and political furore. The execution of Ronald Ryan put an end to hanging in Australia, but even now there are rumours of a conspiracy and the debate still rages.

Latent Image Productions

Exec, producer

Costume designer Composer

Prod, co-ordinator Prod, secretary Location scout Unit manager Production runner Prod, accountant

Clapper-loader 2nd unit camera Key grip

Alison Barrett (Australia)

2nd asst, director Continuity

Art dept co-ord Art dept administrator

Roger Mussendon Casting (U.S.)

Brenda Vincent Kevin Wright Tim Ferrier

Set dressers

Judith Cruden

Extras casting

Kerrie Brown

Stephan Elliott

Production Crew

Andrena Finlay Stuart Quin

Prod, manager

Rebel Penfold-Russell

Producer’s asst

Kerry Sloane

Stephan Elliott

Director’s asst Prod, secretary

Tanya Jackson

Props asst

Maureen Burns

Armourer

John Bowring

Armourer machinist

Richard Hurst

Scriptwriter

Geoff Burton

DOP Prod, designer

Brian Thomson

Costume designer

Fiona Spence Guy Gross

Composer

Other Credits

Julia Ritchie

Location manager

Wardrobe supervisor

Will Milne Joe Wilkinson

Lisa Meagher Lyn Askew

Wardrobe buyer

Jeremy Hutchinson Production runners

Margot Wilson

Asst designer

Alison Robb (Pt Stephens)

J & M Films

Tim Parry

Wardrobe

Tic Carroll

Drivers (Sydney)

Chris Darvall

Vehicle co-ord

Michael Davis

Unit manager

Colin Gibson

Standby props

Ken Moffat

Location scout Unit assts

35 mm

Andrew Short

Rowena Talacko

Prod, co-ordinator

Sandra Alexandra

Prod, manager

Michael Tolerton Faith Robinson

Props buyers

Standby wardrobe

Suzy Carter

Wardrobe asst

Gary Jones

Lyn Askew

Scott Gray Lyn Henderson

Prod, accountant

Tovefelt

seemingly defenceless couple are ensnared

Accounts asst

Avalon Films

in a nightmare game of fraud and blackmail by an insurance investigator extraordinaire. The

Camera Crew

only chance the y have to retain their sanity is to fight back, thus beginning a chilling, hair-

Focus puller Clapper-loader

raising adventure.

Camera asst

Tonti Connolly

Animals

Video split

Simeon Bryan

Animal trainer

Evanna Chesson

Attachment

Simeon Bryan

Animal handler Animal wrangler

Murray Chesson

10/2/1992 - 13/3/92 Maurice Murphy Phil Avalon Dennis Keily

NO WORRIES

Martin McGrath Bob Clayton Allan Trott Richard Hobbs

Prod, company

Palm Beach Pictures

John Capek

Steve Browne Michele D’Arcey

Martin Cooper

Sally Molineaux

Camera operator

Celinda Alvarado

John Mahaffie Colin Deane

Armour maker

Frank Hruby

Armour painter

George Tsoutas

Key grip

Brett Mathews Roger Buckingham Brett McDowell

Ian McAlpine

Scenic artist

Eric Fellner

Asst grip Gaffer

Jo Johanson

Construct, manager

Craig Bryant

Leading hand

Kim Williams

Exec, producer

David Hollman

Alan Dunstan

Electricians Asst electrics

PIANO LESSON Director

Generator operator

Jane Campion

Producer

Jan Champman

Scriptwriter

Jane Campion

Cast: Holly Hunter, Sam Neill. Synopsis: A mute woman’s love for her piano

Construction Dept

Rourke Crawford-Flett

[No further details supplied.]

Jenny Couston Heather Oxenham

Bill Malcolm John Rann Andrew Chauvel Mark Oliver

Carpenters

Gary Hill

Cameron Craig

Matt Inglls Tim Slattery

Jon Stiles Errol Glassenbury

Keith Haygate

Gordon Finney

On-set Crew

Peter Coy

1st asst director 2nd asst director

P J Voeten

3rd asst director

Trudi Latour

Garth Croft Set finishers

Chris Goddard

Continuity Boom operator

Alison Goodwin

Nick Walker

and another man provokes her husband’s jeal

Mark van Kool

Martin Bruveris

ousy.. Set in Victorian times in New Zealand.

Make-up

Wendy de Waal

[No further details supplied.]

THE NUN AND THE BANDIT Illumination Films

Prod, company

Principal Credits

Hairdresser

Nick Goddard

Paul Cox

Director

Paul Ammitzboll Paul Cox Wiliam Marshall

Exec, producer

Paul Cox

Based on the novel by

E. L. Grant Watson

Construct, runner Greensman

Wendy de Waal Klrtsen Vesey

Hair artist

Peter Forbes Gregg Thomas

Trades assts

David Sams

Kelly Taylor

Hair attachment

Producers

Andrew Mulvey

Painters

Kirsten Vesey

Scriptwriter Dennis Kiely

Cody Harris

Rigging grip

John Tate David Parkinson

Eric Todd

Grip

Kelly Taylor Ian Phillips

Guido Helmstetter

David Elfick

Glenda Carpenter

Phil Urquhart

Cheryl Pike Helen Head

Machinists

David Elfick

Susan Johannesen John Meredith

Marcia Lidden

Cutters

Producers

Scriptwriter Michael Davis

Lea Collins Dianne Brown Donna Wallace

Director

Jenny Campbell

On-set Crew 1st asst, director

Michelle McGahey

Asst art director

Financial controller

(underwater unit) Asst grips Gaffer

Ian Gracie

Art director Judith Cruden

Camera Crew Focus puller

Jamie de Haan

Art Department

Sally Campbell

insurance investigation that goes haywire. A

Hammond Jewell Insurer First Australian Completion guarantor Completion Bond Company Legal services

Kerry Fetzer Sylvian Vincent

Synopsis: A surrealistic black comedy of an

Production Crew Prod, manager

Tim Lloyd Graham ‘Grace’ Walker

Byrnes.

Principal Credits

Prod, designer

Vivien Zink Kollage Katerers:

Robert Gibson

Janet Hirschenson

Cast: Phil Collins, Hugo Weaving, Josephine

EXCHANGE LIFEGUARDS

Editor

Prod, designer Costume designer

FRAUDS

Gauge

FEATURES PRODUCTION

Sound recordist

Editor

Planning and Development

Inti, sales

DOP

Sound recordist

Casting co-ord.

Principal Credits

35 mm

man, his escape, his trial and eventual death

Grant Page Annie O’Halloran

Kevin Hayward

Gauge

Cast: [No details supplied] Synopsis: The story of Ronald Ryan: the

Nurse

DOP

Director Shane Winter Producers IanHolder

Exec, producer

Graham Burke

Scriptwriter

Producer Assoc, producer

Exec, producer

Bernle Ledger

Robert Sullivan

Shane Winter Prod, company Joanne George

Director

Safety report

Casting

Director

Production

Safety officer

Tim Sanders

Peter Townend

Principal Credits

Prod, company

Lulu Serious

Line producer

Mixer

Publicist

Prod, company

Co-producer

Sound editor Mixed at

FEATURES PRE-PRODUCTION

S U R V E Y

Andy Strutt

Post-production

Steve Courtley

Special fx co-ord Special fx manager

David Roach

Mechanical fx co-ord FX model co-ord Special fx dept, co-ord

Monty Fieguth John Murch Tom Davies

Asst editors

Maureen Rodbard-Bean

Edge numberer

Phillipa Harvey Maureen Rodbard-Bean Warner Bros

Inti. dist.

Pyro fx

Pauline Grebert

Cast: Yahoo Serious (Ned Kelly), Melora

Ray Fowler

Hardin, Alexei Sayle, Hugo Weaving, Bob

Norman Kaye.

Model technician

Pauline Grebert

Maza, Anthony Ackroyd, Adam Bowen,

Mechanical fx

Cast: Chris Haywood, Gosia Dobrowolksa,

Boom operator

Greg Rossiter

S yn o p sis: A kidnapper falls in love with his

Make-up

Hilary Pearce

victim, a nun, beginning a battle between

Blair Maxwell

Make-up asst Hairdresser

April Wallar

spirit and flesh in the isolation of the Austral ian bush. [Full production details next issue.]

Rodney Burke Keron Hansen

Synopsis: Adventure comedy based on con

Hilary Pearce

Safety officer

George Mannix

Conrad Rothman

day international bank robber who rides a

RECKLESS KELLY

Still photography

Peter Carette

Prod, company

Catering

Out to Lunch

Dist. company

Art Department Art director

Richard Hobbs

Serious Entertainment Village Roadshow (Greater Union Dlst.)

FX Labour FX bike wrangler

Asst art director

Cathy Finlay

Director

Yahoo Serious

Model maker

Props buyer

Cathy Finlay

Producers

Warwick Ross

Cablemaker

Yahoo Serious

Stunt co-ordinator

Standby props

Murray Gosson

Russell Cheek, Steve Cox. [No other details supplied] temporary issues with Ned Kelly as a modern-

Stuart McNaughton

powerful, home-made motorbike.

(Pt Stephens) FX buyer

Principal Credits

Albie Hastings

Lyall Beckman Kylie Gaskin

■ 1

FEATURES POST-PRODUCTION

Sue Maybury

BLINKY BILL

Walter van Veenendaal Rocky McDonald

Prod, company

Yoram Gross Film Studios

CINEMA

PAPERS

Dist. company

Beyond Intl. Group

Production

7/1/91 -3 1 /1 /9 2

Post-production

1/2/92 - 30/5/92

Continuity

Sharon Cunniffe Becky Locke

Boom operators

Sharon Cunniffe Kathleen O’Brien

Principal Credits

Prod, secretary

Kate Walton

Location manager

Peter Strain John Suhr

Unit manager

Director

Yoram Gross

Make-up

Sharon Cunniffe

Prod, accountant

Producer

Yoram Gross

Hairdresser

Sharon Cunniffe

Insurer

Exec, producer

Sandra Gross Yoram Gross

Scriptwriters

Safety officer

Becky Locke

Still photography

Loie Guezzennec

John Palmer Leonard Lee Based on

The Complete Adventures of Blinky Bill

Written by

Dorothy Wall

Other Credits

Terry Carter

Prod, manager

Art director

Lara Dunston

Props buyer

Lara Dunston

Key grip

Jon Goldney

Sharon Cunniffe

Asst grip

Scott Brokate Peter Wakley Jo Mercurio

Robert Smit

Simon Hann

Generator operator

Greg McKie

On-set Crew

Wardrobe supervisors

Becky Locke

Sarah McDougall Jan Egger FIUA

Legal Services

Film Finances Martin Cooper & Co.

Laboratory

Atlab Australia

Gauge

35 mm

Shooting stock

Kodak

3rd asst director

Becky Locke

Drivers

Sound editor

Inti, sales agent Inti. dist.

Beyond Inti.

Publicity

DDA

Terry Carter Terry Carter

Opticals

Filmplus UTS Media Lara Dunston UTS Media

Laboratory

Filmplus

Lab liaison

ventures of Blinky Bill, the mischievous koala,

Hot splicing

Bill Harrington Negthink

and his friends, Splodge, Flap Platypus and

Gauge Screen ratio

Andrea Fontaine

Boom operator

Gary Carr

16 mm (Super 8 & video) 3:1

Gail Goodall

Steven Feinberg Terry Curtis Fox David Eggby

DOP Sound recordist

Paul Clark Timothy Wellburn David Copping

Editor Production designer

Terry Ryan

Costume designer

Planning and Development

Skip Watkins

Exec, in charge prod.

Mariel Beros

Prod, co-ord

Big Belly Bus Caterers

Art Department Art director

Sue Vivian

Art dept runner

Suzanne Taylor

Location manager

Brian Burgess

Silla Childs Neville Mason

Production runner

Todd Fellman

Props buyer

Julita Sander

Prod, accountant

Standby props

Roy Plummer

Accounts asSt

Wardrobe

Lyn Paetz Tricia Mclnally FIUA

Paymaster

Wardrobe supervisor

Ron Gidgup

Standby wardrobe

Judith Hawkins

Wardrobe asst Construction Dept

Lisa Galea

Off-line facilities

UTS Media

Asst editor

Terry Carter

Justina Cattell

Unit manager

fight to preserve their homes.

Lara Dunston

Prod, asst Prod, secretary

Julita Sander

Post-production

Annabel Stokes

Doug Yellin Sharon Miller

Set dresser

UTS Media

90 mins Kodak 7276, 7278

Chris Buchinsky

Production Crew

Unit publicist Catering

Tim Burgard David Russell

Still photography

Video transfers by

$10,000

Gregory Coote Troy Neighbours

Scriptwriters

Art Thompson

Unit nurse

Blinky Bill rallies his friends and together they

Self-financed

Exec, producers

Peter West

homes and attempt to destroy the bush, but

Budget Pre-production

Fran Tinley

Continuity

Length Shooting stock

Prod, company

Michael Lake

Storyboard artists (U.S..)

Rachael Beck

Publicity Poster design

Irene Dobson Graham Burke

John McGuckin

UTS Media

Marketing consult.

Line producer

Stunts co-ord.

Synopsis: Animated feature film of the ad

COME BY CHANCE

Neil Nordlinger

Special fx

Scott (male voices).

Nutsy Koala, in the Australian bush. They

John Flock Co-producers

Raife Stokes

Voices: Robyn Moore (female voices), Keith

battle against illegal loggers who destroy their

John Davis

Becky Locke

Lara Dunston

Titles

Stuart Gordon

Director Producers

Maura Fay & Assoc. Casting director Casting Mike Fenton Casting (U.S.)

John Cumming

Music performed by Tim Brooke-Hunt Beyond Inti.

Michael Faranda Peter Nathan

Safety officer

Marketing

Principal Credits

Liddy Reynolds

Post-production Sound transfers by

21/10/91 ...

Make-up

Sharon Cunniffe

Construction Department

Development NSW Film & Television Office Production FFC Beyond Inti. Group

2nd asst director

Lara Dunston

Standby wardrobe

Post-prod, supervisor

Marketing

1st asst director

Sharon Cunniffe Wardrobe buyer

Government Agency Investment

Marketing consultant

Michale Con Bambacas

Best boy

Prod, accountant Insurer Completion guarantor

Peter Goodall

Gaffer

Wardrobe

20/10/91

Pre-production Production

Brad Pearce

Focus puller Clapper-loader

Terry Carter

Jane Barnett

Prod, assistant

Camera Crew Camera operator

Action vehicle .co-ords

Twentieth Century Fox (U.S.) $15 million

Showtravel

Travel co-ord.

Raife Stokes

Jeanette Toms

Producer’s asst

Film Finances

Completion guarantor

Guy Gross

Robert Smit

Composer Prod, supervisor

Lyn Jones Hannan & Company

Lara Dunston

Unit publicist

Art Department

Standby props

Animation director

Richard Blackadder

Production runner

Budget

Construct, manager Leading hand

Chris Norman Mathew McGuire

Completion guarantor

Bond Co. Travel co-ord

Show Travel

Freight

Showfreight

Camera Crew Camera operator

Philip M Cross

Focus pullers

Derry Field

Robyn Clark

Editing asst

Meredith Bennett

Sound transfers by

Kim Lord Laurie Silverstrin

Sound editor

The Completion

Laurie Balmer Clapper Loader

Adrien Seffrin Andrew Conder

Key grip

Pat Nash

Cast: Annabel Stokes (the Girl), Simon Hann

Asst sound editor

July 199 0 -A u g 1990

(the Boy), John Murphy (as himself), Mick

Musical director

Aug 1990 - Mar 1991 Apr 1991...

James (as himself), Terry Carter (the stranger,

Foley

hiker).

Mixer

Director

Lara Dunston

Synopsis: A hip, young inner-city couple’s

Mixed at

Producer

Lara Dunston

latest obsession is country 'n' western music.

Opticals & Graphics Cinevex

Camera dept attach

Ian Mathieson Matthew Meyer

Ian Anderson

Video split operator

Andrew Conder

Production Post-production

Principal Credits

Peter Pritchard

Asst grips

Mark Abraham

David Milroy

Gary McNamara

Gary Carr

farmer & yobbo), Raife Stokes (the hitch-

Kim Lord Kim Lord ABC Perth

Cary Vignal Gaffer

Tony Holtham

Best boy

Trevor Ripper

Electricians

Murray Head

Terry Carter

Yearning to experience the Wild West, they

Titles Laboratory

trade in their moped for an old Holden and

Lab liaison

DOP

Lara Dunston Lara Dunston

head west. Along the way they meet some

Gauge

Sound recordist Editors

Terry Carter Lara Dunston

true bush characters and discover what the west is really like. They learn more about each

Screen ratio Shooting stock

Terry Carter Terry Carter

other, and we find that things are not as nice

Video transfers by

as they appear on the surface.

Government Agency Investment

2nd asst director

Nikki Long

Development Production

3rd asst director

Adam Spencer Sophie Fabbri Jackson

Co-producer Scriptwriter

Composer

Planning and Develpoment Casting

Lara Dunston

Shooting schedule by

Lara Dunston Terry Carter Lara Dunston

Budgetted by Production Crew Prod, supervisor

John Cumming

Prod, manager

Becky Locke

Location managers

Becky Locke Lara Dunston Tracy Dunston

Transport manager Production runner Prod, accountant

Camera asst

Kathleen O’Brien

Camera type

Arri BL & Bolex Raife Stokes

On-set Crew Terry Carter Kathleen O’Brien Becky Locke

Script assistant CINEMA

PAPERS

ABC AFC/WAFC AFC/FFC

Marketing

AFC

Marketing

Simon Murton

Camera equipmentSamuelson Film Service

On-set Crew 1st asst director

Continuity

Charles Rotherham

Boom operator Cable man

Marketing consultant Inti, distribution

Madeleine Warburg Capricorn Pictures

Make-up supervisor Make-up assts

David Rapsey

Publicity

Exec, producers

Paul D Barron

Cast: John Moore (Doug Dooligan), David

Hairdresser

Penny Chapman

Prosthetics

ABC

Ngoombujarra (Pretty Boy Floyd), Jaylene Riley (Polly Yarrup), Lisa Kinchela (Valerie

James Ricketson

Y a rru p ), John H a rg re a v e s (D e te c tiv e

Special fx supervisors

Day of the Dog

Maxwell), Ernie Dingo (Percy), Julie Hudspeth

Archie Weller

(Mrs Dooligan), Jack Charles (Carey), Judith

Jeff Malouf

Margaret Wilkes (Nanna), Michael Watson

Special fx co-ord. Special fx secretary

(Hughie), Attila Ozsdolay (Silver).

Special fx technicians

Assoc, producers Scriptwriter Based on the novel

Sound recordist Editor

between the bad influence of old friends, the

Mechanical effects

Merv Graham

love of a young woman and the threat of gaol

Special fx assts

John Rapsey

Prod, co-ord.

Prod, company Bernadette O’Mahony Kerrie Bevan

Davis Entertainment

Village Roadshow Dist. company

Greater Union Dist.

Karla O ’Keefe Bob Clark Jason Baird Tad Pride (Aust) Paul Gentry (U.S.) Robbie Blalack (U.S.) Trisha Wallace Arthur Spinks Jr David Pride Bob Hicks Kevin Bratovic

Pyrotechnics

FORTRESS

Tim Towers Karla O’Keefe Margaret Archmen

Kent Miklenda

if he returns to his old ways.

Production Crew Prod, manager

Prosthetics asst

Synopsis: A young Aboriginal ex-con is torn

Annie Murtagh Monks

Craig Walmsley

Carla Vincenzino

Bob Ricketson

Planning and Development Extras casting

Jan Lippiatt

Kim Lord Christopher Cordeaux

Prod, designer Composer

Dialogue coach

1st asst director

James Ricketson

1:1:85 Kodak Eastmancolor

Visual consultant

Producer

DOP

Kathleen O’Brien

Director

Written by

Clapper-loader

Barron Films (Features) Capricorn Pictures

Principal Credits

Raife Stokes Tracy Dunston

Gaffer

Prod, company Dist. company

Raife Stokes

Camera Crew

2nd asst director

DAY OF THE DOG

Terry Carter

Script editor

16 mm (blown to 35mm)

Pyrotechnics asst Stunts co-ord

Alan Maxwell Paul Jennings Glenn Boswell

Stunts asst

Josef Schwaiger

Safety officer

Johnny Hallyday

Unit nurse

Susan Burke

Unit publicist

Exec, producers

Fiona Searson (DDA)

Still photography

Jim Townley

Catering

Kathy Troutt Kaos Katering

Catering asst

Marketing

MAP OF THE HUMAN HEART

Inti, sales agent

[See previous issue for details]

Phil Eagles Peter Sevan Helen Mather Paul Warren Sally Marshall Australian Film Sets

Ross Major

Russell Crowe (East Driscoll), Alexander

THE NOSTRADAMUS KID

Alan John

Outhred (Alan Marshall), Frankie J. Holden

Prod, company Simpson Le Mesurier Films

Composer

Planning and Development Script editors

Casting consultants Extras casting Prod, manager

Unit assts

John Parker

Leading hand

Greg Hajdu David Duffin

Brush hand Carpenters

Mark Jones Kim Howard

Production runners

Accounts asst Insurer

Noel McCartney Graydon Le Breton Martin Scurrah Wayne Porter Michael Dempsey Studios Warner Roadshow Movie World Studios

Clapper-loader Key grip

Jeanine Chialvo

Asst grips

Andreya O'Reilly Roger Garrod

Laboratory

Atlab

Tape transfers

Hoyts Jumbuck

Video playback

Intercity Hire

Marketing

14/10/91 -6 /1 2 /9 1

Post-production

9/12/1991- 14/2/92

Jackie Quilter

century. Twelve years old and crippled with

Principal Credits

Jan Klllen

polio, Alan dreams of becoming a great horse

Director

man. He must learn that life is not necessarily

Producer

what he wants it to be, but it is worth living

Exec, producers

Barbara Gibbs

Gaffer Best boy

IAC Film Sales

Inti, distributor

LIVING COLOR Cinergy M.P.E.

Pre-production

11/11/1991 - 5/1/92

Gill McKinlay Sharon Jackson Tony Leonard Sue Miliiken

David Williamson Darrin Keough Julie Wurm Robin Morgan Robbie Van Amstel Andrew Smith Trevor Toune Werner Gerlach

Production

5/1/92-25/1/92

Post-production

27/1/92 - 18/4/92

Budget

$2.5 million

Principal Credits Producer Co-producer Scriptwriter

Kristin Witcombe

Production Crew

Art director

Kent Sherlock

Composer

Shane Bryzak

Location manager

Maude Heath

Planning and Development

Unit manager

Will Matthews

Casting

Asst unit manager

Jacqueline Jones

Casting consultants

Sheridan-Champs &

Assoc. Studio-A-Casting

Budgeted by

Rene Nagy Jr

Production Crew

Boom operator

Jane Surrich

Key grip

Sash Lamey Anifex

On-set Crew

Prod, accountant Insurer

Margaret McClymont

Gaffer

Ian Withnal Geoff Lamb

Completion guarantor

Travel co-ord

Kathryn Milliss Leilani Hannah

(Stiggs), Vernon W ells (Maddox), Denni

Stunts co-ord

Zev Eleftheriou

2nd asst director

Gordon (Lydia), Alan Zitner (Camper).

Safety officer

Zev Eleftheriou

Continuity

Synopsis: Set 45 years in the future, human

Unit nurse Still photography

Make-up

Heldi-Jayne McCann

Best boy

Hugh Hartshorne

Hairdresser

Heldi-Jayne McCann

Electrician

Rhonda Dawson

Special fx

new law has been created to preserve the

Unit publicist

stability of society. Anyone who breaks the

Catering

law wil I be sent to a remote maxi mu m secu rity

Art Department

prison known as “The Fortress”.

Art director

EIGHT BALL

Deborah Wilde

Art dept runner

Tony Rosella

Props buyers

The GREAT PRETENDER

Tony Xeros Tony Cronin Andrew Plumer

[See previous issue for details]

Standby props

John Santucci

Wardrobe GREENKEEPING

Wardrobe supervisor Standby wardrobe

[See previous issue for details]

Wardrobe asst

HAMMERS OVER THE ANVIL SAFC

Prod, company

Harvey-Wrlght Enterprises (Harvest Prods) Budget Pre-production Production Post-production

$4 million 19/8/91-10/10/91 11/10/91-29/11/91 30/11/91...

Producer Co-producer

Seamstress Horse master Horse wrangler

Ann Turner Ben Gannon Peter Harvey-Wright

Ruth de la Lande Andrea Hood Kelly Foreman Sandy Clchello Tracey Richardson Bill Willoughby Gerald Egan

Construction Dept Scenic artist Construct, manager

Peter Collias John Moore Brenton Grear

Arthur Vette Painters

Unit publicist

Ian Plummer

Asst electrics

Robbie Burr Grant Atkinson Nick Delaine

On-set Crew Bob Donaldson John Meredith

Nicks Publicity & Promotion

3rd asst director

Ian Hamilton

Art dept runner Set dresser Standby props

David Bunic

Post-production Music performed by Recording studio

1st asst director

Continuity Mel Chavez Dirk Vanden-Driesen

Boom operator Make-up Stunts co-ord Unit nurse

Shane Bryzak

Still photography

Hoyts-Jumbuck Cinevex Super 16

Nikki Moors Cathy Gross Trish Glover

Make-up asst

Shane Bryzak

Atlab

Gauge

Paul Smith Gaffer

2nd asst director

Art Department

Laboratories

Simon Quaife David Hansen

Brad Greenwood Adam Head

Musical director

Animals

Carpenters

Principal Credits Director

Costumier

Brad Greenwood Adam Head

Special fx make-up

Asst grips

Gareth Calverley Cathy Thomas

Vicki Niehus

Art dept co-ord Set dresser

[See previous issue for details]

Key grip

Steve Marcus

Set in Motion

Focus puller

Special fx

Jenny Bichard

Marshall & Dent

Clapper-loader

Hairdresser

kind’s population has increased tenfold. A

Sue Miliiken

Camera Crew

(Abraham), Clifton Gonzalez Gonzalez (Nino),

Angela McPherson

Marianne Flynn Sandle Morris

(Film Finances)

Je ffre y C om bs (3D -D ay), Tom Tow les

1st asst director

Tom Read Moneypenny Services

Tony Leonard

Legal services Nick Paton

Dennis Hulm

(Steeves Lumley)

Naralee Withnal

Camera asst

Make-up

Financial controller

Jacqueline Jones Gareth Calverley

Jennifer Des Champs

Noelle Maxwell

Accounts asst Kerry Mulgrew

Camera operator

Locklin (Karen Brennick), Lincoln Kilpatrick

Unit asst Production runner

Extras casting

Kurtwood Smith (Prison Director Poe), Loryn

Scott Piper

Liz Mullinar Kate Finsterer Anne Bruning

Camera Crew

Continuity

Extras casting

Debbie Atkins

Legal services

Cast: Christopher Lambert (John Brennick),

Casting consultant

Prod, manager

Chris Webb Monica Pearce

Rene Nagy

Roger Simpson Liz Mullinar Casting

Prod, co-ord Prod, secretary

Prod, assistant Location manager

Geoffrey Guiffre

Chris Neal

Planning and Development

Geoff Lamb

Prod, manager

3rd asst director

Roger Ford

Editor

Darren Ballangarry

2nd asst director

Prod, designer Composer

Nick Paton

Darren Ballangarry

Twentieth Century Fox

Henry Dangar

Casting

Neal Taylor

David Lee

Editor

DOP

Electrician

Release publicity Greater Union Distributors

Sound recordist

Neal Taylor Summer Nicks

Generator operator 1st asst director

Geoff Burton

Script editor

Director

Bob Ellis

DOP

Prod, company

On-set Crew

Inti, sales agent

Roger Simpson

Gary Buss Paul Winter

Roger le Mesurier

Scriptwriter

David Lightfoot

Chris Gintowt Sean McGovern

Bob Ellis Terry Jennings

anyway.

Heather Muirhead

Camera Crew Focus puller

Post-production

Production

(Film Finances) Camera operator

19/8/91 - 13/10/91

Synopsis: A funny, moving, inspirational loss-

(Steeves Lumley) Completion guarantor

Beyond Films

Pre-production

of-innocence story set in the early days of this

Celia Moore Prod, accountant

Dist. company

Sue Smith

Barbara Ring Producer’s asst Christina Van Der Heyden

Unit manager

(Alan’s father), Frank Gallacher (Mr. Thomas), Jake Frost (Joe Carmichael).

Liz Mullinar Casting

Prod, co-ord

Location manager

Andrew Gardiner

Peter Gawler

Production Crew

Construction Dept Derek Wyness

Beyond Films Cast: Charlotte Rampling (Grace McAlister),

Costume designer

Prod secretary

Construct, manager

FFC

Ross Major

Green room/Star van Orana Film Transport Michael Chorney

Ken Sallows

Production

killer out to be rid all women because of his beliefs.

Prod, designer

Casting

Costume supervisors

Phil Tipene

Editor

Phillip Moritz

Projectionist

and their neighbour, Christian, a deranged

Sound recordist

Wardrobe

1st asst editor 2nd asst editor

mourning the sickness of her new-born baby,

Diaan Wajon

Armourer

Welders

Ian Anderson

Government Agency Investment

Michael lacono

Labourer

Lab liaison

Linda Sproul

John Danlell

Driver

Molly, the young wife of Dougle who is still

Peter Hepworth

35 mm

Standby props

2nd in command

Synopsis: Cat-and-mouse game between

Cinevex

95 mins

Paul Dulieu Derrick Chetwyn

Asst scenic artist

Giselle Fullgrabe

Laboratory

Length

Lizzi Dulieu

Scenic artist

2nd asst editor

Barbara Gibbs

Gauge

Art dept runner

MU/wardrobe vans

Peter Gawler

Evelyn Taylor (Rachel), Scott Webb (Doctor), Graham Furness (Policeman).

Ann Turner

Rosslyn Abernethy

Wardrobe asst

Maria Kaltenthaler

Based on stories “Hammers over the Anvil” Written by Alan Marshall DOP James Bartle

Art dept co-ord

Standby wardrobe

1st asst editor

Paula Sproul

Art director

Asst standby props

Scriptwriters

Post-production

Denise Ward

Art Department

Props buyers

Assoc, producer

Janet Worth Gus Howard

Catering

Paul Pattison Bernie Ledger Jackie Ramsey Robert McFarlane Camera Cooks

Art Department Art director Asst art director

Laurie Faen Catherine Silm

Shooting stock

Kodak

Art dept runner

Screen ratio

1:1.66

Set dresser

Sandy Wingrove Jock McLachlan

Off-line facilities

Hoyts-Jumbuck

Props buyer

Video special fx

Hoyts-Jumbuck

Standby props

Video master by

Hoyts-Jumbuck

Action vehicle co-ord

Marketing Publicity Poster design

Sara Probyn

John Osmond Michael Lendrum

Wardrobe Nicks Publicity & Promotion Michael Simms

Wardrobe supervisor Wardrobe buyer

Guy Allain

Cast: Derek Rucker (Dougle), Kim Denman

Standby wardrobe

Christo Reid

(Molly), Michael Julian Knowles (Christian),

Construction Dept CINEMA

Louise Wakefield Jenny Miles Devina Maxwell

PAPERS

Construction supervisor

Danny Burnett

Scenic artist

Eric Todd

Leading hand

Dean Steiner

Post-production

Oliver Strewe Catering

Annie Harris

Catering asst

Andrew Malley

Art Department

Asst editor

Basia Ozerski

Art director

Editing asst

Nicole Mitchell

Laboratory Lab liaison

Atlab Ian Russell

Michael Boland

Gaffer

Set dresser

Leslie Crawford

Props buyer

Leslie Crawford

Best boy Electrician

John Andersen

On-set Crew

Standby props

Kodak

Wardrobe Wardrobe asst.

Film Victoria

Construction Dept

Production

FFC

Construct, manager

Marketing

FFC

Marketing Inti, distributor

Beyond Films

Publicity

DDA

Cast: Noah Taylor (Ken Elkin), Miranda Otto

2nd electrics

Steve Price

Gene Van Dam

3rd electrics

Battista Remati

Tom Moody Trevor Ripper Battista Remati Chris Odgers

Mixer

Lucy Bell (Sarai), Arthur Dignam (Pastor

Mixed at

Anderson), Loene Carmen (Meryl), Jeanette

Laboratory

Cronin (Christy), Peter Gwynne (Shepherds

Lab liaison

3rd asst director

Mathew Bennett Jan Plantoni

Continuity

Craig Beggs

Amanda Lake

3rd asst director

Andrew Power

Make-up

Vivienne MacGillicuddy

Marcus Smith

Continuity Boom operator

Hairdresser

Neill Timms Vivienne MacGillicuddy

Victoria Sullivan Cathy Gross

Make-up/hair

Gary O’Grady Spectrum Films Phil Heywood Atlab Atlab Denise Wolfson

Christine Miller

Stunts co-ord

Mark Hennessy

Sue Kelly Tait

Safety officer

Eddie McShortall

Still photography

Jennifer Mitchell

Jane Gregory

Make-up asst Stella Savvas

Erick Mitsak (Way land), Alice Garner (Esther),

Toby Pease Emma Schofield

1st asst director

Boom operator

Post-production

(Jennie O’Brien), Jack Campbell (McAlister),

2nd asst director

Monica Pearce

“Bone”

Sound editor Editing room

On-set Crew

2nd asst director

Leo Herringer

Asst editor

Rory Timoney

Gaffer

Helen Mains

Carpenter Scenic artist

Ian “Pear Head” Benallack Arthur Manousakis

Grip

Leigh Tait

1st asst director

Wardrobe supervisor AFC

Wank Lawrance

Key grip

Art dept runner

35 mm

Development

Clapper-loader Asst, grip

Shooting stock

Key grip Gary Bottomley

Focus puller

Julianne White

Gauge

Government Agency Investment

Camera Crew

Lynne Klugman

Special fx supervisor

Peter Stubbs

Tutor

Stunts co-ordinator

Chris Peters

Catering

Safety officer

Wally Dalton

Traffic stopper

Still photography

Peter Leiss

Catering

Keith Fish

Art Department Lisa Thompson

Set dressers

Rod), Hec McMillan (Pastor Dibley).

T ravel

Lori Rowan

Synopsis: A gentle romantic comedy about

Gauge

35 mm

Props buyers

the end of the world. The religious and sexual

Screen ratio

coming of age of a 1960s Seventh Day Ad

Shooting stock

1:1.85 Kodak

Standby props

Colin Robertson

Sweet Seduction Warwick Fry

M/U-W/R vehicle

Reel Wheels

Unit publicist

Fiona Searson (DDA)

Art Department Hugh Bateman

Art director

Lisa Thompson

Art dept co-ord

Victoria Hobday

Colin Robertson

Art dept runner

Paul Macek

Graeme Blackmore

Art dept trainee

Rebecca O’Brien

ventist boy, who acquires a taste for drink,

Government Agency Investment

Wardrobe

women and philosophy, and believes the end

Development Qld Film Development Office

Standby wardrobe

Gabrielle Dunn

is nigh during the Cuban Missile Crisis, even

Production

Wardrobe asst.

Cheyne Phillips

though the much longed-for apocalypse

Agency liaison

FFC Tom Murphy Simone North

Private Investment

Asst editor Edge numberer

Oliver Streeton

Wardrobe supervisor

Production Liaison

Sound transfers Sound edit, designer

Eugene Wilson

Standby wardrobe Cutter

Music engineer

Peter Palankay

Construction Dept

Cinevex

Construct, manager

seems to keep getting postponed.

REDHEADS Prod, company

Roxy Films Motion Picture

Management company Dist. company

Motion Picture Management Ron Rheuban John Hodsdon

Investor’s rep.

Post-production

Frank Lipson

(KPMG Peat Marwick)

Capricorn Pictures

Cast: Claudia Karvan (Lucy), Catherine

1/11/91...

McClements (Diana), Alexander Petersens

Lab liaison Shooting stock

(Simon), Mark Hembrow (Brewster), Sally

Government Agency Investment

Principal Credits

Props buyers

Georgina Campbell

Props dresser

Georgina Campbell Murray Gossan

Murray Gossan Standby props

Jane Usher

Management Post-production

Empire

Tutor vehicle

Laboratory

Ian Anderson Kodak

Wardrobe Jacqui Everett Cathy Hereen Catriona Brennan Walter Sperl

Carpenter

Robin “Syd” Hartley

Post-production Asst editors

Jane Moran Soundfirm Vic Film Lab

Director

Danny Vendramini

McKenzie (Zelda), lain Gardiner (McCoy),

Production

Producer Exec, producer

Richard Mason Danny Vendramini

Anthony Phelan (Quigley), Jennifer Flowers

Film Victoria Cast: Russell Crowe (Hando), Daniel Pollock

Sound transfer Laboratory

Scriptwriter

Danny Vendramini

Synopsis: A buddy film-thriller about a teen age criminal named Lucy and her naive young

(Davey), Jacqueline McKenzie (Gabe), Leigh Russell (Sonny Jim), Eric Mueck (Champ),

Stock

Rosie Scott Steven Mason

lawyer Diana set in Brisbane. When Lucy

Daniel Wyllie (Cackles), James McKenna

Stills processing

Max Bowring

videotapes herself having sex, she inadvert

Marc van Buuren

ently captures a murder on tape. Together

(Bubs), Frank Magee (Brett), Christopher McLean (Luke), Alex Scott (Martin).

Polaroid stock

Ross Walace

with her bungling lawyer, she sets out to discover the murderer.

Synopsis: The story of the disintegration of

Publicity

DDA

an urban street gang.

Finance

FFC

Based on a play by DOP Sound recordist Editor Prod, designer Composer

Felicity Foxx

(Carolyn).

AFC

Planning and Development ROMPER STOMPER

Rosie Scott

Prod, company

Romper Stomper

Liz Mullinar Casting

Pre-production

18/7/91 -9/8 /9 1

Production

12/8/91-20/9/91

Dist. company

Prod, manager

Julie Forster

Prod, co-ord. Prod, secretary

Jennifer Cornwell Sharon Gerussi

Location manager

Post-production Director

Chris Strewe Bradley Pimm

Producers

Prod, runner

Emma Rudkin

Assoc, producer

Prod, accountant

Eric Sankey

Scriptwriter

Insurer

Jo Losurdo, F.I.U.A

DOP

Completion guarantor

Rob Fisher, F.A.C.B

Sound recordist

Ian Gray, Holmans

Camera Crew

Sept. 1991 - March 1992

Principal Credits

Unit asst

Daniel Scharf

Steven Jones-Evans

Costume designer Composer

Clapper-loader

John Wareham

Planning and Development

Samuelson Philip Shapiro Mark Watson

Key grip Asst, grip

Casting Prod, consultants

Best boy

Michael Wood

Production Crew

Generator op.

Douglas Wood

Prod, manager

On-set Crew Bob Howard

1st asst director 2nd asst director

Guy Campbell

3rd asst director

Brandon Howard Joanne McLennan

Boom operator

Bob Hicks

Stunts co-ordinator

Stephan Jannides Carolyn Johns Brett Goodman

84 • C I N E M A

Color Factory (col) Di Keller (b&w) Vanbar Photographies

PAPERS

Costume designer

Extras casting

Prod, manager

summer they both gradually learn to face the truth about each other and themselves.

Prod, co-ord

Jonathan Shteinman

Prod, accountant Location manager Unit manager

Eva Freidman

Completion guarantor

Bernadette Breitkreuz Tony Leonard (Steeves Lumley) Rob Fisher

(First Australian Completion Bond Co.) Chris Lovell (Holding Redlich)

SECRETS

Chris Kennedy Lynn-Maree Milburn

[See previous issue for details]

SEEING RED

Liz Mullinar Casting

Catherine “Tatts” Bishop

Insurer

Legal services

Richard Lowenstein

Legal services Travel co-ord.

Jackie Mann Juanita Parker Michael McIntyre Simon Hawkins

Focus puller

SHOTGUN WEDDING

Budget Pre-production Production Post-production

Principal Credits

Carl Conti

Director

Steeves Lumley

Set in Motion Harry Panagiotidis David Lindsay Robin Plunkett

Beyond Films $4,141,485 19/8/91 - 11/10/91 21/10/91 -6 /1 2 /9 1 9/12/91 - April 1992 Paul Harmon

Producers

Film Finances Philip Luca

David Hannay Prods

Dist. company

Phil Taylor

Camera Crew Steadicam operator Steadicam asst

[See issue 85 for details]

Prod, company

Stephen Brett

Completion guarantor

and through the highs and lows of a long hot

Kelly O’Shea Kaarin Fairfax

Drama coach

Location manager

Insurer

It is a relationship that offers strength to each,

Carol Hughes

Planning and Development Casting consultants

Unit asst Production runner

Prod, accountant

Richard Lowenstein

Jill Bilcock

Fiona Eagger

Prod, runner

old meets the young effervescent but drugaddicted Angie and enters her fantasy world.

Lloyd Carrick

Production designer

(Liz Mullinar Casting)

Elisa Argenzio

other details supplied]

Synopsis: A skinny, introverted eleven-year-

Production Crew Greg Apps

Beyond Films Cast: Fiona Ruttelle, Sudi de Winter. [No

Beyond Inti. Group

Graeme Wood

Prod, co-ord.

Paul Jones April Harvey

Make-up

Anna Borghesi John Clifford White

Lars Michalak

Roger Wood

Gaffer

Sound recordist Editor

Bill Murphy

Laurie Mclnnes

Scriptwriter

Phil Jones

David Lee

Editor

Joanna Erskine

Still photography

Film Soundtrack

14/10/91 ...

Producer DOP

Geoffrey Wright

Focus puller Camera equipment

Flying Films

Principal Credits

Ian Pringle

Ron Hagen

Prod, designer

Prod, company

Director Geoffrey Wright

Camera operator

Continuity

SAY A LITTLE PRAYER

Coral Drouin

Production Crew

Legal services

Kodak

Rushes screening

Inti, sales

Script editors Casting

Nick Cole

David Hannay Charles Hannah

Scriptwriter

David O'Brien

DOP

Kim Batterham

Sound recordist Editor

Wayne Le Clos

Prod, designer Costume designer

Ross Linton Michael Philips Clarrissa Patterson

Clapper loader

Bryn Whitie

Composer

Camera equipment

Samuelson

Planning and Development

Allan Zavod

Script editor

Paul Harmon

Construction Dept

Casting consultant

Alison Barrett

Construct, manager

Extras casting

Cathering Griff

Additional casting

Catherine Griff

Baby casting

Carpenters

Government Agency Investment

Angus Harrison

Development

Meredith Fleming Brenda Pam

Prod, co-ord.

Sam Thompson

Standby carpenter

dom fighters and the two Australian sisters,

Based on the book

Lyndal and Sophie Barry, who shared their

Written by

Daniel Heather

struggle against Burma’s repressive govern-

DOP

ment regime.

Sound recordist

Brush hand

Greg Commerford

Set finisher

Frank Falconer

Russel Fewtrell

Greensman

Greg Thomas

Unit assts

Peter Simon

Post-production

Chris Jones

Asst editor

David Holmes Nick Watt

Mixer

Denise Ingham

Prod, accountant Insurer Completion guarantor

Sue Milliken

Marketing

Beth McRae Steve Thomas Phil Bull

DOP

Mark Tarpey

Sound recordist

Uri Mizrahi

Editor

Neil Angwin

Prod, designer

Other Credits Sharyn Prentice

Researchers

Beyond Films

Belinda Mason

DDA Publicity Cast: Aden Young (Jimmy Becker), Zoe

Bruce Nelson

Composers

Gary Warner Bill Seaman

Prod, manager

John Moore

Exec, producer

FFC

Inti, sates agent

James Manché Edie Kurzer

Steve Thomas Steve Thomas Julia Overton

Scriptwriter

1:1.85 95 mins

Production

Martin Cooper & Co.

Police liaison

Line producer

Agfa-Gevaert

Neil McEwin (FUIA) (Film Finances)

Legal services

Atlab Australia

Government Agency Investment

Cathy Smith

Accounts asst

Producer

35 mm

Stock Length

Michelle D’Arcey

Bronwyn Murphy

Editor Art director

Nicky Marshall

Researcher

Director Co-producer

Screen ratio

Stuart Trewan

Eric Rolls

Other Credits

Principal Credits

Atlab Australia

Gauge

Greg Garry

A Million Wild Acres Joel Peterson

$275,000

Budget

Phil Heywood

Mixed at Laboratory

Toby Church-Brown

Production runner

Simon Martin

Sound transfers byAudio Loc Sound Design

Ross Bridekirk

Scriptwriter

Steve Thomas

Spectrum Films

Editing room

Angus Harrison

Casual unit assts

Open Channel

Prod, company Wayne Hayes

Edge numberer

Rick Kornaat

BLACK MAN’S HOUSES

James Manché Ross Gibson

Assoc, producer

Daniel Gray Ron Martin

Chris Jones

Unit manager

FFC

John Cruthers

Producer

Production

Kriselle Baker

Location security

Ross Gibson

Director

Film Victoria

Synopsis: The story of Burma’s student free

Prod, secretary Location manager

Principal Credits

Ron Martin

Kim Sterlina

20/1/92 - 15/5/92

Post-production

Nigel Boyle

Producer’s asst

Construct, runner

Open Channel

Off-line facilities

Geoffrey Staker

Production Crew Prod, manager

Hi 8 & Betacam

Gauge Bob Paton

Kristin Sanderson Jenny Pawson

Prod, accountant

Hammond Jewell Film Finances

Insurer Completion guarantor Legal services

Roth Warren & Menzies Eric Rolls

Location liaison

Anne Benzie Matt Butler

Camera assistant Special fx photography

Mike Kelly

Camera maintenance

J. Van Loendersloot

Still photography

Pat Mackle

Asst editor Sound transfers by

Soundage Gethin Creagh

Mixer

Producer’s assts

Lillian Wheatley

Mixed at

Soundfirm

Animation Laboratory

Andi Spark Cinevex

Lab liaison

Ian Anderson

Danny Batterham

Andrews), John Walton (Det Frank Taylor),

Prod, accountant

Geoff Hannon Jeremy Maxwell

Focus puller Clapper-loader

Martin Turner

Marshall Napier (Det Dave Green), John

Insurer

Steeves Lumley

Kate Dennis

Clayton (Sam Church), Warren Coleman (Ben

Legal services

Camera attach.

Anna Townsend

Quill), Paul Chubb (Geoffrey Drinkwater), Yves Stenning (Peter Bingham), Richard Healy

Travel co-ord.

Wandana Travel

Shooting stock

Samuelson Film Services

(Brian Alcott), Sean Scully (Det Craig Haker),

Base-office liaison

Vince Sorrenti (Det Mario Bonelli), Jeff Truman

Edge numberer

Sharyn Prentice Oliver Streeton

Government Agency Investment

Graeme Litchfield

Grip

Mark Ramsey

(Det Ted Jones), Andrew S Gilbert (Bruce

Casual grip

Michael Vivian

Llewellyn), Bruce Venables (John Tyke), Bill

Sound transfers by Laboratory

John Morton

Charlton (the Sergeant), Max Cullen (Rev.

Carides (Helen Llewellyn), Bill Hunter (Godfrey

Camera Crew Camera operator

Steadicam operator Camera equip. Key grip

Martin Lee

Bryce Menzies Roth Warren

16 mm Kodak

tionship to the land, our sense of place, our

Open Channel

asks these questions through a study of the

Arthur Hickey).

Ken Cooper

Synopsis: Set in the late 1960s, Shotgun

Off-line facilities

Electrics attach.

Steve Byron

Wedding is a bizarre drama, a love story and

Government Agency Investment

a comedy of errors. Jimmy Becker, fresh out

Mathew Hoile

1st asst director 2nd asst directors

the Pilliga Forest in Central Northern New

AFC

South Wales

of gaol, and pregnant girlfriend Helen leave

Henry Osborne

Kings Cross to seek their dream of a normal

Synopsis: Set in the Furneaux group of is-

life in the outer suburbs of Sydney. However,

lands off Tasmania, Black Man’s Houses is about the suppression of history and culture.

Sarah Lewis

their dream is quickly shattered with the ar-

3rd asst director Continuity

Kim Steblina Kristin Voumard

rival of a ‘bent’ cop, Taylor, and an arsenal of weapons left by Helen’s schizoid brother. A

A contemporary confrontation over a grave

Boom operator

Jack Friedman

siege begins which captures the attention of

Make-up Hairdresser

Lesley Vanderwalt

the nation, during which the Police Commis-

Paul Williams

sioneractsasbestm anat Jimmy and Helen’s

ture in the face of near genocide.

Jan Zeigenbein

Special fx co-ord

Lesley Rouvray David Young

Stunts co-ord Stills photography Unit nurse Unit publicist

RECENTLY COMPLETED See previous issues for details on: MAD BOMBER IN LOVE ROUND THE BEND

Grant Page

Robert Jang

Catering asst

Anne Fearle

Art director Art dept co-ord Art dept asst

Michael Burge

Art dept runner

John Riley

Prod, company Budget Director Producer

Action vehicle asst

Tim Burns Martin Brown

Set decorator

Glen W. Johnson

Graphic artist

Nick Bonham

Costume supervisor Costume buyer Standby costume Costume asst

Assoc, producers Scriptwriter DOP Sound recordist Editor

Jane Johnston Marilyn Brent Gabrielle Dunn Jackline Sassine

Wardrobe asst

Sam Cook

Pattern maker

Emmanuel Kostoglou

$298,224

Nikki Paterson

Catherine Marciniak John Moore

Prod, manager

Producer

Jo Bell

Scriptwriter DOP

Catherine Birmingham Brendan Lavelle

Sound recordist Editor

Ray Bosley Catherine Birmingham

Art director Composer

Kay Price Andrew Ganczarczyk

Sound recordist

Matthew Atherton

Composer

Other Credits

Planning and Development

Camera operator

Mike Davies Andrew Ganczarczyk

Sound editor

Lyndal Barry

Music performed by

Sophie Barry

Casting

Matthew Atherton Spotlight Artists

Production Crew Prod, manager Unit manager Prod, accountant Insurer

Peter Scott

Focus puller

Michael Madigan

Key grip

Cast: Nicky Paterson (clown), Helen Majewski

Gaffer

(nurse), Janice Garvey (mother), Crystal

Best boy

Gretchen Thornburn

Garvey, Miranda Allitt, Travis Allitt, Jesse Francis, Rebecca Paterson (child patients).

On-set Crew

Synopsis: A clown teaches pre-school chil

2nd asst director

dren a song (with actions) about telling a

Continuity

nurse or parent if pain is being felt.

Boom operator

Kirsty Officer

Melinda Tuz Sophie Simos Hammond Jewell

Jenni Meaney

Marion McLeod

Fiona Eagger Leigh Ammitzboll

Camera Crew

Catherine Marciniak

Peter Friedrich

Ian Pringle Stephen Sewell

Prod, assistant Rod Larcombe

Lisa Thompson Jeanine De Lorenzo

Script editors

Mike Davies

Technical producer

Other Credits Researcher

Wardrobe

Flaming Star

Principal Credits

Alicia Walsh

Robert Colby

Alan Bentley

Based on ong. idea by

Alicia Walsh

Action vehicle co-ord

Mike Davies

Exec, producer

■

BAREFOOT STUDENT ARMY

Props buyer

Armourer

Producer Scriptwriters

DOCUMENTARIES

Set dresser

Dallas Wilson Standby props Asst standby props Robert “Moxy” Moxham

Mike Davies

Director

David McKay

Art dept attach.

Flinders Media

Principal Credits

Kay Price

Tracey Hyde-Moxham John Riley

Dist. company

(formerly Radiance)

■

Art Department

Flinders Medical Centre

STRICTLY BALLROOM WIND

Meredith Fleming Fiona Searson (DDA)

Flinders Media

Prod, companies

(formerly Over the Hill)

Veronika Sive

Catering

DRIVE Principal Credits

wedding.

Karen Johnson

For details of the following see previous issue: VITALI’S AUSTRALIA

site on Flinders Island is the context for telling the story of the survival of the Tasmanian Aboriginies and the resurgence of their cul

Casual make-up/hair

selves? Wild is a documentary film which stories, myths and legends of one small area,

Philip Hearnshaw Vicky Sugars

2nd 2nd asst director

man settlement of Australia - about our rela

AFC

Development Production

On-set Crew

AFC

Development

Synopsis: What can we learn from the hu

Electrician

Best boy

1.33:1 Fuji Colour

Screen ratio

Cinevex Cinevex

Gauge Shooting stock

Gaffer

16 mm

Gauge

Peter Ryan James McDoogall

1st asst director

Make-up

Steve Westh Lachlan Jefferies Victoria Sullivan Ro Woods Maggie Kolev

Prod, accountant

Jeremy Maxwell

Insurer

Steeves Lumley Roth Warren

Prod, company

Huzzah Productions

Base-office liaison

Kirsty Officer

Pre-production

24/9/91 -15/10/91

Stills photography

Annie Horner

Stills photographer

Sophie Barry

Production

16/10/91 -6/11/91

Catering

Sam Bathurst

Legal services

WILD

Special fx supervisor Stunts co-ord.

CINEMA

Peter Stubbs Chris Anderson

PAPERS

• 85

Too Can Do

FILM VICTORIA

JUST ANOTHER DAY

A rt Departm ent Asst art director P ost-p ro du ctio n

Colin Robertson

Laboratory

Cinevex

Shooting stock

Kodak

G overnm ent A gency Investm ent

URBAN MYTH Prod, company Swinburne institute Budget

Producer

Development

AFC

Producer

Scottie Walker

HALFW AY ACROSS THE GALAXY AND

AFC

Exec, producer

Peter Tammer

TURN LEFT (series)

Cast: Eileen Cressey (Angela), Daniel Wyllie

Assoc, producer

Jenny Sabine

(Nick), Rowan Woods (Ralph), Janie Anderson (waitress), Russell Allen (Lewis).

Scriptwriter

S yn o p sis: Nick is 16-years-old. He's killed

Sound recordists

Andrew Ferguson

his father. He didn’t like him that day. Didn’t

Prod, company Production

Editor

is what it’s like to commit a murder. A murder

Prod, designer

in our angry world doesn't necessarily need a

Composer

Piero Colli Paul Carland

Producer Exec, producer

motive. Nick and his mother Angela run for it.

Develop, producer Scriptwriter

Down the highway. Fast. They don’t know

Script editors

Based on the novel

Peter Tammer

where they’re going. They don’t know if the

Jenny Sabine

police are after them yet. The unfamiliar road

Casting Australian Cinema Ensemble P ro du ctio n Crew

Written by

seems malevolent. It is. Avoiding the issue, yet each obsessed with it, they react in ways

Prod, manager

Sound recordists

they don’t understand to situations common

Prod, adviser

place and extreme. They encounter a hitch hiker with less morals than they think they

Camera Crew

have. Victims of their act, they run with their

Camera operator

Stephen Amis

memories and enter the world of their fears.

Camera assistant

Joanne Donahoe

But no-one really gets away with it. The fear of

Camera type

being caught - the imprint of the act remains forever.

Camera maintenance

Scottie Walker

Prod, runner

Ingrid Wilkie

ARRI SR Swinburne institute

Key grips

Dean Stevenson Luis Da Silver Liam O’Hara

Gaffers

Christine Rogers Luis Da Silva

On-set Crew 1st asst director

For d etails o f the fo llo w in g see p revio u s issue:

Steve Middleton Jacinthe Springer

Boom operator Make-up Hairdresser

Post-production

4/11/91-7/2/92

P rincipal C redits Exec, producer DOP

Pieter de Vries

Sound recordist

Graham Wyse

Editor

Denise Haslem

O ther C redits Budgeted by Prod, manager Prod, co-ord

Titles

S yn o psis: A film about the secrets behind Australia’s post-war immigration policies.

Casting P ro du ctio n Crew Prod, manager

Location manager Unit manager

Paul Carland

Sandi Revelins

P rincipal C redits

Maurice Burns Peter Allen

Directors

Paul Carland

Dick Tummel

DOP

On-set Crew Angelo Salamanca

1st asst directors

Stuart Wood

Angelo Salamanca

Phil Jones

Piero Colli

2nd asst director

Christian Robinson

Angelo Salamanca

3rd asst director

Damien Grant

Janine De Lorenzo Peter Frost

Continuity

Al Mullins

Anne West Stephen Vaughan

Boom operator Make-up/Hair

Amanda Rowbottom

Make-up asst

Peta Hastings New Generation Stunts

Film Soundtrack Cinevex Zoe Chan Cinevex Tim Morgan

Grader

Stunts co-ord. A rt Departm ent Art director

Ken James Denise Goudy

Tim Morgan

Props buyer

Darryl Mills

1:1.88

Standby props

Marcus Erasmus Richie Dean

Standby dresser W ardrobe Wardrobe supervisors

Wardrobe asst Seamstress

Exec, producer

Chris Oliver Tammy Burnstock

first time at the age of forty-four; she does not know whether her husband or lover has fa

C on stru ctio n

Max Lake

thered the child she is carrying. Bea has

P ost-p ro du ctio n

Hilary May

Tim Lewis Edward McQueen- Mason

Prod, designer

Rachel Nott

Planning and D evelopm ent

Josi Robson P ro du ctio n C rew Prod, managers Prod, co-ords

Serena Gattuso Prod, secretaries Location manager Unit manager

Steph Stewart Moneypenny Services

Peter McNee Alan Ryan

Sophie Siomos Insurer

Steeves Lumley

Completion guarantor Film Finances Driver Craig Lambert (ABC) Camera Crew Camera operators

Roger McAlpine Greg Wilden

Susan Elizabeth Wood

ART OF DROWNING

SP Betacam

MR NEAL IS ENTITLED TO BE AN

S yn o psis: After winning the government lot-:

AGITATOR SHEEP

tery for the 27th time in a row, Father finds

Karen Johnson

Cast: [No details supplied]

Andrew Schmidt Camera asst

Peter Falk Technical producers

questions being asked of his honesty. W hatto

Michael Brarnley

do? Escape, of course, and so begins the

Peter Simondson

story of this strange little family from the

Technical director

planet Zyrgon as they travel halfway across

Technical asst 2nd unit DOP

the galaxy, turn left and land on earth. For d eta ils o f the fo llo w in g see issue 85: THE EFFECTIVE APPROACH

John Wild Leigh Amrnitzboll

Prod, accountants

Dare Skinner

see p re vio u s issue:

Neil McCart

Production runner

Prod, accountant

NSW FILM AND TELEVISION OFFICE

Liz Grant Claire Walsh

Clair Smith

Post-prod, supervisor

Amanda Crittenden

Kelly Ellis

Gauge

power of smell.

Yvonne Collins

Gabriel Dunn Gloria Allen

Construct, manager

Publicity

Rose Chong

Senior script consultant Jeff Peck Casting Liz Mullinar Casting Extras casting Camilla Gold Dialogue coaches Julie Forsyth

M arketing For d eta ils o f the fo llo w in g see issue 84:

Tel Stolto

Costume designer

Location searcher

Film Victoria

important decisions to make.

Ian Cregan

Mervyn Magee (ABC)

Set dresser

16 mm

Jaems Grant

Zelja Stanin

Meg Koernig

Gauge Screen ratio

Ewan Burnett

Susie Campbell (Animation)

Editors

Peter Stratford (Spencer).

Rob Pemberton (ABC)

Adam Williams

S yn o psis: Bea finds herself pregnant for the

PAPERS

Patricia Edgar

Assoc, producers

Generator operator

Tammy Burnstock

86 • C I N E M A

Paul Nichola

Sound recordist

Director

DIAMONDS ARE A G IRL’S BEST FRIEND

Steve Jodrell Mandy Smith Colin Budds

Darryl Pearson

Standby wardrobe

For deta ils o f the fo llo w in g

30/3/92-12/7/92

Mario Andreaachio

Best boy

Production

Francesca Muir Marketing exec. S yn o psis: A documentary focusing on the

... 27/3/92

Post-production

Warren Grieef Aaron Walker

Gaffer

C ast: Suzy Cato (Bea), Joseph Spano (Eric),

Fiona Schmidberger

$10.3 million

Wendy Walker

Paul Smith

Prod, co-ordinator

Budget Production

Producer

Key grip

Prod, manager

Television Foundation

Tim Scott

Asst grips

Dist. company

Other Credits

Pam Tummel

Prod, co-ord. Prod, secretary

Prod, company

Scriptwriters

Australian Children's

Jan Pontifex

Patricia Edgar

7245;7292 G overnm ent Agency Investm ent

P rincipal C redits

Prod, company

Margot McDonald

Shooting stock ON THE NOSE

LIFT OFF (series)

Graeme Farmer

Exec, producer

Francesca Muir Neg matching

Inti, distributor

Script editor

Line producers

Laboratory DareSkinner Lab liaison

Prod, accountant

Sally Grigsby

Planning and D evelopm ent

Peter Stott

Fiona Schmidberge

Marketing exec.

Costume designer

her two teenage children, particularly Lily, who is in the same class as her mother.

Greg Ryan

Music mixer Mixed at

Hilary May

Dale Duguid

Camera assistant

Wardrobe supervisor P ost-p ro du ctio n

Opticals

Kathy Price who returns to her old school after sixteen years, much to the embarrassment of

Clapper-loader

Veronica Stute

Hilary May

John Phillips

Gina Weidemann

Catering

Music performed by Mixer

S yn o p sis: Late for School is a half hour situation comedy which follows thé exploits of

Patti Pulbrook

Kym Schreiber

Sound editor Alec Morgan Asst sound editor

Robin Klein David Connell

Prod, accountant

Chris Oliver

Written by

(Mr Dicks), Stephen Curry (Tim Hickey), Scott Major (Oats), Anthony Engleman (Sefton).

Camera Crew

Still photography

Asst editor AleeMorgan Sound transfers

Director

Frankie J. Holden (Mr Lavery), Harry Cripps

Gina Weidemann

W ardrobe FA

Price), M atthew Newton (Dennis Price),

John Reeves

Andrew Ferguson

A rt Departm ent Art director

Prod, company

Higgins (Stan Funnell), Melissa Thomas (Lily

Peter Herbert

Justin Hughes

Paul Walker

THE COLOURED CAMPAIGN

Mark Collins

1st asst director

[No further crew details supplied]

Production runner

SOTTO VOCE

FILM AUSTRALIA

Kathleen Burns

C ast: Sarah Chadwick (Kathy Price), Ross

Denise Haratzis

Transport manager

Continuity

Jenny Draper

Director’s asst Prod, co-ordinator

Andrew Ramage Prod, designer

SOMETHING TO DO WITH ANTS

AUSTRALIAN FILM TELEVISION & RADIO SCHOOL

Editor

Scott Bird

O ther C redits

Jan Marnell

Halfway Across the

DOP

Rob Menzies

Terry Ohlsson

Galaxy and Turn Left

Rosa Colosimo

For d eta ils o f the fo llo w in g see issue 85:

WHISPERS

Rod Hardy Paul Moloney

Janine De Lorenzo Planning and D evelopm ent

DIAL-A-CLICHE

9/9/91 - 28/2/92

P rincipal C redits Directors

Rob Caldwell

Prod, designer

Crawfords Australia

Anny Mokotow

like him for a long time. Does it matter? This

Peter Askew

Scriptwriters

Production

Stephen Amis

John Holmes

Assoc, producer

Angelo Salamanca

Ricardo Pellizzeri

Director

TELEVISION PRODUCTION

P rincipal C redits

DOP

9/12/91...

P rincipal C redits

$12,500

Director

Network Ten

Prod, company Production

THIS VOTING LIFE

LATE FOR SCHOOL (series)

Campbell Miller Max Gaffney lan.Warburton

2nd unit camera asst

Peter Nearhos

Key grip

Peter De Haan

Asst grip

Tim Porter

Rigger

Max Gaffney

Gaffer

Andrew Topp

Best boy

Darryn Fox

Lighting directors

Michael Bramley

Visual fx director

Paul Nichola

Visual fx prod. man.

Peter Bain-Hogg

Vis. fx ‘EC'fantasies art.

Maree Woolley

‘Lotis’ Interior fx co-ord

Michael Bladen

‘Patches’ animator

Glenn Mellenhorst Julian Dimsey

Visual fx runner

Graham Brumley Lighting assts

Mick Cleary

Electrician

3rd asst director Continuity

Conte Movie Trailers Jennifer Clevers

Financial controller Insurer

Hammond Jewell

Mick Cleary

(Nipper), Erin Pratten (Poss), Maria Nguyen

Legal services

(Kim), Madeline Blackwell (Jenny), David

Camera Crew

Sandford (Ted), HeberYerien (Turbo), Robert Peschel (Max), Aru Kadogo (Swap), Aku

Focus puller Clapper-loader

Bielicki (Little Aku).

2nd unit focus

Ross Allsop

Synopsis: Lift Off is a children's television

David Clarke

programme aimed at three to eight year-olds.

Tape operator

Warik Lawrance

Lucy Monge

Best boy

Carmel Torcasio

school on the ABC from May 1992. It will use

Electrician

Karinda Parkinson

actors, puppets and animation and each epi

On-set Crew

sode will be based around a broad theme.

1st asst directors

Craig Dusting Laurie Fish Roy Pritchett Michael Hughes

Chris Doyle Neville Kelly (ABC)

Audio assts Make-up

Catena McDonald (ABC) Nik Doming Anna Karpinski

Directors

Anna Karpinski Asst hairdresser

Laura Morris

Special fx

Peter Stubbs

Nurse/chaperone Still photography Unit publicity

Director’s attachment

New Generation Stunts Chris Peters Chris Anderson Chris Peters

Safety officer Still photography

Ponch Hawkes Anthea Collin

Unit publicist

Glad Fish Greg Noakes

Cast: Chris Haywood (Dennis), Tim Healy

Art Department

Howie & Taylor

(Reg), Pat Thomson (Doris), Nadine Garner

Art dept runner

(Arlene), Mark Haddigan (Leslie).

Set dressers

Adele Flere Guy Cottrell

Synopsis: In Series II, Reg is again surprised

Megan Manning

by a visit from his ingenue English nephew,

Props buyer

Leslie. This time, Leslie arrives to find Mel

Standby props

bourne is even more surprising than your

Wardrobe

average kangaroo. Arlene is engaged to a

Wardrobe supervisor

Bernie Wynack Dale Mark Rob Walters

millionaire’s son and “Melbourne Confiden

Standby wardrobe

Art dept runner

Michelle Venutti

tial” get involved with some very big players

Animals

indeed.

Animal trainers

Marita Mussett

Props buyers

Dist. companies

Kris Kozlovic (ABC) Fiona Greville

Standby props

Head puppeteer

Wardrobe runner

Michael Garcia

Post Sound transfers by Recording studio The Music Department

[See previous issue for details]

Construction Dept

Set finisher

Post-production

14/10/91 -2 9 /6 /9 2

Off-line facilities

Directors

Michael Logan Rob Matson

Line producer Exec, producer Scriptwriters

Post

Government Agency Investment Chris Lang man Mike Smith

Production

Ray Hennessy

Marketing

Jonathan M. Shift David Phillips

Bob Hunt Michael Hnatek

Post-production Asst editor

Film Victoria

Development

Paul Brocklebank

Off-line facilities

Liz Walshe Spectrum Films Touchvision

FFC

Cast: Christine Tremarco (Lily), Kevin Jones

Inti. dist.

Tele Images

(Bert), Frances Barber (Ellen), Bill Hunter

Atlantis Releasing

(Brother O’Neill), John Hargreaves (Harry),

Peter Hepworth Peter Kinloch

Westbridge Entertainment

Frankie J. Holden (Bunger), Martin Jacobs

Cast: Max the dog (Kelly the dog), Charmaine

(Brother Jerome), Kerry Walker (Mrs Dunne),

Alison Nisselle

Gorman (Jo Patterson), Alexander Kemp

Pamela Rabe (Mrs Lang), Colin Moody (Mr

Shane Brennan

(Danny Foster), Anthony Hawkins (Mike

Symonds).

Monica O’Brien

Shiela Sibley

Patterson), GilTucker (Frank Patterson), Ailsa

Synopsis: The Leaving of Liverpool tells the

Gail Mayes

Denise Morgan

Piper (Maggie Patterson), Katy Brinson (Dr

story of two remarkable children who were

Dalys Lamson Cappi Ireland

Judith Colquhoun

Robyn Foster), Matthew Ketteringham (Chris

DOP

Brett Anderson

Patterson), Mickey (Junior), Jo Spano (Brian

victims of the connivance and cruelty of the governments and organizations involved in

Sound recordist

John Wilkinson

Horton).

the mass transportation of deprived and home

Concetta Raff

Ralph Strasser

Editors Prod, designer Composers

Ray Daley

Synopsis: The continuing story of three young

less children throughout the British Empire in

Philip Watts

children growing up in Fern Cove and their

the 1950s.

Georgie Greenhill Garry McDonald

THE LEAVING OF LIVERPOOL (series)

Planning and Development

Stock footage co-ord. Christina de Podolinsky The Joinery Editing facilities

Story editor

Galia Hardy

Steve Witherow (ABC)

Script editor

Jenny Sharp

Ian Battersby (ABC) John Wilkinson (ABC) Chris Neal Christoph Maubach David Chesire

adventures with a retired police dog. An ac tion, adventure romp.

Laurie Stone

Christina de Podolinsky

Music educationalist

Karen Sander

Art Department, Wardrobe

Kodak

Ken Tyler (ABC)

Music consultant

Narelle Simpson

Shooting stock

Post-production

Sound mixers

Ksana Natalenko Marike's Catering

14/10/91 -2 4 /1 /9 2

Maureen Ryan Post-prod, co-ord

Unit publicist T utors

Atlantis Releasing

Gary Johnston

Catering

Ray Daley Post

Claude Lambert Sue Andrews

Unit nurse

Production

Blair Broadhurst

Machinists

Music co-ord

Mandy Sedawie

Peter Wilson

Rachel Nott Bernice Devereaux

Wardrobe assts

John Neal

Stunts co-ord

Scenic artist Carpenter

Wardrobe

Supervising editor Asst editor

Marion Boyce

16 mm

Paul Myers

Standby wardrobe

Chiara T ripodi

Cinevex

Richard Mueck

Wardrobe supervisor

Gerry Nucifora

Make-up

Film gauge

Richard Mueck

Leah Vincent Suzanne Brown

Kerry Jury

Post-prod, supervisor Edge numberer

Principal Credits

Craig Sinclair

Boom operator

Laboratory

Rob Matson

Puppet doctor

Continuity

$3.5 million

Rod Primrose

Adrian Pickersgill Ross Giannone

19/8/91 - 14/10/91

Puppet makers

Puppet maintenance

1st asst director 2nd asst directors

Budget Pre-production

Puppet builder

Add. puppet maker

On-set Crew

Alf Camilieri

Brian Lang

Phil Mulligan

Jemma Wilson

Westbridge Prods Tele Images Westbridge Entertainment

Generator operator

Chris James

Post-production

KELLY 2 (mini-series) Prod, company

Greg Allen

Electrician

Angela Christa

Paul Van Vliet Michael Keane (ABC)

Bruce Young

Best boy

Still photography

Phil Chambers Mark Reynolds (ABC) Murray Kelly

Benn Hyde

Special fx

Art dept co-ord Set dressers

Matthew Temple

Ken Pettigrew

Gaffer

3rd asst director Peter Ramsey

Marc Spicer Sean McClory Paul Thompson

Band Aide

Catering

Sheila Buzza

Art Department Art directors

Film Trix

Peter Beilby

Focus puller Clapper-loader Asst grip

Special fx Stunts co-ord.

Robert Le Tet

Camera Crew Camera operator

Key grip

Cjnema Verify

Stunts

Accounts asst

Angela Conte Michelle Johnstone

Douglas Livingstone Bill Garner

Keith Fish

Catering

Cynthia Kelly Irene Gaskell

Make-up asst

Exec, producers Scriptwriters

Prod, accountant

Entertainment Media

Shirley Barrett Robert Marchand

Nik Doming

Hairdressers

John Downie John Vitaliotis

Ray Phillips

Make-up

Lisa Hawkes Peter Lawless

Production runner

Paul “Crusty” Kiely

Principal Credits

Prod, secretary

Saqdy Stevens

Asst unit manager

Kay Hennessy

Continuity Boom operator

Prod, companies

Prod, co'-ord.

Robert Kewley

Gene Van Dam

3rd asst director

Jo Rooney

Prod, manager

Richard Clendinnen Maria Phillips Rosemary Morton

2nd asst directors

THE BOYS FROM THE BUSH (series II)

Production Crew

Location manager

[See issue 84 for details]

John Beanland (ABC)

Audio operators

Liz Mullinar Casting Steve Lyons

and will be screened weekly during and after

Graham Cornish (ABC)

Liz Mullinar

Casting Extras casting

Andrew Power

TELEVISION POST-PRODUCTION

Annie Marshall

Planning and Development

Storyboard artist

Gaffer

John May

Marcus North

Prod, designer

Joel Witherden

Asst grips

Tony Dickinson (ABC)

Boom operators

Mike Honey

Editor Costume designer

Terry Howells

Peter Grace

Sound recordist

Key grip

It will consist of 26 one-hour programmes

NEIGHBOURS (serial)

Susan Smith Steve Windon

DOP

Camera type

which can be split into half-hour episodes,

Chris Edwards

Scriptwriters

Casting consultants

Marcus Hunt

Eric Burt

Vision mixer

Film Finances Barker Gosling

Andrea Fitzpatrick (ABC) Vision operator

Wayne Barry John Alsop

Assoc, producer

Gary Bottomley Arri SR

Martin Green (ABC)

Aideen Stevenson (ABC)

Penny Chapman Michael Wearing

Steve Brett

Unit manager

Completion guarantor

Phil Jones

2nd asst directors

Reel Wheels

Transport managers

Cast: Mark Mitchell (Mr Fish), Paul Cheyne

Paul Healey John Wild

Exec, producers

Greg Ellis

Location manager

Kevin Pearce

On-set Crew 1st asst directors

Peter Viska

Animation consultant

Helen Boicovitis

Prod, secretary

Casting

Jo Rippon

Production Crew Prod, manager Prod, co-ord. Producer’s asst

Gina Black Susie Evans Coyla Hegarty

Prod, comps

ABC-BBC-Knapman Prods

Pre-production

8/7/91

Production

16/9/91

Post-production

9/12/91

Principal Credits Director

Michael Jenkins

Producer

Steve Knapman

See previous issues for details on: ALL TOGETHER NOW BONY CHANCES A COUNTRY PRACTICE THE CROCODILE ON TRIAL GOOD VIBRATIONS HEROES II - THE RETURN THE MIRACULOUS MELLOPS

CINEMA

PAPERS

Eleven

C r i t i c s ’ Best

and

Worst

ELEATIC ELEVEN A PANEL OF ELEVEN FILM REVIEWERS HAS RATED A SELECTION OF THE LATEST RELEASES ON A SCALE OF 0 TO 10, THE LATTER BEING THE OPTIMUM RATING (A DASH MEANS NOT SEEN). THE CRITICS ARE: BILL COLLINS (CHANNEL 10; THE DAILY MIRROR, SYDNEY); SANDRA HALL (THE BULLETIN, SYDNEY); JOHN HARRIS (THE ADELAIDE NEWS); PAUL HARRIS (3RRR; EG, THE AGE, MELBOURNE); IVAN HUTCHINSON (SEVEN NETWORK; HERALD-SUN, MELBOURNE); STAN JAMES (THE ADELAIDE ADVERTISER); ADRIAN MARTIN (BUSINESS REVIEW WEEKLY; “SCREEN”, 3RN); SCOTT MURRAY; TOM RYAN (3L0; THE SUNDAY AGE, MELBOURNE); DAVID STRATTON (VARIETY; SBS, SYDNEY); AND EVAN WILLIAMS (THE AUSTRALIAN, SYDNEY). WELCOME TO JOHN HARRIS OF THE ADELAIDE

FILM TITLE Director

BILL COLLINS

SANDRA HALL

JOHN HARRIS

PAUL HARRIS

IVAN HUTCHINSON

STAN JAMES

ADRIAN MARTIN

S C O TT MURRAY

TOM RYAN

DAVID STRATTON

EVAN WILLIAMS

NEWS. NEIL JILLETT OF THE AGE IS ON HOLIDAY.

THE ADDAMS FAMILY Bariy Sonnenfeld

AMERICAN FRIENDS Tristram Powell

BARTON FINK Joel Coen

BOYZ N HOOD John Singleton

CAPE FEAR Martin Scorsese

DINGO R olf de Heer

THE DOCTOR Randa Haines

DROP DEAD FRED Ate Dejong

FATHER OF THE BRIDE Charles Shyer

FOR THE BOYS Mark Rvdell

LA GLOIRE DE MON PÈRE [My Father’s Glory] Yves Robert

LE CHÂTEAU DE MA MÈRE [My Mother’s Castle] Yves Robert

HIGHLANDER II: THE QUICKENING Russell Mulcahy

HOOK Steven Spielberg

IN THE SHADOW OF THE STARS Irving Saraf

JFK Oliver Stone

LITTLE MAN TATE Jodie Foster

UN MONDE SANS PITIÉ [A World Without Pity] Eric Rochant

ROCKETEER Joe Johnston

SACRED SEX Cynthia Connop

SPARTACUS Stanley Kubrick

SP0TSW00D M arkjoffe

: -

SWEET TALKER Michael Jenkins

- s '-

TRUST Hal Hartley

• CINEMA

PAPERS

Bank of Melbourne

Free C h equ es! N o Fees! (Even on balances below $5 0 0 ) ■ Free Cheques No Fees, regardless of account balance size.* ■ Earn good interest ■ Receive a free V ISA Card or Bank of Melbourne Card and a free cheque book. ■ Bank on Saturday from 9 to 12 (most branches). On W eekdays from 9 to 5 * Only government duties apply.

B AN K 42052

Bank o f M elbourne cuts the cost o f banking Head Office: 52 Collins Street, Melbourne, 3000.

At Qantas,we don t just applaud Australian talent,we help keep the show on the road.

It’s always been a long w ay to the top for aspiring artists. But at Qantas we’re making sure they get there quicker by providing travel and promotion for actors, writers, even circus performers. So when they return to Australia they’ll have a world of experience from which to draw. And we’re sure Australia will rise to its feet and call for more. ^ k Q / l i l i T V I S The spirit o f Australia. QPR5349