Cinema Papers no. 42 March 1983 (2025)

OCR

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1981 We Of The Never Never

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1982 Running On Empty

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represent the views of their authors and not necessarily those of the editors. While every care is

taken with manuscripts and materials supplied for this magazine, neither the editors nor the

publishers accept any liability for loss or dama[...]ay not be

reproduced in whole or in part without the permission of the copyright owner. Cinema Papers is
ublished[...]

Scott Murray reports:

On January 13, the Minister for Home
Affairs and the Environment, Tom
Mcvei h, announced proposed changes
to the ncome Tax Assessment Act, as
relating to investment in film production[...]film (see
p.24). These guidelines, which reek of
the same white Anglo-Saxon fervor of
Equity’s new p[...]ady been labelled “xenophobic
protection”. In The Australian of January
24, 1983, an editorial stated:

“By removing some of the sillier con-

ditions of the previous tax con-

cessions to the film industry, the
government seems to have gone
overboard to the other extreme.

“There are good reasons for
objecting to the tax concessions
which the government offers the film
industry, not least of which is they
favor the better-oft . . .

“The new guidelines, which apply
under a different part of the Act, might
be easier for local producers and
inve[...]gent
about foreign talent appearing in any
ray in the production of an eligible

ilm.

‘‘In fact, the conditions outlined by
Mr McVeigh are almost xenophobic.
He says, for example, the ‘producer
and director would normally be
expected to be Australians, as would
the writer and the principal actors’.

“In effect, the government is trying
to turn the film industry into a closed
shop -— unless Mr McVeigh decides to
bend the rules.

“The best chance the Australian
film industry has to grow is to make a
name for itself in other countries. The
new guidelines help actors, producers
and investo[...]industry."
What McVeigh, in his hurry to please

the industry by acting quickly, has not
done is to canvass industry opinion. All it
seems he did was to listen to various
interested parties (from Sydney) which
visited him and whose opinions clea[...]One may argue that if other groups or
members of the industry wished their
views to be heard, they sho[...]principle of demo-
cratic government: that it is the govern-
ment’s responsibility to solicit opinion,
not the voters to proffer it.

Actor Activity

Scott Murr[...]m orted actors in motion pictures”.
E ective as from January 1, 1983, the
policy states (in part) that:

“Imported artist[...]based on Australian historical fact . . .
unless the character as written
originally in the case of literature L] or
in fact in the case of history, is of an
ethnic background which[...]."

1. It is hard not to see a racist overtone
in the above statement (otherwise,
why single out people with an “ethnic
background” from those classed
as “Australians”?). Not only un-
pleasant, such a view ignores the
very history ofthe European founding
of Australia — let alone the original
settlers. _

“Ethnic” groups are singled out

again when the policy states a
producer cannot go overseas to ca[...]thnic grounds" unless
he “has attempted to cast the part
through the Multi Cultural Artists
Agency".

2. A second major concern of the new
policy is the inherent incentive to
inflate production budgets. The
policy states that,

(i) No imported actor is all[...]oreign
actor in a supporting role will have to
up the budget to $3 million. If he
wants a foreign co-lead, he will have
to increase the budget to $5 million.

This inflationary hike is[...]n't
inflate budgets to get what they
want? If so, the film may not be made
and people will be out of a[...]quity hope producers will
inflate budgets? If so, the strain on a
limited amount of private money will[...]ut
artistically. Various actors have
commented on the value of working
with experienced overseas actors.
One remembers Jack Thompson’s
comments on the learning
experience of acting with Edward
Woodwar[...]— Asian, American . . ."

3. A third problem of the new policy has
been the reaction of actors here and
overseas. There is already talk of the
Screen Actors Guild of America
bringing in a simi[...]Australians keeping out Americans
and then using the U.S. industry to
promote their own fortunes. Such a
move by the Americans, while as
deplorable as Equity‘s stand, would
at least bring home to supporters of
the present hypocritical policy that
embargoes can wo[...]recently. Headed by actor-producer
Ted Hamilton, the new guild aims to
give actors a choice of union
philosophy. Unlike the Actors and
Announcers Equity Association of
Austr[...]es in con-
junction with producers and
directors. The SAG feels the present
union problems should be suffused,
and ac[...]akers brought
together to concentrate on pursuing
the growth and betterment of the
Australian film industry.

Naturally, Equity spokesmen have
attacked the SAG on all sorts of
grounds and a stand-off is in[...]rs", and other childlike
nonsense).

No one knows how important the
Screen Actors Guild will become, and

many feel it is only short-lived. No
matter, it is at least the start of a
dissension about policies that many
pe[...]To Market, To Market

G. R. Lanse/I reports:

In the U.S., the marketing budget for a
feature sometimes can exceed the pro-
duction budget. In Australia, there may
not[...]ision made —
or, more likely, any money left in the kitty
— for this crucial marketing push.

The basic problem is that the other-
wise generous terms of Division 10BA
(“Australian films”) of the Income Tax
Assessment Amendment Act 1981 (No.
711) are not very generou[...]eys are regarded as revenue
expenses and accorded the usual 100
per cent tax deduction, not the 150 per
cent accorded production or capital
costs. Yet, unless the film is marketed
properly, investors are unlikely[...]ting moneys
(a bare minimum of, say, $100,000) in
the initial investment deed, to “protect
their inve[...]ke Harris,
ex-Sydney Variety bureau chief and now
the Australian Film Commission's repre-
sentative in North America, the world’s
biggest marketplace for film.

Harris, together with Ray Atkinson,
the AFC’s representative in London,
David Field (ex[...]3 respec-
tively. Their marketing seminar covered
the cashing in (or at least the attempt) at
major international marketplaces and[...]wn
character, advantages and disadvan-
tages.

In the early- to mid-1970s, Australian
films lived off their festival reputation;
the sales came later. These days, there
is a cross-over between festival and
marketplace (the former, incidentally,
being much more selective than the
latter), especially at Cannes, the
greatest bunfest of them all. The main
emphasis, in these hard times, seems to
be i[...]ural laurels but on
making money and getting into the black
— tax breaks notwithstanding.

Australian[...]for tasteful art-house product
(having displaced the French), “just like
Kleenex”, cracks Harris.[...]Australiana, presumably such as
Alvin Purple and The Adventures of
Barry McKenzie (as well as current[...]her — and unwelcome — kettle of
fish. But, if the momentum has been lost
because of an unacceptable[...]or with “internal problems”,
revolving around the producer's
fantasies of being an unrecognized
Irv[...]this cut-throat- international
market. Basically, the producer has only
one chance anyway: he can’t recut a film
because the bad word gets about swiftly.
And, the naive producer can't possibly
hope to manipulate one potential buyer
against another. The Americans,
particularly, want “instant market-[...]Harris color-
fully puts it, “They do know shit from
Chopin." (Perhaps the distinction

Pushing this pre-production point
further, the AFC’s overseas representa-
tives say that, thou[...]"pre-
selling” films (especially features) — the
present isolationist policies of Actors’
Equity[...]forms: marketing loans (not grants or
investment) from the AFC, and export
incentives from the Export Development
Grants Board (EDGB). The former are
available at current rates, and are
deducted off the top — that is, before the
investors’ return.

As for the latter, the EDGB returns 70
per cent of all eligible expendit[...]lawyers and accountants.
But, in Webb’s words, the grants are
‘‘substantial'’ and can make a great
difference to the profitability of a film. In
fact, export incentives should be taken
into account when framing the above-
mentioned marketing provision in the
initial investment deal. As Field advised,
a mistake at this point could cost
investors a lot of money. The film
industry is no longer a cottage Industry:
it[...]est returns
that pale into insignificance against the
American majors. The reason is prob-
ably more simple: Americans want[...]et Only)" list, Mad Max 2
has made $10.5 million, The Pirate
Movie $4.5 million, and Gallipoli (re-
issue) $2.6 million. The Man from
Snowy River in their “50 Top-Grossing
Films” list for the week ending January
5 has made $1.3 million.

Mad Max 2 and The Pirate Movie are
the only Australian or, rather, semi-Aus-
tralian fil[...]tical listing of
1981 successes in mid-May 1982.

The above figures and more can be
found in the 77th Anniversary Edition of
Variety (New York), Vol. 309, No. 11
(January 12, 1983)-

Corrigenda

The distributor of Francesco Rosi’s
Tre fratelli (Three Brothers) IS Rosa
Colosimo and not as listed in the review

Obituary: Syd Wood

The death in January of Syd Wood

has severed another[...]tory.
Sy served with Movietone News for
34 years, from 1931, when he began as
an office boy, until 1965 when the
newsreel had come to an end as a form
of weekly news and entertainment.

Syd and his brother, Ross, were the
basis for the film Newsfront and Syd
acted as a technical adviser on the film,
teaching actors Bill Hunter, Chris
Haywood, John Ewart and P. J. Jones
how to function as two Newsreel camera
teams. Hunter modelled his character
on Syd using photographs from Syd’s
albums as reference and bore an
uncanny resemblance in the film to Syd
as a younger man.

Syd volunteered for service in World
War 2 and as a cameraman photo-
graphed the New Guinea and South
Pacific theatres of the war. He returned
to New Guinea after the war to photo-
graph the first color documentary for
Movietone on the Trobriand islands.

In the 19505, Syd, a man who loved
adventure, covered all of the major news
stories, including the Redex ‘round Aus-

tralia car trials, the Mount Hagen
volcano, flying over the top as it erupted,
and, what I consider to be his finest
story, the Maitland floods with his young
camera assistant Mark McDonald.
Unlike his fear of bushfires, where “the
bastards have a nasty habit of jumping
over the top and surrounding you”, Syd
had no fear of floods.

Syd, like his brother Ross, was a
member of the Bronte Surf Club, and a
swollen and flooded river was to Syd like
the rip in a surf on a big day. His footage
of Maitland, much of which is used in
Newsfront, took the viewer into the
middle of a flood, not merely observing
from the edge.

Syd was the driving force in setting up
and organizing the Cinesound Movie-
tone Archive and has left it his
photographic albums.

Syd Wood was a man of great humor
and courage who has captured on film
some of the great events of our past.

David Elfick

credits in the previous issue (No. 41,
p.563).

On the first page of Ian Wilson's
interview with Julian Ellingworth (No. 41 ,
p.545), the photo credited as being of
Ellingworth is of an AAV technician. The
error was made by Cinema Papers and
not Wilson. Cinema Papers apologizes
to Ellingworth for the error.

in the article, “What is a Documen-
tary?” (No. 40),[...]con-
stitutes a documentary (P.443). Hawes
feels the subbing of his quote altered the
meaning and has requested his supplied
quote be reprinted:

“Documentary seeks the dramatic
pattern in actuality. A documentary film[...]technique. It should be interesting, able
to hold the attention of the audience for
which it is intended; it must have
i[...]omment.

"Basically a documentary film is
made in the service of the community, in
the belief that the responsible spread of
information between the people of
different countries and between the
people of different parts of the same
country cannot but improve the human
condition.

“Note: This is a personal definition of
the original concept of documentary.
Documentary in this sense describes the
method of approach to the material of
the film, not the material itself. The word

is widely used now in a less precise
sense to include any film w[...]with actuality rather than fiction.”

AFI A GM

The 22nd Annual General Meeting of the
Australian Film Institute was held at the
Longford Cinema, Melbourne, at 77 a.m.
on December 18, 1982. Scott Murray
reports:

The Build-up

in October 1982, a group of con-
cerned AFI members met to discuss
various aspects of the AFl’s policies. in
particular, the group felt:
1. That films cut by the censor should
not be screened by the AFI;
2. That concern be expressed over the
“apparent destruction of the National
Film Theatre”; and

1. The National Film Theatre of Australia
used to be independent of the AFl, running
three nights a week in Sydney and tw[...]session. Then
during a period of rationalization, the Aus-
tralian Film Commission (which funded
both bodies) instructed the Nl-"TA to merge
with the AFl.

The NF‘|'A managed to continue with more
or less it[...]arly regained its early 1970s
attendance in 1980. The AFI then changed
the NFT, both in programming and pro-

The Quarter

3. That there was a lack of confidence
in the Board of Directors? and the
executive director, Kathleen Norris.
In order to ensure these and other

issues were discussed at the AGM, one
of the group contacted the AFI to find out
the correct procedures for having
motions raised. He was told by the then
business manager, Keith Lumley, that
business at the AGM was determined by
the AFl’s Articles of Association. A copy
of the Articles was subsequently posted
to the group.

When the Articles arrived, however,
they were found to have the pages on
the conduct of the AGM missing. This
meant another call to the AFI, after
which the missing pages were sent.
From these, the group learnt that all
motions to be put at the AGM had to be
approved by the Board of Directors,
which had the power to veto any

motions.
Concluded on p. 86

m[...]s, etc). When Norris became execu-
tive director, the NFT changed again, firstly
becoming the National Screening Circuit, a
seemingly unnecessary change of name,
and then taking the form it has today: three
one-week seasons in capi[...]screening in Sydney, it is
now 21. in Melbourne, the NSC has been
relocated from the State Film Centre to the
Longford, where it will be seen as just
another part of that cinema's multi-
structured programming.

2. The Board at the time was Senator David
Hamer (chairman), Julie Jame[...]

In both places, the credit for the
screenplay reads “from a screenplay by
David Williamson, based on the novel by
Christopher Koch and on additional
material by Alan Sharp". This is entirely
incorrect. The screenplay credit formally
agreed to by all parties, and appearing
on the screen, is one shared equally by
Williamson, Weir[...]Sharp’s name has been dropped, since
so little was left of his version of the
screenplay in the end that a credit could
no longer be justified.

I assume that your information came
from the producers during the period of
the film’s production. Publicity put out by
them at that time, before the final credits
were decided, constantly and ungene[...]to David Williamson
alone, so that an impression was
created that he was producing an
entirely new screenplay. That this was
not so is made clear by the final credit,
but the misapprehension persists. I
hope that you will give me space to set
the record straight once and for all, since
the matter has some professional
importance to me, and has attracted a
certain amount of comment in the press
and in the industry.

The article on Peter Weir by Brian Mc-
Farlane (MPYB[...]reference to a rift between Weir and
myself over the development of the
script. Clarification of the three-year
history of this project may be of some[...]Weir, when I originally
approached him to direct the film, asked
me to write a screenplay from my novel,
collaborating with him in re-structuring
the material. This I did, going through a
number of drafts, in 1979-80. Weir at
that stage was proposing that he and I
take the script through to its completion,
although this proposal tended to wax
and wane. I was always prepared for
another writer to take over, provided he
respected the material; although I have
slowly become convinced that the ideal
situation for a great film is one where a
single writer and director, working in real
harmony, see the film to its completion.
This was not to be in our case.

Weir pronounced himself s[...]S in America. They wanted Peter
Weir; they wanted the novel; but not the
script. As Americans so often do, they
plainly had plans to debauch the prop-
erty along commercial lines. Weir
informed me that Alan Sharp, a Los
Angeles writer of Scots origin, was to do
a “polishing job”, at the request of CBS.
This polishing job turned out to[...]rewrite. It left nothing of my original
novel but the names of the characters,
and in my opinion it resembled a comi[...]l this to
put things into perspective when making
the comment that the Sharp script was a
total, talentless betrayal of the book, and
of the film I had envisaged. When I pro-
tested, however, my protest was dis-
missed in a telegram, and Weir has ever
sinc[...]r and C. J. Koch."

What apparently happened next was
that Weir reworked the Sharp script, put-
ing back into it much of my original
script. CBS then dropped the project.
Weir then hired David Williamson to
rework the material. Only a few lines of
Sharp now remain; and by my estimate
the final proportions are about 55 per
cent Williamson/Weir, and 45 per cent
Koch. I was happy, after the Sharp
horror, to see an Australian writer take
over, and that David did so was particu-
larly gratifying. I had one more contact
with the script: at the post-production
stage I worked on some of the voice-
over material taken from my novel: a
request from Weir conveyed via David
Williamson. For this I received no thanks
from the Master, but I was happy with
the result. David and I had unofficial con-
tact thro[...]fine job under trying
circumstances. He would be the last to
wish the erroneous impression of some
of the publicity to continue.

It remains to be said that the finished
product, despite what I see as dialogue
deficiencies, has all the imaginative and
visual power I always knew Peter[...]sincerely,
C. J. Koch

Companies Code

Dear Sir,

The government's recent decision to
extend the time period for completion of
qualifying films to[...]ars, and to allow tax deductions
to be claimed in the year in which the
investment is made, has alleviated one
of the local film industry's biggest
problems. That is n[...]ho flocked to U.A.A. and
others will now flock to the local pro-
ducers; I believe their motives were p[...]ult in a greater number of
quality productions in the months/years
ahead. One wonders why the Treasurer
took so much convincing.

However, overcoming the rigidities of
the Income Tax Assessment Act has not
eliminated the industry‘s financing
problems.

Certainly, as far as the smaller pro-
ducer is concerned, amendments to the
Act will not provide much of a benefit at
all. Why? Because he/she is still con-
strained by the Companies Code,
specifically Division 6, covering Pre-
scribed Interests. This division details
the circumstances under which the
public can be invited to invest in any
“prescribed interest", a term defined in
the Code, and which includes the pro-
duction and marketing of films.

My concern is not for the larger pro-
ducer who has, by now, established the
necessary public company and formats
for the trust deed and prospectus, and
who is seeking anywhere from $1 million
to $5 million from the public, although
they certainly had my sympathies in the
early days. No, the persons most
affected are those looking for smaller
amounts in the order 0 $50,000 to
$250,000.

While such amounts[...]to 20 people, such a syndicate is pro-
hibited by the Code. In fact, if a prospec-
tive producer requir[...]red to front up,
and if that investor went beyond the
range of the producer's immediate
family, then technically he has breached
the provisions of Division 6. Discussions
with officers of the Corporate Affairs

. Commissions indicate that, in the

absence of any guidelines, definitions
are being[...]What is required, in my.op_inion, is a
change to the Code or in its interpreta-
tion. At the moment, there is a_numerical
test to separate pub[...]why not create a number of
investors, below which the Code would
not apply? For example, the Code could
exempt, from its application, situations
where the number of investors (counting
"associated persons[...]Alternatively, or perhaps in conjunc-
tion with the foregoing, schemes which
involved amounts below a certain thres-
hold would also be exempt from the
Code’s application. Or perhaps, in these
circumstances, the requirements are
relaxed.

The industry has shown itself capable
of responding t[...]rian Tucker

Not Registered
Dear Sir,

I refer to the Quarter Item, “The
Travelling Film Festival" (Cinema

Papers No. 41, p. 503), and desire to
advise that I registered "The Travelling
Film Festival" in Victoria as a busine[...]thout any inten-_
tion to create difficulties for the Travel-
ling Film Festival established in New
South Wales. The fact is that party
hadn’t registered their name in Victoria.

Subsequently, following an approach
from the Travelling Film Festival, I
elected to transfer the name I had regis-
tered to them. The decision was taken
primarily because there was no intention
on my part to deprive that organizat[...]e
shall not be a touring Film Festival
throughout the State of Victoria in 1983.

Yours faithfully,
Graeme Orr

The Efftee Legacy

Dear Sir,

I enjoyed reading Chris Long's article
"The Efftee Legacy" in the December
issue (Cinema Papers, No. 41, pp.
521-23[...]gree with Chris that
we are indeed fortunate that the prolific
output of Efftee has survived nearly
in[...]ed
for his efforts over many years in
chronicling the Efftee story.

I would like to amplify Chris’ com-
ments on the technical quality of viewing
prints of Efftee titles in the National Film
Archive. Like other material from the
nitrate era, Efftee holdings fall into three
main[...]rints;

2. 35 mm acetate preservation copies
made from these (master positives
or dupe negatives); and

3. acetate viewing copies, mostly 16
mm, and usually struck from pre-
servation copies.

One of the besetting problems faced
by all film archives, but especially by the
National Film Archive, is how to appor-
tion a limited budget across the com
peting demands of preservation and
access. The more one spends on
making viewing copies the less is left for
making preservation copies of fi[...]possible
with a minimum of technical fuss. Often
the answer print made to check the

As regular users know, much material
in the National Film Archive is in-
adequately listed an[...]ts 50,000 titles),
topics which are dealt with in the August
1982 Cinema Papers and in a recent
book, The Documentary Film in Aus-
tralia.

The Efftee output is a good example
of a collection which was saved from dis-
persal, or worse, by the intervention of
the National Film Archive. Under the
terms of acquisition copyright, all Efftee
material is vested in the National
Library. All of the features and some of
the shorts are also distributed on 16 mm
through the National Film Lending
Collection to non-theatrica[...]y

Educational Filmmakers

Dear Sir,

Inspired by the reading of the article in
Cinema Papers No. 40, pp. 442-45, 487,
489, "What is a Documentary”, and
further convinced by the publicity cam-
paign, I purchased your latest publica-
tion titled, The Documentary Film in Aus-
tralia.1 This book is the first of its kind in
Australia and it is an excel[...]ckground, theoretical
papers, and of case studies from
different areas of the functioning film
and television documentary industry. It
will give both the layman and the profes-
sional some new and valuable insights
int[...]y.

As an educational documentary film-
maker for the past 11 years, naturally I
read with interest the section I was most
concerned with: “4 Case Studies —
Specia[...]been regarded as a "poor
relation" or as outside the mainstream
of serious and entertaining documentary
films. Filmmakers used it as the first
stepping stone and, once confident,
went in[...]lms for this very important purpose.
Naturally, I was hoping that the Robert
Rothols, Ross Campbell interview/article
w[...]demystify, explain, define
and put in perspective the true role of
educational documentary films, especi-
ally the ones made by the AVRB Film
Unit. I was disappointed that this did not
happen. Under-rese[...]inaccurate information presented further
confuses the role of educational docu-
mentary films and filmm[...]tend

1. Floss Lansell and Peter Beilby (eds), The
Documentary Film in Australia, Cinema
Papers-Film Victoria, Melbourne, 1982.

the article and its content. As the title of
the article suggests, it was to explore the
working of a Film Unit, which means a
group of people, not just one individual.
The people who are working in this Film
Unit are all filmmakers. Their films are
mentioned and talked about in the
article, yet they did not receive any
credit for their work.

It is a standard practice right through
the book to credit people with their own
productions.[...]nspicuously
absent in this article? To be fair to the
members of this Unit, I would like to list
their[...]hat is an Australian?

— Barbara Boyd Anderson

The Making of Anna — Robert

Francis
Naturally, these films represent only a
small fraction of the output of the Unit.
The people mentioned above and others
before them hav[...]Besides being entertaining, as is men-
tioned in the article, what other special
qualities should a good educational film
possess? If the meaning of the word
education is to “draw out”, then a good[...]ilm should do
exactly that. First, it should draw the
subject matter into your consciousness,
make you[...]ld
comment, think, analyze, experience
and learn. The voice-over, or the “voice
of God", is no longer necessary under
th[...]nd effects and suitable music. It
must never lull the mind but stimulate it.
It must play a role in the intellectual,
spiritual and emotional growth of the
individua|’s attitude towards his environ-
ment[...]never lie. Ideally, true learning
should begin in the classroom when the
film stops and the experiences are
relived during the discussion conducted
by the teacher.

When an educational film pretends to
have all the knowledge augmented by
wonderfully “distracting[...]this certainly is not a guaran-
tee of success in the classroom.

Many of our short documentary films
in the past were made for primary school
age children as language stimulus, and
they were experimental in style. How-
ever, one of our latest documentary films
in the making is on The Age cartoonist,
Ron Tandberg. This film is using[...]ensitivity to events, and producing a
“being in the right place at the right
time" type of film.

Making films for clients — i.e., for
curriculum consultants, who are also the
subject specialists — can be difficult
sometime[...]ce these people
that films educate differently to the
written word can be difficult. They may
want to i[...]and issues in a film, which
can be detrimental to the overall effec-
tiveness of the project.

It is essential to educational film-
makers that the rest of the industry
understand the conditions we are work-
ing under and the aims we have to
struggle to achieve. Ultimately, the real

judges are the kids in the classroom and
the teachers in the schools, who choose
to show our films. It has been said in the
article how the borrowing record of our
films through the AVRB Film and Video
Collection stands up against[...]are
very popular indeed in Victorian schools
and the latest figures indicate this order
of preferences[...]popu-
larity:

1. Zoo (Gerry Hudson)

2. Lost in the Bush (Peter Dodds,
drama)

3. Broken Down Bus (Ro[...]requires a fair amount of experience on
behalf of the producer and a happy
coincidence between the assignment
and the interests of the director.

Yours faithfully,

Ivan Gaal,
Producer[...]Sir,

We would like to raise for discussion
with the Australian Film Institute and its
directors, and with the film community,
the position of documentary film within
Australian film culture, both in general,
and as represented at the Annual AFI
Awards, including the Jury Awards.

The documentary film and many non-
theatrical release films are a vital part of
any film culture. Outside of the ‘ enter-
tainment" industry, films can serve
ma[...]tary versus narrative — but simply
to highlight the unique contribution
documentary film makes to fil[...]umentaries often address them-
selves directly to the role of education
and the exchange of information. In this
historical time,[...]lp our understanding and
knowledge of society and the world.
They can encourage as well as satisfy
curiosity about our history, our lives and
the lives of those around us. They can
help develop a[...]and social responsibility.

We would like to see the Australian
Film Institute take a significant initiative
in encouraging the recognition that
documentary film deserves. To some
extent the AFI does this already through
exhibition, distribution, its publications
and through the Film Awards. Yet this
most public, mass media event, the
Awards, appears to uncritically imitate
the Hollywood model, both by the nature
of the event itself and by the priorities
emphasized.

Film awards, film judging and film
reviews have a definite influence in the
shaping of a film culture. In some other
countries the compulsion to culturally
imitate the U.S. is less pronounced than
in Australia. At Wes[...]knowledgement in their own
country.

We feel that the preeminence given
to the narrative fiction film in the Austra-
lian Film Awards, where a film produc-
ti[...]in 13 categories, is too
heavily weighted against the documen-
tary film, which can receive recognition[...]ental, short fiction and animation films.

One of the consequences of the small
number of categories is that the films are
unfairly pitted against one another. This
year, for example, the unique merits of
films like Angels of War and Two Laws
were lost within the one broad category.

Widening the range of categories that
documentary film would b[...]or
would serve several purposes:

0 it would free the panel from current
constrictions;

0 it would recognize the achievements
of personnel working within the
documentary form;

0 it would grant more recognition to the
contribution made by documentary
film to Australi[...]oduction and
higher quality documentary film.

In the AFI News, December 1982 (No.
25), a small article comments on some
of the problems in the structure of the
Jury Awards. We would like to add our
support to the changes to the Jury
Awards recommended by the panel.
However, we would further propose that
the AFI consider the position of the
documentary film within the Awards as a
whole, with the view to increasing the
number of categories. We propose that
the following cate ories be considered
for documentar[...]it not be said that if there were
one country in the world where people
do not automatically lump Canada and
Canadians with the U.S. then that
country might be Australia?

Could[...]lian film or video producers would desire
to make the maximum amount of money
out of the North American market for
their product?

Then please tell me why these pro-
ducers give the non-theatrical, educa-
tional, television and cab[...]at-
rical rights to American distributors in
that the theatrical distribution in this
country is controlled by the majors. But
by denying them the other rights, Austra-
Iian producers are not goin[...]hing but bluff.

I would be interested in hearing from
any Australian producers looking for an
ex[...]

Look at Romeo and Juliet, the
first half of which, if it is done
well, is hilar[...]s plight is
laughable; he is such a kid. But
then the play takes on a hard edge
of real violence in the middle; it
becomes quite heavy. It wouldn’t
wor[...]to like and laugh with
characters first. That is the dra-
matic effect Shakespeare figured

out.

What[...]as a profes-
sion?

I didn’t choose it; that is the
weird point. It was set up_ for me
by a member of my family who

Opposite: Mel Gibson, as Guy Hamilton, in
Peter Weir’s The Year of Living Danger-
ously.

Margaret Smith interviews the star of
The Year of Living Dangerously, Gallipoli
and the Mad Max films.

did all the applying, sending my
request form into a place wh[...]Why not two days out of my life?”
But I felt I was going to make a
jerk of myself in front of a lot[...]Of course it does. I have been
doing that since I was little, stand-
ing up and telling jokes. You know
how little kids do it. They love the
attention — especially if they come
from a big family, and I have 10

Mel Gibson, Wayne Jarratt and Warren Mitchell in the Nimrod production of Death of a
Salesman.

brothers and sisters. I used to get a
kick out of affecting people, no
matter[...]be
interested in what a journalist does

unless I was working on a play or
film in which the characters were
journalists.

So there is that and also, in-

directly, creating the dream to hide
behind. When you have a mask on,
yo[...]our aware-
ness of culture and of people?

Yes. I was brought up in one
environment until about the age of
12 and understood it. Then I was
suddenly shifted to another. I
could immediately sense the differ-
ence in, for instance, the extent to
which people expressed them-
selves. Am[...]are
very expressive, which I think is
better than the up—tight reserve
Australians have. It is a sort of
hang-up from the English. But as
with everything, it has its good and
bad sides.

Which actors do you admire?

I was an avid film watcher when
I was young, but I can’t single out
names and say, “Gee, I took a lot
from him.” But, subconsciously, a
lot would have registered, just
from observation.

I used to look very closely at
guys like Spencer Tracy,[...]style, 20
or 30 years ahead of what Clark
did. He was still doing that
wooden, 1930s stuff. But he was

CINEMA PAPERS March — 13

great because he had an appeal
that just used to shine out of him.

I take little pieces from every-
where. It is pass the ball, isn’t it?

Some drama teachers, especially
those from the Stella Adler Con-
servatory in New York, say that[...]ne to
know what they haven’t experi-
enced. So, the older you get, the
better you get, just through having
lived more.[...]good actor and he draws a lot of
his acting just from having been
around for so long.

You are young and working in the
post-feminist era, where you can
play a man in a[...]ng”. George Miller’: Mad Max.

But that is the way I was raised.
Had there been no feminist revolu-
tion or whatever, I would have
been the same. As Edmund says [in
King Lear], “I should have been
that I am had the maidenliest star
in the firmament twinkled on my
bastardizing. ”

Your[...]ity more
easily in your work when you
aren’t in the midst of it . . .

In the midst of vulnerabilities? I
have done that number already. I
remember it. But it certainly stops
you from thinking about yourself a
lot, so it can’t be a[...]g your know-
ledge of those things . . .

That is the motivation. You can
use those things without it b[...]ou become more or less keen.

Your final training was at NIDA.
How much did you learn there?

I remember the tutors at NIDA

saying, “You’re too cerebral. You
don’t put enough on the outside.
You don’t externalize enough.”

Have you changed since or was
that a misinterpretation?

I think it was a misinterpreta-
tion.

Actually, NIDA was very valu-
able. It offers lots of things which
you have never come across
before. You have to go in with the
understanding that you try every-
thing, even if you don’t like the
look of it: “What do we have to
fence for? Why[...]lain old commonsense —
commonsense of acting by the
numbers. He just wrote it all
down.

Stanislavsky[...]did help
actors pare themselves down.
Before him, the way of acting was
more emotional. He taught people
to look a[...]

What do you think about the state
of acting in Australia?

The stage acting I see is as good
as acting anywhere.[...]acting as
much as watching what is being
done to the performers on cellu-
loid. You should never judge[...]on film because often they
can be a real pain in the arse and
come out looking great. Some-
times they[...]doing?

Frank, after his desperate run through the
trenches. Gallipoli.

I don’t enjoy any of them! It is
always a headache at the time you
are doing it. You are always tear-
ing y[...]ou
enjoy it.

What about “Mad Max”?

Oh, that was fun, because you
have your cardboard guy there.
The story is comic—book style and
everyone is ready to laugh at it.
The images are graphic and car-
toonic, so, to slot i[...]st doesn’t work.

Then you have this problem of
the character being a closet human
being. He has to i[...]rs and yet not
appear to. It is a little tricky.

Was it easier for you in the sequel?

All that stuff with the boy, for
instance, and the dog, even? To
be sort of remote, and detached,
almost not human, and at the same
time betray something of yourself.

To make him human, to make
people think, “Oh, the poor guy”.
That sort of stuff is interesting.

Will there be another sequel? Is
that why they left him in the
desert?

I think so, but I don’t think the
director wants to do another one.

Frankly, George [Miller] is one
of the few people who handles that
genre well. There is[...]le.

George is great, and a real
gentleman. He is the antithesis of
what you see on the screen.

Was it a time of living out
fantasies?

Yes, it is George’s fantasy.

Miller was the one who gave you
the real break. Compared with
“Tim”, “Mad Max 2” was the
film that made the U.S. look at
you . . .

Yes.

Mel Gibson

Was there much
“Tim” overseas?

response to

Yes,[...]wasn’t a
great seller.

I quite enjoyed Tim. It was a
pleasant experience, and I learned
a lot quickly. At other times, it has
been a battle all the way. The Year
of Living Dangerously was a
battle. Hopefully, it looks as if I
can handle[...]ou a lot of room to play
with.

Another aspect is the stigma
attached to a coward. You are try-
ing to[...]Robyn Galwey). Bottom left: Frank charges through the trenches. Bottom right:

Archie and Frank[...]

Vision of the future: Max (Mel Gibson) in
George Miller’s Mad Max 2.

But Frank Dunn (Mel Gibson) was
more a pragmatist than a coward

Exactly. It is t[...]hat on to make
him more believable. That is often
the way it is: the most unlikely set
of characteristics spring up
to[...]say, “I’m no coward; I’d go out
and die for the country”, and do.
Frank didn’t. He had flashes of
bravery but only when there was
no other choice. If you are backed
into a corner, you have to punch
out. Frank had the ability to punch
out.

Were you disappointed that[...]tralian youth?

Some people obviously want to
see the whole campaign. They are
interested in something[...]tyle, which Gallipoli
isn’t. Gallipoli is about the first
great war, which changed the
world and people’s ways of think-
ing forever. It was the death of
innocence.

The amount of evil in the world
today is just phenomenal, and it
all started then. People talk about
the Dark Ages, the Middle Ages,
like it was some horrible time, but
in the old days they used to go out
and fight a battle like a chess
game. Those guys in Gallipoli were
like the last knights in shining
armor.

People say “Bul[...]eal. No one
would do that.” But they did! It is
the old world, and people today
are too complex to understand

I6 — March CINEMA PAPERS

Max and the feral child (Emil Minty), under siege. Mad Max 2.

that. That is what bothers the
critics, not that I give a fuck what
the critics think — it is just their
observance of life. Frank Dunn is a
guy who survived, the person you
see around today. The more
modern, complex individual rather
than the simple Archie Hamilton
(Mark Lee) who isn’t stu[...]t out and died because he
believed in something.

The Year of Living
Dangerously

In “The Year of Living Danger-
ously”, there wasn’t a tremendous
development in the character you
played . . .

Guy Hamilton (Mel Gibson), the British Consul (Bill Kerr), Billy K wan (Linda Hunt) and Jill Bryant (Sigourney Weaver). Peter Weir’s The
Year of Living Dangerously.

Guy had to be a journalist first,
but he also had to act like a
member of the audience. It is not
one of those films which assaults
the senses, like Mad Max or Star
Wars. It actually as[...]cess, you had Guy Hamilton, who,
like a member of the audience,
keeps asking, “What’s going on
arou[...]place and around all
these unusual characters in the
place.

Apart from that, the film works
on so many levels. There is his
strivi[...]ld theme. It is also about
manipulation. There is the
Wayang sacred shadow puppet
plays and the way the country was
run, neither left nor right but in a
delicate balance controlled by
Sukarno, the king god. Then there
is the same story on a smaller scale
with Kwan ba[...]

makes‘ revolutions and wars.” The Year of Living Dangerously.

Billy’s relianc[...]films I
don’t think people can fully
appreciate the first time, unless
they are really up to it. It is fairly
cleverly done because the politics
don’t beat you over the head. It is
well intertwined with the human
relations stuff, with that small
group of p[...]le.

In a way, Guy is an extremely
masculine man: the careerist, try-
ing to operate in the world, and yet
understanding so little . . .

Sur[...]green and in-
experienced in life. He had been in
the newsroom in Sydney and all of
a sudden he is in the middle of a
situation that is dangerous. He is
in[...]at he is, involved with
his woman. He has to have the
dwarf there to remind him. It is
very strange. Ev[...]g. It
is weird.

Even though Guy comes through
at the end, it is still a very pessi-
mistic film about[...]wouldn’t be there unless
they were like that in the first
place. It takes a certain type of
person to[...]y have to be unbalanced; that is
what I picked up from those guys.
Who drives through road blocks?
They used to do that. Who gets
shot up the back of their cars?
They’d do that, because the[...]s all types, doesn’t it?
Most people who report from these
war—torn places — and you
wouldn’t ca[...]e is a lot of guys around
who do it well.

One of the things I liked about the
film is that it does have an almost
epic quality[...]. . .

He has to lose his eye before he
can earn the right to jump on the
plane. He just goes that one step
too far, instead of thinking,
“What the fuck.” He screws up
somebody’s career just fo[...]revolutions and wars.

But Guy does grow. That is the
good thing about the character.
But even then, he is not totally
conve[...]It is a very subtle pro-
Cess. It happens through the death
of Kwan and through his own
feelings.

What things did you learn from
working with director Peter Weir
on that film?

Peter always gives you the right
dope. He would die for a friend,
but he is[...]ou’ll get
away with it, but be aware of it!”

How did you get on with
Sigoumey Weaver?

Above: Guy[...]ael Murphy). Right: Guy during a
radio broadcast. The Year of Living
Dangerously.

We had a close fr[...]ichael Murphy
were different in their approach; I
was watching them and they were
really up to it, energy-wise. They
had tons of it. I usually come in
from underneath some place,
whereas they sort of jump on it.
They work from tension — which
can be good. It all depends on[...]too if this film might
create all sorts of offers from over-
seas that could change your life.
Does that worry you, the prospect
of your life taking off and
changing?

N[...].

Can you see yourself going back
and working in the U.S.?

I have set up base here. As far as
anythin[...]ned, it is
good to get away at times.

What about the tinsel-town nature
of the film-world, where people
might talk to you one day and not
the next?

That happens everywhere, in all
careers.[...]Naivety can be an appealing
quality, but not in the business
world . . .

Yes. You have to keep it in[...]ness. And I
ain’t no business head.

What about the loss of privacy that
the nature of your work entails? Is
that hard for you to accept?

You can expect to get your head
blown off in the U.S. but not here.
It is quite easy to remain ano[...]istics that single
you out. I have never suffered
from it that much.

How do you stay realistic in your
sort of work?

Mayb[...]taught.
It is good to have little reminders
along the way — things that put
you back in touch with wh[...]ruthful in their criticisms. Just
reminders along the way like that,
and knowing yourself. It is[...]

the seamier and freakish side of lower middle—class America. His

films are not for those who demand the meticulous shooting and

editing of a Stanley Kubrick, the serious social drama of
Ordinary People, or the comic-strip escapism of George Lucas. Waters’
f[...]ing and sound recording, and a slack control over the shrill and
histrionic performances of the mainly untrained casts.

his needs no apology. An[...]to Gulf + Wes-

tern aesthetics and would destroy the

authenticity of Waters’ comic-horror

view of[...]claimed “exercises in poor taste”, depicting the
kind of material found in The National
Enquirer. Ham-Kiri or True Confessions.[...]at is ‘good taste’ in cinema.
As practised by the major film studios, at least
until the late 1960s, good taste encompasses:

1. John Wate[...]untruthful. It does not try to make us
believe in the stork, just that babies appear,
usually in happy,[...]holds, and
never need their nappies changed.

MGM was perhaps the studio specializing to
the greatest degree in good taste, and that
reached its apogee in the 19405 when Mervyn
LeRoy was at the studio. The 1941 Blossoms In
the Dust serves as a good example. This film
stars G[...]le than Julie
Andrews of a lady who never went to the bath-

room) who, seeing the social injustice meted out
to children with the stigma of illegitimacy,
founds an orphanage and campaigns for the
removal of the illegitimate label from the unfor-
tunate victims’ birth certificates. Death, suicide
and tragedy punctuate the story, yet the surface
gloss and characters’ emotions are not per-
mitted to be disturbed for more than a few
seconds. The continual, light music score
breezes gently over[...]his is Pink Flam-
ingos, which involves, in part, the kidnap-
ping of girls who are artificially insemi[...]ing can be sold to lesbian couples;
each stage of the process is depicted luridly. This
is not to sugge[...]od taste, but it
does represent a hellish View of the human con-
dition that may correspond to the situation of
more people than Garson’s sunny nurseries.

Good taste is the domain of the middle class,
the nuclear family, Christian ideals and conser-
vatism. The subjects of poverty, crime, drug
addiction or alcoholism can only be admitted
into the good taste film in small doses as sub-
plots: the[...]e by decent, right—thinking people pre-
serving the status quo.

ad language is another important

factor that has driven away the older

audience from the cinema in English-

speaking countries during the past

decade with complaints of bad taste.
Censor[...]bad taste. These bodies aim
to protect themselves from the wrath of the
middle class for letting pass the type of anti-
social or bad taste material that m[...]l have a deleterious effect on their
young. Thus, the censors always have treated
violent, exploitation films dealing with the
attractions of crime, delinquency, bike gangs
and[...]threat.

Major studios found ways of dealing with the
problem film within the bounds of good taste,
but the product of companies such as American-
Internatio[...]rs
in Anglo-Saxon countries.

These are precisely the influences on which
Waters has drawn in his own films. He trium-
phantly relates in Shock Value the admission of
the British Board of Film Censors in its decision
to reject Desperate Living: “We do not know
how to deal with intentional bad taste.” Indeed,
Waters would have to admit failure if his work
was approved easily by a group of middle—class
bureaucrats.

As Robin Wood and other critics have noted,
the increasing success and importance of the
horror film through the 1970s is due partly to its
location being shifted to the family. Long the
sacrosanct throne room of good taste, the
family began paying for its years of repression
and guilty secrets by becoming cauldrons of the
supernatural and evil in Night of the Living
Dead, The Exorcist, It’s Alive, It Lives Again,
Halloween, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and
many more.

The darker side of the American family and
repression had been explored before in such dis-
parate examples as John Cromwell’s The Silver
Cord (1933), Vincente Minnelli’s Meet Me In St
Louis (1944), Douglas Sirk’s No Room For the
Groom (1952) and a key work, Nicholas Ray’s
Rebel Without A Cause (1955). The latter was
another film that gave headaches to censors by

c[...]nd frustration directly linked to
stresses within the home. There was no coming
back for Andy Hardy and his family.

The 1950s have been explored by filmmakers

as an ext[...]st becoming independent,
mobile and breaking away from the family. Sig-
nificantly, Waters’ Female Trouble begins at the
end of the ’50s with teenager Dawn Davenport
(Divine) toss[...]to
embark on a life of crime.

Subtle attacks on the family in the 19505 also
came from unexpectedly good taste sources such
as the Universal—Ross Hunter films by Sirk
which gently probed, with needle-sharp insight,
the nervous system of the Eisenhower—era
middle—class, occasionally delivering a jab at its
deepest fears of the break—up of hearth, home
and respectability. Wa[...](Tab Hunter) and is directed
with an emphasis on the decor that surrounds
housewife Francine Fishpaw ([...]ly crisis.

Above: Dawn Davenport (Divine) during the [rial in Female
Trouble. Right: Divine at her mos[...]id B

movies and other condemned material ranging
from Baby Doll to Love is my Profession.
Repressive au[...]f accidents, disasters and atrocities.
Later came the discovery of his cinematic
idols, Russ Meyer, with Faster Pussycat, Kill!
Kill! (the best ‘bad taste’ title in cinema

John Waters[...]is unknown
in this country due to censorship and the good
taste of distributors.

There is another sid[...]nothing about it, and confesses an
admiration for the New German Cinema. Only
one who is well-attuned to the European Art
Movie could dream up and appreciate the
notion of a Marguerite Duras triple bill at the
drive—in in Polyester. This is quite a cunning[...]tory company —
mostly friends and acquaintances from Balti-
more — Waters began making short films i[...]m.

lot development came with his first

feature, the 1969 Mondo Trasho, shot

on 16mm, in black and wh[...]ndo
Trasho does have a structure that anticipates the
later films, and some witty use of the musical
accompaniment to the action.

The story involves an odyssey through the
gutters of Baltimore with Mary Vivian Pearce
who, after an encounter in the woods with a foot
fetishist, is run over by Divin[...]ging) in her red
Cadillac convertible. Divine and the semi-mori-
bund Mary have a series of adventures[...]a mental institution where
Mary is operated on by the Frankenstein—like Dr
Coathanger (David Lochary)[...]ble Elsa Lanchester
performance in this sequence. The film ends
with most of the cast meeting their death in a pig
pen.

Part of the Multiple Maniacs team: Divine (left) and John
Wat[...]1970) is an

advance on this. Partly inspired by

the Tate—LaBianca killings, the

film is a deliberate attempt to con-

front the bourgeoisie with its
greatest fears. (The original plan to have Divine
admit to the real—life murders in the film was
abandoned after Manson and his followers were
app[...]) run a “Cavalcade of Perversion”
which roams the outer suburbs, enticing normal
members of society[...], homosexuality, fetishes and distaste-
ful acts. The voyeuristic public is both attracted
and repelled[...]ecstasy
and visions when attacked in a church by the
Rosary Rapist (Mink Stole), who aids Divine in
her plan of vengeance on the fickle David.

Divine’s performance of complete[...]ts of mass murder is quite
frightening — one of the few cases where one
feels actual death may be abo[...]e dens ex machina, a gigantic
lobster bursts into the scene of carnage and
rapes Divine who, accompanied by Holst’s
“The Planets” on the soundtrack, rampages
through the streets and is hunted by thethe presence of the now titanic

Divine, and some outrageous acts of

physical disgust in her battle to retain
the title of the filthiest person alive, to leave the
audience with the taste of excrement in its
mouth and a grin on its[...]se-
history format of a bad girl’s rise through the
tackier levels of society to fame. It is a crime-[...]on its head.

In mock biopic fashion it presents the career
of Dawn Davenport (Divine) from high—school
dropout (1960) to public enemy numb[...]ceiving cha-cha shoes for
Christmas, Dawn topples the family Christmas
tree on top of her mother, tramples her father
underfoot and takes to the road in search of
cheap thrills and glamor. She i[...]abuse, starve,
throw out and eventually murder in the pursuit
of her career.

A life of petty crime leads her to modelling for
the Dashers, owners of a beauty parlor that
auditions its clients (anybody vaguely respec-
table is rejected). The Dashers believe that crime
enhances beauty and ph[...]ghtclub attraction during
which she will shoot at the audience, encour-
aging the victims to “die for art”. Dawn
becomes ‘mor[...]gainst her and which places her activities within
the larger social framework, Dawn joyfully
arrives at the peak of her fame — in the electric
chair.

If this sounds appalling, it is also appallingly
funny; an anarchic nightmare for the bour-
geois of the lower orders, overthrowing con-
sumerist good tas[...]aughter and something prophetic in her desire
for the maximum publicity of her final wish to
execution. There is an awesome purity to this
vision of the sleazy side of American society,
which also finds sex (or the notion of sex as rep-
resented by advertising) as[...]existence there in a garbage
dump landscape under the despotic reign of the
Hitler and Idi Amin-worshipping Queen Car-
lotta[...]h suburban pressures points towards
Polyester and the happy ending reflects Waters’
basic optimism.[...]ents a move towards reaching a wider
audience for the Waters’ brand of humor. Pro-
duced on the astronomical (by Waters’ stan-

dards) bu[...]by Michael White, a
speculator in cult material (The Rocky Horror
films, Rude Boy), and shot in 35mm, Polyester
looks handsomer than the previous films
although Waters’ technique still is ragged and
the acting unrestrained.

olyester charts the downward course of
Francine Fishpaw (Divine), a house-
wife obsessed with the bad smells that
seem to assail her acute olefacto[...]arlington) is a next
generation Dawn Davenport in the making, and
son Bo Bo (Stiv Bators) is a glue-sniffing punk
and also the notorious “Foot-stomper”, the
latest in Waters’ line of ludicrous perversions[...]This horror
sequence is reminiscent in purpose of the mock-
Hammer ‘Wagner’s Castle’ sequence in LiszIo-
mania in which the cartoon exaggeration and
costumed fantasies have[...]contact
with Waters’ creations.

Polyester also used scent cards, distributed to
the audience to sniff at appropriate moments in
the story. These are introduced by a bogus pro-
fessor at the outset of the film with the frame
widening as he gleefully exclaims ‘This i[...]contention among spectators at
Waters’ films is the acting style — hopelessly
amateur or carefully contrived ham, depending
on your point of view. Having seen the over-the-
top performances in six Waters features, one
rea[...]e complicity in this

style of_pantomim_e acting. The characters are
outlandish — creations of both Waters’ and the

audiences’ id. They have to be recognized as
r[...]eir satirical nature and
their parody of reality. The films are in the
nature of a Punch and Judy show where some

ghastlyotruths are perceived behind the ‘funny’
screaming and violence.

The “scratch ’n sniff” card for Polyeste[...]

Few filmmakers (Ken Russell springs to mind,
although he may not welcome the comparison)
can polarize critics and audiences wi[...]y in Baltimore
in laundromats and bars to attract the type of
audience expected to be most appreciative[...]or, a
first encounter with a Waters film could be the
artistic bombshell awaited all one’s life. (The
author confesses that Female Trouble is the only
comedy ever to cause him to fall off his seat with
laughter. This reveals as much about the author
as the film.)

ad taste in Waters’ films does not rest[...]sed by
mainstream good taste cinema. Delinquents, the
poor, the ugly, criminals, perverts, the mentally
retarded and the just plain nasty populate the
films in a milieu of derelict dwellings, old cars,
run-down shopping areas and various, illegal
businesses.

The twist is that Waters celebrates their lives
by ma[...]fulfill-
ing or entertaining), which accounts for the
rejection of Waters’ films by the comfortably-
off middle class as sick trash, and perhaps the
rejection by others as not radical enough.

Fifty[...]Freaks that freaks were human
beings resulted in the film being banned in many
parts of the world as bad taste. Waters’ films,
with more sc[...]are
in a similar position.

Waters’ films grow from a recognition that
popular taste and social movem[...]enation and bewilderment at
‘flower power’ in the 1960s; he could not wait
for punk and the ‘hate generation’, so he began
to lampoon hip[...]ar or controversial subject and pushing it
beyond the shock threshold. Thus, in a world
shocked by the Manson family’s exploits,
Waters makes films ab[...]r all forests to be
turned into housing estates.

The liberating humor lies not in the expecta-
tion that we believe this is Waters’ message but
in the recognition that there might be alternative
points of view to ‘normal, right-thinking’.

The most interesting chapter of Shock Value
is ‘‘[...]cribes his
long—standing hobby of attending all the most
celebrated criminal trials in America. Appar-
ently, this is a minor cult for the initiated, with
on-the-spot fan clubs springing up for the defen-
dants. Naturally, the good taste press deplores
these trial fans, descr[...]ghouls.
Waters regards these court proceedings as the
best entertainment in the country. Typically, the
worst in the daily parade of atrocities is reported
in the bad taste gutter press. Cases such as that
of the child murderer Freddie Goode make
Waters’ own concoctions seem pale.

Waters has the intelligence to realize that “to
understand bad[...]usting is hardly creative, so Waters pokes
fun at the standards of good taste by flying the
flag for their opposite. If his films are popular
with middle—class youth and the protest genera-
tion it is because they recognize that the
vigorous trampling on middle—class sensibilitie[...]than running away to live in a
commune.

However, the films are not nihilistic. The
characters are achievers, usually of catharsis or
notoriety, but achievers nevertheless. It is the
American dream turned upside down for the
socially undesirable to triumph. In addition, the
characters are making, to borrow the title of a

Ken Jacobs film, “Little stabs of h[...]of humani-
tarian, and one who at least examines
the freakish, hidden and ignored side
of American soc[...]thless films

John Waters

then he would be in the Friday the 13th market.

The recent multitude of teenagers and
women-in—peri[...]-
plistic insanity or revenge formulae to explain
the apparently motiveless butchery of colorless
chara[...]s, pulp literature, kitsch, domestic violence
and the lure of the underworld with its illusion
ofindependence and l[...]ence of hell on earth, then
some understanding of the human condition is
apparent.

It is the independent, home—made quality of
Waters’ films as much as their extreme content
that distinguish them from mainstream
attempts at black humor. It is possible to
imagine, say, The Producers as a Waters film
with Divine in the Zero Mostel role or even a
John Waters’ Life of[...]hat wider audience —— may be a difficult one.
The soap—opera parody of Polyester is a fruitful
di[...]ors in
Love) but whether Waters could work within the
system, even for two films as Russ Meyer
managed[...]suburban loneliness as refined and

desperate as The Honeymoon Killers, but he
certainly will h[...]

Ned Tanen, MCA vice-president‘

In the early developing days of the industry, the
federal and state governments were the major
investors in Australian films. Their financ[...]re. In
effect, this has meant a “good return” from the
federal government’s point of view, according to the
Minister for Home Affairs and Environment (and
the film industry), Tom McVeigh, who opened the
recent seminar, “Financing Australian Films”.[...]ffs such as employment, balance of pay-
ments and the “enhanced image of Australia
overseas”.

The turning point in government support and its
major commitment was the Income Tax Assessment
Amendment Act of 1981, with its highly significan[...]s a virtually verbatim summary of
this seminar on the guidelines for the investment,
taxation and funding of Australia’s film industry,
held by the Australian Film Commission as part of
its “prof[...]lopment” program, this time
in conjunction with the Institute of Chartered
Accountants (Victorian Branch) and the Australian
Society of Accountants (Victorian Division), in
Melbourne on December 2, 1982. The program’s
general aim is to increasingly involve the private
business sector in the intricacies of the industry, and
to demystify these at the same time; and to increase
contact between the professions and the industry.
The second to fourth sessions are planned to be made[...]more tech-
nical form than actually delivered on the day) by the
AFC and the ICA.2

The lawyers3 and the accountants are moving in.
The financial nuts and bolts are becoming just as
important as artistic aspirations, though we are not
at the stage where the deal has become the art-form,
where, as some erroneously believe, tax is the be-all
and end-all.

Insight from a Practising

Producer

Speaker: Jill Robb

Fi[...]ust putting pen
to paper in some Bohemian garret; from initial con-
cept to release print it is a compli[...]d-
ing to film and television producer Jill Robb. The

1. Variety, New York, Vol. 294, No. 1 (February 7, 1979),
p. 41.

2. Note that the volume of papers, etc., labelled Financing
Austra[...]dney,
1982] is in fact a collation of some papers from a
previous AFC legal seminar in Sydney. See footnote 3.

3. See for instance The Law of Film and Television Pro-
duction [AFC, Syd[...]ns
edited transcripts of some papers delivered at the
previous Sydney presentation of this legal seminar. See
also Daniela Torsh, “The Law of Making Movies”,
Cinema Papers, No. 38 (J[...]resentation.

22 — March CINEMA PAPERS

role of the specialized production accountant in par-
ticular (as opposed to, say, the more normal
company accountant) is “very import[...]ily and weekly financial reports, especi-
ally in the midst of actual production, are absolutely
essent[...]ified accountants.are also essential these days.

The case history of Robb’s new theatrical feature,
Careful, He Might Hear You, from expatriate Aus-
tralian author Sumner Locke Elliott’s 1963 novel of
the same name, is instructive as are the figures dis-
closed.

The production process, from start to finish, can
last up to seven years (as was the case with Bruce
Beresford’s Breaker Morant). In the case of Careful,
He Might Hear You, it was two years. This period is
broken down below into[...]e stages,
though these can and do overlap. First, the establish-
ment of the concept, acquisition of rights and the
first-draft script stage. One has to work out what the
project is all about (in an absolutely crystal-cl[...]ly apply for script
or project development moneys from the govern-
ment film bodies. It is possible to pay anything from
$500 to $20,000 for rights. Already some $50,000
may have been spent.

Then, once the first-draft script is ready, inevit-
ably everyon[...]tion on this basis if one also has a firm idea
of the above-the—line personnel. As the second-draft
script gets under way, a preliminary[...]e employment
is entirely predicated on factors in the future. In the
current economic situation pre-sales may also be[...], similarly, a dis-
tribution guarantee obtained; the lawyers and the
accountants start to get into the act. There may be
more government money forthcomi[...]ng a total of $100,000.
And one year has passed.

The third stage can be called colloquially “coming
to the crunch" (not Robb’s term): finalizing the
prospectus and the various contracts and, most
important, getting one’s hands on the cold hard
cash. Robb says that at this stage she[...]ntant to help keep her financial
house in order.

The fourth stage is actual pre-production. Need-
less[...]o major problems later on, or fatal compromise
in the final product. It takes about 12 to 14 weeks,
and[...]000.

As for stages five, six and seven, briefly: the pro-
duction or actual shooting period in the case of
Careful, He Might Hear You was nine weeks, and
cost about $1.5 million (total so far $2.3 million).
The post-production stage took four months and
anothe[...]est runs at this stage if
possible, as is done in the U.S. Finally comes
flogging thefilm (again, not h[...]p” were her parting words.

Putting tau in the Picture

Joseph Skrzynski

Part of the AFC’s role has been the development
of this professional infrastructure ([...]used with McVeigh’s industrial infrastructure); the

FINANCING AUSTRALIAN FILMS

AFC is more than[...]f indigenous
filmmaking that dates back as far as the late 18905.
For some time, the local product was more popular
than the imported product, but it was killed by the
introduction of sound and by overseas interests
p[...]re polished wares. Any
significant local activity was sustained by the intro-
duction of television in late 1956, with thethe maverick prime minister, John Gorton, decided
tha[...]a should have its own film
industry, as it did in the silent film era, and accord-
ingly set up the Australian Film Development
Corporation; the AFDC became the AFC in 1973.
Various state governments followed s[...]er. This activity represented Phase One.
Business was basically done through government
film body procedures.

Phase Two, from the mid-1970s to the present
day, saw the production of approximately 150
feature films, in what Joseph Skrzynski, the general
manager of the AFC, characterized as a “very Aus-
tralian” m[...]fuelled
more by enthusiasm than anything else. It was a
“tremendously cost-effective” period and there were
some great successes and some resounding flops. The
role of the government film bodies was nonetheless
not a strictly commercial one — i.e[...]fit and loss terms —— but,
rather, to develop the industry further, and to
“balance between talen[...]financing were also devised in this
second phase, the government film bodies also
demystified the procedures for professional people,
up to the present day.

The current view of the AFC is that as long as
there is private money ava[...]each year;
and, if one includes television, into the hundreds of
millions.

There are now, Skrzynski c[...]iness. There has been
a “complete revolution in the Australian image
abroad” as a direct result of[...]le-
vision, and music penetration especially into the U.S.
“The conditions are right, the doors are wide-open
for Australian product . . .”

The present situation is not just one of generous
tax[...]ole business venture”, of
involvement with film from its inception to its distri-
bution. (Nor perhaps[...]h.) Normal business
practices and dealings apply: the industry is no
longer “haphazard” but highly[...]nd, of course, vice
versa). Until recently, there was little likelihood of
substantial return. The Income Tax Assessment
Amendment Act of 1981 and, in particular, its

Division l0BA were meant to increase the odds for
success, but John Morris, the managing director of
the South Australian Film Corporation, believes
there[...]’s line again) and in defining an Australian
on the home turf.

Well, how do you increase the odds of successful
investment in the first place? How do you distinguish
between George Miller’s The Man From Snowy
River and the majority of unsuccessful Australian
features? Mor[...]ttery ticket, but certain factors — especially, the
track record, the credits and the financial back-
ground of the above-the-line people in particular —
should be borne in mind as ways of minimizing the
risks. Under the present tax arrangements, if one is
in the top 60 per cent bracket, there is a “very good[...]nvestment, within one or two
years. Above that is the high-risk region, the big
gamble; below that, the gamble on unknowns. One
may well have a P. T. Barnum instinct and be able to
pick out the original Mad Max (George Miller) from
the dross, but that is unlikely.

There are other per[...]should ask
before making a financial commitment. How long
does it take for the money to come back? With films,
it is hard to say[...]one year, and another 25 per cent within
two. If the film is successful (most aren’t), will the
investor get his share, or will it be siphoned off?
Again, it is a matter of track record, in particular the
producer’s financial track record rather than his
press book of rave reviews. Exactly how much from
the producer’s previous films was returned to the
investors? How often, over what period, and on
what budgets, did[...]f
film production is available for tax deduction. The
SAFC has been able to achieve approximately 96 pe[...]per cent as
“reasonable”. He also notes that the “watering
down” of the much mooted 150 per cent tax write-
off can be “quite marked” (one presumes that the
producer has already provided a statement of
guarantee of Australian certification).

Another safeguard is the method and frequency of
previous investment reports. Has the producer
looked after his investors in the past? The SAFC
releases reports at least once a month durin[...]inly never less often than once every two
months. The producer, not the director, bears the
“prime responsibility” for this as for everything else.

Another area to scrutinize carefully is the pro-
posed marketing plan and its time span. Often the
quick sale may not necessarily be the best sale; it may
even be advisable to retain the film for anything
from six to 24 months. How much can be expected
from each territory? International marketing possi-
bilities must be explored. The Australian film
industry no longer can afford to[...]ot understandable overseas”. By
what process is the money returned? Who actually
gets what? And, a critical question, what moneys are
available to market the film? Examine any agent’s
track record as well, comparing what he has achieved
in the past against what he is claiming to do in the
future. Marketing fees may well come out before
investors’ returns. The investor needs to be well-
informed beforehand on[...]hall

Basically, three groups are involved behind the
scenes in the determination of who owns what or, in
other words, the copyright in “cinematographic
films”: the originator of the concept or author, the

entrepreneur or producer, and the latter’s investors
(with perhaps a finance broker as intermediary). In
order to obtain the much vaunted Division IOBA 150
per cent tax deduction, the investors must be first
owners of the copyright; but the copyright in a film,
unless otherwise agreed, belongs to the producer of
the film (see Copyright Act 1968-1976 S984).4

Therefore, it is essential that the type of invest-
ment structure used achieves this result. There is no
reason why the producer cannot share in the first
copyright but it is unusual for an author. Copyright
is created usually upon the completion of the answer
print.

Some considerations to bear in min[...]ation of liability”; income
tax considerations; the novelty or acceptability of the
form of structure; the number of people involved (Is
it more than 20? If[...]ay be an offence
(S36 Companies (Victoria) Code); the source of
financing; and the place of activity. These considera-
tions can lead to “a variety of structures”: for
example, the sole producer (the simplest case); an
ordinary proprietary limited c[...]n’t use them under any circumstances”
because the company is the only person who can
claim the 150 per cent, not its shareholders); trusts,
whet[...]. be very
careful about using any form of trust; the IOBA does
not allow for them”); partnerships, w[...]me or notoriety); and finally what
Marshall calls the “acquisition of a share in first
copyright as t[...]x area of law”).5

Investment structures aside, the other major
problem has been controls over offers to the public,
especially the requirements for prospectuses, not-
withstanding[...]ightmare”
and represents a “big, big spoke in the Australian
film industry”, in Marshall’s opin[...]trustees of
projects. (Almost as Marshall spoke, the AFC
became the trustee of producer Ross Matthew and
director Ken[...]lope Carl

An accounting package is essential for the pro-
ducer (picking up Robb’s theme), according[...]Moneypenny
Services Pty Ltd, Sydney, and recently The Aus-
tralian—Veuve-Cliquot Businesswoman of the Year.
Accordingly, her specialized computer progr[...]y or
monthly basis, in terms of reporting against the pro-
duction budget and the cash flow. It also leaves a
marvellous audit trail. Such frequency is vital for the
volume and detail involved. As a measure of the
amount of information involved or, rather, coped
with in terms of paperwork, the recent production of

Phar Lap involved some 1500 separate entries a
week, ranging in cost from 50 cents to $50,000.
Needless to say, the package-cum-program must be

4. For a simplified[...]4-75, also containing further references.

5. See The Law of Film and Television Production
seminar, pa[...]Session Three, pp. 61-108. See
footnote 3 above.

used by personnel specifically trained for film
accounting.

The first question that a film accountant must ask
is: on whose behalf is the information being pre-
pared? The producer or the production manager or
the investor or broker? Obviously the person who is
most closely involved requires the most detail for the
control of day-to-day activity and immediate
exploitation of the information, while the latter
person just needs a broad overview.

The budget must be “realistic and therefore pessi-[...]are several important areas to look
for, such as the contingency (10 per cent of the pro-
duction budget) and the completion guarantee (six
per cent); the latter protection must be there.

As for above-the-line costs, the budget must
reflect the contracts, and exchange rate fluctuations
must be borne in mind with overseas contracts.
Below-the-line, cast and crew are covered by various
Actors[...]ing is
budgeted, a beneficence to look out for is the 70 per
cent export incentives allowance!’

Some[...]ust be
no “robbing Peter to pay Paul” through the shoot (a
“dangerous situation”, according to Carl), watching
the use of underages for overages, and no buy—back
estimations until the cash is in hand. All major varia-
tions in cost,[...]st as bad to be under-budget as over-
budget; all the money should be up on the screen.
Finally, a matter of etiquette: Carl prefers to work
through a producer to an investor, even though the
latter may have originally hired her: “It’s v[...]an Pizzey

According to Euan Pizzey, a partner in the inter-
national accounting firm Coopers & Lybrand, “the
name of the game is a data-based accounting
system”, a “computerized film reporting package”
based on the AFC’s pro forma set of accounts
— an “excel[...]work
within” — as well as its guidelines for the produc-
tion chart of accounts and report formats. “Once
you have established the data base, you can finesse
reports in any number of ways with the computer”,
whether it be just “brief summariz[...]ormation, suitable for investors’ reports” or the
usually “more frequent and detailed management
reporting requirements” (the former is an “auto-
matic by-product” of the latter). The system can be
broken down into four areas (Pizzey’s paper pro-
vides all the technical minutiae as well as various
specific ex[...]ep investors onside, to
make them “feel part of the action”. If they are dis-
appointed with their[...]or reports should include a brief
progress report from the accountant or accountants

6. For a con[...]

for the production, a set of equally brief short-form
accounts (including, for example, the summarized
project balance sheet and production c[...]me producer’s “hype” (not Pizzey’s term).
The point of this, preferably monthly, exercise is that
the investors “can feel some comfort that things are
being controlled properly”.

The reporting of expenditure variances and net
projec[...]re for investors, particularly when compared
with the contingency allowance and the balance sheet
which shows the gross investment loss amount
expended.

Auditing[...]ly a need for an audit for various
people such as the Minister for Home Affairs and
Environment, the Deputy Commissioner of Taxa-
tion, government film bodies (if they are financially
involved), the manager or managers for the private
investors and the investors. As for the objectives of
the audit, the AFC has guidelines in this respect.
Pizzey notes[...]ation audit”, which
“essentially attests that the investors’ money has
been properly expended, as reported in the financial
statements, and in accordance with the budget”, not
a “systems-based audit”, which involves an

“appraisal of the strengths and weaknesses of the

internal controls, checks and procedures, which,

in turn, establishes the degree of reliance on the
accounting reports generated and the degree of
protection the system provides over the assets of
the enterprise”.
Pizzey adds that “possibly films that do run into
these problems — it may be that the systems aren’t
adequate”. He also agrees with[...]mputer
system provides “excellent detail” for the compli-
cated audit trail and documentation.

Cla[...]another, more complicated,
matter, though, again, the former is derived from the
latter), Pizzey believes that investors should be[...]be inserted in
their personal taxation returns at the end of the
financial year, containing relevant information for
the purposes of claiming the Division IOBA (“Aus-
tralian films”) concessions. The investors should be
made aware of the identifiable and probable in-
eligible expenditur[...]covered
yourself can you go back and have a go at the Com-
missioner for the lot.” Finally, ineligible expenditure
may still[...]on 23
H (“Exemption of certain film income”), the 50 per
cent deduction.

The procedures for producers are a little more
compli[...]4
ZAF (“Deductions for Capital Expenditure”), the
much more important 150 per cent deduction. At his
first meeting, on the basis of various information,
ranging from a list of all investors down to details of
various pre-production cost funding, the producer
will negotiate, provisionally, allowable eligible
expenditure, subject to final accounting. The final
allowance is determined on the basis of more various
information, ranging from a copy of the final
certificate (as a “qualifying Australian film”) right
down to the catch-all of any other relevant docu-
mentation. The figures may go up; they may go
down.

Receipts and Disbursements

of Revenue

Though the film may be finished, as Robb noted
previously, the producer’s work is definitely not.
Hopefully, the money is coming in, at least in dribs
and drabs, if not surges, for the next 10 years. A
system has to be devised to cope[...]— March CINEMA PAPERS

Taxation Incentives for
the Australian Film
Industry

From the Joint Statement by the Treasurer, John
Howard, and the Minister for Home Affairs and
Environment, Tom McVeigh, Canberra, January
13, 1983.‘

Modifications to the Present Tax
Incentive Scheme

. . . deductions [equal to 150 per cent of the invest-
ment] will be available in the year in which amounts
are expended by an investor by way of contribution
towards the production of a qualifying Australian
film subject to:

O the film being completed and the copyright
interest being used for income producing
purposes within two years after the close of the
financial year in which contributions were first[...]tion agreement securing all funds neces-
sary for the production having been entered into
by the close of the financial year in which contri-
butions are first made;

moneys contributed towards the production
being held in an appropriate non-interest bearing
account and . . . being applied only in the pro-
duction of the film, those moneys being required
to have been contributed before the production
costs are incurred . . .

System of Fo[...]Under this system an appropriate person (normally
the producer) will be required to lodge with the
Commissioner of Taxation within one month after
the close of the financial year in which moneys are
first expended by the investor by way of contribu-

this, one needs an[...]as well as
a bank account or accounts. Yet again, the value and
cost-effectiveness of computerizing the whole opera-
tion cannot be overestimated.

Obvio[...]There is
going to be more of an interface between the creative
element and the financial element”.

Finance and L e

Ennsitler[...]ski

Initially, a lot of expenses are incurred by the pro-
ducer just in setting up his production. In[...]s
$100,000 to $250,000 just to get his project to the
stage where he can offer it to investors; this co[...]re may also include a possible $100,000, say,
for the so-called “pay or play” items whereby big-
selling names (whether in front of the camera or
behind it —— more so the former) cannot otherwise be
attached to the project for investment consideration.

As for the big problem — sources of finance —
these are diverse (to say the least), but obviously fall
under two major heads:[...]y recently, some 60 per cent of film finance
came from government sources, some 20 per cent
from the film and television industry and the other
20 per cent from “angels” (originally, the Broadway
term for backers of theatrical fare). Th[...]quity investment
(together with some loans), with the other five per
cent coming from the government and the industry.
Equity is “the most popular whilst there is a tax con-

tion to the production of a film a declaration con-

taining:

O a statement to the effect that: a production
agreement has been executed in relation to the
making of the film; the production agreement
secures the funds required for the making of the
film in accordance with the budget prepared for
the film; an appropriate non-interest bearing
account[...]d that all funds
contributed by investors towards the cost of
producing the film have been, or will be,
deposited directly in[...]s expended by investors
by way of contribution to the production of the
film will be applied only to that purpose — a
summary of the budget of the film identifying
those amounts to be expended in the production
of the film will be required — and will not be
invested or made available for use or otherwise
used so that the taxpayer or the filmmaker or any
persons associated with them obtain the benefit
from such funds before the funds are expended
in the production of the film;
an undertaking that if funds, or some part[...]expended by investors by way of con-
tribution to the cost of producing the film are not
required to be expended in the production of the
film, the filmmaker will forthwith upon becom-
ing aware that such funds are not required:

notify the Commissioner of Taxation of such
fact and pay to the Commissioner 90 per cent
of such funds (69 per cent in the case of a cor-
porate investor); and
pay to the investor the balance of such funds;
and
an undertaking to notify the Commissioner
immediately in the event that it becomes
apparent that the film will not be completed in
the two year period . . .

cession”, though loans,[...]s
also figure (for details, see below).

Note, by the way, that there is no bar against
internal gearing or leverage in the sense of bringing a
loan concept together with eq[...]d to a non-recourse one)
and provided that all of the investor’s money is fully
“at risk” (the key phrase). This is a common enough
business practice elsewhere.

Furthermore, the cash does not have to be all up-
front at the outset: there can be a cash flow. For
instance, C[...]t 10 per cent,
balanced by a letter of credit for the other 90 per
cent. “There are many more sophist[...]financing a film than just putting cash right up the
front”, concludes Skrzynski.

There are three o[...]equity:

0 Loans against collateral — either in the form
of investors’ commitment (secured by lette[...]) or a firm contract for sale together with,
say, the completion guarantee (a “safe lending
position”) — are an uncommon film finance
tool in Australia. There are no “full-risk
lenders f[...]-sales, however, are an “increasingly
important tool”, and can take three forms: a
cash contribution[...]films
and corporations such as Home Box Office in
the U.S.; the “more typical” cash on delivery
(“Provided[...]ith this
script, and you’ve spent not less than the
budget, and you’re using those people — then[...]e form” —
and were in fact a major feature of the Austra-
lian film industry before the introduction of
Division IOBA, and latterl[...]

Brief men[...]this particular instance,
should also be made of the potential scope for the
underwriting of Australian films, particularly in view
of the previously-mentioned “enormous risk” finan-
cially that the producer makes at the outset, and the
need to apportion that risk. So far, “there is[...]o secondary
market to fall back on, as with, say, the more con-
ventional underwriting of debenture iss[...]ent loans. But, Skrzynski anticipates,
explaining the possibility in some detail, ‘‘If the
underwriting market does develop in Australia, it
will be on the basis of pre-sold films.”

The biggest problem of them all may well be
actually raising the money for a film; but, presuming
all goes well, t[...]or safeguards attached to all that money, namely, the
previously—mentioned contingency, for production
budget overruns, and the completion guarantee, a
specialized form of insurance. Note that, if there is
any significant departure from the production plan
that the completion guarantors guaranteed, they may
well not pay for the costs involved in such a
departure. In other words, the insurance only covers
the “overage” (the additional costs of the original
plan) and does not cover “enhancements” (depar-
tures from the original plan). Provision should also
be made for emergency finance at the end, such as a
stand-by letter of credit or a loa[...]rightly says that it is “quite wrong to
look at the film as a production investment oppor-
tunity to get a tax deduction”, ignoring the “concept
of a total business venture”. He also recommends
that no less than five to 10 per cent of the production
budget should be allowed for the “very, very
important” marketing expenses, whether by equity
or by loans, with the additional observation that
nothing must be stinted or cut-rate. The producer
should not be expected to drag his finished film
around the world on a bus ticket: “He has to go first-
class if you want a first-class result, quite frankly.”

On the related issue of export incentives, generally
they return about 70 per cent of expenses. The copy-
right owner of the film must be the claimant; this
regulation is a “bit of a stuff-up”, what with the
some 250 separate investors—owners in The Man
from Snowy River, but hopefully such problems will
be satisfactorily resolved with the Export Develop-
ment Grants Board shortly.

The final matter of concern is Division 10BA
itself, not to be confused with either the still extant
old Division 10B two-year write-off or the general
Division 10 “Intellectual Properties”[...]sional
and final. There must be no “slippage in the details”
between the two.7

, / / / r I ' I /' 9 r '

. z . H .7 -[...]Harvey

Division IOBA (“Australian films”) of the Income
Tax Assessment Amendment Act 1981 (No. 111),
according to John H[...]for
Certification of Qualifying
Australian Films

From “Explanatory Notes to Assist Applicants for
Certification of Qualifying Australian Films”,
released by the Minister for Home Affairs and

Environment, Tom McVeigh, Canberra, January
23, 1983:

The objective of the taxation incentives is to encour-
age the development of an economically viable Aus-
tralian film production industry.

The Income Tax Assessment Act establishes Minis-
terial discretion with respect to certification to
ensure the spirit of the incentives can be flexibly
applied and abuses minimized . . .

The development of a truly Australian film industry
depends on the retention of creative control by
exclusively Australian production entities, and the
utilization of a high degree of Australian creati[...]desirable to
draw on foreign services or elements from time to
time, all non-Australian elements or serv[...]entified and assessed in terms of their impact on
the film concerned. The inclusion of such elements
should not result in the film appearing to be within a
foreign rather than[...]tradition

“Significant Australian Content”

The determination of “significant Australian
content" is a matter of judgement by the Minister
based on consideration of all the elements of a
particular project. Where there are non-Australian
elements in a particular section, the applicant should
provide justification for these[...]ong Aus-
tralian elements in other sections.

(i) The Subject Matter (S.124ZAD(a))

The overall concept of a film, including the
characters and events portrayed therein can be
expected not to be alien to the Australian multi-
cultural experience. Documentar[...]at an Aus-
tralian perspective will be evident in the film and
could be expected to be based on Austral[...]non-Australian services
should be identified and the impact of those services
should be assessed. Where the source is non-Austra-
lian the scriptwriters would be expected to be Aus-
tralian and the subject matter should be demon-
strated to be in accordance with the above criteria.
“Australianized” versions of[...]Where overseas location shooting is required by
the script, other production elements should be
carri[...], is “by any measure, very generous”; indeed,
the Australian Taxation Office regards it “as incom[...]over only 10 per cent not to be out of
pocket (on the 46 per cent tax rate, 31 per cent; and
on the lowest 30 per cent rate, 55 per cent to break
even). This 10 per cent loss is, none the less, a “real
loss”. Also, the gap between the time of investment
and the time of return must not be discounted.

For details of the ITAA, refer to Sydney solicitor
Andrew Martin’s[...]mary of Film Tax Legislation”3 (bearing in
mind the legislative improvements officially fore-
shadowed by Treasurer John Howard and the
relevant Minister Tom McVeigh on January 13, 1983
— namely, the availability of the 150 per cent deduc-
tion at the time of investment and the two years after
that tax year for completion of p[...]d be made, however, of basic
“ingredients” of the “key section” Section 124 ZAF
(from Subdivision B — “Deductions for capital

8. I[...]es on p. 273.

(iii) Film-Makers (S.124ZAD(c)(i))
The character of a film is the result of the origin of
the property and the inputs by all persons involved
in the making of the film. The key roles in the
development of a script and the production of a
film should therefore be normally undertaken by
Australians. The role of non—Australians must be
closely identified and explained in terms of their
impact on the Australian content of the film. In
particular, the producer and director would
normally be expected to be Australian. The writer

and principal actors also would be expect[...]rwise.

(iv) Production Entity (S.124ZAD(c)(ii))

The effective ownership of the entity would
normally be expected to be exclusively Australian.

(v) Owners of the Copyright in the Film
(S.l24ZAD(c)(iii))
Since the beneficial owners of the copyright in the
film may often be in a position to exercise ultimate
control over the film they should normally be

Australians. Non—Australian owners of the copy-
right must be clearly identified together w[...]cularly where there are other
foreign elements in the film. Special allowance
may be made for non-Austr[...]ties and services

should be clearly identified.

The statement of expenditure should be
sufficiently d[...]plemented by a number

of anti-abuse sections:

0 the investor must be a resident of Australia at the
time of the investment (otherwise it can be done
through an A[...]resident company or trust);

0 he must be one of the first owners of the copy-
right in the film;

0 there must be provisional certification as a
“qualifying Australian film”;

0 the investor must “use” the film’s copyright
either from exhibition or from granting rights to
“exhibit” the film; and finally

0 the investment must be expended “directly” in
producing the film.

Harvey makes the point that the 150 per cent
deduction is rarely that, because of[...]only to capital — not
revenue — expenditure. (The investment may be in
the film’s production account, but not necessarily[...]ital expenditure? In
most cases, above- and below-the-line production

Concluded on p. 81

ClNEM[...]

Ian Pringle

The Plains of Heaven, recent winner of the Jury Prize at the
Mannheim Film Festival, is the new feature of director Ian
Pringle. Here he talks with Mark Stiles.

“The Plains of Heaven” has a
tremendous feel for lan[...]ular landscape. It
is more an interest in setting the
characters in motion and then
finding the right environment for
them to pass through.

With “The Plains of Heaven”, did
you imagine the location you
wanted, and then find it at Falls
Creek?

First, I thought of the satellite
station and of the two men, Barker
(Richard Moir) and Cunningham
(Reg Evans). By the nature of the
story, they had to be in an isolated
environment, but it could have
been the desert or the Antarctic.

However, those locations would
have been difficult.

Before I could take the script too
far, I had to know whether what I
wanted was a feasible place for
filming. I knew about the Bogong
High Plains in Victoria and that it
would[...]ilm there.

It is a tantalizing idea, shooting in
the Antarctic . . .

Yes, being locked in for six
mon[...]overshoot you
are in trouble!

People talk about the use of land-
scape in “The Man from Snowy
River” but there it seems more
decorative[...]on a
suburban wall. You seem to be
interested in the tension between
people and landscape. Are you

influenced by directors such as
John Ford?

I am not sure how much you are
influenced by films that affect you.

and rises up at unpredictable
moments.

The idea of the satellite station in
the wilderness is appealing — the
contrast between this super-high-

tech outpost of mankind and the
empty landscape . . .

I wish I could have brought that
out more visually; for instance,
when I was working on the script, I
saw the interior of the console
room as being much larger.

In defining t[...]hen some very subtle things
happen. Why is that?

The things that are unsaid
interest me more than the things
that are.

It is a hard balance to achieve[...]ituation and what should be
going on, looking for the things
that are important. I then try to
highligh[...]of myself as a
writer, I am just someone who puts
the idea down: that is the only way
I have ever approached it. I don’t
thi[...]enough .to make films about.

What do you see “The Plains of
Heaven” being about?

To me, the most important thing
is the relationship between the two
guys, Barker and Cunningham.
The situation is critical: two com-
plete opposites i[...]re wasn’t also an
inner and an outer journey in the
film. Your other films are journey
films . . .

T[...]in an intellectual way.
He is more instinctive.

The central axis of the emotions
of the film is that only when some-
thing has gone do you often realize
how important it was to you. All
the other things in the film work
around and complement that.

So it is not the men themselves
against the environment that is the
primary thing, but their relation-
ship . . .

It has to be. That is where the
energy and the focus lie. You get
to know the type of people they are
through what they do. It was a
matter of using devices or vehicles
as expositi[...]with his console;
Cunningham going outside.

But the film is about many other

things as well. It is a[...]heir importance. They are
becoming more a part of the way
we are. It is also about television
and how it has changed our society
— particularly American tele-
vision. The impact has been just
phenomenal, and so pervasive[...]Johnny Carson. I love watching
gridiron. Yet, at the same time, I
can see what is happening. As
[colla[...]ug Ling says, he
can remember our society when it
was very English, just 20 years
ago. Now, we are like another state
of the U.S.

Then, there is the other aspect
about the landscape, the environ-
ment. It is the nature of civilization
to expand and take over the land-
scape. It will always be the same; it
is a constant process.

[Pause] Oh, it i[...]in
films?

I have always liked films and,
since I was about 15, always
wanted to make them. At that
time, it was an impossible thing to
want to do. There was very little
being done here; television was the
only way of being involved in film,
and television is the pits. I worked
at Channel 2 for a couple of years
and it was like working in a

Cunningham (Reg Evans) out ferreting in the high plains region of North-East Victoria. The Plains of Heaven.

factory. So I saved all the money I
could, went overseas and travelled
for a[...]you
need to know about writing and
directing just from watching films
and the experience that comes
from working on shorts — from
getting out there and doing some-
thing.

Actors

One of the actors in “The Plains of
Heaven” is Richard Moir, who I
though[...]“Heatwave” . . .

Richard is certainly one of the
best actors in Australia, but I don’t
think he[...]though he is tremendous in In
Search of Anna and The Depart-
ment [ABC tele-play].

Richard is someone[...]direction; if you give
him latitude, he will work the part
out for himself. He just needs to be
guided.[...]to do, but that
is my job. It is then a matter of
how much you trust actors to give
you what you want.

The actors must have trusted

you...

CINEMA P[...]

Barker (Richard Moir) with the relay station tower in the background. The Plain: of Heaven.

They were fairly committed to
the project, for different reasons.
Reg Evans liked what Cunningham
was about, and I think Richard
had a bit of sympathy for poor old
Barker.

Reg became very involved with
what he was required to do. For
instance, I had intended to have
someone show him how to use the
ferret equipment, but he did it
himself. It was great.

It is an interesting situation —
giving[...]em too much. With each
actor you have to work out the in-
between ground from the start. I
look for certain qualities in an
actor t[...]t
them, it is because I think they are
right. Reg was very much like that:
he just had the right body for
Cunningham — an interesting
body, very muscular.

Did Moir bring specific things to
the part?

There is a lot there that is
Richard’s. He constantly made
suggestions. There are several
shots in the film that were his idea
— one very important one is where
he is sitting on the rock towards
the end.

One thing Richard was able to
feel intuitively was that in the
second half of the film, when
Barker leaves the station and goes
to the city, there was not much to
be said. That is very hard for an

28[...]those scenes, I think he began to
realize what he was in for.

I now understand more how
much actors can carry a film. I try
to write part[...]or what is expected of
them.

Initially. I wanted the character
of Lenko (Gerard Kennedy) to be
more of[...]nto a more stoic, officious com-

pany person who was a little sad
around the edges.

Low-budget
Filmmaking

How long was the shoot?

Four weeks. That was basically
determined by our budget. We
were stretched at four weeks.

It must have been the lowest
budget of the films at the 1982
Australian Film Awards . .

I would be surprised if it
weren’t. The money we had to pay
was around $100,000. Including

deferrals and a $20,000 marketing
loan, the true budget is $160,000.

It is still very low . . .

We actually shot the film on the
$60,000 that came from the Aus-
tralian Film Commission [Creative
Development Branch]. It was only
because of the type of crew we
had, and because we had done our[...]or example, I
had been shooting for a week
before the set was built and I had
to shoot around things. Even the
satellite dish still wasn’t up.

It was tight, but it all came
together in the end.

Do you have an ideal crew size in
mind?

No. I think it is dictated by the
production. I don’t think you
should stick to a[...]it took 100 people and millions
of dollars to do the film . . .

If the film justified it, certainlyl
would use a big cre[...]ecause I like to build
up a communication between the
people involved. That is very
important to me. I[...]g on to
a location and having an open

mind about howthe project
requires. One day I would like to
do some[...]g
larger and more expensive . . .

It is whatever the project
requires —— that is the only
criterion I have. If I had it in my
mind’s[...]required those sorts of things, then
I would. At the moment, I feel I
am learning as much as I can; I[...]budget features seems
to be everybody’s goal at the
moment . . .

I often wonder why that is; what

t[...]stigma.
Our industry is cultivating or
fostering the wrong sort of film —
prehistoric plants that bl[...]t seen much evidence of
that. Of course, there is the diffi-
culty of defining what in fact is a
low—[...]I have heard that Moving Out
took chances: they used a lot of
unknown actors and the film
apparently has a chemistry about
it.

There[...]esting and
exciting.

What about “Wrong Side of the
Road”?

I think the intentions behind
that film are tremendous. It is[...]is an excep-
tion. However, to me, Wrong Side
of the Road didn’t do what I think
it set out to do in lots of little ways.
Perhaps the execution of the film
let it down a little. But that is jus[...]

I am working on a script at the
moment called “The Pretender”.
It is about a man who has no past:
you don’t know whether he is
suffering from amnesia or whether
he has just returned from Bolivia.
He is a desperate character and, to
all[...]rl who is as
eccentric as he is. It is a story of the
romance that develops between
them, where not muc[...]r that I
hope to do on a very low budget —
much the same as The Plains of
Heaven — and all shot in hotel
rooms[...]hostile world.

What are you happiest with on
“The Plains of Heaven”?

Well, it came close to what[...]bout?

That we had to do it so quickly
because of the involvement of
private money. But I don’t have
any complaints. I think the short-
comings in the film are mine and
nobody else’s. Each time I see it I
pick up more flaws, but I am glad
that I was able to do something
that is different. That is the good
feeling.

“The Plains of Heaven” was
shown recently at the Mannheim
Film Festival. How was it
received?

It was shown on thewas on the last night, I didn’t have

Ian Pringle

Cunningham chases after a ferret. The Plains of Heaven.

to do a press conference, which
was good. However, I did speak to
a lot of people that night after the
screening.

One of the big issues in Europe at
the moment is the environmental
issue . . .

Yes, the Greens. I think that
helped the film go down well.

Some young people who run a
film society at the university asked
me if I would show it, so I stay[...]un it
twice because so many people
came along. It was interesting to
talk to those people, and I enjoyed
that more than anything else. They
really liked the film and were inter-
ested in how it came to be made.

Conservation is a big issue[...]real threat,
especially in West Germany, which
is the centre of NATO and where
the power is situated.

Presumably they would have
responded to the idea of surveil-
lance . . .

Yes, and the encroachment on
nature. It is a strong issue there.
You get the feeling they have
already gone too far; that they
have given up the ghost.

Also, there is a very strong anti-
American feeling. All those things
helped give my film the appeal it
had. I think they liked the fact that
it wasn’t a consciously artistic

endeavor, that it had rough edges.
There were so many films at
the Festival that were painfully
artistic.

Desiderius Orban

The film you did before “The
Plains of Heaven” was “Desi-
derius Orban”. What is that
about?

It[...]ewed an old
schoolteacher of mine, Mr Elliott.
He was very important to me when

I was at state school and I simply
wanted to record him[...]phic memory
and has spent his entire life reading
the classics and studying mathe-
matics, so he has an encyclopaedic
store of knowledge. I remember he
used to tell us stories of Greek
mythology at school — Jason and
the Golden Fleece. It was fantastic.

I asked him to talk about his life
an[...]actually got him to re-enact
one of his stories, the story of
Grendal. We went to a pine forest
at Mt Macedon and he played all
the parts. I managed to get him to
light a fire to finish the story off.

Mr Elliott then suggested we
visit a[...]ad been injured
in an industrial accident when he
was 40 and had been blind for 30
years. Mr Elliott is[...]ers blind.

We went to Jimmy’s place and
set up the camera and did a long
interview with Jimmy and Mr[...]se who
had died.

Jimmy talked about his life and
how an unsighted person survives
in the world. He was a toolmaker
by trade and had taken up making
perf[...]A'

F ilmograph y

1977 Flights (videotape)

1977 The Cartographer and the Waiter
(short feature, 55 mins)

1979 Bare Is His[...]9 Wronsky (short feature, 55 mins)

1979 Jack and the Soldier (feature script,
funded by AFC)

1981 Desiderius Orban (documentary, 60
mins)

1982 The Plains of Heaven (feature, 80
mins)

CINEM[...]

Forums were held in addition to the
screenings, some of which were as
stimulating and entertaining as the films.
At one of these, film critic Meaghan Morris
lamented the threadbare nature of the
existing terminology for discussing
women’s films. Morris said the phrase
“the incredible range and diversity of
women’s cinem[...]r with
monotonous regularity when she wrote
about the advent of a new feminist film;
she found this con[...]nt her words had about as
much impact as those of the little boy who
cried wolf!

This phrase is, however, useful and
significant in summing up the recent
season of films, not as a celebratory term
but rather as a critical overview.

The works offered were chosen with dis-
cernment by Adrienne McKibbons, who
co-ordinated the Film Festival with “very
little in the way of funding and much
voluntary assistance”. The result was a
microcosm of women’s work which helped
to place the woman's film in a historical
perspective.

It was just as interesting to look at
Nouchka van Brakel[...]man Like Eve), a dreadful Dutch
film which opened the Festival, as it was
to watch the long-awaited Margaretha von
Trotta film, Die blei[...]rficial as any American tele-feature,
but lacking the sanitized smoothness
typical of productions from the Evil
Capitalist West (which, incidentally, did it[...]in a
local student newspaper enthused that
she “was a sucker for a dyke romance";
similarly, women wi[...]screen-
ings of this film (it has been bought by the
AFI) and feel obliged to react favorably to
it be[...], there are minor saving
graces in this film, not the least of which is
Maria Schneider, whose part as[...]ccer with
your tits” has come true, but only to the
extent that she now resembles one of
Auguste Reno[...]ourneau’5 Hand
Maidens of God. Left: two images from
Helma Sanders-Brahams’ Germany Pale
Mather.

Ma[...]earnest, bearded young men while her
lover mourns the absence of her children.
These young men look as if they have
been imported through a time warp from
the 1960s: they are a most unlikely feature
of what Sylvia Lawson (F//mriews, October
1982) and thethe court against awarding the children to

their lesbian mother, is a woman —[...]at a
women’s dance, and leaves her to sleep
on the couch while she, the loyal wife,
romps loudly with her husband in the next
room.

A more commendable work is Marleen
Go[...](A
Question of Silence). Surprisingly, this
film was received with evident apprecia-
tion by North Shore matrons at the 1982
Sydney Film Festival and, less surpris-
ingly, by the sea of denim which com-
prised the audience at the AFl season.

The film is popular with women because
at least every woman can identify with
either the harried, catatonic housewife
(Christine M. is somewhat like the charac-
ter in Chantal Akerman’s Jeannie Diel-[...]de Commerce — 1080
Bruxelles, also screened at the Festival);
her accomplices; the power-behind-the-
throne secretary; the waitress with her
compensatory ever—eating (a s[...]e
meal and eats it in solitary splendor is
one of the saddest in all the films shown);
or with any of the onlookers to the killing: a
middle-aged ‘straight’ woman, two[...]t Gorris is glib in
her direction or her writing. The husband
of the psychiatrist hired to assess the
sanity of the three women on trial is light
years away from the cardboard villain in A
Woman Called Eve, yet one is totally con-
vinced of his innate oppressiveness by the
end of the film. Gorris simply is aware of
the many facets of women's oppression

and conveys these through her presenta-
tion of the characters.

This work is a feminist fantasy. Unlike
the earlier film, Take it Like a Man Ma’am
(also included in the Festival), it is a
cathartic, bloodless vendetta[...]to some extent, by all women who
watch it. As for the male viewers . . .l

Another film which was very popular at
the 1981 Sydney Film Festival, Helma
Sanders-Brahams’ Deutschland bleiche
mutter (Germany Pale Mother), was
featured in the program. it was a welcome
inclusion as it has not had commercial
release in Australia since the Festival
screening early one morning on a week-
e[...]since
gone into general release).

in one part of the film, Helma, as a small
child, and her mother Helene (Eva Mattes)
are making their way back from Silesia
through a forest as sinister and terrifying
as any in the stories by the Brothers
Grimm. Helene is telling her daughter a
‘fairytale‘ to distract her not only from their
fatigue but also from the dead bodies
rotting in their path. This scene is as chill-
ingly ironic as the horrific nature of the
popular chi|dren’s story that Helene
relates so[...]factly. This
economical, low-key way of conveying the
ingrained nightmarish experiences of her
characte[...]La ciociara [Two Women]) has far
more impact than the fevered bloodbath of
Sanders-Brahams’ controversial latest
work, Die beruhrte (No Mercy No
Future).

The theme of familiar relationships
between women is[...]ival. Daughter Rite, directed by
Michelle Citron, was one of the first

CINEMA PAPERS March —— 31

Top: performers and animation from

Caroline Leaf’: Kate and Anna
McGarrigle. Abov[...]A

Question of Silence.

feminist films to raise the problems
created for women by their mothers. The
scenes of the two sisters interacting and
discussing their mother did deviate from
the usual dreary talking heads device.
However, the film distanced thethe two young actresses.
ln Die bleierne zeit (Dark Times),
based on the true stony of Gudrun Ensslin
(a Baader-Meinhof recruit from a Protes-
tant clergyman’s family) and her journalist
sister, lvfargarethe von Trotta again looks
at the complex love-hate, rival relationship
between sis[...]Schwestern oder die balance
des gluks (Sisters or the Balance of
Happiness). As the Time Out review
noted, the terrorism is an off-screen
phenomenon (like that[...]-
dorff’s Die verlone ehre cler Katharina
Blum [The Lost Honor of Katharina
Blum]) because the film examines the
judgments and expectations women hold
for each other, especially in a close family
situation. ‘
Julianne, the older sister — again
played by Jutta Lampe — is the metamor-
phosed, defiant adolescent turned haus—
frau in the eyes of her sister Marianne

32 — March CINEMA PAPERS

(Barbara Sukowa), who was Daddy’s little
girl (somewhat like Jill Claybur[...]in lt’s My Turn, viewed and
discussed at one of the forums) and now
is a committed poltical activist.

There is a brilliant scene where the
young Julianne, at a very proper church
dance, refuses to be propelled around the
floor by her smug male partner, and
waltzes by herself with arrogant aplomb
among the amazed and discomforted
couples. One of thethe
evening and unannounced, push their
way into the flat her sister shares with her
lover. Von Trotta subtly shows that Mari-
anne, the revolutionary, acts like a servant
toward the men from her gang.

Neither woman can be stereotyped, in
spite of the way they see one another, and
the audience therefore is able to ponder
what constit[...]ic that Julianne, who has been
adamant throughout the film that she
cannot take on the responsibilities of
motherhood and will not marry[...]g than her
initial plan to discover and publicize the
true facts about Marianne’s death. The
leitmotif of the sisters as children helping
each other to button their bodices remains
with thethe unspoiled
nature of this singing duo rings somewh[...]servantes du
bon Dieu (Hand Maidens of God) posed
the question, “Sisterhood is powerful, but
for whom?”, with what the program notes
said was a “rare glimpse behind convent
walls”. This film does not, as might have
been expected by the suggestive descrip-
tion, give the spicy revelations of a fuller
look at the Decameron by another Pier
Paolo Pasolini. it is a documentary about
the lives of nuns dedicated to the
Heavenly Father and “the more terrestrial
Fathers” (who live in the monastery down

the road) and is for those innocents who
believe that the ‘Mother Church’ provides
“a slightly wayward epitome of the ideal
feminist community”. It is interesting,
however, to learn that one of the nuns
took the veil after the death of her lover, a
standard plot for traditional myths about
the prey of the Hound of Heaven.

Those who thought all Chinese films
consisted of Bruce Lee kicking Jackie
Chan in the face, or vice-versa, were
agreeably surprised by Ann Hui‘s Zhuang
dao zheng (The Spooky Bunch), a
comedy/ghost story with an itinerant
Chinese opera troupe as the background,
whose action and color made it a perfect
choice for the Saturday afternoon feature
in the Festival.

Special breakfast screenings and a lat[...]ner. It is easy to see why
both women survived as the only ones
involved in filmmaking in Hollywood
dur[...]l nature. However, there is
nothing radical about The Bride Wore
Red (1937). It is a typical Joan Crawford
MGM extravaganza. This might be
explained in part by the fact that it is a
rewrite of Ferenc Molnar‘s pl[...]zner — trying to
go straight. Arzner considered The Bride
Wore Red rather artificial and it was not
one of her favorite films. The female
camaraderie, an important motif of Dance
Girl Dance (1940). in particular, and The
Wild Party (1929), is evident again in the
relationship between Annie (Joan Craw-
ford) and the hotel maid, a former bar-girl
like herself.

As for Lupino, The Bigamist (1953) is
almost as misogynlstic as her[...]siness partner he would
not have sought solace in the arms of
‘mousy' geisha —- like Lupino, who also
starred in the film.

Certainly on the evidence of available
works, Lupino might deserve the label of
‘male-identifying’ female. But an
adequate assessment of each filmmaker,
particularly Arzner, can only be made

when more of their films are released from
archives.

A silent feature was also screened —
with an infuriating audience supplying the
commentary. What 80 Million Women
Want, a film produced, directed and star-
ring the suffragettes Emmeline Pankhurst
and Harriet Stanton Blatch, did not really
answer thethe hlstrionic potential
of Pankhurst who might have been as
much of an asset to the films as Eleanor
Glyn.

A more recent film was the Danish
classic Take It Like a Man Ma’am (1975),
directed by The Red Sisters Collective,
which was still relevant in its depic-
tion of a middle-age[...]ss.

Her nightmare about role-reversal
emphasizes the social inequalities — in
the parts played by wives, secretaries and
even mistresses — wittily but thoughtfully.
The film is similar to the Australian study
Media She, though it is more than just a
look at the function of women in adver-
tising.

Role reversa[...]Murder in a Mist,
a homage to and a refutation of the uglier
aspects ofthe film noir genre. One has the
spunky private detective Meg Hammer
(Joyce Hazard) who, under the Chandler-
esque alias of Velma Vender, assists a[...]as
if she should be slapping Joan Crawford
across the -kisser with a set of keys in
womens prisons”)[...]aw”. That this habit is promoted by
men through the sale of an ‘Enchanted
Evening’ vaginal deodor[...]lan County which
goes one step further by showing how
women’s union activities and beliefs can
be swa[...], a
surreal piece of black humor which
elaborates the popular theme of the Aus-
tralian male’s devotion to his car (The FJ

Holden, The Cars That Ate Paris, Run-
ning on Empty, Mad Max[...]2); and Carole Kostanich’s latest film
Mum’s the Word.

Kostanich, a single parent, gives a
concis[...]l
security benefits. She does not present
them as the Poor, a concept which com-
fortably relegates people in this and
similar situations (such as the credible,
unemployed young people in Greetings
from Wollongong) to the ranks of un-
threatening case histories, deserving
enough to be a feature story in the week-
end papers, but forgotten by the next
edition.

Perhaps the most important aspect of
the system is that nobody can survive on
this meagre[...]ost women are obliged to
supplement it illegally. The director
focuses on this boldly yet she does not
reveal any information that may be
evidence for the punitive Social Security
Department to investigat[...]—
no mean feat!

Helke Sander‘s Ftedupers — The All
Ftound Reduced Personality has a
photographer heroine who is the fictional
counterpart of the single parent in Mum’s
the Word. In one scene she prises her
clinging daughter from around her neck,
as if she were unwinding herself from a
beloved boa—constrictor. This “comic con-
tribution to the question of why women so
seldom manage to achieve[...]on billboards,

a project in which, predictably, the
sponsors want to feature “destitute
women".

W0[...]hree

times. Tonight she has decided to quit!”

The film on the closing night, contem-
porary American filmmaker[...]riends,
proved very unpopular. It is obvious that
the film was originally conceived as Old
Girlfriends (an early[...]female protagonist. Unfortun-
ately, it is often the case, even in these
enlightened times, that, like[...]r-day perfect, gentleman knight
(Richard Jordan), the revenge she carries
out on the man who humiliated her as a
young girl (played as a slimy adolescent
by the late John Belushi) is definitely one
“women fantasize about".

All in all, it was an interesting Festival
which focused on local pr[...]en thought of
today as ‘women’s cinema’ — the school
of thought which Barry Humphries desig-
na[...]an Aboriginal
women’s prison". It is hoped that the AFl
makes this season a regular event. *[...]

I studied to be a museum
curator. That was my background,
plus some knowledge in literature[...]film, La pointe courte. I borrowed
money and made the film for about
$14,000, but nobody, including
Alain Resnais who was the editor,
was paid. Over the years people
were paid three times, but in the
beginning it was collective work for
no money.

“Du cfité de la cfite” was your
earliest film to be widely ex-
hibited . . .

Du cfité de la cfite, which was
about the French Riviera, and O
saisons, chfiteaux, about the
Loire castles, were made by the
Tourism Office. They gave the
money to a producer who asked me
to do them. As y[...]tle difficult to explain.
You remember Attila? It was said
that when he passed by, nothing
would grow a[...]ll, they
said that when I made a film in an
area the Office of Tourism
wouldn’t grow anymore.

It is[...]ect and, even
though you make jokes and point
out the incredible failure of the
system, it still interests people to go
there. The Office understood this
and used Du ciité a lot. They sent
120 prints all over the world, to
embassies, cultural departments
and Alliances Francaise.

By the way, they cut the film by
five minutes. I only found this out
years later. The last few minutes of
the film said that this incredible
piece of land [the Riviera] should
be public and common to everyone.[...]closed their doors and gates, and in
a way stole the beach and the
shores. They made it private
property.

So, it was a very strong comment
at the end. But they cut the five
minutes without even telling me.
Now, it is[...]st-known
films in Australia . . .

Cléo de 5 5 7 was made in 1961.
A producer needed a cheap film, so[...]e one set in Paris

34 — March CINEMA PAPERS

_ The director of Lions Love, Cléo de 5 it 7,
Le bonhe[...]out her filmmaking.

during one day. We resisted the
opportunity to spend money, so it
naturally becam[...]ore than three or four
places in two hours. There was
economy in the purpose itself.-

And the character of Cléo . . .

I am not from Paris and I don’t
like the capital very much. I think

fear is one of the main feelings that
people get there. At that time
[l96l], the collective fear was of
cancer, just as the nuclear bomb or
war is now. So, by having a woman[...]stigate passiveness and activity.
Do you remember the first part of
the film? She is looked at. People
say she is this, s[...]s out and looks at
people. She looks at people in the

street, a man swallowing frogs,
people in a cafe. She meets a man
in a garden. He is the type of guy
she would have pushed away any
other[...]it is to
communicate, even for one hour.
That’s the film.

It has been clearly understood
around the world. Le bonheur
(Happiness), which I made in 1964,
is more famous but misunder-
stood.

How is it misunderstood?

When I go to other countries,
people say it is so beautiful: “Ah,
the colors, the landscape,
Impressionism!” They go on
for ever.[...]clear what this means. It is
obviously a work on the cliche;
what can be investigated about the
supposed cliche of “le bonheur”
(“happiness[...]that. So

it is natural that you are happy.
Then the male character meets
another young woman, and why
not?

The film is very much about
whether we need to invent[...]since it is
very natural to look at other
people. The typical beauty — I
would almost say the advertising of
“happiness”, like in a women’s
magazine — is the image of a
young couple with children. I tried
to[...]worm, and until you bite in you
don’t see it.

The success and fame of Le
bonheur has not come from this
interpretation, though some good
reviewers have seen this. The usual
feeling about the film, especially in
the U.S., is “How beautiful” or
“It’s one of my favorites.” It’s like
they could eat it.

They like the film’s surfaces, rather
than its underlying content . . .

The content is very twisted, very
vicious. It is not[...]people don’t bother to look; they
just say, “How nice.”

Unfortunately, most of your more[...]

Canberra. I[...]would buy it,
because it had been shown all over
the world.

It is distributed by the French
Embassy in Australia . . .

They are suppo[...]As for L’une chante l’autre pas
(One Sings, the Other Doesn’t), it
was very successful in the U.S. It
has been shown all over Europe, but
we ne[...]ite a book. You
have two or three of these set in the
19th Century. However, One Sings
is happening in thewas made just before “One

Sings” . . .

It was made for a television
station. They asked the women
directors they knew to make a film

on wha[...]However I agreed to make a
film, but when I asked how long it
would be, they said six minutes. I
told t[...]ouldn’t make it so short and when
they asked me how long I needed, I
panicked and said seven minutes.

It was supposed to be a tract or
statement for televisio[...]of being a
woman. I said I wanted to speak
about the body of a woman as an
underlying theme. I contacted the
director of the channel and he said,
“You want to do the body of
women. Will it be decent?” I said,
“S[...]said, “If you show sex, it
must be clean.” It was beyond

“I choose to be naked, but not for you,[...]nse de femmes.

belief and I laughed to tears. “How
dare you”, I said, and he replied,
“You must[...]vision.” I understood
him perfectly.

So, among the things in the film
is a pregnant woman naked and
laughing. She[...]nd feels
beautiful. You know they got phone
calls from family assocations
saying how dare they show a naked
woman at 8 o’clock when[...]exactly
my image. In my field, which is
cinema, the cultural images of
women, the traditional cliches of
women in film, is somethi[...]st show women without thinking about what you do. The same is true for men.

however.” Reponse de fem[...]as one thinks and be tough and
bitchy, or be the mistress, sweet
wife, nurse or mother stereotype.[...]st
show women without thinking
about what you do. The same is
true for men, however.

TheThe mural film wasThe people in the film
are American and my narration is
in French,[...]ot so much my work, which is
quite okay, but that the murals, the
colors, the portrait of Los Angeles,
as expressed by the people, are
incredibly nice.

It’s a documentary but the
word documentary has been spoilt.
You say documen[...]le
say what a bore. We should have
middle words.

The film is really funny and
French with people saying incred-
ible things. However, the back-
ground is the portrait of a very
anxious, panic-stricken city l[...]ts own identity.

Because it is a documentary, it
was not in competition at Cannes.
But a lot of people who saw it loved
it. I think it was successful in a way
because so many fictions are[...]sis in films. It is not
so much with subjects or the films
themselves, but with the audience.
They are bored to death with a boy
meet[...]ry serious directors
like Alain Resnais. However, the
general direction of French cinema
is not[...]

BRIAN MCFARLANE

~ {*1

THE BIOGRAPHY INDUSTRY

' '*§‘~'«; _

don’t think it is my Anglophilia showing when I say that the five

English Lives 1 have read in the past few months are all a good

deal easier on the aesthetic nerves and moral sensibilities than the

American Lives described in Part One. PETER SELLERS’ life

was just as susceptible to the lurid sensationalism of the Shelley
Winters or Elizabeth Taylor volumes, but it has the advantage of being
written by Alexander Walker“[...]ms. While aspects of Sellers’ private life -— the
insecurities that led him to see other personae in his work, the uneasy
relationships with colleagues, directors a[...]are intelligently
and sympathetically considered, the real strength of Walker’s
biography is in its focus on the work.

The essence of Walker’s conception of Sellers is that the only self he
had was as a performer, and a particular kind of performer at that. It
was necessary for him to efface himself completely an[...]that expensive
star—power they had just bought. The early life is entertainingly told —
vile scion of vaudeville family, India with the RAF, developing the gift
for mimicry, radio, the Windmill and the Goons — and in it are
perceived the seeds of later professional and personal development.

16. Alexander Walker, Peter Sellers: the Authorized Biography, Coronet Books, 1981.[...]

The latter half of the career looks wayward,
full of dire miscalculations, such as The Magic
Christian (1970) and at the very end The
Fiendish Plot of Dr Fu Manchu (1980), but,
penultimately, there was Being There (1979)
with perhaps his best performa[...]mself and about life” (p. 228) and
an observant assessment of the film itself which
“showed Sellers as the screen’s most brilliant
minimalist” (p. 254).[...]improbable wives, insane
extravagances — and in the last 15 years or so
haunted by fears about health. The premature
death at 55 robbed the screen of one of “the
greatest comic observers of human life” whose
skill, Walker claims at the end (p. 283), was a
matter less of concealment of self than of
tran[...]N is a great
film star and a great film actor. In the 1940s he
effortlessly dominated the British film scene
with his stylish essays in snarling villainy: the
Marquis of Rohan in The Man in Grey (1943),
Lord Manderstoke in Fanny by Gaslight (1944),
the sadistic Geoffrey in They Were Sisters
(1945), Ann Todd’s guardian in The Seventh
Veil (1945) and highwayman, Captain Jerry
Jackson, in The Wicked Lady (1946). He was
forever horsewhipping some hapless creature,
fla[...]ene worthy of Mason’s display, for,
in spite of the ludicrous circumstances in which
he often found himself in Gainsborough’s
palmy days, there was always an edge of wit
and intelligence which coul[...]s
Mason tells it in Before I Forget, Gainsborough
was more or less run by his then-father-in—1aw
Maurice Ostrer. Angry at being cast in The
Man in Grey, he now claims this, and films like
it, as a “victory” for the Ostrers: “The extra-
ordinary success of the film made me even more
cross, since I could claim none of the credit.”

Accurately assessing the future of the British
film industry, and after his great succes[...]what bland

I

Above: Ann Todd and James Mason in The Seventh Veil.
Below: Flora Robson and Merle Oberon in Wuthering
Heights.

The Biography Industry

autobiography, he writes: “[...]t and Reckless
Moment, which now look like two of the
decade’s most interesting Hollywood films, and[...]ame Bovary, a film
that has acquired stature with the years. In
retrospect, to have had those three fil[...]been a remarkable
testimony to staying power: in the past 30 years
he has made about 80 films, and even the
stinkers (e.g., Island in the Sun) have been
worth watching while he was on—screen. He
developed early and never lost —— indeed,
strengthened — one of the screen’s most
authoritative presences, and give[...]meeting with second
wife—to-be Clarissa Kaye in the Australian-
based Age of Consent. That means we get some
account of the making of Lolita which “was
one of my very best adventures in film-
making” (p. 317), but nothing of those
remarkable performances of the 1970s: the
ageing tutor in James Ivory’s Autobiography of
a Princess and the plantation owner in Richard
Fleischer’s Manding[...]sted in his craft and tells one
just enough about the making of the films to
make one ready to read Volume Two. There[...]is
private life (“Pamela did not take kindly to the
project” perhaps hints at marital discords over[...]odd that bad
time we enjoyed watching so much.

t was surprising to find FLORA
ROBSON (with Mason at the Old Vic
1933-34) in David Shipman’s The Great

Movie Stars: The Golden Years (Angus &
Robertson, 1975). Not that she was ever

less than a pleasure in films, but that she[...]where, and with whom, and with what
results, and how it was received.

But, as with many English players of stage
and screen, thehow few good plays she
was in; almost invariably she was transcending
inferior material, through the patent sincerity
with which she projected the inner truth of the
character, through her superbly-modulated

voice,[...]ominated for a Best Supporting Actress for
one of the silliest roles she ever played, Ingrid
Bergman’[...]k at Miss
Bergman.” Barrow rightly adds that “the film

was badly disturbed by too much exposure for
Miss Ber[...]er have done much for Robson’s film
career. She was a vivid, theatrical Elizabeth I
on two occasions[...]gland (1937)
and, in Hollywood, more memorably in The

CINEMA PAPERS March — 37

1001,“
r L'm1el1?,_’fl[...]INEMA PAPERS

Sea Hawk (1941) — and in 1962 she was the
Empress of China for Nicholas Ray in 55 Days
at P[...]1939) as Nelly Deans (and acting as
den mother on the set to Merle Oberon, Laur-
ence Olivier and Geraldine Fitzgerald, all crack-
ing under the William Wyler-imposed strains)
and best of all in[...]illage drama, Great Day (1945). In this last,
she was wholly convincing and touching as the
put—upon wife of a disillusioned World War 1
officer. The film doesn’t wear well — it is too
cosy and c[...]ces. He has also received
remarkable co-operation from many of her
colleagues. Everyone seems to have lo[...]imonials — Wendy Hiller’s — comes
very near the mark:
“Because of her very special quality one[...]lity of integrity and goodness — yet
I felt she was never fully stretched and had a
far wider range than she was given the chance
to use” (p. 189).
Undistracted as she was by marriage, the
career seems more or less to have been the life.
However, Barrow conveys the strong sense of

her being bolstered by a devoted family, of
which, in her turn, she became the pillar, and in
later years, without any flavor of[...]ration who clearly believes
acting means being on the stage is
CLAIRE BLOOM. In Limelight
and After, subtitled “Thethe biographies of those
stars who belong partly to the stage are so much
more tolerable is that the stage demands a
sustained discipline that would b[...]Blanche du Bois eight times
a week, out there on the stage beyond the
director’s reach, poses a challenge unknown to

the purely film actor. The rewards are more
immediate, if less extravagant, but there is no

relaxing of the discipline that produces the
repeated performances and perhaps it spills
over into the writing.
Bloom has thought about acting and is
ho[...]d of any
importance who hasn’t made her name on
the stage . . . when television and films come
along,[...]ing and to
make money. 1 can’t earn a living in the
theatre — nobody can” (p. 158).
She is ready[...]tyle, if it’s on television or film.
But not on thewas wrong casting for the sexpot in
The Chapman Report, but if as good a

director as George Cukor w[...]ke a
chance, I went ahead with it. Also there’s the

chance the director in a film can pull you

through — he can’t on the stage” (p. 159).
She is very unillusioned about[...]” (p. 181).

As her book’s title suggests, “The film actor
with whom I’ve had the greatest rapport was
Chaplin” (p. 182). She accepted the teacher-
pupil relationship on the set of Limelight, and
she had exciting rapport wi[...]ichardson and Martin Ritt, it has to be
said that the films don’t add up to a star career.
She is aware of this and her book is as
refreshingly free from egotism as it is from
sensationalism. Clearly she likes and needs her
work and will go on doing it as long as she is
asked.

In the meantime, she writes well enough to
have a subsidiary career if she wants one. The
book begins autobiographically, but, after the
Limelight climax, it swops chronology for
reflect[...]ons
together under headings like “Actors”, “The
Audience” and “Screen Romance”. Behind the
delicate beauty of that face, a critical — and[...]nties, has filmed at what
seems a frantic pace in the past

decade, often in cameo roles in films
like Lady Caroline Lamb, A Bridge

Too Far and The Seven Percent Solution,
sometimes, remarkably, in[...]ding
roles like those in Sleuth, Marathon Man and
The Boys from Brazil. This, Thomas Kiernan
tells us in his new biography”, is the “public
story” whereas “the private story is one of
disease and progressive p[...]nything worth doing. Some, like Daniel
Petrie’s The Betsy, were downright demeaning.
However, it is probably true to say that Olivier
has always regarded the cinema as taking

second place to the stage.

Certainly on his first visit to Hollywood in
the early 1930s, he felt himself superior to the
movies and this attitude wasn’t mitigated by the
fact that “the Oliviers aroused little interest in
the mainstream movie—industry society. What
interes[...]d mostly on
Jill.” Jill Esmond, his first wife, was the
daughter of a distinguished English theatrical
family and was, at the time of the Hollywood
sojourn, considerably Olivier’s superior,
professionally and intellectually.

One of the major interests of Kiernan’s book
is the light it throws on these early years in
Hollywood when Selznick was “preparing Jill
Esmond for her leap to stardom[...]n to England with
Olivier whose contract with RKO was not
renewed. Her film career never really
recover[...]ual sharpness and

17. Thomas Kiernan, Olivier: The Life of Laurence
Olivier, Sidgwick & Jackson, 198[...]tual friend). Kiernan doesn’t
of course neglect the years with Vivien Leigh,
but, rather, redresses the balance. (So, in a way
does Anne Edwards in her lively biography of
Leigh”, where Jill Esmond emerges as the most
sympathetic figure.)

When Olivier returned to Hollywood it was
to star with Merle Oberon in William Wyler’s
version of Wuthering Heights (1938) and it was

“Willie Wyler . . . who altered my feelings

t[...]. . He saw that I felt superior

to films, that I was condescending,

slumming. He took me in hand and[...]er.”‘9
Kiernan corroborates this with remarks from
Olivier and Wyler relating to this experience.
Sa[...]d of Olivier but,
“Although he didn’t possess the authority to do
so, Wyler overruled Goldwyn, using the threat
to walk off the picture himself as his leverage to
keep Olivier.”

Wuthering Heights, though a turning point
for Olivier, was not a happy production (as
Flora Robson also reca[...]that Merle
Oberon “had let Larry know that she was
available to him if he wanted her” (hard to
bel[...]ead (impossible to
believe) (p. 171). Considering the discord on the
set it is surprising that, questions of Emily
Bronte to one side, it emerges as the fine
romantic melodrama it is.

Kiernan’s is one of the best-written star
biographies: he is literate, kn[...]emporary reports. Rather frus-
tratingly, some of the most interesting of the
latter, though carefully footnoted, bear the
legend, “Source requests anonymity.” There
ar[...]is a curious imbalance in devoting two-
thirds of the book to one-third of the career.
Nevertheless, Kiernan has done a workmanlike
job with a remarkable life: apart from the early
Shakespeare films, it must be said that the great
triumphs were theatrical rather than cinema[...]Olivier has generally seen film and
television as the means of subsidizing his
coruscating life on the stage.

hese five English lives are refreshing

i[...]ter kept

private, except where these impinge

on the career, and in focusing on

what made them famous. Mind you,
the English batting average is brought down by
STEWART GRANGER’s Sparks Fly Upward.
Lacking thethe demands of the historical (to
use the term loosely) swashbucklers and bwana
roles in wh[...]bly into superbly—played character roles, there
was not enough interest in the Granger persona
to ensure the same for him. His book is full of
manly profaniti[...]dotes:
his “initiation into crumpet”; getting the clap
from his first wife’s best friend; being ordered
to strip by Hedy Lamarr; etc. Need I go on?
The comments on the films are generally in the
form of egoistic anecdotes, designed to show
what a breezy, virile, no-nonsense customer he
was. This tiresome chronicle stops around
1960; there[...]t is written with a real feeling for its
subject: the short, driven life of STEVE
MCQUEEN, less interes[...]ctors are a little strange,
unmasculine, not like the guys who are riveters
in aeroplane factories, I had to beat the actor’s
image” (p. 78).

McQueen had other th[...]ng short and small, early
deafness, and, finally, the thing he couldn’t
beat — cancer. Satchell gives a moving account
of the actor’s courageous fight against disease;
he treats the marriages with more dignity than
usual; and, if there is too little about the films,
he is doing no more than reflecting McQuee[...]d a good
deal going for him as a screen actor; he was a
logical successor to the “small effects” men.
Buzz Kulik, who directed his last film, The
Hunter (1980), was right to say: “He is a great
reactor on the screen, more than an actor. He
needs only one word and he’s magic.” His best
performances — Baby, the Rain Must Fall
(1964), The Cincinnati Kid (1965), Bullitt
(1968), Junior Bon[...]son, 1981.

21. Fred Lawrence Guiles, Jane Fonda. The/lctress in Her
Time, Michael Joseph, 1981.[...]

The Sunbeam Shaft

In 1936 the management of the Sunbeam
Colliery, Korumburra, Victoria, was
employing men under some of the worst
pay rates and conditions in the world.

Wattie and Agnes Doig immigrated to
Australia from Scotland in the 19205 and
found work on the South Gippsland coal
fields.

Along with a very high percentage of
militant men and women resident in the
area, Wattie and Agnes were the key figures
in the organization of the first ‘stay—in’
strike in the history of Australia.

The success of this strike paved the way
for action that was to revitalize the Aus-
tralian labor movement after the crushing
effect of the Great Depression.

The Sunbeam Shaft is directed by Richard
Lowenstein, from his own screenplay, for
producers Miranda Bain and Timothy
White. Shot on location at Wonthaggi,
Victoria, the film is Lowenstein’s first
feature.

CIN[...]

42 — March CINEMA PAPERS

Before going we saw J oris Ivens’
The 17th Parallel (North Vietnam,
1967) and we had the improbable
dream that once we got to Vietnam
we somehow would be able to
brush away all the years, penetrate
the various government depart-
ments and find the people who
were in Ivens’ film.

We then thought we would take
sections of the old film as a com-
parison and show what those
pe[...]uld be virtually impossible to
find them but that was one of the
requests we made to the Viet-
namese authorities.

One by one they met our
requests and finally produced a
Colonel Vu, who was Ivens’ right-
hand-man while he was making
The 17th Parallel. Vu had become
head of the army film unit but,
more important,_he had stayed in
the 17th Parallel and, the year
before, had written a book on the
area. He said of course he knew
where everyone was.

It all seemed perfect, thethe drawing board. We had several
ideas, none of whic[...]or
instance, of showing women in
various parts of the country in
different occupations. But that
would have been too episodic.

How did you decide on the subject
of the drug rehabilitation unit?

Ansara: There were so many
things that the subject offered. It
reveals a grave problem, one that
arose because of the war, in which
people in the West are interested at
a time when they are not generally
interested in Vietnam. It is a sub-
ject in which the Vietnamese
clearly have something to offer us
and[...]country,
feeling sorry for their lack of

Changin
the Need e

In the 1960s and 705, Vietnam dominated Australia ’s
n[...]ion news. But interest in that country faded
when the war ended. Since then, several Australian tele-
vision crews have filmed post—war Vietnam. But none
was able to examine closely any aspect of Vietnamese
society.

Changing the Needle is the first, in—depth look at
contemporary Vietnam by[...]ter of a million drug addicts in South
Vietnam at the end of the war. The society in which they
now live is one where most[...]y. Instead of replace-
ment drugs like methodone, the centre uses acupuncture,
herbal medicines, massage and a change of lifestyle to
wean addicts from their habit.

All of the team that made Changing the Needle —-
particularly Ansara and Robertson — were active in the
anti-war movement (as was the film’s editor, Colin
Waddy) and, with that back[...](camera).

resources. They do lack resources,
but the way in which they make the
best of what they have is a lesson
for us.

Robertson: We were also aware
of the concern of the Vietnamese
authorities that we not make a film
wh[...]ty. We felt
that just as people had learned a
lot from the Vietnamese during the
war, there were many things to be
learned from them now.

I wouldn’t have thought that
people in Australia, except left-
wing people, would pity the Viet-
namese. They have received a lot
of unfavorable publicity . . .

Ansara: If we had shown how
hungry and poor they are, we
could have made a successful film
about the wretched of the earth.

Robertson: Even we were
shocked at how poor and lacking
in every little thing the Vietnamese
are. Their energy level is very low
be[...]verybody feel pity for them. In a
way, given that the Vietnamese
have such a bad image, it would be
almost worth doing.

But neither the Vietnamese nor
you wanted that . . .

Ansara: We[...]n’t think there is much point in
showing people from another cul-
ture as pathetic, because you
distance the audience from their
problem.

How hard was it to get into Viet-
nam?

Ansara: Their embassy in Aus-
tralia was very co—operative. The
difficulties we encountered were
part of the general problem of
Vietnamese poverty. For example,
the embassy in Australia does not
have a diplomatic courier very
often, and I know from personal
experience that the post in Vietnam
is horrendous.

Robertson: Also, the Vietnam-
ese don’t necessarily understan[...]

make a film there, we would be
able to[...]id to them
that if they couldn’t let us know by
the end of July 1979, we couldn’t
do it. Instead, n[...]said
we expect you in February [1980]
and it gave the date of our arrival.

Robertson: I had been in Britain
and had come home in March. The
day I came home the Vietnamese
ambassador phoned and said,
“Our minister of culture will be
waiting for you in the first week of
April”, to which I said, “I hop[...]estigative tour. We wanted very
careful agreement from them
about what we could and couldn’t
do, and what they would be able to
help us with — which was quite
funny because we had no under-
standing of[...]re are constant
power surges and blackouts. There
was no equipment we could hire or
borrow, and we were faced with
the most horrendous freight prob-
lems. We had to tak[...]sara: We also had long,
friendly discussions with the Viet-

44 — Marc/1 CINEMA PAPERS

Guitarists at a concert in Ho Chi Minh
City. Changing the Needle.

namese in which we made it clear

that w[...]nce would expect to see
things warts and all. For the sake
of our integrity we had to make
sure that th[...]were considered
friendly, we would portray things
the way they wanted.

What kind of picture did they w[...]hey didn’t say any-
thing specific but, judging from
their films, they see things that are
good as all[...]a French-
English-American television team,
which was filming a history of the
Vietnamese war, even more so.

How did you raise the budget?

Robertson: We thought the best
thing was to obtain relatively small
investments from relatively large
numbers of people. But because w[...]th
Wales company law [which effec-

tively limits the number of
investors to 20 — Ed.], we ended
up w[...]han we
should have had, but not more
money. Also, the servicing costs
are expensive, regardless of
whet[...].

We approached people who had
been activists in the anti-war move-
ment and people in the union
movement who had taken a stand
about Vietnam.

Ansara: Basically we organized
the finance the way we would
organize a demonstration. We
thought that, with a film like this,
if we couldn’t raise the money then
this would probably mean there
wouldn’t be an audience for the
film.

The Creative Development
Branch of the Australian Film
Commission invested $16,000 in
the film’s $78,000 budget. The
crew invested their wages.

Once in Vietnam, were you able to
monitor the quality of what you
were shooting?

Robertson: We[...]m out and get a report back
by telex. We even had the number
of the one and only telex in Hanoi.

Robertson: In Saigo[...]and you
have to queue up. We were sure
everything was all right and, two
weeks after arriving in Vietna[...]ed to send our trial ship-
ment out. I took it to the airport,
filled in the forms — all seven of
them — paid my money and off it
went, in the hands of the pilot.

Then, when there was no word
from Colorfilm, we started send-

ing telexes. Sending[...]ach other, especi-
ally Martha, who didn’t know how
her film would look. So we telexed
Bill Gooley [C[...]“Do something desperate”, and he
replied that the film hadn’t
arrived. We realized we couldn’t
send any more.

What had happened was during
that week a group of Muslim
fundamentalists from Indonesia
had hijacked a plane at Bangkok
airport[...]sider news
is not always what they consider
news. The hijacking wasn’t
reported by the English news
service in Vietnam, and I even
doubt if it was on the Vietnamese
news service.

So, the hijacked plane was out

on the runway at Bangkok airport
for days and days, while our film
sat in a corner of a hangar. It
finally was sent off just before we
arrived in Bangkok after[...]th you
after that?

Robertson: We negotiated with
the Vietnamese to have two small
refrigerators, which are a great
luxury in Vietnam. Because it was
very hot and humid, we used to
pile the film into them. When we
went away to film the commune
our hosts taped them up and put
on notice[...]urned off. So,
everything stayed safe and sound.

How much red tape did you
encounter when filming?

Ro[...]rea of Saigon
that we thought we should film.
But the Vietnamese said no, you
can’t film today, you haven’t
signed the appropriate pieces of
paper.

That really happened all the‘
time. We even had a hassle because
Martha wanted to film from the
roof of our hotel. They didn’t stop
us doing th[...]ething a bit different, then no
one wants to take the decision. So I
spent quite a lot of time finding
who had the right to say, “Yes,
you can do that”, because[...]someone who
didn’t understand would think that
the Vietnamese were deliberately
trying to prevent us from doing
things, or trying to hide things. But
it wa[...]were able to film.

Robertson: Filming in Vietnam
was also difficult because we think
differently. I wi[...]h an
incident. One morning we had
been filming in the drug rehabilita-
tion centre and there was nothing
more we wanted to do that day.
We were ve[...]t
two months, but that seemed like a
long time to the Vietnamese.
Consequently, we felt any spare
time[...]ng for documen-
tary footage so we said to people
from the documentary film
studios, who were liaising with[...]ot going to film any more
today, we want to go to the docu-
mentary film archives.” Our inter-[...]

‘ “Va

‘ __ A ‘I '._

The Australian Motion Picture Yearbook 1983 .............................................. .. p. 2
The Documentary Film in Australia ...................[...]......................................... .. p. 3
The New Australian Cinema ...........................[...].......................... .. p. 4
Australian TV: The First 25 Years ...........................[...]

MOT ION PICTURE
YEARBOOK

AUSTRALIAN

I983

The third edition of the Australian Motion Picture
Yearbook has been totally revised and updated.

The Yearbook again takes a detailed look at what has
been happening in all sections of the Australian film scene
over the past year, including financing, production,
distr[...]festivals, media,

censorship and awards.

As in the past, all entrants in Australia ’s most
compreh[...]n industry directory have
been contacted to check the accuracy of entries, and many

new categories hav[...]of profiles has been compiled and will
highlight the careers of director Peter Weir, composer

Brian May and actor Mel Gibson.

A new feature in the 1983 edition is an extensive
editorial section wi[...]ing, special
effects, censorship, and a survey of the impact our films

are having on U.S. audiences.[...]with an

interest — vested or altruistic — in the

continuingfilm renaissance down under . .
Variety

“The most useful reference book for me in the

past year . . . ’
Ray Stanley
Screen International

"The Australian Motion Picture Yearbook is a
great asset to the film industry in this country.
We at Kodak find it invaluable as a reference

aidfor the industry. "
David Wells
Kodak

.. one has to admire the detail and effort
which has gone into the yearbook. It covers
almost every conceivable facet of the film
industry and the publishers claim that it is ‘the
only comprehensive yellow page guide to the film
industry’ is irrefutable. "

The Australian

Reactions to the Second Edition

—-—-————- ' nxamm.

"Anyone interested in Australian films, whether

in the industry or who just enjoys watching them,

will find plenty. to interest him in this book.”
The Sydney Sun-Herald

"This significantpublication[...]but everyone interested in
Australian film. ”

The Melbourne Herald

“May I congratulate you on yo[...]us, and I'm sure to most

people in, and outside, the business."
Mike Walsh
Hayden Price Productions

“Indispensable tool of the trade."
Elizabeth Riddell
Theatre Australia

.4. ..—..s_.. .. g-——-,-—_:

‘'The 1981 version of the Australian Motion
Picture Yearbook is not only bigger, it's better —
as glossy on the outside as too many Australian
films try to be a[...]s
many more Australian films ought to be . . . "
The Sydney Morning Herald

"1 have been receiving the Cinema Papers
Motion Picture Yearbook for the past two years,
and always find it to be full of[...]ful information and facts. It is easy to read
and the format is set out in such a way that
information is easy to find. 1 consider the
Yearbook to be an asset to the office. ”
Bill Gooley
Colorfilm
“ .. another good effort from the Cinema
Papers team, and essential as a desk-top
r[...]ody interested in our feature

film industry. ”
The Adelaide Advertiser

Documentary films occupy a special
place in the history and development of
Australian filmmaking. From the pioneering
efforts of Baldwin Spencer to Damien
P[...]ry filmmakers have
been acclaimed world—wide.

The documentary film is also the
mainstay of the Australian film industry.
More time, more money a[...]rm — '
features, shorts or animation.

In this, the first comprehensive
publication on Australian doc[...]authors and filmmakers
have combined to examine the evolution of
documentary filmmaking in Australia, and
the state of the art today.

The History of the Documentary:

A World View
International landmarks, key figures, major movements.

The Development of the Documentary
in Australia

A general history of the evolution of thethe various types of documentaries
made in Australia,[...]A study of
government and independent production. The aims
behind the production of documentaries, and the various
film forms adopted to achieve the desired ends. This part
surveys the sources of finance for documentary film here
and abroad.

The Marketplace

The market for Australian documentary films, here an[...]a Documentary

A series of case studies examining the making of
documentaries. Examples include large b[...]umentaries.

Each case study examines, in detail, the steps in the
production of the documentary, and features interviews
with the key production, creative and technical personnel
involved.

The Australian Documentary: Themes
and Concerns

An examination of the themes, preoccupations and film
forms used by Australian documentary producers and
directors.

Repositories and Preservation

A survey of the practices surrounding the storage and
preservation of documentary films in Australia.
Comparisons of procedures here and abroad.

The Future

A look at the future for documentary films. The impact
of new technology as it affects production, distribution

and marketing. A forward look at the marketplace and

the changing role of the documentary.

Producers and Directors Checklist

A checklist of documentary producers and directors
currently[...]rmation for those dealing with, or
interested in, the documentary film. This section will
includ[...]

The chapters: The Past (Andrew Pike), Social Realism (Keith Connoll[...]Duigan), Avant-garde (Sam Rohdie).

AUSTRALIAN TV The first 25 years records, year by year, all the important
television events. Over 600 photographs[...]preserve
memories of programmes long since wiped from the tapes.

The book covers every facet of television programming[...]Ivan Hutchinson.

AUSTRALIAN TV takes you back to the time when television for most Australians was
a curiosity — a shadowy, often soundless, picture in the window of the local electricity store.
The quality of the early programmes was at best unpredictable, but still people would gather to
watch the Melbourne Olympics, Chuck Faulkner reading the news, or even the test pattern.’

At first imported series were the order of the day. Only Graham Kennedy and Bob Dyer
could challenge the ratings of the westerns and situation comedies from America and Britain.

Then came The Mavis Bramston Show. With the popularity of that rude and irreverent
show, Aust[...]ion came into its own. Programmes like Number 96, The Box,
Against the Wind, Sale of the Century have achieved ratings that are by world s[...]vely,

fast—growing industry.

In November I980 the Film and
Television Production Association
of Australia and the New South
Wales Film Corporation brought
together[...]arketing,
and distribution of Australian films
in the I980s with producers
involved in the film and television
industry.

The symposium was a
resounding success.

Tape recordings made of the
proceedings have been transcribed
and edited by Cinema Papers,
and published as the Film Expo
Seminar Report.

Contents

0 Theatrical Production
The Package: Two Perspectives

C Theatrical Production
Business and Legal Aspects

Distribution in the United States
Producer/Distributor Relationship
Distribution Outside the United States
Television Production and Distribut[...]n,
Berkowitz and Selvin

Harry Ufland
President, The Ufland Agency (U. S.)

period[...]ch
Zone lawn issues inuea (each) (each) copy. add the following)
,
1. New Zealand $25.20 $45.40 $57.7[...]nd book reviews

0 Production surveys and reports
from the sets of local and
international production
Box-of[...]nbound copies.
Individual numbers can
be added to the binder
independently, or
detached if desir[...]

BACK ISSUES

tT.:iI:'Z;I3;_....». "V:

Number 2
April 1974

Violence in the Cinema.
Alvin Purple. Frank Moor-
house. Sandy Ha[...]r 3
July 1974

John Papadopolous.
Willis O'Brien. The Mc-
Donagh Sisters. Richard
Brennan. Luis Bunuel.
The True Story of Eskimo
Nell.

Number 12
April 19[...]rt Deling. Piero
Tosi John Scott. John
Dankworth. The Getting
oi Wisdom. Journey
Among Women.

Numbe[...]sored
Documentaries

Number 28
April-May 1980

The Films oi Peter Weir.
Charles Jofte. Harlequin.
Nationalism in Australian
Cinema. The Little Con-
vlct.

index: Volume 6

, ._o
1- .[...]arman.
My Brilliant Career. Film
Study Resources. The
Night the Prowler

~‘3l»iL?i”';1i
_35).§~L_

Number 27
June-July 1980

The New Zealand Film
Industry. The 2 Men.
Peter Yeldham Maybe
This Time. Donald Rich[...]38
June
1982

Geoff Burrowes and
George Miller on The Man
From Snowy River,
James Ivory, Phil Noyce,
Joan Fontai[...]Film. Grendel, Grendel,
Grendel. David Hem-
mings The Odd Angry
Shot. Box~Otlice Grosses.
Snapahot.[...]78

Tom Cowan, Francois
Truffaut. Delphine Seyrig
The Irishman. The Chant
oi Jimmie Blacksmith. Sri
Lankan Cinema. The Last
Wave

Number 22
July-August 1979

Bruce Pett[...]ront. Film Study
Resources. Koatas.
Money Movers. The Aus-
tralian Film and Tele-
vision School.

Index: Volume 5

Number 28
August-September
1980

The Films oi Bruce Bares-
lord. Stir. Melbourne and
S[...]b Ellis Actors Equity
Debate. Uri Windt.
Cruising The Last
Outlaw. Philippine Cin-
ema. The Club.

Number 40
October
1982

Henri Salran, M[...]mber-October
1979

Australian Television.
Last of the Knucklemen.
Women Filmmakers.
Japanese Cinema. My[...]78

Bill Bain. Isabelle Hup-
pert. Polish Cinema. The
Night the Prowler. Pierre
Flissient. Newetront. Film
Study[...]hn Duigan on winter of
Our Dreams. Government
and the Film Industry. Tax
and Film. Chris Noonan.
Robert[...]lian Film Censorship.
Sam Arkolt. Roman
Polanski. The Picture
Show Man. Don’s Party.
Storm Boy.

N[...]nema. Sonia
Borg. Alain Tanner..
Cathy’: child. The Last
Tasmanian.

Number 25
February-Mar[...]

Please start D renew D my subscription with the next issue. If a renewal,
please state Record No.[...]ake a subscription to Cinema Papers a gift, cross the box below and we will
send a card on your behalf with the first issue.

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form below. it you would like multiple copies of any one issue, indicate the number you
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1983 Please send me E] copies of the 1983 Yearbook at $25 a copy (Foreign: $35 surface; $45 airmail).

£81/82 Please send me D copies of the 1981/82 Yearbook at $19.95 a copy (Foreign: $30 surface;
airmail).

1980 Please send me D copies of the 1980 Yearbook at $19.95 a copy (Foreign: $30 surface; $40 airmail).

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‘ Please send me D copies of the Film Expo Seminar Report at $25 a copy (Foreign: $27 surface; $32 airmail).

Sarry forward sub-total from p. 7

Name ............................[...]

having a scene because I was
saying, “Well, just ring up and tell
them.” It was only afterwards that
I realized how ridiculous that was.
First, it is hard to find telephones
that work and, I found out later, in
the archives there is only one
phone in a huge building. The guy
on the desk obviously takes a
message and you get what you
requested the next week. And we
didn’t realize that while there is a
lot of film, there is no catalogue or
index. The system relies on
people’s memories.

Ansara: I think the Vietnamese
found us more trying than prob-
ably anything they had ever
encountered. We worked all the
time and they didn’t have the food
available to supply us at all hours,
yet they had to keep up — and we
were working from early in the
morning until late at night.

We also seemed very[...]on a
ratio of one to one and a half.

Did you do the interviews through
an interpreter?

Ansara: Yes. We had as many
discussions as we could with the
person who was going to ask the
questions and with the person
being interviewed. We then tried to
adopt a technique whereby, having
agreed on the topics beforehand,
the interviewer would ask ques-
tions and pause from time to time
so we could find out the gist of
what had been said. Then at night
we woul[...]out what
had really been said. Our inter-
preter was a hero.

The language difference also
meant other problems. Th[...]when you are filming: for example,
when to change the picture.

When you went into the rehabilita-
tion unit, had you thought out
what would be the form of the
film? Did you want to follow a
couple of people through the pro-
gram, or stand back and take a less
detailed, more personal approach?

Ansara: What we wanted to do
was to follow someone right
through; to wait there until the
police brought someone in and
find out what happe[...]le through
stages, then go a bit wider to
explain the institution.

Would you have wanted the film to
be more intimate?

Ansara: Of course. Had we put
the same amount of work into
filming an Australian institution,
the result would have been more
intimate. But things[...]lls
their guts.

“We wanted to remind people of the continued existence of the Vietnamese, and the fact
that they still have to live with consequences of the war that was waged on them.”

Changing the Needle was released in late 1982. It
opened to generally goo[...]nt” before commenting “there is nothing about
the persecution of the Chinese, the boat people or the
reasons behind the occupation of Kampuchea. Because it
chooses not t[...]usness. ’ ’

In late November, a screening of the film at
Wollongong Trade Union Centre was disrupted when
250 right-wing Vietnamese demonstrated outside the
building and tried to discourage some of the audience
from attending.

When you put the film together,
did you feel you had to make con-
cessions to attract the widest poss-
ible audience?

Ansara: We didn’t[...]ed that.

Robertson: And, when we first
discussed the film, we knew we
wanted to make something which
spoke to all people, not just the
converted. We didn’t want to
make a film that w[...]in 1969 feel great.
We wanted to remind people of the
continued existence of the Viet-
namese, and the fact that they still
have to live with the consequences
of the war that was waged on
them.

You have said that, despite your
approach, the film, at least in
Britain, has been criticized fo[...]example, had
viewings and discussions with
people from the United Nations
International Narcotics Board.
They come from different
countries and bought the film to
use as a teaching aid to show how a
poor, underdeveloped country can
cope with drug[...]mongst themselves, rather than
with me —- about the small amount
of historical compilation in the
film, and that it talks about the
French and the Americans intro-
ducing drugs into Vietnam. They[...]out China, no one would
feel uptight about saying the
British introduced opium there,
one of them said to me: “Ah, yes,
but that was a long time ago.”

So, the film involves practical
politics for a lot of people.

How were you treated as an all-
female crew in a stil[...]ple reacted in
different ways. We had a dinner on
the night of International
Women’s Day with women from
the Women’s Film Unit, and some
men from the documentary film
studios and the Ministry of Social
Welfare. They told us that they
were using us as an example ——
“precious example” was their term
— but that was in the south. It
wouldn’t be the same in the north
because women do many things in
the north that women are yet to do
in the south.

Ansara: Or in Australia.

What was the most
example of that?

extreme

Ansara: Co[...]

A Possible Solution.

Brendan Archer*

The recent statements by the Minister for
Home Affairs and the Environment, Tom
McVeigh, promising to amend the Division
10BA provisions of the Income Tax Assessment
Act to allow a longer period for the production
of films qualifying for the 150 per cent tax
deduction, appear to have overcome one of the
major problems encountered by film producers
seeking private funding for their current
projects. Now the film industry has encountered
a further hurdle in securing the funds it
anticipates will be attracted by the proposed
amendments. This hurdle is the requirement
that producers seeking public investment funds
must issue a prospectus in a form acceptable to
the Corporate Affairs Commission. The
purpose of this article is to examine briefly the
legislation which determines this requirement,
and to propose a solution which may avoid the
expense and loss of time involved in the issue of
prospectuses, while providing the same
information to investors.

Background

On Ju[...]ew Uniform Companies Code. A number of
aspects of the previous Uniform Companies
Act were changed, particularly those regulating
the conduct of promoters seeking investment
funds from the public. The changes have been
interpreted as requiring film p[...]a prospectus if they are seeking investment
funds from the public.

The primary assumption behind the
prospectus requirements is that members of the
public invest their funds with a view to making
a profit. In order to ensure that the intending

*Brendan Archer is a solicitor who[...]bership offered
to public

Subscriptions
received from
public

Unit certificates
issued to public

46 —— March CINEMA PAPERS

investors are provided with all the information
necessary to enable them to make an informed
decision as to whether the investment proposal
placed before them will provide that profit, the
promoter is required to provide the intending
investor with details of all the relevant aspects
of the investment proposal. It is undoubtedly
arguable that people, at the moment, are not
investing in films with the expectation of a
profit return, but rather to secure the Division
10BA tax deduction. Most film investment
proposals read by the author make no promises
of profit, but do assure[...]tax
deduction.

It is also arguable that much of the
information required by the Code to be
included in prospectuses is not relevant to a
film investment proposal. However, the
provisions of the Uniform Companies Code
were drafted in a very general way, with a view
to protecting the uninformed investor or a
member of the public from being exploited by
professional promoters. No one would argue
against the desirability of this objective.

Who is a member of “the public” for the
purposes of the Uniform Companies Code?
Quite clearly, it include[...]ith a promoter of a scheme and
whose contact with the promoter has been
secured by a random method, suc[...]ailing or an advertisement placed in a
newspaper. The legislation, however, takes a
much narrower view of the attributes of a
member of “the public”; an investment offer is
made to the public if “made to any section of
the public whether selected as clients of the
person (making the offer) or in any other
manner”.

There have not, as yet, been any cases
decided on this section of the Code. Therefore,
one must look to previous decisions and the

Trustee Company
(as Trustee of Film Unit Trust A[...]ement

Film Production
Company

general policy of the legislation to determine
who is in the category of people to whom an
investment proposal may be made without the
need to issue a prospectus. This leads one to
conclude that:

(a) the public can be one person or several
people; .

(b[...]very limited number
of people can be an offer to the public if
there is no previous connection between
the person offering and the persons to
whom the offer is made, or even if there
is a previous connection but the offer is
accepted by a person with no previous
connection;

(c) a section of the public also includes a
group of people who, as a[...]mon employer, could not be
regarded as members of the public in the
ordinary sense of the term; and
the inclusion of persons “selected as
clients or otherwise” is intended to cover
the professional firm which makes an
investment proposal to its clients only on
the basis that their status as clients of the
firm precludes them from membership of
the public.

The definition summarized in category (d) is
the definition that has restricted substantially
the ability of the film producer to raise funds
without the issue of a prospectus.

The Code, however, does provide that

(61)

certain classes of persons will not necessarily be
members of the public, and that investment
proposals may be submitted to them without
the need to issue a prospectus. These classes of
persons generally can be stated to be members
of the company or investment scheme issuing
the investment proposal. Therefore it is recog[...]

To take advantage of the exemptions
offered, it would be necessary to esta[...]projects can be circulated. This could be
done by the issue of a single prospectus. But
given the diversity of projects and the necessity
for a long-term solution to the particular
problem, it would be difficult to satisfy the
prospectus requirements of the Companies
Code. It would be preferable to establish the
organization without the necessity to issue a
prospectus.

Membership by shareholding cannot be done
without the issue of a prospectus. The only
alternative is membership of a unit trust. But if
the members are subscribing for the purposes
of obtaining a profit or making an investment,
then a prospectus must be issued. Therefore,
the solution appears to be membership of a unit
trust in which the members will obtain no
interest in the trust property, or income from
the trust activity. This can be achieved with the
co—operation of all participants in the Aus-
tralian film industry.

Stage 1

A trustee company is established. The board
of the company will comprise representatives of
producer[...]ations are made to investors to acquire a
unit in the trust for, say, $25. As the acquisition
of a unit in a unit trust normally entitles the

Trustee Company
(as Trustee of Film Unit Trust A)

/

Funds from Film Unit
Trust A

Management Agreement

Management Company

l