Is a NSW cultural policy possible? How would New England fit in?

At the end of 2013, Arts NSW called for responses to a discussion paper on a proposed  NSW cultural policy. It seemed a very Sydney centric document that also tried to stitch together all sorts of other policy objectives and activities. That’s actually a feature of all the NSW mega agency clusters. They want to integrate what they do into an apparently coherent narrative even where things are in fact not, or were not, connected.  

In January 2014 the New England Writers’ Centre responded. We summarised our approach in this way:

As a broad general comment, we found some difficulty in determining the relevance of the paper to the Centre’s role in the promotion of writers and writing in Northern New South Wales and indeed, more broadly, to the development of arts and cultural activities within Northern New South Wales. Similar issues arose in the context of the various action plans referred to in the discussion paper, plans that are meant to be integrated in some way with an arts and cultural policy.

Part of the problem lies in the division within the strategies between Sydney and NSW, combined with a top down approach that seeks to interlink Sydney and the rest of the state in the form of a cobweb with the different strands centered on Sydney. One consequence is insufficient recognition of diversity within NSW and the way this affects the on-ground patterns of life, including interactions between areas outside Sydney. To pursue the cobweb analogy, there are many smaller overlapping webs within NSW that exist independently of any interconnection with Sydney and may indeed be in competition with Sydney.

The brief comments that follow amplify this point. We have tried to structure them to be helpful to the general intent of the strategy, while also pointing to the deficiencies as we see them in the current approach.

In response to a comment on another blog, I promised to put the paper on line. I have now posted it to Scribd. It’s not a very long submission, a bit over ten pages. I think that its quite good.

If you can find the time, have a browse and give me your reactions.

Moving images from New England's past

This one came via the We Love South Grafton Facebook page. It was posted to YouTube by wayne hope. He describes it in this way.

Historic footage taken from feature films, documentaries, newsreels & home movies from the 1920's to the 1970's. It mainly shows people going about their daily lives. Also some of the towns festivals & street parades. Included are the NSW towns of Grafton, Inverell, Coffs Harbour, Yamba, Moree, Tenterfield, Angourie, Casino, Lismore, Coutts Crossing, Glenn Innes & Maclean. The video is divided into 6 separate decades, starting from the 1920's thru to the 1970's. 1920's begins at 1 minute. 1930's at 25 minutes. 1940's at 41 minutes 50 sec. 1950's at 51 minutes 40sec. 1960's at 1hr 2min 25sec. 1970's at 1hr 12min 10sec.

As you can see, it is quite long. However, it does provide some vivid images, slices, of daily life in parts of the North over time. Do have a browse.

My New England 4 - the colours of New England

Back in September 2009, I wrote a post called The Colours of New England that was something of a photo essay looking at changing colours from east to west, north to south. It remains one of our my favourite posts.

Then last year I gave a presentation to the Armidale North Rotary Club called Northern Images - Landscape, life and literature through New England eyes. There I combined art, film and literature with a dash of history to try to explain the interconnections, the commonalities and differences, in the way that New Englanders saw themselves, were seen by others.

This film poster for a very well known 1977 Australian movie was one of the illustrations I used. If you look at the short Wikipedia entry on the film you wouldn't know that it was a New England story, and yet it is. The film is based on a New England travelling film show operating out of Tamworth, and was filmed largely on the Liverpool Plains while the last scenes were shot on the Clarence.

In the Colours of New England I talked about the Liverpool Plains. The Picture Show Man captures in film the same colours. Driving as I so often did between Armidale and Canberra through the Western Slopes and Plains, I explored the changing colours in detail,       

Toomelah the movie opens in cinemas

Another New England movie, Toomelah, has hit the screens, if again with limited release. The plot is described in these terms: 

The film is set entirely in the remote Indigenous community of Toomelah, located on the NSW, QLD border. It was created as a mission during the 1930s, bringing together Gamilaroi and Bigambal people from the surrounding area.

The story centres on Daniel, a small ten year old boy who dreams of being a gangster. He is kicked out of school and befriends a local gang leader, until a rival gangster arrives back from jail to reclaim his turf. A showdown ensues and Daniel is caught in the middle, leaving him with a choice to make about his uncertain future.

Toomelah is a deeply personal story, that intimately depicts mission life in contemporary Australia. The film reveals the challenges facing the young Gamilaroi people of the Toomelah Community. Robbed of much of their traditional culture by Government policy, it is a community on a cultural edge, struggling for an identity. It is a provocative and yet comic story that transports audiences inside the community, creating an authentic world and way of life that is "Toomelah"

I know that many Australians are actually put off by movies about Aboriginal people or issues, but this one is worth seeing in its own right and as a depiction of one aspect of New England Aboriginal life.  Further comments follow the trailer.

I have written a fair bit on New England's Aboriginal peoples. In this context, this post is actually the tenth in a continuing series introducing readers to past and present Aboriginal life in New England.

Those who are interested can find a full list of posts by either clicking New England Aboriginal life or, if you want, to read in date order from one up, click on Introducing New England Aboriginal life. I still have to do a consolidation of all my historical posts.

I have also done written a fair bit on New England films. Again, I need to do an update.

It's nice to have a film showing a very different aspect of New England life that should appeal to a wider audience.

5th Dungog Film Festival - a varied program

It seems only yesterday that I wrote 4th Dungog Film Festival - New England films. Now, and it almost escaped me, the 5th Festival is on. I feel a little annoyed, because I had said to myself that I would go. Still, the way that things have worked out, it wouldn't have been possible anyway. 

For those who don't know the festival, it has (I think) become the largest festival in Australia dedicated to Australian films. You can find the official web site here, the Facebook page here.

It's a very mixed program indeed, featuring new and old.

Taj is a first for Australian cinema, with Indian actors in leading dramatic roles exploring the world of Indian-Australian culture.

You can then go from this to the Australian classics The Man from Snow River or Gallipoli, films that still appeal enormously despite the changes that have taken place in Australia.

Then, for variety, try The Dragon Pearl. The plot of this Chines-Australian co-production is described in this way:

 When teenagers Josh (Louis Corbett from Charlotte’s Web) and Ling (Li Lin Jin makes an impressive debut) join their respective parents, Chris (Sam Neill, Jurassic Park, The Piano, The Hunt For Red October) and Dr Li (Wang Ji, a string of Chinese features but also The Karate Kid in 2009) on an archaeological dig in China, they are thrown together and left to their own devices.

What was meant to be a quiet vacation to an archeological dig in China, becomes an unexpected adventure full of ancient mystery. While their parents are making historic discoveries, Josh and Ling make one of their own. Together, the kids uncover something trapped beneath a temple, beyond their wildest imagination. The temple is guarded by Wu-Dong (Jordan Chan, a prolific actor and musician) who rounds out a cast of China’s most popular actors.

What they have in fact discovered is an ancient Chinese Dragon, trapped on earth because it was separated from its magical ‘pearl’. The sleeping dragon has been awoken. Josh and Ling’s parents don’t believe their stories, but archaeologist Philip Dukas (Robert Mammone) listens closely and has sinister ambitions. A breathtaking struggle between good and evil ensues.

As always, I am interested in New England films. This time we have The Forgotten Men. The film is based on an RM Williams campfire story and stars Jack Thompson, Kerry Armstrong, Gyton Grantley and Lincoln Lewis, with newcomer Nathin Butler shining in the lead role. It was shot all around the Dungog area and is directed by Jack Wareham.

Perhaps next year I will get to Dungog!

Please hire Lou the Movie DVD

Back at the end of May last year in 4th Dungog Film Festival - New England films I spoke of Lou the Movie.

Despite good reviews, the film gained only limited release. It's really very hard for an independent to break through the distribution barriers.

A movie likes this requires time for viral marketing to bring audience, and with limited distribution its simply not given time. Just a reminder as to what the film is about. The Dungog Festival Program described it in this way:    

Eleven-year-old Lou's life was instantly turned upside down when her father walked out on her mother and two sisters. She has coped by building a tough shell around her heart - afraid to let anyone hurt her again. Lou blames her mother for her father's departure and refuses to let her in. Life suddenly changes when her estranged Grandfather moves in to the family's rented home. Doyle is ill and befuddled and in his confused state, Doyle mistakes his granddaughter for his long departed wife. Lou, intrigued, plays along with the fantasy, using her bond with Doyle against her mother. As the game progresses, Lou's tough exterior is chipped away and ultimately she understands what it is to be loved - in the most unexpected of circumstances. Shot around the North Coast of NSW and inspired by Chayko's own family, Lou is not to be missed.

Since its limited release, the film has slowly been gathering awards. These include most recently two prizes at the Creteil Women's Film Festival. The Prix Graine de Cinephage for best feature chosen by the young jury, and the Prix du Public, the audience award for best feature.

Lou has now travelled to France, where it will screen in Cannes Cinephiles (a series of public screenings alongside the main competition of Cannes). There it will also be competing in the Ecrans Juniors - to be judged by a jury of young cinema-lovers.

I understand that the movie will be in Australia's Blockbuster video stores from tomorrow. The Blockbuster promo is here. May I encourage you to hire it and then promote it if you like it?

I really think that you will like it, and we do need to promote our own product.

The Lou Facebook site is here, the movie web site here.

Can you help us find Captain Thunderbolt?

Back in June last year, I carried a story on the Search for Captain Thunderbolt. Launched by the National Film Sound Archive , the aim was to find a full copy of this historic film.  

Captain Thunderbolt Trailer Sneak Peek from NFSA on Vimeo.

This post drew a comment from David Donaldson who helped inspire the search from the film. In turn, I followed this up with New England Story - the making of Captain Thunderbolt, a purely personal perspective on the making of the film.

Through the miracles of blogging, this drew comments from the Australian family of New Zealander Colin Scrimgeour whose Australian company provided the vehicle for the film. Now there is an important sub-text here in terms of of the politics and intellectual life of both Australia and New Zealand, for both Cecil Holmes and Colin Scrimgeour were significant figures on the left and both suffered for their views. I mean to write something on Colin on my personal blog at some point.

The National Film and Sound Archive commentary on the film noted the influence of Holmes's views on the film. Not that that mattered with Captain Thunderbolt from a local viewpoint, for the locals who participated including my father and aunt just saw it as a film. Indeed, there is a fascinating juxtaposition in that Thunderbolt played by heart throb Grant Taylor actually rode, or so the story goes, my grandfather's horse. My grandfather was then the the Country Party member for New England. In this context, David Donaldson wrote:

In the original post, Jim said "Certainly I didn't see it as an explicit political statement, nor (I think) did those locals who took part in its making or watched it. Certainly I have never heard comments along those lines. It was just a film, part of our history."

Having observed some Cold War applications in Sydney in that time, I can say that some of us certainly did read in those themes then. I think that Holmes was trying to make relevance and interest. He saw the world in those political terms, so that was the way he thought in the film. It was not explicitly intended as a political statement, as the NFSA note perhaps suggests.

It may be that Holmes' vigilators would have seen it that way, though!

I suspect that when I first saw the film and then later I saw it simply as the normal Australian expression of support for the underdog. I also think that David may be right in his views.  

I digress.

In a recent comment on the post, David said that the NSFA search for the film appeared to be dragging. Here he wrote:

So far as I know, the NFSA has to date (April 2011) done nothing to advance the Search which was purportedly launched at Sydney Film Festival. It is up to the non-professionals to work outside NFSA to find the film, as well as to press the NFSA cushion.

Can you help? The original full copy of the film may well be in a store somewhere. If you don't know would you mind re-transmitting this message.      

Dan Castle's film Newcastle

A short post to record two things:

• A Newcastle film that I did not know, Dan Castle's 2007 film Newcastle
• A rather good piece from the SMH that refers to the film, Mathew Endacott's Second city does not deserve to be second rate.

New England Story - the making of Captain Thunderbolt

This is the story of a film seen through the eyes of a child. I was too young to remember the making, but I did go to the premiere. I also grew up on stories of the film. Like all child-hood memories, indeed all memories, the story is an imperfect one. Still, it might be of interest.

Armidale, June 1955. Crowds gather outside Armidale's Capitol Theatre for the world premiere of the first  major film made in Armidale. It is very much a local affair, with locals gathering in an air of excitement to see themselves on film. We are upstairs; the darkness falls and the film rolls. There is Dad as foreman of the jury, wriggling his nose; next day, students post a star sign on his door. There is Aunt Kay being held up by Captain Thunderbolt.

The National Film and Sound Archives describes the plot in these terms:

Adventurer Fred Ward is sentenced to hard labour for horse theft, escapes, and becomes a bushranger under the name of Captain Thunderbolt. Stealing mainly from squatters, he quickly becomes notorious. Sergeant Mannix is assigned to capture him dead or alive, eventually trapping him. After a long gun-fight, Mannix finds he has killed Thunderbolt's friend Alan Blake, and that Thunderbolt has escaped. Mannix passes off Blake's body as Thunderbolt's but the legend persists that Thunderbolt still roams free.

Local historian Robin Walker rudely remarked that any connection between the film and history was purely accidental! Still, the excitement lingered for days.

Kentucky Creek, 25 May 1870. After a bushranging career that had taken him widely across Northern New South Wales, Frederick Ward (aka Captain Thunderbolt) is shot and killed by Constable Ward in Kentucky Creek near Uralla.

But was he shot or did he escape? The stories abound, gathering strength and confusion with the years.

Early 1951. Armidale. Cecil Holmes and his crew arrive in Armidale to shoot Captain Thunderbolt.

Born in New Zealand (and here) in 1921,Cecil Holmes was a trade unionist and communist with a strong sense of social justice who had made a name for himself in New Zealand as a documentary maker. In Australia, Holmes linked with fellow New Zealander Colin Scrimgeour, whose company Associated TV Pty Ltd was to act as the vehicle for Captain Thunderbolt. Holmes first feature film.

Interestingly since Australia did not yet have TV, the film was intended for international TV release, with a slightly longer cinema version. Heart throb Grant Taylor was to play Fred ward (Thunderbolt), Charles (Bud) Tingwell his friend Alan Blake, Rosemary Miller as Joan Blake, 

The photo shows Ward and Blake poised for action. Unless I am very much mistaken, the shot is taken in the country across Rockvale Road from the Pine Forest. I cannot remember which, but one of them is riding my grandfather's horse! 

The film crew's arrival caused great excitement. Locals lined up to take part as extras, the crew scrounged the countryside to find locations and for authentic kit to use, sand was laid in Armidale streets to disguise the tar.

An article by Max Brown in the Sunday Herald 8 April 1951 described the scene this way:    

I SPENT three weeks with the Captain Thunderbolt Production Unit in real Thunderbolt country 200 miles south of the Queensland border this month and have seen the unit at work in Sydney.

The shooting of "Captain Thunderbolt"- the film, not the man- had the quiet, cultured New England town of Armidale in a buzz for a fortnight.

A notice offering £500 re- ward for capture dead or alive of the outlaw was posted on a board outside the town's erstwhile police station. Horsemen flourishing guns thundered up and down the dirt roads outside the town almost every day chasing mail coaches and buckboards.

The Armidale Court House was turned inside out over one week-end for the trial of the outlaw for horse-stealing, and half the University College faculty, including the vice warden, Dr. James Belshaw, filed into the jury box in period dress.

Armidale folk, riding comfortably on the sheep's back in shadow of the high stone factories of learning which dominate the town (Armidale is the only town in the State with more schools than hotels) were debating again whether the police shot Thunderbolt or his accomplice.

Several approached bearded, frock-coated members of the cast in pubs and in the street and told them that Thunderbolt, for all his law-breaking, was a saint compared with a lot of men in Sydney and Canberra nowadays.

The above photo from cousin Jaimie's collection shows some of the extras with Grant Taylor. In the middle is Kath Vickers (nee Drummond) standing beside Grant Taylor, Shirly Barratt (Paul Barratt's mum) front below Kay, Mr Craigie back right,, Frank Holloway (German lecturer) with the black glasses next to Kay, Mrs Blake (wife of the editor, Armidale Express) and Des Vyner with the gun.

The next photo is an actual still from the film, taken around the time of the extras' shot. It shows Mrs Blake and Aunt Kay being held up. You can see that the clothes are the same.

There was a long gap from filming in 1951 to limited cinema release. This reflects the distribution problems that have so often plagued the Australian film industry. The film did finally make a profit, but this took so long that Colin Scrimgeour's production company was forced to close.

The film was something of a Robin Hood affair. The National Film and Sound Archives describes it in this way:   

The feature Captain Thunderbolt is made with an originality and intelligence that separates it from most Australian features made to that time. Having a strong political undertone, it takes a stand on such issues as championing the underdog, mocking the colonial aristocracy, satirising xenophobia and racism, and exposing the blinkered brutality of power.

I am not sure about that. I think that there is a tendency to read back into films views formed by later history. Perhaps more precisely, when I saw the film as a ten year old and then again a little later at school, it fitted pretty well into the Robin Hood/underdog frame that was already deeply entrenched in Australian thinking.

Certainly I didn't see it as an explicit political statement, nor (I think) did those locals who took part in its  making or watched it. Certainly I have never heard comments along those lines. It was just a film, part of our history.

I would love to see it again.     

Postscript

I failed to mention in this post the search for the discovery of the original movie that in fact started this post. See Search for Captain Thunderbolt for the story.

Search for Captain Thunderbolt

Australia's National Film and Sound Archives has launched an international search for a full copy of the Australian film Captain Thunderbolt. I have mentioned the movie before because it has both New England and family connections.
 

Captain Thunderbolt Trailer Sneak Peek from NFSA on Vimeo.

Filmed around Armidale and Uralla in 1951, the film made its international debut at the Capitol Theatre in Armidale in 1953. It attracted little interest from Australian cinemas, but finally made its money back from international sales.

Never a long movie, around 69 minutes in the original, the only copy that survives is a shortened TV version.
NFSA is looking for a full copy because it was one of a very few feature films made in Australia at the time, and is also seen as social commentary.

While the film does tell the story of one of Australia's bushrangers, one who has since acquired almost mythic proportions, it should not be read as history: New England historian Robin Walker rudely remarked that the film only connected with fact by accident!

From my perspective, the film was a very big thing. I don't remember it being made, I was very young, but I do remember the showing at the Capitol Theatre. Later I saw it again at school, but I don't know whether the second was the full or shortened version.

It wasn't just the fact that it dealt with a New England story, but also the interlocked connections between the film and all the extras that appeared in it, including my father and aunt. I was very young, but I should record my full memories at some point, including the things that I was told. Who knows whether or not the information was accurate, but it provides a feel.

When I went through the stills provided by the NSFA, I could remember some of the locations.

Movie Lou's trailer now up

In 4th Dungog Film Festival - New England films I referred to a new New England movie called Lou. Set in Murwillumbah, Lou is a tender story about the relationship between 11-year-old Lou and her grandfather. Not long after Lou's father walks out of her life, her irascible and befuddled grandfather crashes in. But when Doyle comes to stay, Lou discovers, against all her expectations, the healing power of love.

The trailer us now up. I commend the film to you. It made me cry.

4th Dungog Film Festival - New England films

The Dungog film festival is now on.

For those who don't know Dungog, it's a little town (population around 2,500 people) 74km north of Newcastle and set in beautiful surrounds. This is the fourth festival in what has become a very considerable success. The Festival describes itself in this way:

The Dungog Film Festival is something wholly unique to this country - a festival that celebrates Australian films exclusively in a non-competitive environment. Our principle objective is to increase the appreciation of Australian screen culture and heritage. We showcase new Australian screen content, honouring leading Australian filmmakers, and create a context for contemporary Australian works by getting the classics out of the vaults and back into the cinemas. By hosting the biggest celebration of Australian films in the world, Dungog has become a key event on the screen industry’s calendar and a must for lovers of Australian screen culture.

I suspect that this is a pretty fair description. In his report of the Festival in the Sydney Morning Herald, Young filmmakers drive forward into the past, Garry Maddox focuses on the return of the Australian horror genre. I suspect that's fair enough. However, I also looked for films with a New England connection as part of my current writing.

    The Festival Program describes Lou in this way:

Eleven-year-old Lou's life was instantly turned upside down when her father walked out on her mother and two sisters. She has coped by building a tough shell around her heart - afraid to let anyone hurt her again. Lou blames her mother for her father's departure and refuses to let her in. Life suddenly changes when her estranged Grandfather moves in to the family's rented home. Doyle is ill and befuddled and in his confused state, Doyle mistakes his granddaughter for his long departed wife. Lou, intrigued, plays along with the fantasy, using her bond with Doyle against her mother. As the game progresses, Lou's tough exterior is chipped away and ultimately she understands what it is to be loved - in the most unexpected of circumstances. Shot around the North Coast of NSW and inspired by Chayko's own family, Lou is not to be missed.

Checking the film's official site, I found a little more;

The film was made in and around the northern NSW town of Murwillumbah. The main location – Lou’s home – was an old farmhouse in a dairy farming and cane-growing area just outside of town. The beach scenes were filmed at the beautiful Cabarita Beach nearby and the scenes when Lou and Doyle run away were shot within the town of Murwillumbah itself. Murwillumbah is the hometown of writer/director Belinda Chayko and, she says, it’s a great place to make movies.

The movie opens in cinemas June 17. I will do some stories later when I know more about cinema details.

There was also a reading of a script by Marcus Waters. The plot is described in this way:

After being reared in the Aboriginal boxing tents by his grandfather, Elijah Waters, in his early 30’s, returns home after 17 years to find his grandfather’s legacy in tatters. A drunken useless father has died leaving the family property under foreclosure and Elijah discovers he has a younger sister (Katie) trapped in an abusive foster care system. The biggest problem is that Elijah himself is also in ruins. Once successful in business, he has lost everything. But now he has found Katie. He breaks her out and together they go on a journey of discovery with only Elijah’s two fists to rely on. The only way that Elijah can support them is to become part of the brutal and violent world of underground bare fist boxing, where gambling and high stakes dictate loyalty and support.

I hadn't heard of Marcus Waters. A Kamilaroi man, he is a writer who is lecturing now at Griffith University. I was interested not just because of the Kamilaroi connection, but also because the plot links to the show boxing round. This was one way in which Aboriginal people could achieve success.

Another New England linked work in progress was the showing of the rough cut of Bathing Franky. Described as the edgy debut feature of director Owen Elliot and writer Michael Winchester (both also produced), the film was shot in Dungog and around the Hunter Valley The plot is described in these terms. This:

is a contemporary romance with more than a pinch of surreal comedy. Steve, (Shaun Goss) a young man on parole, is finding it hard to deal with his time in prison. On a new job, he meets Rodney (Henri Szeps), a wildly irrepressible older man, who is the full time carer of his mother Franky (Maria Venuti). Rod is a 'backyard magician' who flies kites, tap dances, tells stories, juggles and speaks many languages. He brings the same vaudevillian exuberance to the way he 'cares' for Franky. Steve is captivated by the pair's eclectic and fanciful world. An intimate friendship between Steve and Rod develops, leaving Rod torn between the love and the loyalty that he feels for his ailing and dependent mother, and his desire to lead his own life.

In addition to these sessions, the Festival also featured re-runs of a number of films by Charles Chauvel, a film maker with strong New England connections.

This film festival has been on my must do list for some time. Next year?

Tomorrow: When the War Began

One of my daughters' favourite writers at school was John Marsden. Youngest in fact went to a writer's session at his farm near Melbourne. Both like the Ellie/Tomorrow series, so there was considerable excitement when they found out that the first book in the series was to be filmed. Now the movie is scheduled for release on 2 September.

For those who don't know the story, the series centres on a group of teenagers caught up in an invasion of Australia by an unspecified foreign power. The novels are told in first person perspective by the main character, a teenaged girl named Ellie Linton, who is part of a small band of teenagers waging a guerrilla war on the enemy soldiers in their fictional hometown of Wirrawee.

This is one Australian movie that is likely to be a major commercial success. Not only does it start with an exciting book, but it has a huge fan base among the young and at least some of their parents. This has allowed what is essentially a viral marketing campaign well in advance of release.

This may seem some distance from New England. However, the film was shot in Maitland, Raymond Terrace and Dungog, as well as the Blue Mountains.

I have made the point a number of times on this blog that one of our problems is that New Englanders do not have proper access to their own past, including visual imagery in films that shows the area in which we live. There have in fact been quite a lot of films shot in New England or which link to New England life and history. We just don't think of them as New England films.

I am going to enjoy the film not just for its own sake, but also playing spot the location!

Some time ago, I began an entry page for New England films. Looking at it, its time to update it.

For those who are interested, the current trailer follows.  

Writing, film and New England perceptions

Ryan, Niland, Keneally and the New England story on my personal blog looks at some threads in the New England literary and film tradition.

I wrote the story there because I was exploring ideas from a personal perspective. I want to extend the argument here along two dimensions: first, the importance as I see it for all those in New England to have access to their own culture and past; second, the need to redress what I see as an imbalance towards the Tablelands in general and Armidale in particular.

  Take as an example of the first the 1977 Australian movie the Picture Show Man. As I said, when I saw it, I thought that it was familiar. Yet I didn't properly realise that it was shot on the Liverpool Plains and the Clarence. Had I known that, I would have watched the detail much more closely.

When you don't see your world reflected back, it takes much longer to form and refine the iconic images that help define our own worlds. One of the reasons that Harry Pidgeon's paintings so appealed to me is that they live in and capture the world especially of the western slopes. I saw them as iconic in Liverpool Plains terms, capturing too the transition between tablelands and plains.

The colours of New England was part inspired by Harry's paintings. In it, I tried to capture the variations in colour across the broader New England, to write in a way that would make this accessible not just to New Englanders, but also to those beyond.

I think that this remains important. I cannot paint or express things via music. The only instrument I have to show New Englanders their world is my capacity to write, however imperfectly.

This brings me to my second point.

In 1920 the first New State manifesto, Australia Subdivided, put a key problem facing the North in this way: In Northern New South Wales, a few high schools, no technical schools, no universities exist to retain the intelligence and culture of the area[1].

The manifesto was dead right. One outcome of the subsequent campaigns was the establishment of the University of New England. UNE has delivered in spades in terms of the plaint of the authors of Australia Subdivided, yet I remain dissatisfied.

The establishment first of the Armidale Teacher's College in 1928 and then the University College in Armidale in 1938 supported growth in the arts of all types. One element of this was a growth in writing and in writing about writing. Part of this was connected with the Northern mission, part simply reflected the increasing presence in Armidale of an educated group who wanted to write or saw writing as a weapon.

With time, this led to a very substantial volume of work across many fields. Yet a problem has emerged.

For a number of reasons that lie beyond the scope of this post, UNE's regional focus narrowed. As a simple example to illustrate this point, the last book on New England prehistory was published in 1974. Increasingly, too, the regional work that has been published focused on the Tablelands and Western Slopes.

Before going on, I would love to be corrected in the argument that I am now about to mount. I accept that my knowledge is imperfect. If I am wrong, please correct me.

I grew up in an expansive Northern or New England world. I am Tablelands, but also knew the North Coast, the Western Slopes, the Hunter and a little late but less perfectly the Plains. I saw all this as, if you like, my world.        

To my mind, the partial withdrawal of the University of New England from its original and broader mission as the Sydney University of the North has created a gap. When I look at writing about writing or Northern or New England culture, for example, I now find a fair bit about just one area of the North, very little about the rest.

I find this very frustrating. As I said, it may be that I simply don't know what is there, yet I think that there is a real gap. I know enough in some ways to write a broad brush descriptions of similarities and links across New England, yet the material I have seen suggests that I barely understand.

---

[1] E Page and others (eds), Australia Subdivided, The First New State, Examiner Printing Works, Glen Innes, 1920, p10.

More on Bud Tingwell

In Bud Tingwell's New England connection I said that Captain Thunderbolt was made in 1953. I found an interview with Bud where he said that it was in fact made in 1951. He said:

The other real pioneers were Colin Scrimgeor and Cecil Holmes, they got together to make a film called Captain Thunderbolt which Grant Taylor and I did in 1951, just after we finished Kangaroo. That was a year before Grace did it, and technically they claimed they were making a television film, but it was good enough to release as a feature film in the cinemas. So that, I suppose, was the first proper attempt at elevision, although it got sidetracked into the cinema.

The whole interview is worth reading because of the insights it provides into the history of Australian film and TV production.

Bud Tingwell's New England connection

Australian actor Bud Tingwell died last Friday, 15 May 2009. This photo shows him playing a part in the Australian TV series Homicide,  Australia's longest locally made TV series.

Bud's life will be carried at length. In this post, I just wanted to note two England connections.

In 1953, he played the part of Alan Blake in Cecil Holmes' feature film Captain Thunderbolt. This part has been forgotten in all the coverage about his career, including his move overseas.

I spoke of this film in Belshaw’s World: Bushrangers and cattle duffers, because it was very much a local movie.

This was Holywood come to Armidale. People lined up to be extras. Thunderbolt rode my grandfather's horse in one scene, my father was chairman of the jury, two aunts were in a robbed stage coach.

Thanks to the Wollombi Valley blog, I find that there is a much later connection. In 2008, a film starring Bud Tingwell won the 2008 Wollombi Valley short film festival.

Assuming that I have everything right, the film you tube should follow.    

If you would like to leave a message for the family in Bud's blog you will find it here.

Sons of Mathew 2 - Charles Chauvel (1897-1959)

Back in October I put up an introductory post on the Charles Chauvel film Sons of Mathew. In this post I want to look at Charles Chauvel himself, one of Australia's pioneering film makers.

I have drawn the story especially from the Australian Dictionary of Biography entry on Sir Charles. Full references are provided at the end of the post.

Charles Edward Chauvel was born on 7 October 1897 at Warwick on the northern edge of the Queensland extension of the New England Tablelands. Chauvel was the second son of grazier James Allan Chauvel, and his wife Susan Isabella, daughter of Henry Barnes.

Glen Pringle records that the Chauvels were originally French but fled in 1685 to escape the bloodshed that destroyed the rest of their family during the French Revolution. I think that this is misleading since the revolution took place the following century.

It seems more likely the family were Huguenot, French Protestants, who fled France when Louis XIV Louis revoked the Edict of Nantes in 1685 and declared Protestantism to be illegal. Between 200,000 and 1,000,000 French Protestants are estimated to have fled to nearby Protestant countries at that time, many going on to the US and what would become South Africa. Chauvel is in fact recorded as an Australian Huguenot name.

The Chauvels set up home in England with several becoming officers in the Indian army and later emigrating to Australia in the late 1830s. They were pioneers on the land, initially in the Northern Rivers area of New England and later also in Southern Queensland. This pioneer period was very important to Charles Chauvel - Sons of Mathews is in part a celebration of his own family history.

Educated at Ipswich Grammar School, Charles initially worked as a jackeroo on a sheep station. In 1916 he was called home when his father, aged 53, joined the Australian Remount Unit as a lieutenant. James Chauvel served with the Australian Imperial Force in Sinai and Palestine, ending the war as a temporary major. Again, this family experience with the Australian Light Horse was to be important in Chauvel's work.

Following his father's return, Chauvel studied commercial art in Sydney and also attended drama classes. Then from 1920 he worked as a production assistant, primarily responsible for the horses, with R. L. ('Snowy') Baker and other film-makers.

Pringle records this story from Charles Chauvel's wife. Desperate to enter the movie making business, Charles begged for any job.

"Where in the world could you fit in, young man?" Snowy asked. "Horses," the determined young Queenslander replied, "you will be using horses and I know all about them and can ride."

In April 1922 Chauvel followed Baker to the United States of America. He survived in Los Angeles by writing articles about Australia and taking small jobs in Hollywood studios.

In late 1923, Chauvel returned to Australia to try to set up his own production company. With cash from friends and Queensland businessmen he produced The Moth of Moonbi (released January 1926), a romantic melodrama based upon Mabel Forrest's novel The Wild Moth. Pringle notes that Chauvel chose to use genuine bush settings in this film, something that would be a feature of many of his films.

The Moth of Moonbi was followed by Greenhide, released in November 1926. The heroine was played by Elsie May Wilcox, an actress known professionally as Elsie Sylvaney (Silveni). Chauvel had to work hard to get her to participate, but he was successful at several levels, On 5 June 1927 he and Elsa (as she became known) were married

Elsa and Charles Chauvel were to work very closely together throughout his career, sharing production and writing. Beyond the films themselves, I first came in contact with the Chauvels as a child when I was given a copy of Walkabout as a present, a book they jointly wrote.

Chauvel was an effective publicist and the first two films were modest commercial successes, although he found great difficulty in getting local distribution. Later Michael Bruxner, his first cousin on his mother's side and then Deputy NSW Premier and leader of the Country Party, would introduce legislation to try to force distributors to show Australian films, the first such legislation in Australia.

In 1928 Charles and Elsa went to the US to try to promote the two films, but arrived at the time the industry was turning to sound. Elsa did get a stage part, but they then returned to Australia where Chauvel worked first as a cinema-manager in Melbourne before settling at Stanthorpe on the Queensland extension of the New England Tablelands. The Chauvel house still exists and is now on the local tour list.

In the Wake of the Bounty (released March 1933) was Chauvel's first sound film. It was also the film that marked the start of the career of Errol Flynn (photo) who was to become one of the heartthrobs of Hollywood during the 1930s.

The film merged merged a dramatic reconstruction of the Bounty mutiny in 1789 with documentary footage of life on Pitcairn Island nearly 150 years later. To achieve this, Charles and Elsa plus a camera man spent three months on Pitcairn shooting material for the film. The end result is an odd mixture of drama and travelogue.

In 1935 Chauvel won the Commonwealth government's film competition with Heritage (still), a sweeping pioneer story from first European settlement to the present time. I enjoyed Heritage, although it is a somewhat clumsy film.

In 1936 Chauvel made a jungle adventure, Uncivilised, then visited Hollywood.

In July 1937, he began work on Forty Thousand Horsemen. Inspired by the distinguished war records in Palestine of his father, his uncle General Sir Harry Chauvel (photo) and his cousin Michael Bruxner, the film follows a group of Australian light horsemen, culminating in the cavalry charge across open ground that over-ran the Turkish positions at Beersheba.

The film was shot in around Sydney, with sand-dunes at Cronulla representing the Palestinian desert to considerable effect (photo).

Released in December 1940, the film was an immediate success in Australia and overseas, helping to form popular American and British attitudes to the Australian 'digger'. Its financial success gave Chauvel a strong base for later production.

in 1944 Chauvel released another very successful war feature. The Rats of Tobruk , while also producing several short propaganda films for the Department of Information.

Rats of Tobruk was followed by Sons of Matthew (1949), the subject of this series (still).

Produced at a cost of around £120,000, an enormous amount for the time, the film is a saga of pioneering life from a struggling farm in New England through to the rugged mountain forests of south-eastern Queensland. Filmed on remote locations under very difficult physical conditions, the film is considered by many to be his finest work.

Chauvel's final feature, Jedda (1955), was Australia's first colour feature. It was also the first to be part funded by means of a public float, with Jedda listed on the Sydney stock exchange.

Shot largely in central and northern Australia, the film tells the story of a young Aboriginal woman torn between her own people and her white foster-parents.

Jedda was the first Australian film to feature Aborigines not just as central characters, but also to address emotional relations between them, as well as the attitudes of whites.

Following Jedda, Chauvel made thirteen half-hour films entitled Walkabout for BBC TV. Then, on 11 December 1959, he died of coronary vascular disease. He was 62

Charles Chauvel was one of the dominant figures of the Australian film industry, a man who kept making Australian films despite the small size of the local market and the overwhelming competition from imported films.

Introductory post in this series. Entry page for films about or produced in New England here

References

Don Aitkin, The Colonel : a Political Biography of Sir Michael Bruxner, Australian National University Press, Canberra, 1969.

Don Aitkin, 'Bruxner, Sir Michael Frederick (1882 - 1970)', Australian Dictionary of Biography, Volume 7, Melbourne University Press, 1979, pp 468-469. Accessed on-line edition 10 November 2008.

Australian Screen, Heritage. Accessed 10 November 2008.

Australian Screen, Jedda. Accessed 10 November 2008

Australian Screen, In the Wake of the Bounty. Accessed 10 November 2008.

Australian Screen, Sons of Mathew. Accessed 10 November 2008.

A. J. Hill, 'Chauvel, Sir Henry George (Harry) (1865 - 1945)', Australian Dictionary of Biography, Volume 7, Melbourne University Press, 1979, pp 624-628. Accessed on-line edition 10 November 2008.

A. F. Pike, 'Chauvel, Charles Edward (1897 - 1959)', Australian Dictionary of Biography, Volume 7, Melbourne University Press, 1979, pp 623-624. Accessed on-line edition 10 November 2008.

GLen Pringle, Australian Silent Star of October, 1998. Accessed 10 November 2008.

Wikipedia, Errol Flynn. Accessed 10 November 2008.

Wikipedia, Huguenot. Accessed 10 November 2008.

New England Australia Films - Sons of Matthew: introduction

This photo from the State Library of Queensland is a location shot for the filming of Sons of Matthew. From left to right: L. R. Rolston, Elsa Chauvel, Charles Chauvel, A. Rolston and J. Rolston.

Sons of Matthew was set in south eastern Queensland just across the border from New England. However, the film begins in New England and combines many different elements of New England history.

Just as a break from current events and more serious stuff, I am still depressed from Depression about indigenous policy - and a challenge to North Coast Voices , I thought that it might be interesting to use the film as an example to explore different elements of New England.

Posts

• Sons of Mathew 2 - Charles Chauvel (1897-1959)

You will find the entry page for films about or produced in New England here.

New England Australia film: Nundle's Japanese western - Koya No Toseinin (The Drifting Avenger) 1968

Many years ago on my first visit to Nundle, I stopped to have a beer at the local pub. Sitting outside on the shady verandah, I was struck by a movie poster on the wall, a Japanese western apparently shot in Nundle. All these years later, I have finally got round to tracing the film.

Made in 1968, Koya No Toseinin (The Drifting Avenger) stared Ken Takakura,, an actor known for his brooding, stoic, style.

Known, in IMB's words, as the "Clint Eastwood" of Japan, Takakura gained his streetwise swagger and tough guy persona watching yakuza turf battles over the lucrative black market and racketeering in postwar Fukuoka. This subject was covered in one of his most famous movies, Showa zankyo-den (1965) in which he played an honorable old-school yakuza among the violent post-war gurentai.

One commentator on the IMB site described the movie this way:

While in the US Air Force and stationed in Japan, I had the opportunity to be an extra in this movie. I had understood it to be an Australian movie where the indoor scenes were shot in Japan. However, maybe it was just a low budget American film with the outdoor shots made in Australia and the indoors shots in Japan. It was about a Japanese family settled in the old west and a group of stagecoach robbers sought refuge in the Japanese family house. The young son hid under a bed and the bad guys killed his parents. He therefore became the Drifting Avenger. I would like to get my hands on a copy as in one scene my image filled the sliver screen!

This led to a follow-up comment:

My uncle was "Mike the boy" in this movie alongside the very famous Japanese actor Ken Takakura. The movie itself is okay, but I too am trying to get my hands on a copy of this movie simply because my relative was in it. The movie was originally shot in English and then dubbed over in Japanese. Although I have the Japanese version, I am trying to get a copy of the original. The National Film and Sound archive in Australia has a copy, but Toei, the Japanese company that produced the movie is refusing to give permission to make a copy for personal use. Anyhow, any help would be greatly be appreciated. A Japanese western? Can't say that there are too many of these. Can't say there would be any reason for Japanese to be dressed as cowboys, except that someone thought that it would be fun to ride horses and shoot people.

This is as much as I know at present. I, too, would like to see the film. It was apparently never released in Australia.

New England Film Entry Page

You will find the site entry page on New England film here.

New England films - Streetsweeper

My thanks to ABC Newcastle (July 16 2007) for this story on Streetsweeper.

Ten years ago Newcastle-based filmmaker Neil Mansfield started collecting found notes on the streets of Sydney and his new adopted hometown. Now those "fragments of other people's lives" have been turned into an art house feature film.

Shot on location in four days for less than $20,000, the film explores the beauty and ugliness of city street streets through the eyes of a "a loner who finds poetry in the ordinary", played by actor and co-writer Marin Mimica.

"As the director I don't want to be too prescriptive about who he is, because then I think it might change the way people read the film," says Mr Mansfield, a cinematographer, who has previously directed one feature, Fresh Air, in 1997. "It's a very simple film about one character and his simple journey over three days."

I guess it's what archaeologists do, they go and they try and piece together what a society is like from the fragments that are left behind."

In the film's credits Mr Mansfield thanks "the people of Newcastle for being themselves", as many of the scenes include exchanges between the actor and pedestrians. It was an approach the director was worrying about up until the night before the first day of shooting.

"I actually started to panic and think 'hang on, we're about to make this film with only one actor, and maybe I need to get some other actors to pretend to be pedestrians and set up more conventional encounters'," he said.

The result is a film in which chance encounters with the public enhance and even change the way the story unfolds.

"Part of my philosophy was if you go out on the street, and stand there long enough, something interesting happens," he says. "The timing of some of these pedestrians was absolutely incredible."

"What makes it work for us is, every time we watch it, is that there's this woman walking her dog," he says. "She just walks her dog right into the shot, right at the very end, and they have this kind of how-are-you-going, have-a-nice-day kind of conversation," he says.

Weather gods smile on production.

"We had too many rainbows, it was just stupid," Mr Mansfield said. "We were filming (Marin) walking up this hill in the back streets of Mayfield, and it started pouring with rain, which was good, because we needed a new element, and it suited the part of the story we were in, and someone goes 'are you gonna shoot that rainbow?'"

"And I'm standing there, looking at the director of photography, and we're looking at the actor, and we're looking at the rainbow, and it was a beautiful, amazing, and we're like (in bored exasperated tone) 'oh okay, I suppose so'."

"And the film was like that, things would present themselves, and we'd be like 'okay we'll shoot that'.

Neil Mansfield uses the found notes as props, while the text in the notes becomes the dialogue of unseen characters in Streetsweeper.

"It started about the time when I was making my first movie, in 1999," he says. "Without being too academic about it, I guess it's what archaeologists do, they go and they try and piece together what a society is like from the fragments that are left behind. I like that ephemeral thing that it's an insight into what's going on inside the houses that are around you."

Following a successful screening at the Perth International Film Festival, Neil is about to take the film on tour of Eastern Australia.

You can find the film web site here. The site includes video clips from the film.

You will find the site entry page on New England film here.