1975 was a watershed year in Australian political, cultural and social life. It is also a key moment in the Australian film “renaissance”, often seen as a dividing line between the years of peripatetic, sometimes virtually non-existent feature-film production that mark the long era after World War II and the relative boom in filmmaking that followed the establishment of the Australian Film Commission (AFC) in 1975 and the success of films like Peter Weir’s Picnic at Hanging Rock in the same year. This was, of course, a tumultuous time that witnessed major changes in cultural policy, important opportunities opened up by the Whitlam Labor Government elected in 1972, challenging economic conditions, and significant developments in women’s rights, multiculturalism and the recognition of Aboriginal sovereignty. Many accounts of Australian cinema in this important year overstate the importance of films such as Picnic at Hanging Rock and what they represent as well as the activities of the AFC. They also tend to undervalue the important groundwork done in the early 1970s to help kickstart this “revival”. But there is no doubting the extraordinary diversity of the films made and released in 1975 and what they can tell us about Australia at that pivotal moment. This season brings together a diverse selection of features, documentaries and experimental films released in and reflecting on the events of 1975, many highlighting the legacies of workers’ rights, emerging inner-city subcultures, the belated recognition and documentation of queer identity and the appalling treatment of the traditional owners of the land. Marking the passage of 50 years, this season brings together such celebrated films as the scandalous Pure Shit (1975) and the iconic Sunday Too Far Away (1975) with a range of lesser known, but equally important works. It also includes two of the earliest cinematic reflections on the traumatic sacking of the Whitlam Government: the essayistic “documentaries” November Eleven (1979) and Exits (1980).
7:00pm PURE SHIT
Bert Deling (1975) 83 mins – R 18+
Deling’s controversial underground classic, covering a single night in the life of four drug addicts in search of a hit and some excitement, is one of the quintessential Melbourne films, painting an extraordinarily vivid portrait of the hyped-up inner suburban metropolis. Criticised by many for advocating drug taking, and infamously labelled as “the most evil film I’ve ever seen” by The Herald, it remains one of the most dynamic films ever made in Australia. Featuring Gary Waddell, Max Gillies, Greg Pickhaver and Helen Garner.
Preceded by Struttin’ the Mutton Peter Tammer (1975) 17 mins – Unclassified 15+. Tammer’s extraordinary observational portrait of three men on an inner suburban Melbourne street in the mid-’70s provides a fascinating dissection of Australian masculinity.
Print of Pure Shit courtesy of the National Film and Sound Archive, Australia. Print of Struttin’ the Mutton courtesy of ACMI Collections.
9:00pm THE IDES OF NOVEMBER
(1979-1980) 65 mins – Unclassified 15+
This program brings together two key works reflecting on the lasting trauma of the dismissal of the Whitlam Government on November 11, 1975. John Hughes, Andrew Scollo and Peter Kennedy’s November Eleven (1979) brings together a Dadaist montage of pre-existing images and sounds to provide a counter-reading of the coup-like events. Paul Davies, Carolyn Howard and Pat Laughren’s Exits (1980) provides a more playful reflection, combining fiction, documentary, found images and sounds to “recreate” the response of various figures wandering the streets of Melbourne on the day of the dismissal.
Print of Exits courtesy of the National Film and Sound Archive, Australia.
Program to be introduced by several of the filmmakers.
10:15pm HOMOSEXUALITY: A FILM FOR DISCUSSION
Barbara Creed (1975) 43 mins – Unclassified 15+
Filmed on the streets of Melbourne, Creed’s pioneering documentary aimed to dispel the myths surrounding the nascent LGBTQIA+ community in 1970s Australia. In a series of moving interviews, numerous queer people open up about their lives, their relationships and the trials that come with living in an intolerant society that oppresses queer culture. A revelation when premiered at the Melbourne Filmmakers Co-Op in 1975, it went on to screen at the groundbreaking International Womens Film Festival in the same year and has become a landmark of Australian queer cinema.
Print courtesy of the National Film and Sound Archive, Australia.
7:00pm SUNDAY TOO FAR AWAY
Ken Hannam (1975) 94 mins – M
In the mid-1950s, Jack Thompson’s gun shearer battles a rival along with the encroachment of non-union labour while making an ambivalent play for the station-owner’s daughter (Lisa Peers). One of the key films of the “revival”, this evocative, often warm and melancholy comedy-drama features a great ensemble cast including Max Cullen, John Ewart and Reg Lye. The first feature produced by the South Australian Film Corporation, this incisive study of Australian masculinity also screened triumphantly in Directors’ Fortnight at the 1975 Cannes Film Festival.
Preceded by We Are All Alone My Dear Paul Cox (1975) 22 mins – Unclassified 15+. Cox’s poignant documentary provides an immersive insight into the lives of a group of elderly women living in assisted care in Prahran.
Prints of both films courtesy of the National Film and Sound Archive, Australia.
9:10pm PROTECTED: THE TRUTH ABOUT PALM ISLAND
Alessandro Cavadini (1975) 56 mins – Unclassified 15+
The second of three extraordinary cross-cultural projects collaboratively made by Italian migrant, filmmaker and journalist Cavadini – preceded by Ningla A-Na and followed by the groundbreaking Two Laws – this key work from 1975 is a dramatised documentary describing life on the Palm Island Reserve in the 1950s. It documents the extraordinary privations of the Aboriginal community living on the island as well the landmark strike in 1957 that brought together figures from many nations and provided a central spark in the push for self-determination.