New England Australia Film - entry page

Photo: Christopher Horsey, Adam Garcia, Matt Lee and Lee McDonald in Fox Searchlight's Bootmen (and here, here), a New England film released in Australia October 2000.

One of the difficulties we face in not having our own New England Government is that there is no mechanism to promote the film industry in New England.

In saying this, I am not saying that New England can have its own unique film industry. That would be just plain silly at a time when the Australian film industry as a whole is still struggling to establish a viable commercial identity. However, a New England Government could do two things.

First, it could facilitate film making, including the use of New England locations. That way, we get at least a small slice of the pie.

Secondly, it could ensure that New England people at least have some access to visual material set in or about their own area. This is totally lacking at the present time. New Englanders have no idea as to what films have in fact been made in their own backyard.

As a first step in addressing this gap, I am establishing this page as an entry page for posts about New England films.

The Films

1949. Sons of Mathew. This Charles Chauvel film was filmed mainly in South East Queensland but combines the history of two adjacent areas. Entry point to the posts here.

1953. Captain Thunderbolt. The Cecill Holmes film Captain Thunderbolt is about the life of the legendary bushranger. It was shot in and around Armidale and Uralla with a cast including Grant Taylor and Bud Tingwell. Post here.

1957. Smiley. Filmed at Gundy in the Hunter Valley, Smiley is a classic Australian children's film about a mischievous boy living in the small Australian country town of Murrumbilla. Always getting into pranks, Smiley wants a bike. This he finally gets, but with many misadventures along the way. The film's cast includes Ralph Richardson, John McCallum, Chips Rafferty and Bud Tingwell, with Colin Petersen as Smiley.
1957. The Shiralee. Filmed at Gundy in the Hunter Valley and based on the novel by D'Arcy Niland, The Shiralee tells the story of a man and his daughter. When Jim Macauley (Peter Finch) finds his wife with another man, he takes their young daughter (Dana Wilson) and hits the road. With a young child as his responsibility, he finds he can't be quite the fancy-free wanderer that he had been. Nominated for two BAFTA awards, the film has become another Australian classic.

1958. Smiley Gets a Gun. Again filmed at Gundy in the Hunter Valley, sequel to Smiley (1957).

1968. Koya No Toseinin (The Drifting Avenger). Filmed on location at Nundle, this Japanese western starred Ken Takakura, the Clint Eastwood of Japanese film., in search of revenge for his murdered family. The movie was apparently never released in Australia.

2015. Streetsweeper. Set in Newcastle and directed by Neil Mansfield, this 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. Mimica is the only actor. All others are pedestrians who become unwittingly involved in the streetsweeper's journey.

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 2015) 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.