Till next time…

I am going to be off the air - in any substantive form at least  - for a few weeks, because I start shooting a sequel to PORKY’S on December 2^nd. It’s a dirty job, but someone’s gotta do it… You might get a couple of breathless dispatches from the front, but that’s it for the time being.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

FUSION is receiving excellent traffic and response. But some people have experienced difficulty opening the file. Click the eye to check it out:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I will leave you with an example of one of the small joys of this business. When you direct a movie, you share for a short period a special experience with cast, crew and producers. You are all members of a unique club, that admits no new members, with memories of both calamity and triumph that are privy only to yourselves. Then you go your separate ways to other movies, other exclusive clubs with different triumphs and calamities. Then umpteen years later you meet again, clink glasses, and reminisce about your mutual adventure, often with quite different recall of the same events.

So it was after the AFI Film Festival screening of NOT QUITE HOLLYWOOD, which I guarantee you will enjoy. I say that not because the film is kind to me, but because Mark Hartley, whose labor of love this film was, did such a fine job creating the energy and the spirit of those times at the start of the 70’s Australian film industry renaissance. Mark distilled a mountain of research, then laid out his thesis in cinematic syntax and grammar that today’s movie audience understands. 6000 cuts in 100 minutes. Now that’s a Rockumentary!

Among the many films NOT QUITE HOLLYWOOD (TRAILER) features is my notorious, high camp splatter movie TURKEY SHOOT, critically reviled when it came out, but now a cult favorite. The producer, the director, and the star all saw the movie differently. So, at the After Party to the NQH screening, those three people came together who had not collectively been in each other’s company for 27 years, who had no idea all those years ago that the film’s popularity would increase rather than diminish with time. War stories were exchanged; suffice to say, we had a great time catching up.

On the left is Mark Hartley, writer/director of NOT QUITE HOLLYWOOD, without which this get together would never have happened. Then Steve Railsback, star of TURKEY SHOOT, and a fine actor. (Also the first actor to play Charles Manson, in an eternally frightening performance.)

On the right is Anthony I. Ginnane, Australia’s most prolific producer, including two of mine. Tony arranged financing for over 40 movies in the heyday of Australian production, providing training and experience for countless actors and technical craftsmen, thereby helping to build a permanent infrastructure for the industry. Then there’s me in the middle, with a T shirt that almost seems to glow.

In 1981, as we worked our asses off in the jungle making this crazy movie about a corporate fascist government’s ultimate solution to political dissent, we would have had trouble believing that an African American could possibly be elected President of the United States in a landslide only 27 years later.   

Ain’t life grand!