• Thought to be the earliest feature narrative film ever made, The Story of the Kelly Gang (1906) came to life again on the big screen recently following its digital restoration by the NFSA. To mark its centenary the film was screened at Parliament House in Canberra on 29 November, and then on the lawn of the NFSA's headquarters on the 30th (with musical accompaniment by Endorphin). Details. Read the feature article on the restoration in this issue of AFC News.


• Also on 30 November, the Minister for the Arts and Sport, Senator the Hon Rod Kemp, was joined by the star and creators of the Australian hit film Kenny at a lunch at Parliament House to celebrate 100 years of Australian film and launch a new book showcasing Australia's rich cinematic history. 100 Greatest Films of Australian Cinema, published by Scribal with AFC support, showcases Australia's finest films. Media release.


• Congratulations to all the winners of 2006 Hisense Inside Film (IF) Awards on 17 November. Kenny took home four awards including Best Film, Best Sound, Box Office Achievement and the AFC IF Award for Best Script. The first released feature film with funding from the AFC's IndiVision initiative, The Caterpillar Wish, snared the award for Best Production Design for Robert Webb. Full list of winners.


• The AFC's SP*RK script workshop held in Byron Bay, 22-29 October, proved a huge success for participants and advisors alike. Eight Australian writers workshopped their projects with highly experienced advisors Robert Towne (US), Don Macpherson (UK), Fred Schepisi, Jan Sardi, Ana Kokkinos, Geoffrey Wright, Sue Murray and Joan Sauers. Full report.


• After more than 400 meetings between film executives and project teams, SPAAmart 2006 concluded on 15 November. Film financing, distribution deals, sales possibilities and territories were discussed in a three-day frenzy, culminating in a successful marketplace for the Australian and NZ projects. "I've been very interested in this year's group of projects," said Christophe Mercier of 20th Century Fox Europe. "From my first two visits to SPAAmart I feel [it] is growing into a very well-honed program." The AFC's Inside Track was run alongside SPAAmart for the third year and offered a group of selected producers access to the executives over the three-day market.


• The AFC's National survey of feature film and TV drama production 2005/06 was released in November, revealing a below-average overall result due largely to a sharp drop in foreign features shooting in Australia. The total production slate, including all Australian and foreign productions, comprised 32 features and 607 hours of TV drama. Twenty-five of this year's features were Australian productions, up from 22 last year. As in previous years, both TV drama and features attracted low levels of private investment: 7 per cent of total financing in both sectors. Media release. Survey.


• The AFC has made a submission to the review of the Copyright Amendment Bill 2006, conducted by the Senate Standing Committee on Legal and Constitutional Affairs. The submission is available on the AFC website here.


• Rolf de Heer will head the Festival Jury of the International Film Festival of India (IFFI), Goa, 23 Nov-3 Dec. A retrospective of his films will also screen. The AFC has sent Australian feature and short film programs to four Indian film festivals in 2005 and 2006 - Kolkata, Chennai, Goa and Mumbai - as part of AusArts India, a film, arts and literature program presented by the Australian Government.


• All feature films, documentaries, short features and TV series that receive AFC production funding must now obtain an International Standard Audiovisual Number (ISAN). Similar to ISBN in the print industries, ISAN identifies audiovisual works such as films, TV productions, internet media and games. Producers will be required to register AFC production-supported projects which will then be given an ISAN and matching ISAN barcode (as a jpeg). A clause to this effect has been added to the AFC Production Investment Agreement. Further info: ISAN Australasia website.

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• Several Film Development strands have undergone major changes since 1 July 2006. Please consult the current Film Development Funding Guidelines 2006 and the new Indigenous Branch Funding Guidelines 2006 now available on the AFC website. All the AFC funding application forms are now available as writable Word documents on the AFC website. They are on the Film Development Application Forms page as well as on each specific fund page. Applicants can contact Film Development administration staff with specific queries. Phone: 02 9321 6444.


• AFC funding deadlines - December 06 to early Feb 07:
  
  FILM DEVELOPMENT
  5 January 2007
  General Development Investment (GDI)
  Strand J - Documentary Early Development
  Strand K - Documentary Development
  
  12 January
  Strand A1 - Draft Drama Funding (no feature credits): Features
  Strand A2 - Draft Drama Funding: Short Features or Short TV Series
  Strand L - Shooting Time-critical Material
  
  19 January
  Strand B - Seed Feature Funding
  
  25 January
  Strand G - Short Features, Short TV Drama Series, & Animation (25-55 mins) Production
  
  2 February
  Strand D - Draft Funding
  Strand V - Interactive Digital Media Early Development
  Strand W - Interactive Digital Media Matched Investment Development Funding
  
  9 February
  Internships/Fellowships
  Strand I: IndiVision Low-budget Feature Production
  
  TRAVEL GRANTS
  4 December
  Type B (market experienced producers) and Type C (producers developing market experience) for European Film Market, 8-18 February 2007
  
  1 February 2007
  Type B (market experienced producers) and Type C (producers developing market experience) for: MIPTV featuring MILIA, 16-20 April 2007 and Hong Kong Filmart, 20-23 March 2007.
  Type E for interactive digital screen content practitioners for MILIA.
  
  Download travel grant guidelines and application forms here. Read more about these international markets: MIPTV featuring MILIA and Hong Kong Filmart
  
  
• AFC funding approvals.

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• Audiovisual archivists recently met in Canberra for the annual Southeast Asia-Pacific Audiovisual Archive Association (SEAPAVAA) Conference. Delegates came from Indonesia, Singapore, Malaysia, Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand, Laos, the Philippines, Fiji, and the Solomon Islands. The conference included a symposium, a series of papers and workshops, and a special launch of the book Lost Films of Asia. Full report.


• With the closure of Canberra's Electric Shadows cinemas the NFSA Cinémathèque will continue in the Archive's beautiful heritage courtyard over summer. Films will include classics such as Yellow Submarine, The Apartment and Jezebel. Plus Jaimie Leonarder of the former SBS Movie Show will present one of his famous Mu-Meson trash cinema screenings. Details.


• Two stunning film posters have recently been picked up on eBay by the NFSA's International Specialist, Sally Jackson. They advertise the American release of two classic Australian Charles Chauvel films: Forty Thousand Horsemen (1940) and The Rugged O'Riordans (1949), released as The Sons of Matthew in Australia. "These two posters show how the films were first advertised to filmgoers in the USA," said Sally. More.


• NFSA archivist Nick Weare has discovered rare sound discs from the famous 1929 American film The King of Jazz in a private collection in Queensland. The discs date from the time when movies with sound were being introduced but many theatres were not yet converted. As a result many films were accompanied by sound discs when distributed, which were played as the film was projected. Full details.


• Bruce Beresford's edited transcript of his 2006 Longford Lyell Lecture (Canberra, 4 October) is now available to read on the NFSA website. The lecture focused on sound and music in film.

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• The Australian Teachers of Media (ATOM) Awards were held in Melbourne on 10 November. Congratulations to all the winners. Special mention goes to the AFC-funded/supported films: The Man Who Saved a Million Brains (Best Documentary Science, Technology and the Environment); Short Stories: Amanda's Story (Best Documentary Short Form), Stranded (Best Short Fiction), The Archive Project (Best Tertiary Education Resource), Hunt Angels (Best Documentary General), and The Luminary received a special commendation in the Best Animation category. For a full list of winners check the ATOM Awards website.


• The AFC's Big Screen concluded its hugely successful tour of the Pilbara in northern WA concluded at the end of October. Highlights included opening night in the remote mining town of Karratha with 230 people flocking to the screening of Ten Canoes. In Port Hedland, Ningali Lawford Wolf launched the Big Screen festival, speaking about the power of films to generate greater respect for all people. A total of 35 Australian films screened in the Pilbara, with over 650 children viewing the new Australian releases plus the classic The Magic Pudding from the NFSA.
  
  Big Screen wrapped its 2006 tour with Gunnedah being the last town on the circuit in November. It's been a wonderful Big Screen tour this year, and the AFC thanks each and every person around the country who contributed to making the festivals in each region such a success. We kick off again in Mildura in March 2007. See you then! Big Screen website.


• Black Screen, the AFC's screening program that provides Indigenous communities and the broader Australian public with access to Indigenous films, also toured the Pilbara at the end of October, entertaining over 130 kids and adults in Roebourne, followed by a screening to 160 prisoners at Roebourne Regional Jail.


• The AFC's School Screen program grew enormously in 2006 and as a result had an incredibly successful year. Australian films were screened, free of charge, to 16,574 children in 44 towns across the country! The program offers school students the opportunity to view and discuss contemporary and classic features, shorts and documentaries, thereby fostering an understanding and appreciation of Australian screen culture. Bookings for 2007 are now open on the ATOM website. If your school is not able to access any screenings on offer, contact the AFC's Education Programs Coordinator, Bob Percival, robert.percival@afc.gov.au, to discuss organising a screening in your local cinema, or a free screening at your school if there is no cinema nearby.


• The Australian films God On My Side, Like Minds, Hunt Angels, Irresistible, Suburban Mayhem, BoyTown, Jindabyne, Ten Canoes and Kenny are screening in December so keep an eye out for them at your local cinema.

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• The following AFC publications have been updated and are available online, or contact publishing@afc.gov.au for a hard copy:
  Television Writer Fellowships Guidelines
  Rotterdam Lab Travel Grant Guidelines
  I've Got a Great Idea for a Film - AFC Info Guide
  Australians at MIPCOM 2006
  Australian TV Drama & Documentary Catalogue Sept 2006
  Indigenous Branch Funding Guidelines July 2006
  Film Development Funding Guidelines July 2006


• Are you looking for details of a particular Australian film title - feature, short, TV drama or documentary? The Searchable Film Database includes Australian and co-produced features, TV drama and documentaries from 1990 and shorts from 1998. It is updated on the AFC website each month.


• Upcoming Production Report.


• Latest updates to industry statistics in Get the Picture Online.

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• Welcome to Dale Fairbairn, Marketing Officer - Industry Development; David Stewart, Financial Accountant.


• Farewell to Ron Neale, Acting Financial Accountant; Ron Dasan, Financial Accountant.


• Positions vacant: for current vacant positions at the AFC.

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• Registrations are still open for the Australian International Documentary Conference (AIDC) to be held 23-26 February 2007 in Adelaide. It celebrates its 20th anniversary next year. Check the AIDC website for info and registration.


• Good luck to all the nominees in the upcoming AFI Awards to be held on 6 and 7 December in Melbourne.


• The next X|Media|Lab is on in Singapore 6-8 December with the theme Learning from Games. The Lab is looking for projects with any education or training, pedagogical, 'serious', or game-based learning applications. Successful applicants will work with international mentors in one-on-one consultations. For more info check the X|Media|Lab website.


• Usually held in Mumbai, India, the international film and video festival EXPERIMENTA will be moving to Bangalore in 2007. The festival seeks films from any country that challenge popular and conventional modes of cinema. Compositions from any genre produced on the margins of contemporary screen-culture are welcome. Deadline is 15 December. Visit the Filter India website for details.


• The AFC's Industry and Cultural Development Division proudly supports the following upcoming awards, summits and events:
  
  AFI Awards (Melbourne)
  6 & 7 December
  
  Australia/Korea/NZ Broadband Summit (Adelaide)
  7 & 8 December
  
  dLux media arts (Sydney)
  Super8 Effect (Chauvel Cinema)
  12 December
  
  
• Check Metro Screen's website for details of all their programs. They are holding five free screenings and exhibitions at the Chauvel Cinema, Paddington (Sydney), 11-15 December. Their Filmmakers' Studio features Susie Porter on 7 Dec at 7pm, and the Members' Production Group meets on the first Tuesday of every month at 6.30pm. Meetings are open to all members and give you the opportunity to pitch new ideas, discuss your current projects, share skills and resources, and collaborate with others to produce your own films, TV content and media projects.


• Popcorn Taxi, a regular film event where filmmakers and film lovers can meet, watch films of all types, and discuss the filmmaking process all year round runs in Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide, Brisbane and Darwin. For further information and screening details visit the Popcorn Taxi website.


• mo:life monthly is an informal gathering on the second Monday of every month, that offers the opportunity to discuss the latest advances and opportunities in mobile media technology and culture. Find out about the various players and networks and what they offer, explore the capabilities of the latest handsets, and see what others around the globe are doing with this new format. Contact d.opitz@metroscreen.org.au


• ScreenWest and PAC Screen Workshops have announced the PAC Script Lab initiative, monthly rehearsed readings of West Australian feature film scripts on the last Sunday of each month. The aim is to hone West Australian scripts and increase the profile, quality and awareness of West Australian film projects.


• IF Magazine's What's On in Film guide to screen events is sponsored by the AFC. The July to December 2006 calendar is now available as a PDF on the AFC website.


• Other AFC-supported activities and events.

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One hundred years after its first release The Story of the Kelly Gang has made its return to the big screen. In this essay, written for the commemorative program for the Parliamentary and public screenings of the film on 29 and 30 November, the NFSA's GRAHAM SHIRLEY and SALLY JACKSON track the journey of this remarkable film from glory to rubbish tip to restoration.

It's 100 years since The Story of the Kelly Gang opened in Melbourne on Boxing Day 1906 and went on to enthral audiences across the country. At over an hour long, this Australian-made production is thought to be the world's first feature-length narrative movie.

Yet few in 1906 could have predicted the impact moving images were to have on global culture, and no-one thought about their preservation. Despite raking in thousands of pounds and being celebrated as a landmark Australian film, by the end of World War Two all known prints of The Story of the Kelly Gang were thought to have vanished. Until the mid-1970s, some publicity material and a few photographs were all that remained. Thanks to some lucky finds and painstaking work by the National Film and Sound Archive (NFSA), nearly a quarter of this extraordinary film has now been pieced backed together and restored for contemporary and future generations of Australians.

At the time of its initial release, The Story of the Kelly Gang was an unqualified commercial success. Having run for seven weeks in Melbourne, the film enjoyed a long and successful national tour. Queensland entrepreneur EJ Carroll made his fortune by touring the film around that state, and according to one of the film's producers, William Gibson, the film eventually returned £25,000 to its backers. By late 1907 the film had screened in New Zealand and England, where it was billed as "the longest film ever made."

Reports of crime and censorship followed screenings around the country. In May 1907, the film inspired five local children in the Victorian town of Ballarat to break into a photographic studio to steal money, after which they bailed up a group of schoolchildren at gunpoint. In April the Victorian Chief Secretary banned the film from Benalla and Wangaratta, two towns with strong Kelly connections.

Since 1879 the sensational Kelly gang story had been the subject of at least five popular plays, and films of re-enacted historical events were also crowd-pleasers. Audiences were accustomed to sitting through plays that ran for more than an hour, so it must have seemed logical to the theatre-seasoned filmmakers to produce a dramatised film running for the same length. The Story of the Kelly Gang was produced by John and Nevin Tait in association with Millard Johnson and William Gibson. The Taits ran theatres throughout Australia and New Zealand, and from 1904 they had been screening the latest films from Europe, Britain and America in Melbourne. Films at this time were generally not more than 10 minutes long and were usually interspersed with the latest sound recordings of the biggest artists of the day. The Taits had made good money with the travel film Living London, and had been impressed by the enormous success of a rival exhibitor's presentation of Edwin S Porter's landmark US short drama, The Great Train Robbery (1903).

Johnson and Gibson were also film exhibitors, as well as cameramen and film lab people. They had recently ventured into production with Living Hawthorn (1906) and coverage of a Squires-versus-Kling boxing contest. The Taits joined forces with Johnson and Gibson to fund The Story of the Kelly Gang, with the former working on the creative side while Johnson and Gibson handled camerawork and other technicalities.

Charles Tait is most often credited as the film's director, and his brothers Frank and John as the scriptwriters. Camerawork has been consistently attributed to Millard Johnson, and his co-cinematographer may well have been William Gibson, who also processed, printed and tinted the film, and projected its earliest screenings. In the years that followed, Charles Byers Coates and Charles Cutler also claimed to have shot the film.

Read the whole essay.

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