Tim Burstall
Encyclopedia
Tim Burstall was an Australian film
director, writer and producer, best known for the motion picture Alvin Purple
.
Burstall was a key figure in Australian postwar cinema and was instrumental in rebuilding the Australian film industry at a time when it had been effectively dead for years. He created groundbreaking Australian films including Stork
, Alvin Purple, End Play, Eliza Fraser
, The Last of the Knucklemen and the 1986 adaptation of D.H. Lawrence's novel Kangaroo
.
Burstall also launched the film careers of many well-known actors including Bruce Spence
, Jacki Weaver
, Graeme Blundell
, Jack Thompson
, John Waters
and Judy Davis
. His wife Betty, an important figure in her own right, founded the pioneering La Mama Theatre in Melbourne in the late '60s. Many leading Australian 'new wave' playwrights including David Williamson
had their first successes there, and Burstall was an integral part of the fertile creative scene that centred on the theatre.
Speaking just after Burstall's death, Williamson said that Burstall "couldn't stomach" Australia's lack of a film industry. "He was determined to do something about it and he had the energy and spirit to do it. (He) was a very important cultural figure: highly intelligent, widely read, with a succinct and often highly controversial opinion on everything."
. He attending Geelong Grammar where he was taught by historian Manning Clark
. His parents returned to England after World War II but he remained in Australia. He graduated with an Honours Arts degree from the University of Melbourne
in 1946. He met Betty, whom he married, at university. They built a mud brick house at Eltham, Victoria
.
He and Patrick Ryan established Eltham Films, in 1959.
On the evening of Sunday 18 April 2004 Burstall suffered a massive stroke while attending a screening of his short films, organised by Eltham Council, the Melbourne suburb where he made his first feature, The Prize. He was taken to hospital, but died soon after, in the early hours of 19 April, aged 76. He is survived by his wife Betty and his sons Dan, a cinematographer, and Tom, a film producer and husband of actor Sigrid Thornton
.
in 1960. It is the story of a boy who wins a goat in a fairground competition, then has it stolen from him, and it featured Burstall's two young sons in acting roles.
Working with other leading Melbourne film identities including David Bilcock, Dusan Marek, Giorgio Mangiamele
, Gerard Vanceburg, Allan Harness and composer George Dreyfus
, Eltham Films made many short subjects, including acclaimed documentaries on modern Australian art and the early children's TV puppet show Sebastian The Fox, which first screened on the ABC
in 1962-63.
Eltham's Australian art films encompassed the contemporary internationally recognised artists of the Melbourne set—including Sidney Nolan
, Arthur Boyd
, John Perceval
, John Brack
, Albert Tucker
and Clifton Pugh
-- and these films proved influential in the formation of Burstall's views on Australian cultural identity. The Eltham documentaries also covered Australian historical figures, aboriginal bark paintings and the treasures of the National Gallery of Victoria. Together, Eltham Films and Collings Productions were the main contributors of a filmed record of Australian art in the 1960s.
In 1965 he made two films for the Commonwealth Film Unit -- the documentary Painting People, an overview of the work of some of the artists he had surveyed in his earlier documentaries, and the children's film Nullarbor Hideout. He also collaborated on the Eltham Films production The Magic Trumpet, an animated feature co-directed with Dusan Marek.
From 1965-67 he travelled to the USA on Harkness Fellowship
and studied scriptwriting with Paddy Chayevsky, directing with Martin Ritt
and acting with Lee Strasberg
and the Actors Studio
in New York.
opened in Carlton
, Melbourne
. The theatre was the brainchild of Tim's then wife Betty Burstall and was modelled on the "off-off-Broadway" theatre of the same name in New York City. it was inspired by their trip to the U.S. - they wanted to re-create "the vibrancy and immediacy of the small theatres there". It became a hub of cultural activity—within the first two years of its life twenty-five new Australian plays had premiered there, and La Mama also fostered new works from composers, poets, and filmmakers. The theatre gained considerable notoriety in 1969 when Alex Buzo
's controversial play Norm and Ahmed premiered there, leading to the arrest and charging of several of the actors by the Victorian ViceSquad for the use of 'obscene' language.
. Released in 1969, it was Australia's first locally-made feature film since Charles Chauvel's Jedda in 1955. Although it was a commercial failure and was savaged by the critics, it was an important influence on Bruce Beresford
and Phillip Adams
when they came to make The Adventures of Barry McKenzie in 1972. The poor critical reception of 2000 Weeks affected Burstall strongly. It's clear that the hostility to the film and its serious tone, combined with his close contact with APG, were instrumental in changing his views on film-making, and led to the making of the more populist Stork and Alvin Purple.
Burstall briefly returned to documentary for the making of the cult surfing film Getting Back To Nothing (1970). It was followed by Stork in 1971, which was a moderate commercial success. Burstall raised the money for the film by selling several of his Arthur Boyd paintings. It also marked the first screen credit for acclaimed playwright David Williamson
, being an adaptation of one of his first plays, The Coming Of Stork, which had premiered at La Mama in 1970. The film featured most of the La Mama/APG ensemble including Bruce Spence
, for whom the title role had been written.
Williamson went on to work with Burstall on three more films, Petersen
(for which Stanley Kubrick praised Burstall for his direction and Jack Thompson for his acting), Eliza Fraser (the first major Australian period drama) and Duet for Four. After forming a new production company, Hexagon Films, he produced, directed and co-wrote (with Alan Hopgood
) his next feature, Alvin Purple, which was a huge hit with Australian audiences, held the record as Australia's most successful film release between 1971 and 1977, and is one of the key works in the revival of Australian cinema in the '70s. Alvin was a defining work in the so-called "ocker" genre, films that were deliberately pitched at the mainstream popular market. It was a huge commercial success in spite of almost unanimous critical disapproval, and it was also very significant as a marker for the revival of the local industry, being the first locally-made feature to include significant backing from a local theatrical chain.
He also worked extensively in television, directing episodes of series including Special Squad
, Return to Eden
II, The Man from Snowy River and Water Rats
. His miniseries, Great Expectations
: The Untold Story, was the first co-production between an independent filmmaker and ABC TV
.
, but the artist, John Bloomfield
, was controversially stripped of the honour after it was revealed he had painted it from a magazine photograph (the prize stipulates that portraits must be painted from life).
Burstall won a number of Australian Film Institute
awards for his work and was awarded an Order of Australia
in the Australia Day honours list in 1996.
Film
A film, also called a movie or motion picture, is a series of still or moving images. It is produced by recording photographic images with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or visual effects...
director, writer and producer, best known for the motion picture Alvin Purple
Alvin Purple
Alvin Purple was a 1973 Australian comedy film starring Graeme Blundell, written by Alan Hopgood and directed by Tim Burstall.It received largely negative reviews from local film critics. Despite this it was a major hit with Australian audiences...
.
Burstall was a key figure in Australian postwar cinema and was instrumental in rebuilding the Australian film industry at a time when it had been effectively dead for years. He created groundbreaking Australian films including Stork
Stork (film)
Stork is a 1971 Australian comedy film directed by Tim Burstall. Stork is based on the play 'The Coming of Stork' by David Williamson. Bruce Spence and Jacki Weaver make their feature film debuts in Stork, being honoured at the 1972 Australian Film Awards, where they shared the acting prize...
, Alvin Purple, End Play, Eliza Fraser
Eliza Fraser
Eliza Fraser was a Scottish woman whose ship was shipwrecked on the coast of Queensland, Australia, on 22 May 1836, and who was captured by Aborigines. Fraser Island is named after her....
, The Last of the Knucklemen and the 1986 adaptation of D.H. Lawrence's novel Kangaroo
Kangaroo (novel)
Kangaroo is a novel by D. H. Lawrence, first published in 1923. It is set in Australia.-Description:Kangaroo is an account of a visit to New South Wales by an English writer named Richard Lovat Somers, and his German wife Harriet, in the early 1920s...
.
Burstall also launched the film careers of many well-known actors including Bruce Spence
Bruce Spence
Bruce Spence, born September 17, 1945 is an actor, having spent most of his career performing in Australia. Bruce attended Henderson High School in West Auckland....
, Jacki Weaver
Jacki Weaver
Jacqueline Ruth "Jacki" Weaver is an Australian theatre, film and television actress. She is best known outside Australia for her performance in Animal Kingdom, for which she was nominated for the 2011 Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress.-Career:Jacki Weaver has been working in Australian...
, Graeme Blundell
Graeme Blundell
Graeme Blundell is an Australian actor, director, producer, writer and biographer.Blundell was born in Melbourne; he grew up in Clifton Hill, a suburb of Melbourne...
, Jack Thompson
Jack Thompson (actor)
Jack Thompson, AM is an Australian actor and one of the major figures of Australian cinema. He was educated at University of Queensland, before embarking on his acting career. In 2002, he was made an honorary member of the Australian Cinematographers Society...
, John Waters
John Waters (actor)
John Russell Waters is a film, theatre and television actor and musician best known in Australia, to where he moved in 1968...
and Judy Davis
Judy Davis
Judy Davis is an Australian actress best known for her roles in Husbands and Wives, Barton Fink, A Passage to India and in the TV miniseries Life with Judy Garland: Me and My Shadows....
. His wife Betty, an important figure in her own right, founded the pioneering La Mama Theatre in Melbourne in the late '60s. Many leading Australian 'new wave' playwrights including David Williamson
David Williamson
David Keith Williamson AO is one of Australia's best-known playwrights. He has also written screenplays and teleplays.-Biography:...
had their first successes there, and Burstall was an integral part of the fertile creative scene that centred on the theatre.
Speaking just after Burstall's death, Williamson said that Burstall "couldn't stomach" Australia's lack of a film industry. "He was determined to do something about it and he had the energy and spirit to do it. (He) was a very important cultural figure: highly intelligent, widely read, with a succinct and often highly controversial opinion on everything."
Life
Burstall was born in Stockton-on-Tees, England in 1927 and his family came to Australia in 1937 when he father took up a chair as professor of engineering at the University of MelbourneUniversity of Melbourne
The University of Melbourne is a public university located in Melbourne, Victoria. Founded in 1853, it is the second oldest university in Australia and the oldest in Victoria...
. He attending Geelong Grammar where he was taught by historian Manning Clark
Manning Clark
Charles Manning Hope Clark, AC , an Australian historian, was the author of the best-known general history of Australia, his six-volume A History of Australia, published between 1962 and 1987...
. His parents returned to England after World War II but he remained in Australia. He graduated with an Honours Arts degree from the University of Melbourne
University of Melbourne
The University of Melbourne is a public university located in Melbourne, Victoria. Founded in 1853, it is the second oldest university in Australia and the oldest in Victoria...
in 1946. He met Betty, whom he married, at university. They built a mud brick house at Eltham, Victoria
Eltham, Victoria
Eltham is a suburb in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, 20 km north-east from Melbourne's central business district. Its Local Government Area is the Shire of Nillumbik. At the 2006 Census, Eltham had a population of 17,581....
.
He and Patrick Ryan established Eltham Films, in 1959.
On the evening of Sunday 18 April 2004 Burstall suffered a massive stroke while attending a screening of his short films, organised by Eltham Council, the Melbourne suburb where he made his first feature, The Prize. He was taken to hospital, but died soon after, in the early hours of 19 April, aged 76. He is survived by his wife Betty and his sons Dan, a cinematographer, and Tom, a film producer and husband of actor Sigrid Thornton
Sigrid Thornton
Sigrid Thornton is an Australian multi-award winning actress.-Early years:Thornton was born in Canberra, the daughter of Merle, a teacher of women's studies and writer, and Neil Thornton, an academic. She spent most of her formative years growing up and attending school at St. Peter's Lutheran...
.
Early career
Burstall's first film was a black-and-white short, The Prize, which won an award at the Venice Film FestivalVenice Film Festival
The Venice International Film Festival is the oldest international film festival in the world. Founded by Count Giuseppe Volpi in 1932 as the "Esposizione Internazionale d'Arte Cinematografica", the festival has since taken place every year in late August or early September on the island of the...
in 1960. It is the story of a boy who wins a goat in a fairground competition, then has it stolen from him, and it featured Burstall's two young sons in acting roles.
Working with other leading Melbourne film identities including David Bilcock, Dusan Marek, Giorgio Mangiamele
Giorgio Mangiamele
Giorgio Mangiamele was an Italian/Australian photographer and filmmaker who made a unique contribution to the production of Australian art cinema in the 1950s and 60s. His films included Il Contratto , The Spag , Ninety Nine Per Cent and Clay...
, Gerard Vanceburg, Allan Harness and composer George Dreyfus
George Dreyfus
George Dreyfus AM is an Australian contemporary classical, film and television composer.-Life:The Dreyfus family moved in 1935 to Berlin to enable a better education for their two sons...
, Eltham Films made many short subjects, including acclaimed documentaries on modern Australian art and the early children's TV puppet show Sebastian The Fox, which first screened on the ABC
Australian Broadcasting Corporation
The Australian Broadcasting Corporation, commonly referred to as "the ABC" , is Australia's national public broadcaster...
in 1962-63.
Eltham's Australian art films encompassed the contemporary internationally recognised artists of the Melbourne set—including Sidney Nolan
Sidney Nolan
Sir Sidney Robert Nolan OM, AC was one of Australia's best-known painters and printmakers.-Early life:Nolan was born in Carlton, a suburb of Melbourne, on 22 April 1917. He was the eldest of four children. His family later moved to St Kilda. Nolan attended the Brighton Road State School and...
, Arthur Boyd
Arthur Boyd
Arthur Merric Bloomfield Boyd, AC, OBE was one of the leading Australian painters of the late 20th Century. A member of the prominent Boyd artistic dynasty in Australia, his relatives included painters, sculptors, architects or other arts professionals. His sister Mary Boyd married John Perceval,...
, John Perceval
John Perceval
John de Burgh Perceval AO was a well-known Australian artist. Perceval was the last surviving member of a group known as the Angry Penguins who redefined Australian art in the 1940s...
, John Brack
John Brack
John Brack was an Australian painter, and a member of the Antipodeans group.-Life:...
, Albert Tucker
Albert Tucker (artist)
Albert Lee Tucker , a pivotal Australian artist, was a member of the Heide Circle, a group of leading modernist artists and writers that centred on the art patrons John and Sunday Reed, whose home, "Heide", located in Bulleen, near Heidelberg , was a haven for the group...
and Clifton Pugh
Clifton Pugh
Clifton Ernest Pugh AO, was an Australian artist and three-time winner of Australia's Archibald Prize. He was strongly influenced by German Expressionism, and was known for his landscapes and portraiture...
-- and these films proved influential in the formation of Burstall's views on Australian cultural identity. The Eltham documentaries also covered Australian historical figures, aboriginal bark paintings and the treasures of the National Gallery of Victoria. Together, Eltham Films and Collings Productions were the main contributors of a filmed record of Australian art in the 1960s.
In 1965 he made two films for the Commonwealth Film Unit -- the documentary Painting People, an overview of the work of some of the artists he had surveyed in his earlier documentaries, and the children's film Nullarbor Hideout. He also collaborated on the Eltham Films production The Magic Trumpet, an animated feature co-directed with Dusan Marek.
From 1965-67 he travelled to the USA on Harkness Fellowship
Harkness Fellowship
The Harkness Fellowships are a programme run by the Commonwealth Fund of New York City. They were established to reciprocate the Rhodes Scholarships and enable Fellows from several countries to spend time studying in the United States...
and studied scriptwriting with Paddy Chayevsky, directing with Martin Ritt
Martin Ritt
Martin Ritt was an American director, actor, and playwright who worked in both film and theater. He was born in New York City.-Early career and influences:...
and acting with Lee Strasberg
Lee Strasberg
Lee Strasberg was an American actor, director and acting teacher. He cofounded, with directors Harold Clurman and Cheryl Crawford, the Group Theatre in 1931, which was hailed as "America's first true theatrical collective"...
and the Actors Studio
Actors Studio
The Actors Studio is a membership organization for professional actors, theatre directors and playwrights at 432 West 44th Street in the Clinton neighborhood of Manhattan in New York City. It was founded October 5, 1947, by Elia Kazan, Cheryl Crawford, Robert Lewis and Anna Sokolow who provided...
in New York.
La Mama Theatre
On 30 July 1967 the La Mama TheatreLa Mama Theatre (Melbourne)
The La Mama Theatre is a theatrical venue located at 205 Faraday St, Carlton, Victoria. It opened in a former factory building on 30 July 1967 and still operates today under the direction of Liz Jones....
opened in Carlton
Carlton, Victoria
Carlton is an inner city suburb of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, 2 km north from Melbourne's central business district. Its Local Government Area is the City of Melbourne...
, Melbourne
Melbourne
Melbourne is the capital and most populous city in the state of Victoria, and the second most populous city in Australia. The Melbourne City Centre is the hub of the greater metropolitan area and the Census statistical division—of which "Melbourne" is the common name. As of June 2009, the greater...
. The theatre was the brainchild of Tim's then wife Betty Burstall and was modelled on the "off-off-Broadway" theatre of the same name in New York City. it was inspired by their trip to the U.S. - they wanted to re-create "the vibrancy and immediacy of the small theatres there". It became a hub of cultural activity—within the first two years of its life twenty-five new Australian plays had premiered there, and La Mama also fostered new works from composers, poets, and filmmakers. The theatre gained considerable notoriety in 1969 when Alex Buzo
Alex Buzo
Alex Buzo was an Australian playwright and author who wrote 88 works.-Early life:Buzo was born in Sydney in 1944 to an Albanian-born father and an Australian mother...
's controversial play Norm and Ahmed premiered there, leading to the arrest and charging of several of the actors by the Victorian ViceSquad for the use of 'obscene' language.
Post USA career
Burstall earned a place in Australian cinema history as the writer and director of the feature 2000 Weeks2000 Weeks
2000 Weeks is a 1969 Australian film directed by Tim Burstall.Paul Byrnes from the NFSA comments: "2000 Weeks was one of the first features of the modern era in Australian cinema, after decades in which almost the only productions were British and American films in search of exotic locales. .....
. Released in 1969, it was Australia's first locally-made feature film since Charles Chauvel's Jedda in 1955. Although it was a commercial failure and was savaged by the critics, it was an important influence on Bruce Beresford
Bruce Beresford
Bruce Beresford is an Australian film director who has made more than 30 feature films over a 40-year career.-Early life:...
and Phillip Adams
Phillip Adams
Phillip Andrew Hedley Adams, AO is an Australian broadcaster, film producer, writer, social commentator, satirist and left-wing pundit. He currently hosts a radio program, Late Night Live, four nights a week on the ABC, and he also writes a weekly column for the News Limited-owned newspaper, The...
when they came to make The Adventures of Barry McKenzie in 1972. The poor critical reception of 2000 Weeks affected Burstall strongly. It's clear that the hostility to the film and its serious tone, combined with his close contact with APG, were instrumental in changing his views on film-making, and led to the making of the more populist Stork and Alvin Purple.
Burstall briefly returned to documentary for the making of the cult surfing film Getting Back To Nothing (1970). It was followed by Stork in 1971, which was a moderate commercial success. Burstall raised the money for the film by selling several of his Arthur Boyd paintings. It also marked the first screen credit for acclaimed playwright David Williamson
David Williamson
David Keith Williamson AO is one of Australia's best-known playwrights. He has also written screenplays and teleplays.-Biography:...
, being an adaptation of one of his first plays, The Coming Of Stork, which had premiered at La Mama in 1970. The film featured most of the La Mama/APG ensemble including Bruce Spence
Bruce Spence
Bruce Spence, born September 17, 1945 is an actor, having spent most of his career performing in Australia. Bruce attended Henderson High School in West Auckland....
, for whom the title role had been written.
Williamson went on to work with Burstall on three more films, Petersen
Petersen (film)
Petersen is a 1974 Australian drama film directed by Tim Burstall. Tony Petersen , a retired australian rules football star, enrolls at university to study for an arts degree...
(for which Stanley Kubrick praised Burstall for his direction and Jack Thompson for his acting), Eliza Fraser (the first major Australian period drama) and Duet for Four. After forming a new production company, Hexagon Films, he produced, directed and co-wrote (with Alan Hopgood
Alan Hopgood
Alan Hopgood is an Australian actor and writer.He is a graduate of the University of Melbourne. Hopgood's first very successful play was And the Big Men Fly in 1963. It was adapted for TV by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation in 1973...
) his next feature, Alvin Purple, which was a huge hit with Australian audiences, held the record as Australia's most successful film release between 1971 and 1977, and is one of the key works in the revival of Australian cinema in the '70s. Alvin was a defining work in the so-called "ocker" genre, films that were deliberately pitched at the mainstream popular market. It was a huge commercial success in spite of almost unanimous critical disapproval, and it was also very significant as a marker for the revival of the local industry, being the first locally-made feature to include significant backing from a local theatrical chain.
He also worked extensively in television, directing episodes of series including Special Squad
Special Squad
Special Squad was an Australian television series made by Crawford Productions for the Ten Network in 1984.The series focused on an elite division of the Victoria Police, which handled crimes either too sensitive or specialist for regular squads. The Special Squad was headed by Det. Insp. Don...
, Return to Eden
Return to Eden
Return to Eden is an Australian television drama series starring Rebecca Gilling, James Reyne, Wendy Hughes and James Smillie. It began as a three-part mini-series, shown on Network Ten in 1983. Gilling and Smillie would reprise their roles for a 22-part weekly series screened in 1986.-Mini-series...
II, The Man from Snowy River and Water Rats
Water Rats (TV series)
Water Rats is an Australian TV police procedural broadcast on the Nine Network from 1996 to 2001. The series was based around the men and women of the Sydney Water Police who fight crime across Sydney Harbour and surrounding locales. The show was set on and around Goat Island in Sydney...
. His miniseries, Great Expectations
Great Expectations
Great Expectations is a novel by Charles Dickens. It was first published in serial form in the publication All the Year Round from 1 December 1860 to August 1861. It has been adapted for stage and screen over 250 times....
: The Untold Story, was the first co-production between an independent filmmaker and ABC TV
Australian Broadcasting Corporation
The Australian Broadcasting Corporation, commonly referred to as "the ABC" , is Australia's national public broadcaster...
.
Recognition and achievements
A portrait of Burstall won the 1975 Archibald PrizeArchibald Prize
The Archibald Prize is regarded as the most important portraiture prize in Australia. It was first awarded in 1921 after a bequest from J. F. Archibald, the editor of The Bulletin who died in 1919...
, but the artist, John Bloomfield
John Bloomfield
General Sir John Bloomfield GCB was Master Gunner, St James's Park, the most senior Ceremonial Post in the Royal Artillery after the Sovereign.-Military career:...
, was controversially stripped of the honour after it was revealed he had painted it from a magazine photograph (the prize stipulates that portraits must be painted from life).
Burstall won a number of Australian Film Institute
Australian Film Institute
The Australian Film Institute was founded in 1958 as a non-profit organisation devoted to developing an active film culture in Australia and fostering engagement between the general public and the Australian film industry...
awards for his work and was awarded an Order of Australia
Order of Australia
The Order of Australia is an order of chivalry established on 14 February 1975 by Elizabeth II, Queen of Australia, "for the purpose of according recognition to Australian citizens and other persons for achievement or for meritorious service"...
in the Australia Day honours list in 1996.
Awards and nominations
- 1960?: Venice Film Festival. Award for The Prize
- 1996: Order of AustraliaOrder of AustraliaThe Order of Australia is an order of chivalry established on 14 February 1975 by Elizabeth II, Queen of Australia, "for the purpose of according recognition to Australian citizens and other persons for achievement or for meritorious service"...
Selected filmography
- Sebastian the Fox (1961, director, children's television series)
- 2000 Weeks2000 Weeks2000 Weeks is a 1969 Australian film directed by Tim Burstall.Paul Byrnes from the NFSA comments: "2000 Weeks was one of the first features of the modern era in Australian cinema, after decades in which almost the only productions were British and American films in search of exotic locales. .....
(1969, director and scriptwriter, feature film) - Getting Back to Nothing (1970, director, documentary)
- StorkStork (film)Stork is a 1971 Australian comedy film directed by Tim Burstall. Stork is based on the play 'The Coming of Stork' by David Williamson. Bruce Spence and Jacki Weaver make their feature film debuts in Stork, being honoured at the 1972 Australian Film Awards, where they shared the acting prize...
(1971, director, feature film) - The Child (1973, director, one part of the four part feature film Libido)
- Alvin PurpleAlvin PurpleAlvin Purple was a 1973 Australian comedy film starring Graeme Blundell, written by Alan Hopgood and directed by Tim Burstall.It received largely negative reviews from local film critics. Despite this it was a major hit with Australian audiences...
(1973, director, feature film) - PetersenPetersen (film)Petersen is a 1974 Australian drama film directed by Tim Burstall. Tony Petersen , a retired australian rules football star, enrolls at university to study for an arts degree...
(1974, director, feature film) - Alvin Rides Again (1974, producer and co-director, feature film)
- End Play (1975, director, feature film)
- Eliza FraserEliza Fraser (film)Eliza Fraser is a 1976 Australian bawdy adventure drama film, directed by Tim Burstall and starring Susannah York, Trevor Howard, Noel Ferrier and John Castle. The screenplay was written by David Williamson....
(1976, director, feature film) - High RollingHigh RollingHigh Rolling is an Australian buddy comedy directed by Igor Auzins and written by Forest Redlich. Golden Globe Award winners Joseph Bottoms and Judy Davis are among the cast. The soundtrack for the film was provided by the Australian band, Sherbet...
(1977, producer, feature film) - The Last of the Knucklemen (1979, director, feature film)
- Duet for Four (1982, director, feature film)
- Attack Force Z (1982?, director, feature film)
- A Descant for Gossips (1983, director and co-scriptwriter, three-part miniseries)
- Kangaro (1986, director, feature film)
- Great Expectations: The Untold Story (1987, director and scriptwriter, miniseries)
- Water rats: Dead in the Water (1996, director, telemovie length first episode of Water Rats)