16th Festival 1969

1969 proved to be the watershed year for censorship when the Chief Censor demanded crippling cuts in Swedish director Stig Björkmann’s film I Love You Love; Björkmann, who had arrived in Sydney for the presentation of his film before this news was received, carried an appeal to the Customs Minister Senator Scott, to no avail. Media coverage was unprecedented and wholly favourable to Björkmann and the festival (and Scott’s term as Customs Minister – and indeed as Senator – proved short-lived).

Cuts were also made in another Swedish film, Jonas Cornell’s Hugs and Kisses; the festival inserted blank footage where the cuts had been made, and announced that from now on no film would be shown if the smallest censorship cut were to be demanded. Australian filmmakers withdrew their short films from the Festival in protest at the censorship action.

Björkmann, in association with David Bilcock and Robin Copping, made a short film debunking the hypocrisies of Australian censorship (To Australia with Love) which was completed in time for screening on Closing Night.

The Festival opened with Lindsay Anderson’s If… and closed with William Friedkin’s The Night They Raided Minsky’s (an ironic choice under the circumstances). Tim Burstall’s 2000 Weeks, one of the few Australian features produced at this time, was screened to an audience that heckled it, to the outrage of the filmmakers and the festival’s staff. Twenty-eight features were shown in all: Miklos Jancso’s Silence and Cry, Dusan Makavejev’s Switchboard Operator, Jiri Menzel’s Capricious Summer, Don Owen’s The Ernie Game, Don Levy’s Herostratus, Jean Gabriel Albicocco’s Legrand Meaulnes, Hiroshi Teshigahara’s Man Without a Map, Jan Nĕmec’s Report on the Party and the Guests (Czechoslovakia), Bert Haanstra’s Voice of the Water (Netherlands), Kaneto Shindo’s Black Cat (Japan), Tatiana Liosnova’s Café on Plushicha Street (USSR), David Weiss’ No Vietnamese Ever Called Me Nigger (USA), Franz Josef Spieker’s Wild Rider Ltd. (West Germany), Enzo Muzii’s Come l’amore (Italy), Rene Allie’s Pierre and Paul (France), Witold Leszcynski’s Days of Matthew (Poland), Fernando Gonzalez’ Black Wind (Mexico), Andras Kovacs’ Cold Days (Hungary), Lee Sangkoo’s Bearded General (South Korea), Yona Zarecki’s Prisoners of Freedom (Israel), and Stanislav Rostotsky’s We’ll Live Till Monday (USSR), with director and star Nina Menchikova in attendance.

There were also three notable film debuts: Kjell Grede’s Hugo and Josefin (Sweden), Alexandre Jodorowsky’s Fando & Lis (Mexico) and Harry Kumel’s Monsieur Hawarden (Netherlands).

The roots of the Australian New Wave began to show themselves in the selection of shorts, which included early work from iconic Australian filmmakers Peter Weir (The Life and Flight of the Rev. Buck Shotte), Fred Schepisi (100-Odd Years from Now) and Yoram Gross (Bon Appetit), who had recently migrated to the country from Israel. Other shorts included Norman McLaren’s Pas de deux, Lindsay Anderson’s The White Bus, Stephen Frears’ The Burning, Walerian Borowczyk’s Diptyque and Gavotte, Saul Bass’ Why Man Creates, John Hubley’s The Cruise, Alan Anderson’s The Pictures That Moved, Peter Foldes’ Éveil, Raoul Servais’ Sirene, Murray Grigor’s Mackintosh, Dušan Vukotić’s Stain on His Conscience and Bruno Bozzetto’s Man and His World. The great Danish director Jørgen Leth’s short The Perfect Human, also screened this year, later became the basis for Lars von Trier’s acclaimed 2005 documentary The Five Obstructions.