- Collection Spotlights
- Australia's Prime Ministers
- Restoration of The Story of the Kelly Gang
- Mike and Stefani
- Film Connection
- 1967 Referendum
- Australians in WWI
- For The Term of His Natural Life
- Jedda
- The Sentimental Bloke
- Kingsford-Smith
- Wake in Fright
- Waltzing Matilda
- Theatre of the Mind
- Women In Early Radio
- Theatres & Cinemas
- Paget Plate Discovery
- Soldiers of the Cross
- Ray Barrett
- Shirley Ann Richards
- Graham Kennedy
- A tribute to Charles Chauvel
- A tribute to Joan Long
- Lottie Lyell - Photo Play Artiste
DIRECTOR’S STATEMENT – TED KOTCHEFF
MAKING WAKE IN FRIGHT:
THE NOVEL
THE FILM
FILMING IN AUSTRALIA
SHOOTING IN BROKEN HILL
POST-PRODUCTION AND RELEASE
RECOVERY AND RESTORATION
WAKE IN FRIGHT ON AUSTRALIANSCREEN
WAKE IN FRIGHT ON DVD AND BLU-RAY
DIRECTOR’S STATEMENT – TED KOTCHEFF
For years, the negative of Wake in Fright was thought to be lost and gone forever. The search for it was almost like a film –“The Hunt for O-Negative,” and its final discovery in Pittsburgh of all places, in a box marked “for destruction”, sounds like a film-maker’s fantasy. The relentless lead detective that found it was also the film’s editor, Anthony Buckley; so, he has served me brilliantly twice. The loss of the negative would have been a knife in my heart. Wake in Fright is, in my own personal estimation, one of my proudest achievements.
It was the last film of the great Australian cinema actor, Chips Rafferty and the first film of the outstanding Jack Thompson. There are two things in the making of a film that stay with you – the film itself, of course, but also the work involved in
making it: the months of preparation, the shooting, the editing, one’s co-workers. In this, I was blessed. The Australian crew were young, talented, enthusiastic, fun and daring. It was one of the happiest experiences in my career.
I loved the outback with its unearthly colours and shapes, the courageous people who lived in its inhospitable circumstances, the town of Broken Hill and the men there who befriended me, the Two-Up schools I became addicted to.
For years, I looked for a subject that would take me back, to make another film in the outback but it was not to be. But I have Wake in Fright so close to my heart.
Photo: Jack Thompson as Joe in Wake in Fright
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Wake in Fright available on DVD and Blu-Ray from Madman Entertainment.
Coming soon to the NFSA shop »
