Not Quite Hollywood October 28, 2008

At the end of the 1960s, Australia's rigid, repressive censorship laws were relaxed and generous funding schemes put in place, liberating the country's previously slumbering film industry and paving the way for the international success of an Australian New Wave, with films such as Ken Hannam's Sunday Too Far Away, Peter Weir's Picnic At Hanging Rock and Gillian Armstrong's My Brilliant Career. At the same time, a floodgate was open for an abundance of ocker comedies, bawdy, full-frontal sex romps, blood-drenched horror schlock and brutal action movies; Ozploitation was born!

Mark Hartley's hugely entertaining, eye-opening documentary is a thrilling account of a prolific time where genre cinema dominated the country's film production, a period that has been ignored or contemptuously dismissed by critics and film historians. The clips, anecdotes and enthusiasm in Hartley's celebration would suggest that it is their loss: there are so many funny, sexy, daft, scary and thrilling excerpts here, any viewer will be gagging to see the films in their entirety. Quentin Tarantino appears as a keen follower of the movement, international actors such as Jamie Lee Curtis, Stacy Keach, Dennis Hopper and Susannah York all have Ozploitation stories to tell, while the parade of Aussies responsible for getting these films made let rip with colourful and insightful yarns.

Official Website: http://www.bfi.org.uk/lff/not_quite_hollywood