Welcome to The Stacks. Search in The Stacks for press kits, film reviews, articles and interviews concerning Early Works projects.

All That Is Solid
All That Is Solid film invite, 1998.

The Film invite

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The Key to the Treasure

Review of All That Is Solid by Marion Benjamin. First published in In The Picture Magazine June/July, 1989.

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(3.53 MB)
The Hole in the Doughnut

Review of All that is Solid by John Slavin. First published in The Age Monthly Review May, 1989.

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(66.19 KB)
What I Have Written
Severed Intensities-Conjuring John Hughes' 'What I Have Written'

Review of What I Have Written by Lesley Stern, first published inCinema Papers, Feb 1996 (pg 12-13)

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John Hughes' 'What I Have Written'

Article about What I Have Written by Anna Dzenis. First published inMetro Magazine # 107.

Excerpt:

What I have written is the most recent film by Australian filmmaker John Hughes, whose directorial achievements include Traps (1986), and two ‘speculative’ documentaries‚ All That is Solid (1988) and One Way Street: Fragments for Walter Benjamin (1993).

What I Have Written arrives as the screen adaptation of John A Scott’s novel of the same name with Scott also taking creative credit for the screenplay…

Full article available at the Education Shop

How 'What I Have Written' is Written About

Article about What I Have Written by Barbra Luby. First published inMetro Magazine # 107.

Excerpt:

Melbourne Filmmaker John Hughes has presented Australian audiences with a challenge to their cultural maturity, his latest film polarizing opinion amongst both critics and audiences, with comments ranging across the spectrum from the superficial to the sublime…

Full article available at the Education Shop

The Archive Project
Still Red in the Face Over a War of Words

Text of a review of The Archive Project by Sandy George. First Published in The Weekend Australian ‘Review’ pg 36, January 20 – 26, 2007.

Critc's View - The Archive Project

Review of The Archive Project by Natalie Craig, first Published in The Age ‘Green Guide’ pg 30 Thursday 18 January, 2007.

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'The Archive Project' review in 2006 Sydney Film Festival

View the program online.

'The Archive Project' review in 2006 Perth Revelation Film Festival Program

View the program online.

Fanning the Spark of Hope (In a Cold, Dark War): 'The Archive Project'

Review of The Archive Project by Paul Davies. First Published in Metro Magazine Issue 152.

Excerpt: The Realist Film Unit began in late 1945 when Ken Coldicutt pooled 300 pounds deferred from his war service in the RAAF with another 300 pounds contributed by Bob Matthews. Together they set up a production/exhibition enterprise for making and screening alternative, activist films….

The full review is available at the Education Shop

Left Springs Out of Suitcase

Review of The Archive Project by Simon Plant. First published in theHerald Sun 10 February, 2006.

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After Mabo
Power and Representation in 'After Mabo'

An article about After Mabo by Peter Hughes. First published in Screen Education Issue # 38.

Excerpt: The political documentaries of John Hughes have shown a consistent concern for history, indigenous issues , media representation and power and After Mabo is no exception.

Released in 1997, the documentary deals with a number of events around the Howard government’s responses to the Wik decision and its “Ten Point Plan” amendments to the Native Title Act…

Full article available from the Education Shop

After Mabo Still

Image: Noel Pearson and John Howard.

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(56.82 KB)
Menace
The Making of 'Menace'

Review of Menace by Richard Fletcher. First published in The Tribune, 29 March, 1978.

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(715.07 KB)
Nasty Nostalgia Again

Review of Menace by Hamish Grant. First published in Farrago, 14 June, 1977.

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(1.02 MB)
Tied Up in Knots

A review of Menace by Colin Bennett. First published in The Age 6 June, 1977.

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(43.88 KB)
Menace

Review of Menace first published in Lot’s Wife, 6 June, 1977.

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(1.26 MB)
The Calamitous Career of Dictator Bob, Ambrose Dyson 1951

The Calamitous Career of Dictator Bob, Ambrose Dyson 1951

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(2.30 MB)
Menace Leaflet 1977

A handout to audiences at cinema screenings Melbourne, Sydney and Hobart 1977-’78

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(10.63 MB)
Menace, original video slickDownload
(54.30 KB)
River Of Dreams
River of Dreams: Voices and Vision

Article about River of Dreams by Anna Dzenis. First published in Metro Magazine # 124/125.

Excerpt:

What are the issues for the contemporary documentary film-maker? What documentaries become possible in our current multi-media landscape? What are the stories of our age that should be told? Many of the documentary films that I have come across lately are about quirky and unusual characters and the spectacle of their personalities…

Full article available at the Education Shop

Two Sides of a River

Review of River of Dreams by Asa Wahlquist. First published in The Australian 14 October, 1999.

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Will They Cotton On?

Review of River of Dreams by Jane Freeman. First published in theSydney Morning Herald 11 October, 1999.

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(39.88 KB)
One Way Street: Fragments of Walter Benjamin
Reframing Benjamin

A review of One Way Street by Marion Benjamin. First published inArena Magazine Feb-March, 1993.

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(2.76 MB)
Subversion - TV Get's Serious

Review of One Way Street by Jane Freeman. First published in The Melbourne Times 2 December, 1992.

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(1.69 MB)
Indonesia Calling: Joris Ivens In Australia
The (heterogeneous) voice of 'Indonesia Calling' 'Studies in Australasian Cinema', Vol. 4:3 (2010)

Following the release of Indonesia Calling: Joris Ivens in Australia(2009), writer-director John Hughes offers a pictorial essay reflecting on aspects of Ivens’ 1945–1946 project, a work that engaged with great urgency with contested relations within an Australian social formation divided by class and attitudes to race, and between Australian political leadership, its European war-time allies and the anti-colonial ambitions of the Indonesian Republic. A more detailed account of Ivens’ Indonesia Calling (1946) and its impacts on Australian film in the early post-war period was published in Senses of Cinema 51 (2009).

'Indonesia Calling: Joris Ivens in Australia' reviewed by Robert Hamilton for European Foundation Joris Ivens

“Distilling the stories of Iven’s life, the historical background to decolonisation, and the making of Indonesia Calling into 90 minutes was always going to be a mammoth undertaking… as the resulting film shows, although Hughes was aware of the enormity of the task he was clearly undaunted by it.”

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Patricia Aufderheide (American University Center for Social Media) at IDFA 2009 and "Indonesia Calling: Joris Ivens in Australia".

*“News from the Future of Public Media: IDFA, Ivens, Oranges and More” by Patricia Aufderheide, Nov 30, 2009.

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Catherine Gough-Brady for 'Dox' Magazine. 'Indonesia Calling: Joris Ivens in Australia'

Catherine Gough-Brady reviews Indonesia Calling: Joris Ivens in Australia, “Dadaist Screen Design” ‘Dox’ # 84 Winter 2009 (pg 22 & 23).

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ABC Radio National, interview on 'Indonesia Calling: Joris Ivens in Australia' (August 2009)

A special Australia Talks Movies, recorded at the Indonesia Callingseminar at the Brisbane International Film Festival, Aug 2009. Paul Barclay and Julie Rigg discuss three films with different perspective on Indonesia. The session includes an interview with director John Hughes about *Indonesia Calling: Joris Ivens in Australia. *

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(22.88 MB)
John Hughes, 'An Australian 're-visits' Indonesia Calling' Ivens Magazine 14-15 (July 2009)

John Hughes on the impact of Joris Ivens’ Indonesia Calling for Australian documentary. First published EFJI Magazine, July 2009 (pg 39).

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Radio Australia Interview with John Hughes on Indonesia Calling: Joris Ivens in Australia

John Hughes discusses Indonesia Calling: Joris Ivens in Australia withABC Radio Australia Breakfast Show hosts Phil Kafcaloudes and Adelaine Ng on 21 July, 2009.

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(4.95 MB)
Press Kit - Indonesia Calling: Joris Ivens in Australia

The Press Kit includes background on the film, production notes and full production credits.

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(3.45 MB)
John Hughes, 'Indonesia Calling: Joris Ivens in Australia', 'Senses of Cinema', July, 2009

Senses of Cinema article

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(336.61 KB)
Indonesia Calling - Joris Ivens and Australia

An article by John Hughes about the film Indonesia Calling: Joris Ivens in Australia in production, including background on the making of Indonesia Calling by Joris Ivens. This article was first published in theEFJI Magazine, December 2006 (pg 26-29).

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(344.49 KB)
Film-Work
Film-Work Still #3

Waterside Workers Film Unit Filmmakers in action – Norma, Keith & Jock

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Film-Work Still #2

Film-Work Title slide

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(15.49 KB)
Film-Work Still

Image of Keith Gow from film.

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(26.06 KB)
Love & Fury: Judith Wright & 'Nugget' Coombs
LOVE & FURY: Judith Wright and 'Nugget' Coombs: Press KitDownload
(990.57 KB)
Love blooms in the afternoon | The AustralianDownload
(196.12 KB)
Such a bloody wonderful place | Inside StoryDownload
(333.67 KB)
Melbourne Filmmaker's Co-operative
'The Melbourne Filmmakers' Co-operative' (1977) in The Great Divide, (ed., Charles Merewether & Ann Stephen), Melbourne. pp. 66-69

A short commentary on the fall of the Melbourne Filmmakers’ Co-operative on its closure in July 1977. (see also Senses of Cinema)

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(1.46 MB)