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Australia has been fortunate in the quality and number of its documentary-makers over the past 30 years. The Chauvel Award recognises a distinguished contribution to Australian filmmaking, and the recipient this year is one of the most prolific and important Australian documentary producers, David Bradbury. David is the second documentary producer to be recognised by BIFF, the first being the documentary team of Bob Connolly and the late Robin Anderson. In its own way, Bradbury’s work exemplifies the same spirit of independence and commitment to the realisation of a world vision that characterised the work of the Chauvels.
David Bradbury’s documentaries date from the late 1970s, when he moved from television journalism with the ABC and embarked upon a career as a freelance documentary-maker. His first film Frontline is a tribute to his late colleague, war photographer Neil Davis, killed in the line of duty. He followed this with a biography of Australian left-wing journalist Wilfred Burchett, entitled Public Enemy Number One (1981). These films were notable for their challenging of the, then conventional, view within Australia of the positive face of American intervention in the politics of Cambodia and Vietnam.
David then shifted his focus from revolutionary movements in Southeast Asia to those of Latin America with Nicaragua: No Pasaran, Chile: Hasta Cuando?, and South of the Border. These films continue the same passionate and courageously independent stance of the earlier works as they scrutinise the impact of global politics and powerful American interests upon the lives of ordinary people in Central and South America.
David then shifted his attention to domestic Australian issues. He analysed the impact of alcohol on Aboriginal communities in State of Shock and showed the discriminatory nature of white justice in relation to the Alwyn Peters trial. In Nazi Supergrass, he focused attention on right-wing extremism and terrorism.
His films of the 1990s reflect an increasing emphasis on environmental issues, ranging from preservation of wilderness in Shoalwater: Up for Grabs, through the whaling-ban controversy in The Last Whale, uncontrolled and inappropriate development in The Battle for Byron and Loggerheads, and the hazards of uranium mining in Jabiluka.
This last issue surfaces again in his work in progress featured in this year’s festival, Blowin’ in the Wind, drawing together concerns about lack of public awareness of military alliances with the United States and the consequences of the use of depleted uranium in weaponry on service personnel and civilians. These consequences are manifest in birth defects and cancers, following exposure both in Iraq and in weapons-testing facilities worldwide. This concern has immediate relevance to Queensland, with joint US–Australian military exercises occurring around Rockhampton and Byfield.
David Bradbury has also contributed to the process of documentary production in Australia by his exploration of the use of digital technologies in streamlining production and through establishing innovative financing arrangements through the Frontline Film Foundation.
Among his many awards are two Academy Award nominations, for Frontline and Chile: Hasta Cuando?.
Bruce Molloy
Chair of the Chauvel Award committee Bruce Molloy is a Professor of Film and Television at Bond University on the Gold Coast. He has been a board member of a number of arts organisations including BIFF and the PFTC, and currently, the Gold Coast Film Fantastic group. Molloy’s projects include the publication Before the Interval: Australian Fims and Mythology and the documentary The Bush Myth.
Find out more about the Chauvel Award Presentation
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