Media Release
For Immediate Release
The
Australian Movie Classic The World
Applauded Is Now Available To Own On DVD
NEWSFRONT
June 13, 2001
Suggested Retail Price $34.95
The lives, loves and loyalties of the
newsreel cameraman.
When the news ran out…they made their own.
Highly acclaimed at the 1978 Cannes Film
Festival and the winner of 18 international awards including eight Australian Film
Industry awards, NEWSFRONT, directed by Phillip Noyce and produced by David Elfick,
comes to life on DVD from June 13, 2001.
NEWSFRONT on DVD features
deluxe Widescreen presentation, Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound, and subtitles for the
hearing impaired.
Full of additional extras only
available on DVD, NEWSFRONT boasts an audio commentary with Phillip Noyce, David
Elfick and Bob Ellis. Take a step back in time with the Newsfront Story featurette –
from the original pitch to an honoured place in Australian movie history.
This DVD also includes DVD Rom
capabilities linking you to a NEWSFRONT study guide, reviews in depth, the
restoration of NEWSFRONT and original assessments.
Learn more about the cast and crew in
the biographies option, enjoy pictures in the photo gallery and reminisce with the NEWSFRONT
trailer.
NEWSFRONT starring Bryan
Brown, Bill Hunter, Gerard Kennedy, Wendy Hughes, Chris Haywood, Angela Punch-McGregor,
John Ewart and Drew Forsythe represents a seminal moment in the emergence of the
Australian movie industry on the world stage.
Garnering raves from critics around
the world as well as being a major box office success at home, NEWSFRONT is the
story of the previously unsung newsreel cameramen, who raced to beat deadlines and dangers
to capture on film, for a voracious audience of cinemagoers, the historic moments that
were shaping a young nation. These were the men who lived and worked in post-World War 2
Australia; a turbulent time with the fear of ‘reds under the beds’, the tragic
Maitland floods and national pride on show at the 1956 Melbourne Olympics. But their days
were numbered.
A new technology would eventually
bring the world into the living room instantly – it was called television.
Featuring one of the finest
Australian casts ever assembled, many of whom were soon to become household names, NEWSFRONT
stars Bill Hunter as Cinetone newsreel cameraman, Len Maguire, Gerard Kennedy as his
brother Frank and Wendy Hughes as Amy, Cinetone’s production assistant and lover of
both men.
From an early age, Australian
director, Phillip Noyce, was ‘movie crazy’ from an early age experimenting with
an 8mm camera as a teen and producing an independent short film, "Better To Reign In
Hell" before graduating from high school. While still at Sydney University studying
Fine Arts, Noyce continued turning out short documentaries on the more off-beat aspects of
the Australian culture plus ran the University’s film society before being accepted
at the fledging Australian Film and Television School in 1972.
Two years later, he won the Sydney
Film Festival’s Rouben Mamoulien award for his documentary "Castor And
Pollux". With "God Knows Why, But It Works", a 1975 docudrama about medical
care among the Aborigines, Noyce became a professional filmmaker. His first feature,
1977’s "Backroads" (which Noyce also produced and wrote) expanded on
race-relations themes explored in "God Knows Why, But It Works".
Following Noyce’s success with Newsfront,
he has gone on to Hollywood to make films including "Clear and Present Danger",
"Sliver" and "The Bone Collector". Noyce is currently in Sydney
directing "The Quiet American" starring Brendan Fraser. |
