Canberra has enjoyed seeing itself on the big screen in a handful of feature films over recent years, including the ghost gums of the Lake George escarpment in The Furies, Kambah Tavern's starring role in Somersault, and the red brick duplexes of Downer in Joe Cinque's Consolation.
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We're long used to seeing ourselves on the television news every night, on multiple channels, and small screen drama series such as Secret City and The Code, but when Warwick Freeman's The Demonstrator hit cinemas in 1971, Canberra audiences were charmed at seeing themselves reflected in celluloid for the first time.
For the first time in many years, The Demonstrator is getting a cinema screening, at the National Film and Sound Archive on Friday 21 February, a rare opportunity for many Canberrans to see this piece of local history.
In The Demonstrator, Australian Defence Minister Joe Slater (Joe James) is organising an Asian security conference in Canberra, but a major spanner in the works is his son Steven (Gerry Maguire), who has organised a protest by university students against the conference.
The film also stars Slim de Grey as Australia's Prime Minister, Noel Ferrier as the Governor-General, and Hong Kong actor Kenneth Tsang. It came out in a formative time in Australian politics, with Whitlam's star on the rise and Australia only beginning to acknowledge the influence of the newly-formed ASEAN - the Association of South East Asian Nations.
The young and energetic filmmakers included its writer Kit Denton, father of Andrew Denton, and director Warwick Freeman, who had directed and produced Bandstand.
In the book Australian Film 1900 - 1977, film historian Andrew Pike notes that director Warwick Freeman "painstakingly exploited the scenic highlights of the national capital throughout the film". Freeman's cameras capture a very young Canberra, with its new lake and open spaces. I saw the film many years ago and the landscapes are what stuck in my mind.
Many local Canberrans gave their time as extras, including a number of off-duty ACT police officers, CTC 7 staff and Australian National University students.
I recall a particular shot from the top level of the then Lakeside (now QT) Hotel, across a single-lane Parkes Way towards the National Library of Australia, with barely a tree to be seen in our now established Commonwealth Park.
Also memorable is an extended cocktail party scene in the foyer of National Library. I had stood, waited and read in that foyer a hundred times, but seeing it in its youth, in black and white, I truly appreciated its beauty and it remains one of my favourite spots of our city since.
Freeman was enlisted into the production by David Brice, the evening newsreader for CTC 7 (for newer Canberrans, in the days before multiple television networks, Canberra enjoyed just two TV stations, CTC7 and the ABC). Brice had optioned a novel by local writers Elizabeth and Don Campbell, and felt it would make for great cinema.
Brice also drew in a number of local Canberra businessmen to invest in the production, and the film's $300,000 budget was raised locally.
"The idea of this local production was a very big thing at the time," says Pike.
"I knew of many dentists and doctors who were recruited by David Brice to invest, because he was positioning this as the film that was going to kick-start the Australian film industry.
"It was an early, grassroots form of crowd-funding."
Brice and his crew drew on support from work colleagues and local talent, and apparently Prime Minister John Gorton instructed government departments to assist the production, provided there was no direct expenditure.
The producers enjoyed waived filming costs at the National Library of Australia, Academy of Science, Kings Hall and Fairbairn RAAF Base parade ground, and were able to draw on the use of RAAF VIP aircraft, ACT and Commonwealth police vehicles, and the Duntroon Military Band.
Many local Canberrans gave their time as extras, including a number of off-duty ACT police officers, CTC 7 staff and Australian National University students.
The Demonstrator premiered at Center Cinema on 5 April 1971, with VIP guests Noel Ferrier, Mike Walsh, Malcolm Fraser, and Ian Sinclair.
The opening night celebrations of a champagne supper on the roof of the new YWCA building in Alinga Street were fittingly interrupted by demonstrators waving placards protesting against the low pay they'd received as extras.
The film wasn't the success its investors were hoping. It enjoyed a number of weeks' income from its Canberra season, but would not make an impact on the national box office for its distributor, Columbia Pictures.
The hopes that it would kick-start an Australian film industry were fulfilled by two other films that were shooting at the same timeout released later that year - Wake in Fright and Walkabout both debuted in 1971 and proved that Australian film could be both critically and commercially successful.
- The Demonstrator screens at the National Film and Sound Archive 6pm Friday 21 February. Admission by gold coin donation to Friends of the NFSA. Visit archivefriends.org.au for more details.
