''The Naked Bunyip'' is a 1970 Australian documentary film directed by John B. Murray. The film explores sex in Australia using a fictional framework.
Synopsis
''The Naked Bunyip'' is a sex documentary and a blend of fact and fiction; "
tincorporates the fictionalizing of the 'real' that had been a feature of tendencies in French 'new wave' and the American avant-garde narrative cinema."
Graeme Blundell plays a shy young man who works for an ad agency, and the agency hires him to survey about sex in Australia. The film consists of "unrehearsed and unscripted" interviews as Blundell's character investigates a variety of sexual experiences, all except for the "normal" heterosexual experience.
Among the people interviewed are
Dame Edna Everage
Dame Edna Everage, often known simply as Dame Edna, is a character created and performed by Australian comedian Barry Humphries, known for her lilac-coloured ("wisteria hue") hair and cat eye glasses ("face furniture"); her favourite flower, t ...
,
Jacki Weaver
Jacqueline Ruth Weaver (born 25 May 1947) is an Australian theatre, film and television actress. Weaver emerged in the 1970s as a symbol of the Australian New Wave through her work in Ozploitation films such as '' Stork'' (1971), ''Alvin Purp ...
, Aggy Read,
Harry M. Miller
Harry Maurice Miller (6 January 1934 – 4 July 2018) was a New Zealand Australian promoter, publicist and media agent.
Life and career
Born on 6 January 1934 in New Zealand, Miller grew up in the Auckland suburb of Grey Lynn. He moved to Aus ...
, and
Russell Morris
Russell Norman Morris (born 31 July 1948) is an Australian singer-songwriter and guitarist who had five Australian Top 10 singles during the late 1960s and early 1970s. On 1 July 2008, the Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA) recog ...
.
Production
Phillip Adams and John Murray decided to make the film after much study of the Australian film industry at the time, noting the popularity of 16mm travel documentaries shown in public halls in the suburbs and the country. They decided to make a comic film about sex as the most commercial option. Finance was provided almost entirely by tyre dealer
Bob Jane
Robert Frederick Jane (18 December 1929 – 28 September 2018) was an Australian race car driver and prominent entrepreneur and business tycoon. A four-time winner of the Armstrong 500, the race that became the prestigious Bathurst 1000 and a ...
and it was shot on 16mm.
Release
Murray chose to exhibit ''The Naked Bunyip'' himself rather than use a distributor, often using his own equipment, hiring theatres directly and handling his own publicity. This proved successful and the movie ended up running for two years in cinemas.
It led to director
Tim Burstall
Timothy Burstall AM (20 April 1927 – 19 April 2004) was an English Australian film director, writer and producer, best known for hit Australian movie ''Alvin Purple'' (1973) and its sequel ''Alvin Rides Again''.
Burstall's films featured ea ...
also deciding to use the direct approach for his comedy film ''
Stork
Storks are large, long-legged, long-necked wading birds with long, stout bills. They belong to the family called Ciconiidae, and make up the order Ciconiiformes . Ciconiiformes previously included a number of other families, such as herons an ...
'' in 1971. ''The Naked Bunyip'' was the stepping stone for Australian film distribution in the 1970s, leading to Australian films' presence at international festivals and the US release of ''
Mad Max
''Mad Max'' is an Australian post-apocalyptic Action film, action film series and media franchise created by George Miller (filmmaker), George Miller and Byron Kennedy. It began in 1979 with ''Mad Max (film), Mad Max'', and was followed by thre ...
'' in 1979.
Censorship controversy
The Commonwealth censors insisted on five minutes of footage being removed but the producers refused, simply blacking out the offending images and bleeping the soundtrack. On the black footage, Murray inserted a picture of a
bunyip
The bunyip is a creature from the aboriginal mythology of southeastern Australia, said to lurk in swamps, billabongs, creeks, riverbeds, and waterholes.
Name
The origin of the word ''bunyip'' has been traced to the Wemba-Wemba or Wergaia ...
performing a parody of the forbidden action. Murray also previewed the film without cuts to censors, angering the censor. This led to a debate about censorship which helped lead to a reform of censorship standards.
Retrieved 20 September 2012
Footnotes
References
*
*
External links
*
''The Naked Bunyip''
at Oz Movies
John B. Murray, 'Genesis of ''The Naked Bunyip'' ' at ''Senses of Cinema''
{{DEFAULTSORT:Naked Bunyip, The
1970 films
1970 documentary films
Documentary films about sexuality
Australian documentary films
Films shot in 16 mm film
1970s English-language films