[tof] MDG at VCA, Tuesday December 13, screening 'The Last Valley' (Peter Vaughan)

[tof at lists.culture2.org]

The Last MELBOURNE DOCUMENTARY GROUP for 2005
SBS and things SOCIO POLITICAL AND SEDITOUS

The on-going saga of SBS and the Documentary Commissioning Editor:
A debrief and discussion

FOLLOWED BY
Premier Screening of the “THE LAST VALLEY”, a social political 
documentary by Peter Vaughan, with filmmaker Q & A.

In these trying days for documentary filmmakers, the MDG presents a 
program to get it all off your chest and view a film that will make 
your production difficulties seem like a romp in the park!!!

DATE: Tuesday December 13
TIME: SBS discussion: 6.30 pm
  Screening: 7.30 pm
VENUE: Cinema 2
  VCA Film and TV School
  Grant St, South Melbourne
RSVP:  info_vic at aftrs.edu.au
NOTE: RSVP is a must!!!! Due to limited seating. No RSVP, no entry

THE LAST VALLEY

It’s social, it’s political and it may be seditious!!

SYNOPSIS
Peter Vaughan’s “The Last Valley”challenges the myth that Australia is 
a land with a limitless frontier and inexhaustible natural resources. 
The film is set in East Gippsland, a remote region in far eastern 
Victoria far from the eyes of the world. For fifty years it has been 
logged unsustainably to supply the bulk of Victoria’s timber needs, and 
as a source of cheap woodchips for the Japanese paper industry. The 
Last Valley chronicles the conflict and change that accompanied the 
closing scenes of Victoria’s old-growth logging era."

BACKGROUND
Peter Vaughan followed the events that unfolded in some of the old 
growth forests of East Gippsland, from 1999 to 2003. For 3 years he 
lived locally in Orbost, and gained access to the stories of the 
loggers, the conservationists and the townspeople. The film examines 
what happens to a community when the resource that had supported it 
runs out. It also examines the political/environmental consequences of 
government mismanagement of a finite resource and the conflict that 
results.
However the story of the film is only half the story…….

ATTEMPTS TO STOP THE FILMING: THIS COULD HAPPEN TO YOU!!!
  During the making of the film the logging department, then the DNRE, 
now renamed DSE (Dept of Sustainability and Environment), went to great 
effort to prevent its completion. Tactics ranged from trying to insist 
that the production pay a retrospective "license fee" of $5000 per day 
for any filming that had already been undertaken in state forests or 
National Park (both publicly owned areas). The DSE also insisted that 
the filmmakers get release forms from any government officer that had 
been filmed, before filming anywhere else in state forests. They 
threatened legal action if there was failure to comply. The production 
received legal advice that these demands had no legal basis.

Peter was arrested by the DSS on two occasions whist filming, but was 
not charged. However in early 2003 the DSE began a legal prosecution 
against him alleging that he had assaulted one of their officers. He 
was also charged with "littering'; "obstruct a lawful logging 
operation" etc, etc. The matter went to two trials and the DSE withdrew 
all charges on the second day of the second trial after Peter screened 
his unbroken video record of the events.

Peter will attend the screening to talk about these and many, many more 
issues that surrounded the making of the film, not the least being the 
long and wearying attempts to secure a broadcaster (it is now with ABC 
TV) and financing.
AFTRS NEW ADDRESS

The new AFTRS School is situated at the end of Latrobe Street, opposite 
Telstra Dome.
Our new phone number is 03 9602 2300
Our new fax number is 03 9642 0718
There is a Wilson’s Car Park next door to the school on Harbour 
Esplanade, which charges a flat rate of $5 per day.
The following tram routes stop outside AFTRS: Trams 24, 30, 48, 86 and 
the City Circle.
Buses 216 and 219 stop at the corner of Spencer and Latrobe Streets.


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