[REL] Lost in the Bush (1973)

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Warg
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[REL] Lost in the Bush (1973)

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[Image]
Probably not an official cover ...

Info:
https://www.rarefilmfinder.com/movie.php?id=55898
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0359618
https://www.ozmovies.com.au/movie/lost-in-the-bush


Summary:
"On Friday morning 12th August 1864, Isaac (9), Jane (7), and Frank (3½) were sent by their mother to cut and collect broom bush from a patch about a mile from their hut. After gathering the brush they mistakenly walked in the opposite direction and became lost in the vast swathes of heath that covered the area. Their father and station hands searched for them that night and through Saturday. By Sunday more than 36 men were on a systematic but unsuccessful search. It was on the Monday that 2 searchers found their tracks, which the party followed until rain on Tuesday night obliterated the tracks. When they still could not detect any trace on Thursday, a man rode to Mt Elgin station 30 miles away to obtain Aboriginal trackers. He returned with 3 trackers on the Friday evening just after the tracks had been rediscovered. The search resumed on Saturday, augmented by the assistance of the trackers. It was approaching sunset on Saturday 20th, when their father riding ahead of the search party found the children asleep under a clump of saplings. Weak and emaciated, the children had been lost for nine days and eight nights, having walked approximately 100kms through the bush." (from the YouTube post by Harley Calvert)

About the movie:
"The world premiere was held in the town of Horsham on 13th June 1973. Distribution thereafter was mainly via schools and non-commercial film libraries for free, as might be expected of a film funded by the Victorian government, and produced by its education department audio-visual education centre.
The film was released on VHS, and copies derived from this source circulate amongst collectors. The image is only fair quality VHS, with faded colour and streaking, and the sound acceptable, but the usual rule applies, in that it's better than nothing for those interested in reviving memories of a film they most likely saw within a school context. As a result of 150th celebrations of the original event in the Wimmera region, the film has now been transferred to DVD, with the release scheduled for the 15th August, 2014 as part of the celebrations.
While the film might be thought to be of interest mainly to Victorians, who were fed the tale and the film as part of their schooling, the story, and the film, remind Ozmovie cultists of the two century plus image of the bush as a hostile, threatening environment, a potent threat to innocent young children who stray into it (the same fate awaited the children who strayed into the desert in John Heyer's Back of Beyond, but Lost in the Bush offers a happier outcome - as did the later New England based real life story, Little Boy Lost).
The film remains interesting because of its traditional realist techniques (some of the framing and acting is reminiscent of Soviet cinema), the use of improvisation with the inexperienced children and adult performers, and the always potent juxtaposition of the unknown bush as a threat to pioneers carving a piece of civilisation out of the wilderness.
" (compilated from the OZmovies page)

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Watch online on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-X7sM13EhG0&t=38s = Like this post to see ed2k links  [313.04 Mb]
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