Short Changed
Directed byGeorge Ogilvie
Written byBob Merritt
StarringDavid Kennedy
Jamie Agius
CinematographyPeter Levy
Edited byRichard Francis-Bruce
Music byChris Neal
Distributed byGreater Union
Release date
  • 13 November 1986 (1986-11-13)
CountryAustralia
LanguageEnglish
BudgetA$1.2 million[1]
Box officeA$14,000 (Australia)[2]

Short Changed is a 1986 Australian film directed by George Ogilvie based on a script by Aboriginal writer Bob Merritt, who described it as a "black/white Kramer vs Kramer".[3]

Plot

After spending six years in the bush, Stuart, a young Aboriginal man, is trying to get in contact with his nine-year-old son, who lives with his white mother and grandfather in a well-to-do area, goes to a Christian Brothers school, and is unaware of his father's existence.[4]

Cast

The cast included a number of Merritt's Eora Centre students,[5] among others.[6]

Production

Merritt started working on the script in 1981 and wanted to direct himself. However he was worried about getting the project financed with him as director and instead decided to work with George Ogilvie, had directed Merritt's play The Cake Man in 1976,[3] and was a member of staff at Merritt's Eora Centre for the Visual and Performing Arts in Sydney.[7]

The film was partly funded by the New South Wales Film Corporation. Shooting started in April 1985 and went for seven weeks. There were some technical problems making the movie which held up its release.[8][7]

Reception

The film was not a box-office success, but it remains notable as one of the first films by an Aboriginal writer. National Film & Sound Archive curators later described it as a depiction of "the daily struggle for dignity of a contemporary black man caught between two worlds", and called it "a successful collaboration between an Indigenous writer and a non-Indigenous director".[7]

Critic David Stratton wrote that it was "an excellent film which presents a very vital problem with great sympathy, understanding and fairness... one of the most interesting, low-budget, urban Australian films to have come out in recent years".[4]

Awards

The film was nominated in several categories in the 1986 AFI Awards, but did not win any of them.[5]

References

  1. ↑ Kathy Bail, "Short Changed", Australian Film 1978-1992, Oxford Uni Press, 1993 p204
  2. ↑ "Australian Films at the Australian Box Office", Film Victoria. Retrieved 24 October 2012
  3. 1 2 Mary Colbert, "Positive action: Bob Merritt, playwright and screenwriter", Cinema Papers, May 1985 p24
  4. 1 2 Kruger, Debbie. "Bob Merritt's message of understanding". The Weekend Australian. Retrieved 9 December 2021 – via Debbie Kruger.
  5. 1 2 "Short Changed: About". Ozmovies. Retrieved 9 December 2021.
  6. ↑ "Short Changed (1985): Credits". Australian Screen Online. National Film & Sound Archive. Retrieved 9 December 2021.
  7. 1 2 3 Byrnes, Paul; Moreton, Romaine. "Short Changed (1985): Curator's notes, and Secondary curator's notes". Australian Screen Online. National Film & Sound Archive. Retrieved 9 December 2021.
  8. ↑ David Stratton, The Avocado Plantation: Boom and Bust in the Australian Film Industry, Pan MacMillan, 1990 p205-207
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