STRIKEBOUND

Australia, 1984, 101 minutes, Colour.
Chris Haywood, Carol Burns, Hugh Keays-Byrne?.
Directed by Richard Lowenstein.

Strikebound is a semi-documentary about troubles on the Victorian coalfields during the 1930s. The film was based on the memoirs of Wattie and Agnes Doig. They are played in the film by Chris Haywood and Carol Burns.

The film is very much in favour of unions, rights for workers, critique of the owners of industry. Richard Lowenstein had made a short film, Evictions, based on the research by his mother Wendy Lowenstein about social conditions in Victoria.

His film career has focused on youth issues as well as popular music, especially that of Michael Hutchence and INXS. His feature films include Dogs in Space and Say a Little Prayer as well as He Died With a Falafel in His Hand.

1. The acclaim for the film? For the director? For treatment of social themes? For what audience was the film made?

2. The background of Richard and Wendy Lowenstein? Socialism? Social movements in Australia? Communism? Awareness of social movements, oral tradition? Concern? The nature of social change in Australia, in Victoria? The strengths of the screenplay in using oral tradition? The style of docu-drama? The interviews with the Doigs and their framing the film? A blend of documentary style, names and dates, with drama? The impact of the film? Informative? Sombre? Emotional?

3. The stance of the film: towards the workers, the miners, social movements during the Depression, politics in the '30s? The militancy of the miners and the unionists? As seen in retrospect? The use of contemporary footage? The film arguing its case - intellectually, emotionally? Propaganda? The values portrayed? The empathy asked for?

4. The film as contributing to Australian social history? Australians' knowledge of such history? Memory? Capitalism, Labor, the Labor Movement, communist parties, red scares? Politics in Victoria? Subsequent union clashes and divisions?

5. The quality of production: the detailed re-creation of period? The use of Gippsland locations? Korumburra. a '30s town in the Depression, poverty? The Doigs' house, the halls, the shops? The importance of re-creating the mine locations: the light, the dark, the claustrophobic effect? Audiences sharing the mine experience? Action sequences? The contribution of the music, the songs, ballads?

6. The period and the experience of the Depression: the atmosphere of the '30s, the migrants and their poverty, working in the mines, comparisons with the British mines, the ugliness of the way of life, the poor wages, the standover tactics of management, the mutual stubbornness, the dangers in the mines, the leading to militancy, the support groups, the religious groups? The film using colour, the final black and white photography? Look, decor? Authentic?

7. The portrait of the Doigs: Agnes and Wattie Doig and their being introduced, the comment at the end? The impact of seeing the real Doigs fifty years later? Audience interest in them. sympathy? The importance of their lived experience. Agnes and her religion. Presbyterian background. the Salvation Army. her growing concern, social involvement? Wattie and his communist affiliations, the Labor Movement and its toughness?

8. The detail of mine conditions: the slush, the explosions. the tunnels and their danger, the rails? The miners as characters within these conditions? Growing anger, the background of the strike, the meetings, the organisation, leadership? The background of Wonthaggi, the Communist Party, the bringing in of scab labour? The political attack on Labor? The politicking, the bashings? The miners and their paying off the scabs with ten pounds? The drunken Yugoslav? The sabotage? The decision to stay down the mine? Police clash? The anxiety of families and wives? The miners coming out? The audience getting a feel for this strike and crisis situation?

9. The consequences of the strike? The final newsreel material being located within the drama of the film and the history of the times?

10. Wattie and Chris Haywood's skill in creating a character in a docu-drama? His place in Korumburra, relationship with Agnes. his work, the red flag, police attitudes, the attitude of the manager? King and tokens? The reaction to the scabs - and Wattie's violence, chasing the scab through the town? Yet his sentiment with the baby? His relationship with the group of miners, his friends? Seeing them at work, the decisions for the strike, the meetings, the reaction to the scabs, with Idris Williams? His British background, Scots singing, joy? Staying down the mine? Leadership? A Labor character?

11. Agnes and her British background, the comments on her Presbyterian allegiance, her moving to the Salvation Army? Her dedication, attending prayer meetings, songs? Her uniform? Her devotion to Wattie? The clash between the 'Onward Christian Soldiers' and the red flag? Mrs King and the baby, her care, her growing social concern, her speeches, her attacking management, attacking the police? Her standing by, helping the wives, buying? Her growing awareness of social movements and some of the inadequacies of church support?

12. The portrait of the manager and the police? Their being portrayed as villains? Lacking sympathy? (Too strongly?) Their actions as regards the strike, its continuing, towards the men? The attitudes of the police, their use of power?

13. The portrait of the individual miners, the old man and the cause, the miners at work, striking, demonstrations? Staying down the mine and its repercussions for them?

14. Idris Williams and his background, Wonthaggi, popular, his authority, singing with the group, marching with the men?

15. The picture of the women in Korumburra, their support of their husbands, the poverty of the Depression, the poverty of the strike?

16. The emotional impact of the film, its stances? The portrayal of the strikers as ordinary human beings - sympathetic, unsympathetic in their treatment of the scabs, the railway station sequence and paying them off, the chase of the scab and the bashings?

17. The contribution of the film to Australian history, social awareness, comment on religious issues, political issues?