MALLACOOTA STAMPEDE

Australiam, 1979, 50 minutes, Colour.
Deborah Conway.
Directed by Peter Tammer.

Mallacoota Stampede is a short feature by writer-director Peter Tammer, director of the intense Journey to the End of Night as well as a number of experimental short films. It portrays a holiday town in north-eastern Victoria and the typical summer holiday behaviour of the tourists, especially from Melbourne. Much of the film works as a collage of people's behaviour, encounters - with a touch of the corny and the drab. There is comment on the sexual mores of adolescents - and the masculine-feminine attitude of the tourists, symbolised into entertainers, female impersonators, who come to the town. While there is a lack of dramatic build-up, the film's observations of an Australian summer are affectionate as well as critical.

1. A portrait of a cross-section of Australians? An entertaining look, a critical look?

2. The work of Peter Tamer: documentary interest, documentary style? Collage of observations? Interviews? Experimental techniques?

3. The quality of observation? Accuracy and insight? The blend of the comic and the serious? An affectionate critique? Regrets at the ordinariness and drabness of behaviour?

4. The film as part narrative, part documentary observation? The accuracy of the detail? Interest in detail? The characters and the dramatic build-up?

5. The film's delineation of Australian characteristics, Australian characters? People in an environment? Behaviour, values? The director's view of the holiday, the holiday town, holiday behaviour?

6. The Australian summer and Christmas? Australians on holidays? Going away from the cities, being together, the crowds of cars on the roads, the camp, the camping equipment and apparatus? The beach, swimming and fishing, sunbaking? The life of the town - sleepy but coming alive during the holidays? Shops? Radio stations? Social life, entertainment? An average, ordinary way of holiday life?

7. The picture of families,' family bonds, activities? The teenagers and their enjoyment, boredom, relationships, preoccupations. sexual encounters?

8. The title, the reference to the Mallacoota stampede? Mallacoota and the coast: natural beauty in the bush? The caravans and their arriving, the caravan park? The camera roving over the campsites, the town and the activities? The people in the coastal town? The audience invited to watch? The activity of the stampede and the rodeo?

9. The local boys: Donny and his friends, lounging in the shops, chatting up the girls, memories of last year? Their work on the boats, the catches? Sunbaking? The friendship with Deb? Wanting to go out, awkwardness? Mutual help? Donny and the two entertainers, fixing their car? Working the spotlight for their act? The pick-up? The party in the motel? Sex? Debbie and her rejection of Donny? His wandering - and the uncertain end of the film? The boy's life during the year, the change at Christmas?

10. The picture of the family: the father wanting to help the girls put up the tent, their reaction, the meals, Debbie's rudeness and the reconciliation? The talk with Michael? Debbie and her friend, putting up the tent together? Wandering the town, Donny and the year before, chatting, boredom, pretending she was sick and giving him the brush-off? Their lack of money? Boredom? The friendship with Michael - and the discussions about feminism, Freud? The swimming nudity, sexual encounter? Michael leaving? Their enjoyment of the holiday? Its impact on their lives?

11. Michael and his arrival, background, incessant talking, theories about feminism, psychology? University studies? The walk along the beach, the nude swim? Reaction to the locals? The sexual encounter with Debbie? Leaving? The pattern of his summer?

12. Wanda and Michelle and the car breaking down, Donny's broadminded attitude and helping them, the discussions with Debbie? The place of masculine and feminine roles in Australian society? Female impersonators accepted as entertainers? The show, giving out the leaflets, the sexual patter, the imitation of the songs (New York, New York etc), picking up Donny's friend, the party and the sexual play? Their ready acceptance as entertainers in the coastal holiday towns?

13. The picture of the rodeo and the enjoyment? Australian activity, spectators?

14. The insights offered by the director on Australian men and women, their attitudes and behaviour, conventionality, tradition? Conservative attitudes, broadminded? The possibility of change or not? The film as a piece of Australiana?