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Now, for the first time comes a seering tale of revolution, sex and Gestetner machines.   Torn from the pages of life, this recently discovered text, lifts the lid on the revolutionaries, cadres and part time insurrectionists holed up in The Bakery in Melbourne during the late 1960s. With every move watched by the security services and the psycho sexual pressure reaching boiling point, this explosive tale is an unforgettable journey into the dark byways of dialectic materialism.  From the pen of hard hitting scribe and historian Ken Mansell here for your pleasure is the illustrated, digital, interactive edition of The Yeast Is Red.  You'll laugh, you'll cry, you'll stare in wonder at the adventures of the Monash Labor Club. Using previous unseen research materials from our Award winning TV series PERSONS OF INTEREST, this unique document is free to down load, its even got end notes.  In exchange we want you to buy the DVD of our series. Do yourself a favour and buy PERSONS OF INTEREST here and maintain the rage.

A NIGHT TO REMEMBER

It was the stuff dreams were made of for a young filmmaker.  The old Rose Bay Wintergarden cinema three thousand people watching your film prior to the announcement of the winners of the 1972 Benson & Hedges Awards, the Sydney Films Festival’s short film competition.  Shows how long ago it was, a cigarette company as sponsor.   Esben Storm and I went to school together and in our final year formed Smart St Films.  We were working at the Commonwealth Film Unit (C.F.U.), the government film studio, and making our first films after hours.  Staying back at night to get into cutting rooms and making as much use of the contacts we were developing as possible.  We’d made two half hour films STEPHANY and IN HIS PRIME.  Both dramas but the latter shot in the style of a observational documentary.  We decided to enter the Sydney Film Festival short film competition but didn’t want to compete against each other.  Being clever dicks, we entered IN HIS PRIME in the documentary section and STEPHANY in drama.

A blast as both films made the finals in their respective categories.  There’s nothing quite like sitting in a dark theatre checking the competition and feeling the tension grow. It’s not the Oscars but when you’re twenty it seems like it is.  Many of the other films were either from the film school and had plenty of facilities or were Government grant films.  Our little films were paid for out of our wages at the C.F.U. -  $48 a week I think it was.  Total budget for each film was $2000.  Stephany was shot with one actor in one basement room over 50 hours straight.  Start Friday night finish before work on Monday.  As working class boys there was an edge in going up against the grant recipients and subsidised film school students.  We were motivated and hungry.

I can’t remember who announced the winners but Festival Director David Stratton was on stage handing out certificates.  I think the first category was experimental, can’t remember who won.  Next was documentary.  Although there had been some grumblings about IN HIS PRIME not being a documentary, in truth well founded, it won.  Esben was sitting next to me and we both exploded.  Up he went to get his certificate and a cheque for $2,000.  Then came my category, drama.  “The winner is…” and like some sort of car crash there was an interminable pause and silence, or so it seemed, before the man on the stage said the word STEPHANY.  Noise crashed round and in a daze I walked up to the stage.  Collect prizes, shake hands and smile to the audience..  Turned round to leave and dazzled by the spotlights, I fell off the stage into the front row.  I didn’t feel a thing and brought the house down.  We’d won two of the three categories, a feat that hasn’t been repeated.  There followed the party to end them all in our run down studio/terrace house in Crown St. Darlinghurst.  The prize of $2000 for each film paid off the production costs.  We’d made films that were prize winners and commercial successes.  STEPHANY later won best black and white photography at the AFI Awards.  The Sydney Film Festival certificate still hangs on my office wall.  The crease in it clearly visible from where it took a fall. 

Those two wins convinced us that we were moguls and were enough for Esben Storm and I to resign from the Commonwealth Film Unit and start development of our first feature film – “27A”.  That film had it’s world premier at the Sydney Film Festival, won best film and best actor at the AFI Awards and to this day I’m still the youngest winner of Best film at the AFIs.  

Footnote:  Once you’ve won a couple of prizes it’s easy to get blasé about the arbitrary nature of success in film competitions.  In post production on “27A” we decided to enter the competition again.  This time with the express intention of winning the prize not just in two categories but in all three.  The plan was to shoot one set of rushes that could be edited into three different films and entered into each of the three categories – experimental, documentary and drama.  MOTION PICTURE was our first 35mm shoot and although we couldn’t get together the documentary and drama films we did complete the experimental one.  To this day the film is a skidmark across the landscape of Australian cinema.  Selected as a finalist by judges Daniel Thomas, curator of the Art Gallery of NSW, and film producer Tony Buckley, it was screened before a full house at the Rose Bay wintergarden.  As Tony Buckley said to me later it demanded inclusion and to do otherwise would have reflected badly on the judges themselves.  Unfortunately the film is so out there, so in you face, so confronting that anyone who saw it that afternoon will never forget the experience.  It single handedly destroyed the whole competition. The Benson & Hedges Company indicated that they would not honour the cheque if it won and ultimately withdrew their sponsorship entirely.  The laboratory, Colorfilm,  which processed the negative and made the final print was so offended by the content that they burnt the negative and gave me the only print  in existence.  Even though the titles were badly exposed, legendary Festival projectionist Ron West took it upon himself to run a separate reel of titles and then do a projector change for the body of the film.  Bless him - a true film lover who saved the day.  The film is about 7 minutes long and that includes about 5 minutes of titles.  At the beginning of the screening there were aproximately 3200 people in the cinema.  Seven minutes later there were no more than a dozen.  These included the serial walker outer Victor Kay, Director Dr George Miller and I think Tim Burstall plus a few others. People were climbing over seats and fighting each other to get out.  It was pandemonium.  Outside in the foyer we had a camera crew waiting, with actor Richard Moir dressed as a current affairs journo.    People were bursting through the doors, covering their mouths, outraged.  Our “man” then began asking what they thought of that state of the Australian film industry and the quality of our films.  People wanted to find to kill me, they wanted to tear down the screen, it was brilliant.   No half - hearted opinions here.  We received a check for $400 as a beaten finalist and once again we had covered the cost of production.  It was a major success.  Not just profitable and deeply involving audiences but garnering huge publicity.  Ken Quinnel film critic for the weekly, Nation Review devoted nearly an entire page to attacking a seven minute film - “MOTION PICTURE”, condemning me and all associated with it.  The film had worked on every level. And the content?  I’ll tell you about that later.

So the Sydney Film Festival, to me is part of my growing up as a filmmaker, part of the innocence of youthful energy and high hopes.  The festival was very much part of a burgeoning film industry and national culture which we were part of.  It was connected to it’s community as all great festivals are.  It’s my home festival and I’ll always regard it with the warmth of shared experience.

A Night To Remember  © 2013 Haydn Keenan

With less than a week to the World Premiere of our ASIO series Persons Of Interest at the Melbourne Internaitonal Film Festival, we though you might be interested in some previously unseen ASIO film.  Here is ASIO's surveillance of youthful threat to the State in the form of the Socialist Youth Alliance. ASIO's ongoing surveillance of groups like this which had no demonstrable capacity to carry out their ideological platform provided valuable fodder for conservative Governments capitalising on electoral fear.

 Soclialist Youth Alliance Carlton, Victoria April 1971

Look at Life No.1:   "ETERNITY"

An occasional film diary looking at life around us. This one is a look at the last exhibition at the Damien Minton Gallery in Redfern, Sydney before relocating. The theme was Eternity - the word made close to Sydney's heart by the late Arthur Stace as he wrote it millions of times on city's footpaths at night. Contributing artists include Martin Sharp, William Yang, Garry Shead, Peter Kingston, Jon Lewis.

January 12, 2012 is the centenary of Sir Douglas Mawson's Antarctic expedition reaching Antarctica.  This expedition lead to Australia's claim over 42% of the frozen continent.  One of our Heros, Frank Hurley, was the cinematographer on the expedition.  He was gung ho in the most life threatening situations, he was an entrepreneur, and show biz through and through.  He was also a scoundrel who sold several hundred percent of the copyright in his films to investors.  Nothing was going to stop him and Australia is the richer for it.  Check out some background on this extraordinary man.

Ghosts Of The Civil Dead:  We have a very limited number of DVD copies of this unique film for sale.  Directed by John Hillcoat (The Proposition, The Road) and Produced by Evan English this is one of the most extraordinary films to come out of Australia.  A rumination on French philosopher Michel Foucault's theories on the power of fear and violence to control people.

There are now no authentic copies of Ghosts on the market; only pirates are available.  We authored this extraordinary disc and these copies are from our personal supply.  There will be no more made available once this supply is exhausted.

The Institute For Titling Australian Film

(A founding member of the Academy of Australian Institutes)

The titling of Australian film has been a dilemma for more than thirty years. Too often we've endured titles that are a turn off, make people look away, walk faster past the posters and create an initial response which is negative. Do you want a title like Wendy Cracked A Walnut, Bored Olives, Spotswood or James when you could have a name which rolls off the tongue, sticks in the brain and makes your audience want to know more? Sorry if you produced these, but it's the truth.

What have Mad Max, High Noon, Catch 22 and Psycho got in common?.. title zing that's what.

Using patent pending statistical parsing software, TIFTAF offers that something special to film makers.

A good title won't make a poor film great. But it gives filmmakers the chance to let audiences be the judge. You'll hold your head high and increase box office when people remember the title.

TIFTAF offers a personal and confidential service that gives you the best chance in the market place; whether it be finance or distribution stage.

We read your script, meet with you and talk out your plans. TIFTAF then comes back with a list of potential titles. It's never too late to call TIFTAF, from script to fine cut to troublesome answer print. Our emergency response team is at your service.

Got a director who's absolutely locked onto a bad title? We provide a discreet counselling session with that person to find out what it is they truly want for their film. Trouble at this stage can often be an indicator of potential problems with completion guarantors down the line. For a Producer or Investor - forewarned is forearmed.

For a $250 non refundable first session, why not see if you want a top title? The sky's the limit for your film. $1000 TIFTAF fee covers projects up to $500,000, $1500 up to $1M and $3000 for everything over that. There are no further claims from us regarding your title. What could be fairer? Ask about our "Government-financed-project" discounts.

For a very competitive $500, we provide a comprehensive Title Search for all your E&O requirements. Plus there's our font, poster image and foreign version packages. Talk to us about our one-stop prices.

Marketing's in your budget why not titling? A good title gets the people selling your film off to a flying start. They'll love you for it. People want to associate with a good title.

Our counsellors and titlesmiths are drawn from the disciplines of poetry, grammar, youth, statistics, the general public and experienced theatre owners. A cross discipline think tank at your disposal.

Get real. Get TIFTAF.    
Contact us on our discrete call line:  (61) 2 9356 4500

 T.I.F.T.A.F.  Parsing (Patent Pending) software at work: 

Numeric Driver: 3.10 to Yuma, Twelve Angry Men, 8 1/2

Provides a concrete hook which audiences grab.

Present Participle Action: Going Down, Train Spotting

Can be recessive if not used correctly this one has the ability to be very active in a viewers mind.

Adverb + Present Participle Slider: Desperately Seeking Susan

The adverb qualifies a present participle, making it stronger and more proactive. Attracts the feminine.

Inscrutable Turn And Drive: The Catcher In The Rye, Catch 22, P'tang Yang Kipperbang

The most intricate and intellectually dynamic of all. Unintelligible initially, the title occurs during the film. Catch 22. It expands, turns and drives the plot forward by becoming intelligible. The title becomes an onomatopoeia in the audience's mind. Like Beijing duck, this needs an early TIFTAF booking. (Script stage is recommended)

Gerund Power Point: The Shining

Turn your noun into an active verb. Provides dynamic through flow at first contact with potential audience.

The Noun Pound, with indefinite/definite article or adjective: Psycho, Medium Cool, The Third Man.

The most common title in use but still effective as a direct plant.

52 Card Pick Up: Choose the 52 most important words in the script. We throw them on the floor and pick up the first three/four. (by Negotiation) Used successfully by the Dadaists and Surrealists.

The Cocktail: A mix of the above. Using our Parse Overdrive: select your own grammar categories (Up to 4 in a title available at present), adverb, present participle, noun, adjective. You make the mix: Two Lane Black Top,

Historic Root: Titanic, Alamo

Single word impact generally based on a known historic event. Capitalises on audience general knowledge to fire interest in the subject. Used sparingly and often big budget.

The Name Game: With preparatory phrase or defining adjective: Irma La Douce, Cool Hand Luke, Mad Max, In Search Of Gregory

The Adverb Noun Signal: Strictly Ballroom

Punchy slogan territory. Makes for assertive signs on walls, posters and trailers.

With The Lot:. Dr Strangelove Or: How I Learned To Stop Worrying And Love the Bomb, This Is Spinal Tap.

A whole sentence as a title, often shortened in the public mind to a root phrase but loved for their length and pseud's ability to correct people who only know the root.

Iambic Haiku: Romper Stomper, TIFTAF.

The metre makes it memorable

Stuff which might help

Check here to see the work of interesting young photographer Dom Keenan

Are you middle class and unemployed? Go here for money to be a film maker.

THE Koori history web site Includes photos of the making of Backroads.

Internet Movie Data Base Great film data base. Register and vote for our films.

National Film & Sound Archive Knockout underfinanced central archive of Australia's cultural history. Searchable source materials.

British Film Institute Good entry point for British films and history.

When you can't find any here, help the Search for Extra Terrestrial Intelligence.

The Smart St. executive psychology test. Go to The Chess Cube and click through to a quick game live on the net. You must be able to negotiate a deal on the phone and play the game at the same time. All our staff can.

Smart St. Films

                      In Production For 47 Years.

Formed in Melbourne in 1969 by Haydn Keenan and Esben Storm. Smart St. has been making quality cinema drama and TV documentaries ever since. We're not the biggest but we are one of the oldest continuously working film companies in Australia. We've managed to produce high quality films with little Government production investment, a rarity in Australia.

We have produced three feature films, two of which, 27A and Going Down, are regularly cited as milestones in the development of the Australian film industry. The third, Pandemonium, is a skid mark across the landscape of Australian film to this day.

We've made a dozen documentaries, plus the odd music vid and TV commercial.

We don't have a huge slate but it's all good stuff. We've been in for the long haul and made films which have clearly targeted audiences and an innovative and individual approach to both production and distribution.

Our early films were short dramas which began to win awards almost immediately.  We won two of the three awards on offer at the Sydney Film Festival short film competition in the early 70s (A Night To Remember) and immediately decided we were ready for a feature film.  Whilst the Australian film industry was busy making historical melodrama and sex comedies we set about producing a social realist piece about a man trapped inside a mental asylum.  With a stylistic nod to Ken Loach and the British new wave, 27A is a powerful film with a humanist heart.  Against much bigger budget films 27A won best film and Robert McDarra the film's star won best actor at the Australian Film Institute Awards.  Aged 21 when the film started shooting Haydn Keenan  is still the youngest winner of best film in the history of the awards.

In 1975 we opened a studio in a Victorian mansion in Sydney's, Bondi Junction which held cutting rooms, office space, preview theatre and workshops.  From here films such as In Search Of Anna, Journey Among Women and Jim Sharman's The Night The Prowler were made.  The place was a unique creative hub for many film makers and the weekly film screenings drew crowds from round Sydney.

The company is operated today by Haydn Keenan and Gai Steele. "We work the left field" said Keenan, "the middle of the road is highly oversupplied. Whether in production or distribution we've had success thinking laterally."

Keenan's first feature film as Director was the legendary GOING DOWN.  The film was an extraordinary break through in it's focus on contemporary young people in the vibrant Sydney street scene of the early 1980s. The film ran to sell out houses for nearly 4 months in Sydney with some of the best reviews a local film has garnered.  It's power and energy was recognised internationally and it was one of the first Australian films selected to screen at the Sundance Film Festival.

Our national theatrical release of Going Down was followed by a roadshow through Sydney's biggest pubs successfully taking the film directly to it's audience. We were the first to sell non-drama to airlines for inflight use, initiated the government to government talks which led to the signing of the Australia-Ireland co-production treaty and successfully lobbied the major copyright collection agency, Screenrights, to amend their payments policy to make it easier for independent film makers to receive copyright payment for recordings from TV. In conjunction with Palace Films we have collected, sold and serviced more than sixty Australian feature films to Pay TV.

Ealier this year SBS-TV screened our four part documentary series PERSONS OF INTEREST in which we give targets of the intelligence service ASIO their previously secret files and ask them to answer the allegations they contain.  The series was a major hit creating headlines in the media and huge audience response.  So much so that the series was repeated 3 weeks later.  The films were nominated for a Walkley Award for outstanding journalism and won the Film Critics Circle of Australia Award for documentary of the year. It was nominated for the NSW Premier's History Award. The series spun off into several photographic exhibitions and a major museum exhibition at Sydney's Museum of Justice & Police.  In a period of public concern about State surveillance of it's own citizens PERSONS OF INTEREST seems to have hit a nerve.

Our story is not front page stuff, but it's a demonstrated commitment to Australian cinema and the need for independent voices to be heard. A mature film culture has room for a broad range of production, from servicing international films to provincial production. The fact that Smart St is still here indicates that maturation is happening.

There is debate at the moment around the idea that the recent local flops indicate that Australians don't want to see Australian films. This argument is akin to the comedian blaming the audience for not laughing at his jokes. The success of Wolf Creek, The Sapphires, Australia and Animal Kingdom proves this to be simply untrue.   They were all in touch with their audience. We say, "Make them Australian, make them good".

Smart St. is currently financing a small but broad ranging slate of feature films and TV documentaries. Budgets are value and potential good.

We've always taken inspiration from Gomez Adams' business philosophy: As Morticia said, "Gomez, you're the one man I know who can take a failing company and run it into the ground in six months".

In this regard we are deficient and here we are forty seven years old.

To all those who we've worked with, who've seen our films or batted for us, thank you. And to all those getting under way and thinking about the long haul, keep a sense of humour and you'll live longer and have more fun.

 Smart St. Photo Gallery