David Bradbury
David Bradbury has earned an international reputation as a film maker willing to go to extraordinary lengths for a cause, exposing political oppression and environmental vandalism to public scrutiny. In 1972 he began his career as a radio journalist with the ABC after graduating from the Australian National University with a BA in Political Science. After post graduate studies in broadcast journalist in the United States, he worked as a freelance journalist covering the Spring Revolution in Portugal in 1974 as well as the overthrow of the Greek military junta in Athens that same year and the final days of the Shah of Iran.

In 1977 Bradbury smuggled himself into the border area of Papua New Guinea and Irian Jaya and bought out photos and the first ever interview with the Free Papua Movement (OPM) in the guerilla struggle against Indonesia. His first film, Frontline, a portrait of courageous Australian news cameraman Neil Davis, earned Bradbury his first Academy Award nomination. It won first prize at the Sydney and Melbourne Film Festivals, the coveted Grierson award at the American Film Festival and was screened world wide on PBS, BBC and TF1 in France.

His next film Public Enemy Number One followed the life of controversial Australian journalist Wilfred Burchett, the first western correspondent into Hiroshima after the bomb was dropped. Broadcast on Channel Four in England (but never shown on Australian TV because it was too controversial…), it showed how Burchett was vilified by the mainstream press and conservative public in Australia for his coverage of "the other side" in the Korean and Vietnam wars. It won the Golden Gate Award for Best Documentary at the San Francisco Film Festival in 1981, the Christopher Statuette at the Columbus Film Festival, Best Documentary at the Sydney Film Festival, an AFI award and was screened in Berlin, London, Edinburgh. American and Cork Film Festivals to critical acclaim.

In 1982 the writer, Graham Greene, a friend and mentor to Bradbury, advised him to go to Nicaragua. The covert war of the CIA against the Sandinistas had started. His film Nicaragua: No Pasaran is an epic piece that uses as its central character Sandinista leader Tomas Borge. It won a special certificate of High Merit at the 1985 Academy Awards and was shown in film festivals and art house cinemas across the US and Australia.

Chile:Hasta Cuando? earned Bradbury another Academy Award nomination in 1986. Filmed covertly, the film gave a glimpse of life under Pinochet's military dictatorship. When it opened in theatres in Sydney and Melbourne it broke all box office records for a political documentary. It scooped the Australian Film Industy awards that year for Best Direction, Best Soundtrack and Best Cinematography as well as first prize at Rio de Janeiro, Cuba and Mannheim Film Festivals.

South of the Border, produced in 1987, used the popular grass roots movement of Central and South America to tell the story of people's political struggle against dictatorship and entrenched privilege. It was broadcast around the world.

In 1988 Bradbury turned his cameras back home to make State of Shock. This film told the tragic story of Alwyn Peters, an Aboriginal man in his 20's who murdered his girlfriend on Weipa South Aboriginal reserve while drunk. It showed how Alwyn was a product of disposssession and alienation from his own culture by a mining company taking away his family's tribal land and uprooting him from his traditions. It was screened on Australian television and on Channel Four in the UK.

Shoalwater: Up for Grabs (1992) saw Bradbury combine his film making talents with long time university friend and environmental activist Peter Garrett, lead singer in Midnight Oil. Aired nationally on the Seven Network it was instrumental in stopping sandmining going ahead in the largest untouched area of wilderness on the east coast of Australia south of Cooktown. The Federal Government and Prime Minister Paul Keating moved to protect the area three weeks after the film was shown.

In 1993 Bradbury directed Nazi Supergrass, an insider's story of the neo-Nazi movement in Perth, Western Australia. Bradbury befriended the former treasurer and third in command of the Australian Nationalist Movement which for three years had terrorised the Asian and Jewish communities of Perth.

In 1994 Bradbury made The Last Whale, an expose of Japanese attempts to buy the vote of small countries in order to block a proposal for a sanctuary for whales in the Antarctic. Presented by Olivia Newton-John, it was shown on the Nine Network in Australian and on Discovery and PBS in the USA, as well as in England, France, South Africa, Holland, the Czech Republic and Mexico.

The Battle for Byron which Bradbury produced, filmed and co-directed was about the Byron Community coming together to halt inappropriate development in one of the most scenic and biodiverse areas of coastal Australia. It tracked the struggle over four years of community attempts to stop developers and culminated in the election of a 'green' council. The film was shown on the ABC.

Loggerheads was finished in 1997 and was a gutsy cinema verite look at the battle on the frontline of the forests in Northern NSW between loggers and the so-called 'ferals'.

Jabiluka (1998) tells the story of the Mirrar Aboriginal people's opposition to another uranium mine on their country in World Heritage listed Kakadu National Park. It was pivotal in mobilising public opposition to the mine.

Bradbury's film, Wamsley's War, is a profile of controversial conservationist Dr. John Wamsley, better known for wearing a feral cat hat on his head to make his point that feral animals are ruining Australia's native wildlife. Wamsley had grand plans to own l% of the land space of Australia within the next 20 years and launched his company Earth Sanctuaries on the Aust Stock Exchange raising millions to realise his dream. But that all came unstuck. Wamsley's War screened on the Australian Broadcasting Corporation in 2000.

Bradbury has just completed Buenas Memorias de Cuba for SBS Independent. An aging Australian socialist sponsors Bradbury to travel to Cuba. Jim Mitsos is an 86 year old millionaire who has not lost 'the faith'. He still believes that "the dream" is still alive in Cuba. Jim has given away substantial portions of his fortune to Cuba over the years. But what Bradbury discovers is not quite what Jim expects him to bring back. As the filmmaker uncovers the reality of dashed socialist dreams laid bare by 40 years of imported grey drabness of Soviet style socialism, he discovers a new generation's faith in the bright bauble of capitalism which has 'invaded' the country as the desperate 'fix' that the now isolated Cuban leadership must reluctantly embrace. It is set against a backdrop of fantastic music and musicians that the filmmaker encounters on his journey through Cuba.

Bradbury's quest sets up a moral dilemma for the filmmaker who is here on Jim's money to bring back a positive story of the Revolution, but can't help but see the contradictions. Cubans continue to grow quietly frustrated after more than four decades of Fidel in power and one party rule.
This sets the stage for an interesting undercurrent and growing call for change that the filmmaker has documented in his film.

For more information please contact David Bradbury or visit Frontline Films.

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