Pushing The Boundaries: The Mavis Bramston Show
In 1964, Carol Raye became the first female television executive in Australia when she created the mother of all Australian television comedy, The Mavis Bramston Show, which boldly tackled subjects such as sexuality, politics, religion, women’s rights and racism; nothing was sacred.
Interview with Writer/Director Stephan Wellink
Congratulations! Why did you make your film?
I was in a conversation with Barry Creyton, one of the principal cast members of the show in 2014. Barry mentioned it was the 50th anniversary of the premiere of the pioneering satirical program The Mavis Bramston Show on Australian television and he lamented the fact that no DVD or "best of" the show had been produced to mark the occasion. I said to Barry I thought there might be an opportunity to celebrate all that MAVIS was by making a documentary and I set out to do just that. I was a pre-teen when the show first screened on Australian TV. I knew about the show from the reaction of my parents to it. I knew it had been controversial and I knew there had been calls for it to be banned. However, I did not realise the extent to which the show broke new ground until I started my research which included watching each episode and being astounded at how far the producers, writers and cast pushed the boundaries of what was acceptable to Australian society at that time.
Imagine I’m a member of the audience. Why should I watch this film?
The film places the Mavis Bramston Show (1964 - 1968) within the context of the time during which it was broadcast. The 1960s was a time of great change in the western world. It was a cultural revolution led by music, literature, film and civil rights activism. Australia was coming out of the austere years following World War Two and Australians suffered from a cultural cringe. By the early - mid 1960s, the baby boomers were becoming well educated adults and began travelling the world in large numbers. The world view of many people shifted from monochrome to vibrant colours during the 1960s. In 1964, The Beatles visited Australia and as Glenn A Baker says in the film: "Life began that day". Australia was growing up as a nation and MAVIS played its part. MAVIS held up a mirror to Australians who started to see themselves for the first time.
The sketches we include in the film point to the pioneering approach of the show. Nothing was sacred and taboo subjects like sexuality and racism were portrayed through biting, satirical sketches and occasionally serious narrative, in ways that hadn't been seen before. The cast of the documentary paint the picture of champions who made the program happen, the style that MAVIS developed and the challenges the producers faced from censors, politicians and the Catholic Church who were savage in their public condemnation of the show. MAVIS was the mother of many similar shows that appeared in subsequent decades and is the benchmark against which those shows are judged, even today.
How do personal and universal themes work in your film?
That's an interesting question. My job is to observe and document what I hear, see and learn without bias. In the case of our film, the personal and universal themes are shown through the lens of The Mavis Bramston Show. Universal themes of the film include racism, human rights, religion, contraception, sexuality and equality for women. The personal themes come from the cast. We link the themes with relevant archival material and sketches from MAVIS episodes that highlight or punctuate the observations that are made throughout each sequence of the narrative. In the case of equality for women, the film shows how Carol Raye, an immigrant from the UK via Kenya, became Australia's first female tv executive at a time when the industry was totally dominated by men.
Carol broke the glass ceiling and the film celebrates her personal achievements which contributed so much to the success of the show. A number of MAVIS sketches speak to the importance of women playing a stronger, more prominent role in society. Other themes, for example, sexuality, are addressed. Again, the sketches show overt flirting among the male cast members, something that society frowned upon at the time.
Cast members like the late Gordon Chater, who was openly gay, revelled in dressing in woman's clothes and often portrayed another point of view regarding sexuality which in his case, brought the personal and universal together. In the case of the writers, the film explores the process of the MAVIS writers' room, particularly the challenges they faced in providing content each week for a show that relied on topicality for its satire and comedy. The raw material came from the newspapers and radio. No internet in those days. Quite often the material in the opening sequence of the show, which was called the Oz Newsroom, was handed to the the three principals, Carol Raye, Gordon Chater and Barry Creyton immediately before they faced the cameras. This explains why they are seen holding clipboards during those sequences.
How have the script and film evolved over the course of their development?
Work on the film started 8 years ago. Initially, the film was going to be a cradle to grave story of the show with not a great deal of in depth analysis. However, this changed when I saw the issues the show addressed and how the cast and crew shaped the program. Having done initial research, I worked out the possible themes of interest. We were fortunate that most of the principal cast and crew were living and access to them was invaluable. I called each of the surviving cast and crew and those chats informed my thoughts regarding the shape of the film. This also established a rapport with each of them before we met to film the interview.
So, having worked out themes, questions were written specific for each interviewee and the transcript of each interview became the core of the script. The more we learnt about the principals of the show, the sketches and the issues of the day, the more the film evolved and we were acquiring archival assets as we went, almost up until we locked the film. In reality, whilst we had a terrific extended team on the film, it was made by three people - Bob Fitzgerald, Robert de Young and I. Ashley Hoare provided the wonderful graphics and his contribution was very important.
What type of feedback have you received so far?
It is early days. The feedback from the cast and crew has been positive. I was heartened by the selection of our film by the Melbourne Documentary Film Festival. It's the first step in getting exposure for our product.
What are you looking to achieve by having your film more visible on www.wearemovingstories.com?
There are so many fine films and wonderful documentary filmmakers out there. Getting attention for one's films is a challenge. You have provided us with a conduit to raise the awareness of our film beyond traditional social media platforms.
Who do you need to come on board (producers, sales agents, buyers, distributors, film festival directors, journalists) to amplify this film’s message?
Most certainly, sales agents, buyers, distributors and film festival directors. Reviewers/journalists will come in when the film is available for them to view.
What type of impact and/or reception would you like this film to have?
In my view, to complete a film is a minor miracle. All I ever wish is that my/our film is seen by an audience or multiple audiences. That is the payoff because it means that the film is finished. Of course, I would be delighted if the reception is favourable.
What’s a key question that will help spark a debate or begin a conversation about this film?
How important is satire today? AND Is satire dead?
Would you like to add anything else?
Just to say thank you for giving me the opportunity to speak about our film.
What other projects are the key creatives developing or working on now?
Two documentaries: "The Sculpture" about art and philanthropy followed by "The Maestro" about a great Australian musician, Maestro Tommy Tycho. Also in pre-production on a film about the actress and pioneering female director, Ida Lupino.
Interview: June 2022
We Are Moving Stories embraces new voices in drama, documentary, animation, TV, web series, music video, women's films, LGBTQIA+, POC, First Nations, scifi, supernatural, horror, world cinema. If you have just made a film - we'd love to hear from you. Or if you know a filmmaker - can you recommend us? More info: Carmela
Pushing The Boundaries: The Mavis Bramston Show
Length:
1:31:39
Writer/Director
STEPHAN WELLINK is a writer, producer and director at Inkwell Films. Stephan’s screen credits include: Rod Taylor: Pulling No Punches (2016); Jerry Lewis: The Man Behind The Clown (2016); Sam Spiegel: Conquering Hollywood (2018); Pushing the Boundaries: The Mavis Bramston Show (2022) and Uniting a Nation (2022). Stephan has lived with Jennifer for 44 years. Together, they conceived, nurtured and then released five children into the world.
Producer
ROBERT DE YOUNG, is especially experienced in feature-length documentary and has a particular interest in Hollywood and music industry biographies. He and writer / director Stephan Wellink have made films on Rod Taylor, Jerry Lewis and Sam Spiegel. In addition, Robert has produced documentaries on Errol Flynn, Tarzan, Peter Finch and Lillian Roxon,
Key cast:
Carol Raye, Barry Creyton, David Sale, Maggie Dence, Ken Shadie, Bill Harding, Andrew Mercado, Max Gillies, Anthony Ackroyd, Richard Walsh, Patrick Condon, Brian Davies, Glenn A Baker, Lucky Starr
Looking for:
sales agents, distributors, film festival directors, buyers
Twitter:
https://twitter.com/Crowdedhouse7
Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/stephan.wellink
Hashtags used:
#mavisbramston
More info:
Melbourne Documentary Film Festival online - July, 2022