The Office Picnic

The Office Picnic is a 1972 Australian comedy film directed by Tom Cowan. It was entered into the 8th Moscow International Film Festival.[2]

The Office Picnic
Directed byTom Cowan
Produced byTom Cowan
Written byTom Cowan
StarringJohn Wood
Kate Fitzpatrick
CinematographyMichael Edols
Edited byKit Guyatt
Production
company
Child's Play Moving Picture Company
Distributed byTom Cowan
Release date
  • 17 November 1972 (1972-11-17)
Running time
83 minutes
CountryAustralia
LanguageEnglish
BudgetA$30,000[1]

Plot summary

A group of public servants go on an annual picnic. Two of them, Peter and Elly, disappear.

Cast
  • John Wood as Clyde
  • Kate Fitzpatrick as Mara
  • Philip Deamer as Peter
  • Gaye Steele as Elly
  • Ben Gabriel as Mr Johnson
  • Max Cullen as Jim O'Casey
  • Anne Tait
  • Francis Flannigan
  • Bryon Kennedy
  • Graham Richards

Production

Cowan got the idea to make the film while walking through the bush during shooting of a documentary in the Victorian countryside.[3] He says he was also influenced by the novels of Patrick White and the films of Antonioni.[4]

The film was shot on 35mm using a budget in part funded by the Experimental Film and Television Fund. It started in January 1972 but the money ran out during filming and there was a hiatus until filming resumed in April. The shoot took fifteen days in all.[3]

Release

The film was successfully previewed at Toorak and for a time it looked as though it would be distributed by British Empire Films but in the end most commercial screenings were arranged by the director.[1][3]

References
  1. Andrew Pike and Ross Cooper, Australian Film 1900–1977: A Guide to Feature Film Production, Melbourne: Oxford University Press, 1998 p266
  2. "8th Moscow International Film Festival (1973)". MIFF. Archived from the original on 16 January 2013. Retrieved 3 January 2013.
  3. David Stratton, The Last New Wave: The Australian Film Revival, Angus & Robertson, 1980 p184-185
  4. Interview with Tom Cowan, 12 November 1998 Archived 14 November 2013 at the Wayback Machine accessed 11 Oct 2012


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