Brian Trenchard-Smith
2021Not Quite Hollywood
Mark Hartley
Phillip Adams, Glory Annen
As Australian cinema broke through to international audiences in the 1970s through respected art house films like Peter Weir's "Picnic At Hanging Rock," a new underground of low-budget exploitation filmmakers were turning out considerably less highbrow fare. Documentary filmmaker Mark Hartley explores this unbridled era of sex and violence, complete with clips from some of the scene's most outrageous flicks and interviews with the renegade filmmakers themselves.
Not Quite Hollywood
Machete Maidens Unleashed!
Mark Hartley
Roger Corman, Colleen Camp
In the final decades of the 20th century, the Philippines was a country where low-budget exploitation-film producers were free to make nearly any kind of movie they wanted, any way they pleased. It was a country with extremely lax labor regulations and a very permissive attitude towards cultural expression. As a result, it became a hotbed for the production of cheapie movies. Their history and the genre itself are detailed in this breezy, nostalgic documentary.
Machete Maidens Unleashed!
The Siege of Firebase Gloria
Brian Trenchard-Smith
Wings Hauser, R. Lee Ermey
A Marine patrol stops at Firebase Gloria at the start of the Tet Offensive during the Vietnam war. With the firebase attacked, the patrol remains to help defend it. The Marines barely hold off the VC (Viet Cong), but in the end, hold the base.
The Siege of Firebase Gloria
The Stuntmen
Brian Trenchard-Smith
Bob Woodham, Grant Page
The Stuntmen is a one-hour documentary for Australian TV written and directed by Brian Trenchard-Smith. It was through this movie that Trenchard-Smith met Grant Page, who he put under a five-year contract and featured in a number of movies. The film also acted as a "calling card" which enabled the director to get finance for The Man from Hong Kong (1975).
The Stuntmen
Iron Fists and Kung Fu Kicks
Serge Ou
Sammo Hung, Cheng Pei-Pei
The fantastic story of how an ancient martial art, Chinese kung fu, conquered the world through the hundreds of films that were produced in Hong Kong over the decades, transformed Western action cinema and inspired the birth of cultural movements such as blaxploitation, hip hop music, parkour and Wakaliwood cinema.
Iron Fists and Kung Fu Kicks
Sahara
Brian Trenchard-Smith
Jim Belushi, Jerome Ehlers
After the fall of Tobruk in June 1942, U.S. Army sergeant Joe Gunn leads his tank into the Sahara desert, in order to evade advancing Rommel's forces and reach Allied lines. Along the way he picks up few Allied soldiers, but soon they are running out of water. They find water at the ancient well, but the well is a goal of an entire German battalion. Despite the impossible odds, Sergeant Gunn decides to defend the well.
Sahara
Kung Fu Killers
Brian Trenchard-Smith
Grant Page, Angela Mao
Australian stuntman Grant Page travels to Hong Kong to find Bruce Lee's successor and looks at the cultural phenomenon that Asian martial arts has become in the West. He talks to actors such as Angela Mao, Stuart Whitman and George Lazenby - who were all making movies in Hong Kong at the time - and fights Carter Wong twice.
Kung Fu Killers
The Man from Hong Kong
Brian Trenchard-Smith
Jimmy Wang Yu, George Lazenby
Australian authorities arrest a man believed to be connected to the Sydney criminal underworld and send for Inspector Fang Sing Leng from Hong Kong to question him. After the alleged criminal is assassinated, Inspector Leng and the Sydney police try to hunt down those responsible and hope to solve their case along the way.
The Man from Hong Kong
Frog Dreaming
Brian Trenchard-Smith, Russell Hagg
Henry Thomas, Tony Barry
American boy Cody lives in Australia with his guardian, Gaza. Cody is very imaginative, inventive and inquisitive. He comes accross some strange events happening in Devil's Knob national park associated with an aboriginal myth about "frog dreamings". Cody tries to investigate...
Frog Dreaming
Dead End Drive-In
Brian Trenchard-Smith
Ned Manning, Natalie McCurry
In the near future, drive-in theatres are turned into concentration camps for the undesirable and unemployed. The prisoners don't really care to escape because they are fed and they have a place to live which is, in most cases, probably better than the outside. Crabs and his girlfriend Carmen are put into the camp and all Crabs wants to do is escape.
Dead End Drive-In
Turkey Shoot
Brian Trenchard-Smith
Steve Railsback, Olivia Hussey
In the near future, after an unspecified holocaust, survivors are herded into prison camps. There, they are hunted for sport by the leaders of the camp. Paul, one of the newest prisoners, is determined not to go down as quietly as the others.
Turkey Shoot
Night of the Demons 2
Brian Trenchard-Smith
Cristi Harris, Darin Heames
Angela, the universe's most unpleasant party crasher, returns! Angela's sister, Mouse, is taken by her bullying Catholic school classmates to a party at Angela's favorite haunt, and before long, everybody's being turned into demons and only a butt-kickin' nun, who wields her ruler like a mighty sword of steel, can save the day.
Night of the Demons 2