Kodak/Atlab Cinema Collection

Still from the film 27A

27A (1974)

A new 16mm print is now available on request. Courtesy of Smart Street Films and Kodak (Australasia) and Atlab Australia

National Film and Sound Archive National Collection
Title Number 4471.

Classification:M rating

Synopsis

A middle-aged alcoholic is sentenced to six weeks in prison for a minor offence. While there he undergoes psychiatric treatment for his alcoholism and is committed to a hospital for the criminally insane for the duration of his sentence. However, under Section 27A of the Queensland Mental Health Act, he can be detained indefinitely until the hospital authorities declare him eligible for release. A human being trapped in a bureaucratic nightmare, he emerges forcefully as a man with no illusions either of himself or about the people around him.

Still from the film 27A

Background

The 16mm film was shot on location in 1973 at a Christian Brother's psychiatric hospital near Sydney. Esben Storm and Haydn Keenan studied film at Swinburne College of Technology in Melbourne, Victoria. They were both in their early twenties when they made 27A.

Won Best Feature film and Best Actor (Robert McDarra) at the Australian Film Institute Awards in 1974 and won critical acclaim at the Sydney Film Festival that same year.

27A effectively explores a 'social neurosis' that saw a human being trapped in a bureacratic nightmare, emerging on the other side irreparably damaged. Tragically, Robert Mc Darra died in 1975, soon after he won the AFI award for Best Actor.

Director: Esben Storm

Year of Production: 1974

Duration: 87 mins
Format: 16mm, Colour
Optical soundtrack: Mono

Production Company: Smart Street Films

Producer: Haydn Keenan

Assistant Director: Peter Gailey

Screenplay: Esben Storm

Director of Photography: Michael Edols

Production Design: Peter Minnett

Editor: Richard Moir, Esben Storm

Sound Recordist: Peter Fenton, Laurie Fitzgerald

Cast: Robert McDarra (Bill), Bill Hunter (Cornish), Graham Corry (Peter Newman), T. Richard Moir (Richard), James Kemp (Slats), Kris Olsen (Gloria), Brian Doyle (Lynch), Richard Creaser (Jeremy), Michael Norton (Mark), Haydn Keenan (Jeffrey), Gary McFeeter (Samuel), Tom Farley (Vic), Jim Doherty (suicide), Peter Gailey (co-escapee), Karl Florsheim (German patient), Race Gailey (office boy), Bob Maza (Darkie's mate), Zac Martin (Ernie), Kevin Healey (old acquaintence), Betty Dyson (drunkess), Beth Brookes (singer), Pauline Foxall (pianist), Robert Ewing (public servant), Max Osbiston (Frederick Parsons). Narrator: Guy LeClaire.

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