Kodak/Atlab Cinema Collection

A new 35mm print of the feature film, JEDDA, is now available - Courtesy of Curtis Brown (Aust) Pty Ltd, the sponsors Kodak (Australasia) and Atlab Australia.

National Film and Sound Archive National Collection Title number 1270

Jedda
Robert Tudawali and Ngarla Kunoth in Jedda

JEDDA (1955)

Classification: G rating

Director: Charles Chauvel

Year of Production: 1953

Duration: 101 minutes
Format: 35mm, Colour. Mono optical soundtrack. Remastered to Dolby® Digital.

Production Company: Charles Chauvel Productions
Producer: Charles Chauvel
Director of Photography: Carl Kayser
Editor: Alex Ezard, Jack Gardiner, Pam Bosworth
Dialogue: Elsa Chauvel
Music: Isadore Goodman

Cast: Ngarla Kunoth (Jedda), Robert Tudawali (Marbuck), Betty Suttor (Sarah McMann), Paul Reynall (Joe), George Simpson-Lyttle (Douglas McMann), Tas Fitzer (Peter Wallis), Wason Byers (Felix Romeo), Willie Farrar (little Joe), Margaret Dingle (little Jedda)

Synopsis

Ngarla Kunoth as 'Jedda'
Ngarla Kunoth as 'Jedda'

Jedda is the story of an Aboriginal baby raised on a cattle station in the Northern Territory by a white woman after mourning the loss of her own child. The young girl is brought up knowing nothing of her own culture or customs. Her whole life is dramatically changed when a young full blood Aboriginal abducts her.

Background

After completing Sons of Matthew, Charles Chauvel was determined to produce a uniquely Australian story that could only be told by Australians. Hence, Jedda was the first colour feature film made by an Australian company. Charles Chauvel's usual backers, Universal, refused to support the film believing too unusual and casting unknown Aborigines in the leading roles. Chauvel eventually raised finance for the film from various businessmen in Sydney. Filmed on location in the Northern Territory, the colour footage of the outback landscape is one of the most compelling features in the film. The final scenes in the film were initially filmed at Katherine Gorge, NT, however, the last roll of negative was destroyed in a plane crash on its way for developing in England and the scenes were re-shot at Kanangra Falls in the Blue Mountains. The film premiered in Darwin in January 1955. This film was both a critical and commercial success in Australia and overseas. Jedda was the first Australia film to be accepted at the 1955 Cannes Film Festival.

Note: See Night Cries – A Rural Tragedy

Preservation

The film was shot on a delicate film stock known as Gevacolor, and as there were no colour-processing laboratories in Australia, the negatives were sent by plane to the processing laboratory in Denham Studios, London. In time, this film stock began to fade and all existing prints had faded by the seventies. Charles' daughter, Elsa Chauvel, eventually located the original b/w tri-separations in England. A 35mm negative was processed from these tri-separations restoring the film to full colour. The recently processed new print has been colour regraded and the soundtrack has been remastered with a Dolby SR Digital track.