Australians invented the feature film (well, at least we have a pretty strong argument to say that History of the Kelly Gang was the first feature film); but from the 1920s until the end of the 1960s our screen industry was in the doldrums ((ndash)) the occasional overseas production would film here, but otherwise, Australian stories were intermittently told at best. In the seventies all this changed, as a new spirit of film production arose. It wasn't always pretty. It wasn't always particularly good, but dammit, it was cheap, it was fun and it was packed with the movie stock-in-trade essentials of boobies, people hitting each other and driving fast cars/motorbikes. The movement has been nicknamed Ozploitation ((ndash)) and this is its story.

A fascinating film-history, the Ozploitation movement's detractors (including Phillip Adams and the perpetually disgruntled Bob Ellis) are represented enough to get across that these are not universally beloved works of cinematic excellence we're talking about here; however the film is more an act of fandom than any kind of critical evaluation. Quentin Tarantino provides the overseas fanboy perspective, while a bucketload of local performers, directors, stuntmen, producers and other crew reminisce about the joys or otherwise of working with minimal budgets for maximum impact.

If you're a fan of cinema history you should enjoy this; and even if you're not (and why did you join a film group if you're not), there are enough tits, bums, gore, blood and explosions galore to keep you interested.