Strikebound

Strikebound (1984)

Via the New York Times: "...reconstructs the true story of a coal miners' strike in the small town of Korumburra in the mid-30's... based on the real-life story of two remarkable characters, Wattie Doig, a miner who became a militant Communist activist, and his wife, Agnes, who progressed from staunch Presbyterianism to membership in the Salvation Army and, finally, to labor organization."

Date of release
1984-09-20
TMDB
6.1 / 10 (6)
Runtime
1h 41m
Genres
Drama, History
Director
Richard Lowenstein

Casting

Interesting facts

  • Box office: A$157K
  • Awards: 1 · Nominations: 9. Including: AACTA Award for Best Production Design

Strikebound is a 1984 Australian film directed by Richard Lowenstein. It is based on the experiences of real people during the 1937 coal-miners' strike in Victoria, Australia, the Korumburra miners' strike.

Production

Richard Lowenstein had made a short film, Evictions, about unemployed Australian people during the Depression, but felt slightly unsatisfied by the experience and wanted to have another attempt at the subject matter. During the making of the short film he had met Wattie and Agnes Doig and heard stories about unionism in coal mining in Victoria. He spent the next two years researching the story, 15 months of it while on the dole.

Lowenstein's mother, historian Wendy Lowenstein, published Weevils in the Flour in 1978, an oral history about the Depression, including many interviews. Lowenstein used the interviews from Weevils in the Flour when writing his script in 1980-81, and his mother started writing another work based on this, called Dead Men Don't Dig Coal, which was never completed. However, the title of the unpublished manuscript was used in the film credits.

The film was originally envisioned as a 50-minute dramatised documentary called The Sunbeam Shaft but evolved into a feature film. The film was partly shot at a real disused mine in Wonthaggi, and Maldon, in Central Victoria.

The film was co-produced by Victorian filmmaker Miranda Bain and New Zealand producer Timothy White. Cinematography was by Andrew de Groot, and the film was edited by Jill Bilcock.

Read on Wikipedia · Text from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. Data from Wikidata.

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