The Australian offers a lengthy appreciation of NOT QUITE HOLLYWOOD, a documentary designed to earn some respect for “Ozploitation” – that is Australian Exploitation films like MAD MAX and LONG WEEKEND.
“As a kid my parents and teachers insisted I see quality films like Picnic at Hanging Rock,” [director Mark Hartley] explains. “Then I saw this movie Patrick, about a telekinetic coma victim, on commercial TV late one night and it thrilled, excited and downright scared me, just like the horror films made in the US but with our voices, faces and places. I didn’t know we could do that.”
Hartley does not want to be perceived as a lover of trash, fetishising films just because the critical establishment hated them. “I have an interest in Australian cinema overall. We have such a diversity of films and it’s a shame more people don’t know them.”