First Australian Film - The Melbourne Cup (1896) Pt2 The Horses Being Prepared

[nickwallacesmith]

hi Jessiebessie27 - i thought it might be the first film - how interesting that the action with the horse is to prevent destroying the camera - i love specific insights like this! so thanks very much for taking the time to comment. hope you saw a lot of other interesting things at the Australian Film and Sound museum

[AusRadioHistorian]

@nickwallacesmith My name is Chris Long. I was the contracted research compiler who initially put these films out on videocassette for the NFSA in Canberra in 1988. The VRC Derby, run three days BEFORE the 1896 Melbourne Cup, was also filmed by Sestier, and about one week earlier, Sestier and Barnett filmed several Sydney scenes, of which one - "Eccentric Roller Skater" (filmed at the Corso at Manly) has survived. I repeat, this is NOT the first Australian film.

[nickwallacesmith]

hi AusRadioHistorian - thanks for sharing your expertise - much appreciated - my tiny bit of research was obviously not sufficient. i'll look out for Sestier's VRC Derby - and thanks for the pointer. pity the footage of passengers alighting the ferry at Manly didn't survive. cheers, nick

[AusRadioHistorian]

This is NOT the first film made in Australia - not even the earliest Australian film surviving. Two films of the 1896 VRC Derby were shot by Sestier three days earlier, and one of them was released in the NFSA's video compile "Federation Films" in 1990. For full details refer: "Cinema Papers" No 93, Melbourne, May 1993, pps 34 - 41; and ibid., August 1993, pps 34 -39 & p 62. The first Australian film was of passengers alighting the ferry at Manly, 25 October 1896 - unfortunately not surviving.