by FilmInk Staff
A historic and one-off event is happening at the upcoming Sydney Underground Film Festival on Saturday 14th September, 4pm at Dendy Cinemas, Newtown. It’s a program of rare films by George and Charis Schwarz, bohemian filmmakers from the 1970s.
We hear from Leon O’Regan, owner of EX FILM – an independent Australian home entertainment distributor that specialises in cult and exploitation cinema, who is co-presenting this event alongside SUFF…
George Schwarz (1935-2021) was a Swiss born, Sydney based artist who together with his wife, Charis, produced Australia’s first theatrical hardcore sex films. Beginning in 1970 with an 8mm short called The Dream, George and Charis made erotic short films which were originally screened at the Sydney Filmmakers Co-op and at select international film festivals. Their 1974 film, Sex Aids and How to Use Them pushed the boundaries of community standards and became the first hardcore sex film produced in Australia to be passed by the censors. Sex Aids screened nationwide, shocking and titillating audiences, whilst their follow-up, Well, My Dear! (1975) was refused classification and has never screened until now. After this set-back and continual problems with funding these projects, Charis and George quit filmmaking to focus on photography and teaching.
Restored from their only existing film elements, the Schwarz productions selected by Leon O’Regan and by Charis Schwarz herself, for SUFF 2024 document a ‘lost’ era of Australian cinema and are a time capsule of bohemian Kings Cross featuring notorious locations such as the Barrel Theatre and Sandra Nelson’s A.O. Club.
How did you first become interested in the works of George and Charis Schwarz?
“In 2013, I was researching the theatrical release of an unrelated film and came across an ad for Sex Aids and How to Use Them in a rural newspaper from 1974. The header read ‘THIS IS A SEX EDUCATION FILM’ and having an interest in white-coater/pseudo-documentary and mondo exploitation films, this was one I’d never heard of. As I kept looking through newspapers from that era, I continued to see different ads for screenings in other towns, often “one night only” occasions. I was intrigued further when I discovered that there was only one online mention of it outside of imdb, on Dean Brandum’s fantastic Technicolor Yawn website and only cursory mentions in Cinema Papers. Seeing a “C & G Schwarz” listed in the White Pages, I simply called them up. George answered and was delighted that I had tracked him down and also thanked me for pronouncing Charis’ name correctly. He invited me around to their house in Darlinghurst where I met them both and sat listening intently to their stories surrounding these films for hours. I was also lucky to enjoy fondue and sample their homemade meade. From there, they connected me to many people from their filmmaking and artistic circles, each of them a unique character with their own incredible story. Everything about this scene, these people and these films felt so special and amounted to an undocumented chapter of Australia’s underground cinema history.”
Can you tell us a bit more about the works that you selected for the unique SUFF screening?
“THE DREAM (1970): This is the earliest hardcore Australian film produced for theatrical presentation and was screened in Kings Cross adult cinemas. A silent 8mm short (stock music was played during screenings) running for just over 3 minutes and features Madam Lash with her then partner in a Kings Cross bohemian bedroom. This version screening at SUFF was scanned from the only known film elements to survive, it was an incredible find by Charis in a match box, which we weren’t sure could be found, but here it is.
“STAGE (1972): Shot inside Sandra Nelson’s A.O. Club in Kings Cross and featuring a young Mark Lewis (Cane Toads), legendary Kings Cross doorman, Peter ‘Half Mo’ Crofts and
several notorious Kings Cross strippers and exclusive music by John Sangster; STAGE is a simple vignette of love, loss and abandonment with noirish flourishes. This was also compiled along with 4 other Schwarz films to create the feature-length Above Love anthology.
“SEX AIDS AND HOW TO USE THEM (1974): This was the big hit for Charis and George, Sex Aids broke box office records for an Australian short film and played around the country into the early 1980s, often appearing on double-bills with imported and censored features. For some years prior to the introduction of the X rating, Sex Aids remained the only film passed by the censors to contain explicit sexual activity and by adopting the format of a documentary, managed to depict what had previously been illegal and boldly pushed graphic depictions of sexuality into Australian theatres. As well as being a fascinating historical document which pushed the boundaries of Australian censorship, it was the first film to be banned in Queensland under the state’s 1974 films and publications act.
“WELL, MY DEAR! (1975): The follow-up to Sex Aids, which was refused classification and never released. After the success of Sex Aids, George and Charis were approached to make another sex education film, this time creating a more playful and less clinical film. The classification board refused to allow it to be released and so it remained that way until now. Scanned from its only existing film elements, this ‘lost’ Australian sexploitation film was shot inside the Barrel Theatre on Bayswater Road and depicts androgyny, bisexuality and the vibrant bohemian flamboyance of Sydney’s ‘70s scene. It also features Colin McAulay, drummer of The Black Diamonds and Tymepiece as part of the cast and also contributes a rarely heard original composition to the soundtrack.”
This sounds like quite the passion project. Why do you think it’s important to preserve and restore these particular works?
“These films were the first of their kind in Australia and produced concurrent to the Golden Age adult film boom in the United States and Europe – these are our Australian entries into that canon and the fact that they remain virtually unknown (and in the case of Well, My Dear, unreleased) was baffling to me, yet not entirely surprising given how conservative the Australian art and film landscape continues to be.
“George was a prolific and talented man and I wanted to honour his legacy. I also wanted Charis to see these works recognised for what I believe them to be: groundbreaking Australian cinema. These films are a part of our cultural history, and more people need to know about these unique and truly liberated people.
“I was also attracted to the unique blend of sexploitation and arthouse, unlike much else from that era of Australian film yet also very much of that era. They’re a time-capsule of the bohemian, free spirited Kings Cross that has disappeared. Charis and George were making films at the dawn of Australian New Wave Cinema and for the most part on the periphery of the industry, though they were most certainly known in those ‘70s local filmmaking circles. Check out John Lamond’s debut feature, Australia After Dark (1975). Charis and George appear as a couple producing a fictional adult film!”
Don’t miss THE LOST FILMS OF KINGS CROSS. Tickets here
