Around the World in Eighty Movies - number 1

Country: Australia

Title: The Story of the Kelly Gang

Director: Charles Tait

Cast: Frank Mills, Nicholas Brierley, Elizabeth Tait, John Tait

Year: 1906

Running time: 60 Minutes (approx)

Genre: Crime / Drama

Notable for: Being the first feature length film

You would be forgiven for thinking that the first feature length film would have come from the US, France or Britain given their status as the three leading countries in the development of the moving image and the fledgling film industry. Surprising as it may sound though, that honour goes to Charles Tait's Australian shot bio-pic of Ned Kelly, The Story of the Kelly Gang, released in 1906 and originally running at just over an hour in length. Made just 26 years after Kelly was hanged The Story of the Kelly Gang was written and directed by Charles Tait, whose showbusiness family were the owners of the Athenaeum Hall, a Melbourne concert venue. Filmed in and around the city Tait's film, which ushered in a wave of 'bushranging' movies, was long thought to have been destroyed or lost until some remaining sections came to light in the late 70s and early 80s. Digitally restored by the Australian National Film and Sound Archive the remaining pieces of Tait's film, around 14 minutes in total, have been released on DVD and can be seen on YouTube -

Technically rudimentary they may be, with close ups, camera movement and editing not yet fully developed as stylistic techniques due to the still basic nature of the equipment available, but these remaining scenes from The Story of the Kelly Gang are vital fragments of moving image and the impact of Tait's work on the development of cinema cannot be understated and it remained in constant circulation for ten years after its initial premier in Melbourne on Boxing Day 1906.

The first of many subsequent big and small screen takes on the famous outlaw and his fellow accomplices The Story of the Kelly Gang is Australia's entry into the Around the World in 80 Movies series, showing as it does the beginnings of what we know as feature length film-making today.

Around the World in Eighty Movies

Coming soon - A new feature where I'll take a trip around the planet in 80 movies. Recognised classics, cult oddities, fictional visions and powerful documentaries from all genres and all eras will be covered. This is not intended as a project to represent individual national cinemas - Italian neo-realism, the French new wave, German expressionism - but more of a smorgasbord selection designed to give people a taste of the wonderful world of cinema. The individual films discussed will hopefully form an all encompassing whole that will make audiences look anew at films they love and broaden the interest in some lesser known entries. Classic scenes, controversial political discourse, technological advances, the uses of genre conventions, censor baiting directors, memorable location work and career making performances from the iconic and the long forgotten will be addressed in a whirlwind cinematic tour around this place we call home.

In the next couple of weeks the first entry into my 80 movies collection will make its appearance, and what better way to begin than with the first feature length movie - Charles Tait's The Story of the Kelly Gang, from 1906, the Australian entry

World Film Locations:Melbourne

After wrapping up my editing duties on Intellect Books' World Film Locations:London, I've turned my attention down under to focus on Melbourne for my next edited volume in the series. With contributors drawn from the worlds of academia, journalism and film criticism the diverse film representations of this popular and richly cosmopolitan city will be addressed. Drawn from all eras, the book consists of essays and scene reviews of films covering all manner of genres and themes - from the recent highly acclaimed crime drama Animal Kingdom (David Michod,2010), via Paul Cox's studies of loneliness as seen in Man of Flowers (1983), via the 'Ocker' comedy Alvin Purple (Tim Burstall,1973) right back to the first feature length film produced anywhere in the world, the historically based bushranger movie The Story of the Kelly Gang (Charles Tait,1906).

Melbourne may not immediately spring to mind when thinking of major cities in cinema in comparison to New York, Paris, London and Rome, but this volume will shine a light on how film-makers, both indigenous and visiting, have used this historic and cinematic urban environment to create an impressive and lasting collection of films that in their specific focus on one city also inform wider views on life in 'the city' around the world.