Bruce Petty Collection, The

1988, Total running time 110 Minutes.

A collection of four short films by renowned cartoonist and filmmaker Bruce Petty.

Leisure 1976, 14 Minutes. Best Animated Short Film, Academy Awards 1976

Bruce Petty, one of Australia’s greatest political cartoonists, created an Oscar-winning film from his inventive and amusing exploration of the history of work and leisure.

A fast-paced, humorous and thought-provoking film using animation by Australian newspaper cartoonist Bruce Petty. This Oscar-winning film emphasises the use of leisure time as an important aspect of life in our society today. Planning for recreation and leisure time should be undertaken both on a personal and on a public level.

The Magic Arts 1978, 19 Minutes

A visual onslaught of artistic ideas, showing how art relates to and intertwines with our daily lives.

Art, personified here as an opera-singing Valkyrie, hang-glides down from the clouds to check on the state of the arts in Australia - from painting, writing and music to dance, theatre, puppetry and sculpture. Featuring John Bell, Anna Volska, Reg Livermore, Rory O'Donohue, David Gulpilil and the work of Thomas Keneally and Patrick White among others, this is a phantasmagoria of filmic effects.

Megalomedia 1981, 29 Minutes

A satirical enquiry into the origins of media, their distribution and their effects on the way we behave.

Those familiar with cartoonist Bruce Petty’s award winning film Leisure will enjoy the same sharp wit brought to bear on another institution, the media. This three-part film is a satirical enquiry into the origins of media, their distribution and their effects on the way we behave. The first part provides a brief history of print, radio, television and film. The second part proposes that a market-placed media produces the problem of monopolisation leading to mediocrity. Finally, Petty produces a caricature of the way ideas form in the mind from reading print, as distinct from passive looking and listening.

The Movers 1986, 49 Minutes

A film about technology and where it is taking us.

We all want a good time but do we realise the ultimate price? The Movers revolves around two central characters - John and Tara - who embark on a journey through the ages in an armchair time-machine which brings them into contact with a range of historical protagonists from the ancient world, the Renaissance and the Industrial Revolution to the speakeasy sleaze of the 1920s. Their time-machine turns into a nuclear spacecraft and with a strange assortment of characters, prepares for a new phase of the journey. The film provides a funny and entertaining way to discuss issues surrounding science and technology and the future of the world.

© 2011 National Film and Sound Archive of Australia.