John Flaus
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John Flaus (born 1934) is an Australian film academic and theorist, actor, anarchist and raconteur. He was born in Maroubra, New South Wales.
In 1953, he was a conscientious objecter to military conscription during the Korean War, which he claims was instinctive anarchism:
It was just like in the movies. This bloke on the prosecution asks me, "What would you do if you saw an Asiatic attacking your mother?" - remember this is 1953. I said, "l'd try to stop him". He said, "What if the only way was to kill him?" I said, "I'd kill him." He said. "Well, that's what a soldier does, so why are you objecting to being a soldier?" I said, "Now wait a minute, you asked me what I'd do, what decision I'd take on my own initiative. lf I'm a soldier someone else takes the initiatives for me, and that's an entirely different thing." This went on for an hour; at one point they tried to ascertain whether there were any religious grounds on which I wouldn't be a soldier. I said, "No, it seems to me the best soldiers get religion" - and that didn't go down too well either
John Flaus has been active in the film society movement since 1953 and published his first film reviews in 1954 and was sacked during the same year when he wrote that On the Waterfront was right-wing propaganda. He was also a member of the Sydney Push. In the 1960s, he was a member of the Sydney University Film Group and the WEA Film Study Group with such notable people as Frank Moorhouse, Michael Thornhill and Ken Quinnell. He has lectured on film at various tertiary institutions including Head of Education at the AFTRS and designed the original Cinema Studies course at La Trobe University in 1970 which was the first of its kind in Australia. He became a professional actor in 1977 and has over 100 credits in theatre, film and television.
He was honoured by the Australian Writers' Guild in 1994 for his services as a script editor on various Australian films. He presented the radio program Filmbuff's Forecast with Paul Harris on 3RRR from 1980 to 1989.
[edit] Film career
- Harvie Krumpet (2003)
- The Dish (2001)
- The Castle (1997)
- Lilian's Story (1996)
- Spotswood (1992)
- In Too Deep (1990)
- Warm Nights on a Slow Moving Train (1989)
- Feathers
- Traps
- Yakkety Yak
- Grievous Bodily Harm
- Ghosts of the Civil Dead
- Devil's Hill
- Jigsaw
- Blood Money (1980)
- Palm Beach (1979)
- Newsfront (1978)
- The Plains of Heaven
- Wronsky
- The Love Letters From Teralba Road
- Strikebound
- Hungry Heart
- Nirvana Street Murder
- Bloodlust
- The Nun and the Bandit
[edit] References
- Anne Coombs (1996). Sex and anarchy : the life and death of the Sydney Push. Ringwood, Vic. : Viking. ISBN 0-670-87069-2.
- Brian McFarlane, Geoff Mayer, Ina Bertrand (Ed.) (1999). The Oxford companion to Australian film. Melbourne, Australia ; New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-553797-1.
