During the late 1970s Australian actor Chris Haywood played a victim of Maitland’s catastrophic 1955 flood.
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As a young camera assistant in the Australian classic Newsfront, Haywood’s character (Chris Hewitt) was lost in the raging flood waters during a visit to Maitland to capture newsreel footage of the natural disaster.
This month – in commemoration of the flood’s 60th anniversary – Haywood will attend a free screening of the film at Maitland.
The screening will be accompanied by a public forum – featuring film editor Frans Vandenberg, film curator Gayle Lake and senior film lecturer Dr Hamish Ford – on the impact of floods on Maitland and its people.
“The panel will explore how the floods were represented through the media at the time and, in particular, how newsreel footage shaped remembrance of the disaster,” Maitland City librarian Keryl Collard said.
“Maitland City Library and the National Film and Sound Archive of Australia, in association with Reading Cinemas, have partnered to present this unique event.”
Newsfront, directed by international award winner Phillip Noyce and also starring Bill Hunter, Wendy Hughes, Gerard Kennedy, John Ewart, Bryan Brown and Angela Punch-McGregor, tells the story of an intrepid group of newsreel cinematographers and reporters, who risked life and limb to capture footage of breaking news.
Newsfront will be screened at Maitland Reading Cinemas on Wednesday, February 25, from 6pm.
