John D. Lamond

John D. Lamond is an Australian film director, producer and writer^[1][2][3] best known for directing such films as Felicity,^[4] A Slice of Life, Breakfast in Paris and Nightmares.^[5][6][7]

Before becoming a director he worked in distribution for Roadshow.^[8]

He was featured in the documentary Not Quite Hollywood: The Wild, Untold Story of Ozploitation!^[9][10]

Career

Lamond began working in the industry at Channel O in Melbourne in the props department, and became a film editor. He worked for several companies, mostly making TV ads at places like Ajax Studios. In 1969 he moved into the feature film industry when he was hired by Terry Turtle to help with the roadshow release of This Year Jerusalem. After that he became involved in the release of The Naked Bunyip, showing it around the country, which led to him performing a similar function on The Adventures of Barry McKenzie before Roadshow took over the release of that film.^[11]

Terry Turtle then hired Lamond to handle the Australian release of Dynamite Chicken. He designed a poster of a nun in a compromising position which caused a great deal of controversy, earning the ire of then-Minister for Customs Don Chipp and got Lamond a job offer from the Roadshow organisation to work in distribution.^[12] Lamond stayed with them for six months, working on the release of Alvin Purple and a number of other films for Roadshow, then he took a trip around the world with Byron Kennedy looking at various production and distribution set ups.

He came back keen to make his first film and made Australia After Dark. The movie was very successful and for the next few years Lamond alternated between making films and working for Roadshow's publicity department, making trailers and radio and TV spots. He would go away for eight weeks to make the movie then promote it while also working at Roadshow. This went until 1977 when it became too time consuming and Lamond became a full-time filmmaker.^[12]

After Sky Pirates Lamond stopped making movies in Australia and started making them in South East Asia:

It’s actually a lot of fun making a film overseas if you can get the money together. There’s no Film Commission trying to control your money, you know, if it’s made in Singapore “it has to be Singaporean”. It’s more of the real world... I don’t like unions, and I don’t like to not work on weekends. And I like one day off, but I don’t feel the necessity to finish at 5 or 6 at night. Two days off and have coffee breaks and all that sort of thing.^[12]

In 2012 he announced plans to make several movies in Australia.^[13]

Select Credits

• Australia After Dark (1975) – writer, producer, director
• The ABC of Love and Sex: Australia Style (1978) – writer, producer, director
• Felicity (1979) – writer, producer, director
• Nightmares (1980) – writer, producer, director
• Pacific Banana (1981) – producer, director
• Breakfast in Paris (1982) – producer, director
• A Slice of Life (1983) – producer, director
• Sky Pirates (1985) – writer, producer
• Backstage (1988) – story
• The Sword of Bushido (1989) – producer
• North of Chiang Mai (1991) – writer, producer, director
• True Files (2002) – writer, producer, director

References

• Murray, Scott, "John Lamond", Cinema Papers Oct/Nov 1978 p95-98, 157

External links

• John D. Lamond at the Internet Movie Database
• John D. Lamond at AllMovie