Film Club: The Mission

The Film Club runs at 7.30pm on the first Saturday of each month at Coledale Community Hall. 

Regularly hosted by local film expert Graham Thorburn and open to anybody interested in seeing, thinking, and having fun talking about films; each Film Club session will start with some background information about the film – the times and context of its making, the people who made it, and something notable about the content or techniques of the film – perhaps even a bit of gossip. After the film screening, there will be a chance to discuss the film. 

The April Film Club will screen The Mission (1986). Although acclaimed at the time, now the film is chiefly remembered for its sublime score by Ennio Morricone, and the session will focus on the way music works in cinema.

1750s Jesuit priest Father Gabriel (Jeremy Irons) enters the Guarani lands in South America with the purpose of converting the natives to Christianity. He soon builds a mission, where he is joined by Rodrigo Mendoza (Robert De Niro), a reformed slave trader seeking redemption. When a treaty transfers the land from Spain to Portugal, the Portuguese government wants to capture the natives for slave labour. Mendoza and Gabriel resolve to defend the mission, but disagree on how to accomplish the task (based on a true story).

Attendance is $7 for SCWC & Screen Illawarra Members, and $10 for general admission. Entry fee includes tea & coffee.

Film Club is a community event. We encourage people to get involved by coming early to help us set up, or staying to helping pack chairs away.

Graham Thorburn has had a very long career in film and television, as an actor, producer, writer and academic, but principally as a director. He mostly worked as a director for short-run TV drama (over 70 prime time hours), but he also produced and directed Countdown and created, produced and directed BeatBox. Graham was the third President of the Australian Screen Directors Association (now the Australian Directors Guild) and served in various other executive positions for ten years. He was Head of Directing, then Head of Teaching at AFTRS for 11 years. Before that he wrote and delivered course work in acting, writing and directing for the screen at UTS, NIDA and AFTRS, and has chaired international undergraduate and postgraduate curriculum and teaching assessment panels.

Read more about the South Coast Writers Centre's Film & Screenwriting Programs