SA film history: How did we get from General William Booth Boards SS ‘Arcadia’ at Largs Bay to Mortal Kombat?

In 1899, the first film was made in South Australia. How did we get from General William Booth Boards SS ‘Arcadia’ at Largs Bay to Mortal Kombat?

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Unfortunately, General William Booth Boards SS ‘Arcadia’ at Largs Bay is not on YouTube.

That makes it hard to compare the first film made in South Australia to Mortal Kombat, the latest SA success story.

However, one imagines the 1899 production was a gentler affair.

TheMortal Kombat film will be the next step in a mega-violent, ultra-successful gaming franchise.

You can see clips of the game online – mostly roided-up characters from different realms beating the crap out of each other in a futuristic, alien setting.

The film, from New Line Cinema, will be epic.

It will be the biggest production in SA history, worth more than $70 million and creating hundreds of jobs.

The video game Mortal Kombat 11 – a film based on the games will be made in South Australia.

Production is also set to begin on new ABC drama Stateless, starring Cate Blanchett and Asher Keddie. The setting will be an immigration detention centre in the desert.

It’s been quite a journey for the SA film industry, which officially kicked off in 1972 and has been streaming ahead ever since.

Deloitte Economics estimated that last financial year screen production contributed $65.6 million directly to the SA economy, sustaining 761 full-time jobs. The indirect contribution was twice that.

And it’s not just those figures that matter.

The industry can increase tourism – almost 250,000 international tourists visit or extend their trips because of what they’ve seen on the screen, generating hundreds of millions of extra dollars.

And film is not just luring visitors to our shores, but helping to brand the state as a place where cool things happen.

The more attractive the industry is here, the less likely talented South Australians are to leave.

After the SS Arcadia presumably set sail, the state’s film industry started to unfurl.

The Southern Cross Feature Film Company opened in 1918 and in the 20s released films including The Sentimental Bloke. It starred Lottie Lyell, who has been called Australia’s first movie star.

But it was 1972 when the stage was really set. SA Film Corporation chief Courtney Gibson said the industry then went through several stages.

Under Don Dunstan, the SAFC was set up and became an example for the other states.

Its 1975 feature Picnic at Hanging Rock was acclaimed around the world.

That was followed by Storm Boy and Breaker Morant.

A scene from the 1975 film Picnic at Hanging Rock.

Ms Gibson said that period was the renaissance of the film industry – and the first time that “Australians heard their own voice, speaking in their own vernacular”.

Directors including Gillian Armstrong and Rolf de Heer were building their careers through the 80s and 90s.

“By then you can see quite an idiosyncratic vision at work,” Ms Gibson said.

“That’s one of the hallmarks of the SA screen sector. Bold, authorial voices with an uncompromising vision, who are uncompromised as they make their films.”

In 1994 the SAFC shifted from producing films to supporting the industry.

This second stage saw investment in films including Snowtown, Ten Canoes and Red Dog.

It was the “Shine” period, when films such as Geoffrey’s Rush’s Shine started resonating throughout the world.

These were films made in SA, for Australian audiences, but with global appeal. The next leap came with the conversion of the old Glenside Hospital site, under the eye of then-Labor premier Mike Rann, and the start of Adelaide Studios.

It started a shift away from fly-in, fly-out productions.

Since then, Adelaide has been picked as the site for films that are already international, such as Hotel Mumbai and I Am Mother.

Dev Patel in a scene from Hotel Mumbai.

Ms Gibson said there was now a global audience for streaming services, network television and video on demand.

SA has carved out its niche with the help of government investment and top-notch infrastructure, as well as industry and practitioner development.

Ms Gibson said the aim was to have four full production crews instead of the current two – “so we don’t have to import people from interstate, and others don’t have to move interstate”.

SA has the appeal of different locations – city, beach, bush and desert – in easy reach. It also has a certain je ne sais quoi.

“There’s real fashion at the minute for dystopian, semi-futuristic fantasy realms and worlds,” Ms Gibson said. “Part of the SA brand is that idiosyncratic, imaginative, out-of-the-box content, whether it’s film or TV. I think we run our own race here. That’s how we are most effective.”

SAFC also works symbiotically with the Adelaide Film Festival to premiere and promote Australian content.

Local film guru Mat Kesting recently beat the international and interstate competition to head that prestigious festival.

So what’s next? Ms Gibson says we’re starting to attract producers here to do the full film work, not just the post-production.

That brings even more prestige and higher budgets. And there’s work going on to increase the diversity in the industry and boost the pipeline of skilled people to join in.

“We just need to keep them coming and make sure we have the capacity,” Ms Gibson said.

FILMING IN SA IN 2019

ESCAPE FROM PRETORIA

■ Daniel Radcliffe

■ Mark Leonard Winter

NEVER TOO LATE

■ Jack Thompson

■ Jacki Weaver

■ James Cromwell

■ Denis Waterman

■ Roy Billing

THE HUNTING

■ Richard Roxburgh

■ Asher Keddie

■ Pamela Rabe

■ Leah Vandenberg

■ Sachin Joab

STATELESS

■ Cate Blanchett

■ Yvonne Strahovski

■ Dominic West

■ Jai Courtney

■ Asher Keddie

■ Kate Box

■ Fayssal Bazzi