Conversations with a dead poet: Alan Wearne recalls John Forbes [Widescreen]

Alan Wearne, poet and tutor hosts this documentary about his friend and colleague John Forbes (1950-98), one of Australia’s most prominent modern poets with his distinctly gritty writing about urban Melbourne and Sydney. Drawing on extracts from several of Forbes’ poems, and discussions with friends and devotees of his writing, the following works are explored in detail: “Tropical skiing”; “On the beach”; “Stalin’s holidays”; “The Stunned mullet”; “Damaged glamour”.

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Collection

In ACMI's collection

Credits

director

Geoff Burton

producer

John Izzard

production company

Film Finance Corporation Australia

Seedwillow

Duration

00:54:00:00

Production places

Australia

Production dates

1999

Collection metadata

ACMI Identifier

317952

Language

English

Subject categories

Documentary

Documentary → Documentary films - Australia

Literature → Australian literature

Literature → Australian poetry

Literature → Literature

Literature → Poets - Biography

Literature → Poets, Australian

People → Forbes, John, 1950-1998

People → Poets - Biography

Short films

Short films → Short films - Australia

Sound/audio

Sound

Colour

Holdings

VHS; Access Print (Section 1)

Please note: this archive is an ongoing body of work. Sometimes the credit information (director, year etc) isn’t available so these fields may be left blank; we are progressively filling these in with further research.

Cite this work on Wikipedia

If you would like to cite this item, please use the following template: {{cite web |url=https://acmi.net.au/works/94170--conversations-with-a-dead-poet-alan-wearne-recalls-john-forbes-widescreen/ |title=Conversations with a dead poet: Alan Wearne recalls John Forbes [Widescreen] |author=Australian Centre for the Moving Image |access-date=27 March 2025 |publisher=Australian Centre for the Moving Image}}

Australia, 1999

Please note