David Stevens David Stevens i(A18424 works by)
Born: Established: 12 Nov 1940 Palestine, Middle East, Asia, ; Died: Ceased: 17 Jul 2018 Whangarei, Northland, North Island,
c
New Zealand,
c
Pacific Region,
Gender: Male
Expatriate assertion Departed from Australia: ca. 1987
Heritage: English
The material on this page is available to AustLit subscribers. If you are a subscriber or are from a subscribing organisation, please log in to gain full access. To explore options for subscribing to this unique teaching, research, and publishing resource for Australian culture and storytelling, please contact us or find out more.

BiographyHistory

David Stevens was an author, screenwriter, playwright and director. Born in Palestine of British parents, he was raised in Africa and the Middle East, before moving to New Zealand in the 1960s and then to Australia, where he took later up citizenship, in the 1970s.

He wrote extensively for television, and more recently for film and the stage. His credits include popular Australian soaps such as Homicide (screenwriter) and The Sullivans (screenwriter), the television mini-series A Town Like Alice (director), A Thousand Skies (director), and Always Afternoon (director/sceenwriter), and the films The Thorn Birds: The Missing Years (screenwriter), and Breaker Morant (screenwriter, with Kenneth Ross and Jonathan Hardy).

In 1987, Stevens moved to work in the United States, where he is perhaps best known for the novels Alex Haley's Queen and Mama Flora's Family, which he completed from Alex Haley's unfinished manuscripts.

Stevens died in Whangarei, on New Zealand's North Island, in July 2017.

Most Referenced Works

Awards for Works

form y separately published work icon The Sum of Us ( dir. Geoff Burton et. al. )agent Australia : Hal McElroy Southern Star , 1994 Z872630 1994 single work film/TV

Set in Sydney, The Sum of Us explores the relationship between Harry, a charming, beer-drinking, down-to-earth widower, and Jeff, his gay son. Harry is the caring 'mate' whose open-mindedness borders on being annoying. Jeff unsuccessfully searches for love with the unwanted guidance of his father.

1994 winner Montreal World Film Festival Awards — Best Screenplay
1994 winner Australian Film Institute Awards — Best Adapted Screenplay
1995 winner Film Critics Circle of Australia — Best Screenplay - Adapted
y separately published work icon The Sum of Us The Sum of Us : A Comedy of Love 1990 New York (City) London : Samuel French , 1990 Z1474741 1990 single work drama
1990-1991 winner Outer Critics Circle Award (New York) — Best Off Broadway Play
form y separately published work icon Breaker Morant ( dir. Bruce Beresford ) 1980 Adelaide : South Australian Film Corporation , 1980 Z840559 1980 single work film/TV

Adapted from the play of the same title by Kenneth Ross, Breaker Morant is based on the 1901 Boer War court martial of three colonial officers in the Bushveldt Carabineers, who are sacrificed to the dictates of imperial expediency. The interweaving of courtroom drama with the re-creation of the events leading to the court martial (the supposed murder of twelve prisoners and a German missionary) is given a degree of moral complexity, but the balance of sympathies is manipulated to favour the three Australian 'irregular' soldiers. The accused (Lieutenants Harry 'Breaker' Morant, Peter Handcock, and George Witton) are defended by Major Thomas, an inexperienced Australian lawyer who struggles to have his case heard.
1981 nominated Academy Awards — Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium
1980 winner Australian Film Institute Awards — Best Original Screenplay
VIEW ALL AWARDS
Last amended 19 Jul 2018 11:03:39
Other mentions of "" in AustLit:
    X