Denis Whitburn Denis Whitburn i(A25962 works by)
Born: Established: 1944 ;
Gender: Male
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BiographyHistory

Denis Whitburn worked as a journalist with such journals as Nation Review, Hollywood Reporter, and Harper's Bazaar. His staged plays include 'The Siege of Frank Sinatra' (1980), based on the union banning of Sinatra's 1974 Australian concert tour. In 1982, Whitburn was commissioned to write the television docu-drama Warriors of the Deep, based on the Japanese submarine attack on Sydney Harbour in 1942. His other televison work includes the mini-series The Last Bastion (1984). He was also one of the screenwriters for the television mini-series Bodysurfer (1989) and co-authored (with R. J. Swan) Give Peace a Chance: Australia's Guide to WW III (1982).

Most Referenced Works

Awards for Works

form y separately published work icon Blood Oath ( dir. Stephen Henry Wallace ) Australia : Blood Oath Productions , 1990 Z1232452 1990 single work film/TV

Based on the true story of an Australian Army captain who, in 1946, was assigned by the Australian Army Legal Corps to prosecute Japanese soldiers for their role in the Laha Massacre (1942) and other incidents at Ambon Island POW camp between the fall of Ambon to the Japanese in 1942 and the end of the war.

Set against the background of international power politics, the script attempts to portray the perplexing issue of war guilt through the rhetoric of courtroom drama. It can usefully be compared with the Japanese documentary The Tokyo Trial (1984), the second half of which deals with the trial of twenty-eight alleged war criminals.

1990 nominated Australian Film Institute Awards Best Original Screenplay
form y separately published work icon Bodysurfer ( dir. Ian Barry ) Sydney Australia : John Sexton Productions ABC Television , 1989 Z822410 1989 series - publisher film/TV

A television mini-series based on the award-winning collection of short stories by Robert Drewe, Bodysurfer combines a number of characters and incidents to create a single narrative focusing on the troubled personal life of Sydney architect David Lang. The narrative takes place over a period of some eighteen months, beginning shortly after the failure of Lang's marriage. He begins a series of casual affairs, but memories of his past come flooding back to stir his feelings of guilt and he has a breakdown.

1989 winner Australian Film Institute Awards Best Mini-series Screenplay
Last amended 11 Oct 2012 16:00:22
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