Clive Neeson’s award winning film Last Paradise will come to the Australian big screens this year starring Al Byrne and ‘The Pioneers’ in 45 years of stunning unseen footage.
An inspiring, thought-provoking mix of science and extreme adventure travel that has been a lifetime in the making, Last Paradise will kick-start its Australian theatrical tour in Perth Western Australia and be introduced by special guest and celebrated local author, Tim Winton.
The film will travel around Western Australia before working its way through to the eastern seaboard via Adelaide and Melbourne before arriving in Sydney and heading north to Queensland, with each including a Q&A session with physicist-come-filmmaker, Clive Neeson.
WHO WERE THE PIONEERS?
In the remote wilderness, when necessity was the mother of invention, a maverick bunch of kids began experimenting with something that would change the world of adventure travel.
Passionately driven to innovate new ways of tapping into nature’s forces for adrenalin, Clive joined likeminded thrill seekers through the 1960’s and 1970’s in a global quest for adventure paradise. In 45 years worth of stunning original footage, experience first-hand the exploits of early adrenalin seekers who chased waves relentlessly and pioneered wake boarding and snow boarding to give them something to do in flat spells.
Filmed over four decades by Clive and his extreme adventure accomplices, the original and breathtaking footage has been expertly restored by Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings technical team who described it as “the most extraordinary footage they had ever seen”.
The film was hailed in the USA as coining a “new genre” of film by using an exciting adventure story to subliminally address the world’s biggest issues.
Through this unique original footage, a series of stories emerge with a relevance that connects to audiences, young and old. In and amongst the adrenaline and adventure, Last Paradise also weaves issues of energy development, deforestation, species loss and urbanization. Ultimately it’s a film with an important message hidden under the bonnet of an exhilarating cinema experience. According to director, Clive Neeson, he was raised on a twin-fold diet of adventure and conservation and his intrepid upbringing laid the foundations for the film.
“It is my life’s work. We captured on film the pioneering of surfing and, those which engage the wilderness and push the limits with the forces of nature. It began with my mother, who was raised in an orphanage and escaped it all to become a wildlife cinematographer in Africa during the 1950’s. My parents raised four boys remotely and we all became addicted to that daily brush with danger. I began filming at the age of 15 with a broken camera that I bought in a pawn shop because as a kid I was driven by the dream of what this film would be.”
With a Master’s Degree in physics and a career in technology innovation, Clive skillfully incorporates scientific and educational elements into an eye-opening, fun-filled cinema experience for any age. He hopes “Last Paradise” will become an inspiration for the youth of today as well as a tool for education and social change.
Last Paradise reveals what has come out of surfing, in lifestyle and innovation. “I wanted to use the world’s biggest adventure story to address the world’s biggest issues – in this sense the film is an open letter to a generation inheriting a world vastly different to the one I and my friends grew up in. We cannot see where we are going unless we see where we’ve been and only original footage can give us that experience,” Clive said.
The winner of a string of international awards including Most Popular Film at the New Zealand Film Festival, Best of BANFF in Canada and The Ambassador of Green Award at XDance USA, Last Paradise will be screened nationally in through May and June.
“A timeless classic. Ticks all the boxes”.
Albert Falzon
“An epic journey of discovery and innovation to enjoy natures beauty in a lost time of innocence.”
Dick Hoole.
“My favorite film of all time”.
Gina Caruso, Director, Honolulu Academy of Cinema
“The most extraordinary stories and images I’ve seen in 20 years of film making”. A lesson in creative filmmaking making compulsive watching.”
John Newell, Colourist, Lord of the Rings.
“Beautiful and inspiring footage, a unique and fascinating story, a moving and thought provoking film.”
Ben Elton, British writer, actor & environmentalist.
SCREENING DETAILS:
Western Australia
Friday May 2 at 6.20pm – Luna Leederville Cinema, Perth
Sunday May 4 at 6.30pm – Orana Cinemas, Geraldton
Tuesday May 6 at 7pm – Hoyts Millennium, Fremantle
South Australia
Tuesday May 13 at 7pm – Mercury Theatre, Adelaide
Victoria
Thursday May 15 at 6.30pm – Nova Cinema, Melbourne
Friday May 16 at 7pm – Surfworld Museum, Torquay
New South Wales
Wednesday May 21 at 6.45pm – Arcadia Twin, Ulladulla
Friday May 23 at 7pm – Gala Cinemas, Wollongong
Monday May 26 at 7pm – United Cinemas, Collaroy
Wednesday May 28 at 7pm – Hayden Orpheum Cremorne
Friday May 30 at 7pm – United Cinemas, Avalon
Sunday June 1 6pm – Avoca Beach Picture Theatre, Avoca
Monday June 2 at 7pm – Hoyts Charleston, Newcastle
Wednesday June 4 at 6.30pm – Randwick Ritz, Sydney
Sunday June 8 at 6pm – Community Centre Theatre, Byron Bay
Queensland
Thursday June 12 at 7pm – Twin Towers Coolangatta QLD
Monday June 16 at 7pm – Schonell Theatre Brisbane QLD
Wednesday June 18 at 7pm – The J Theatre, Noosa QLD
