Theo Clark Media Documentaries

Theo Clark Media records the extraordinary things that ordinary people do. For a decade and more, we have been recording great Australian stories, from tales of the Kokoda Track and Burma Railway, to Wallaby tours of old, rugby club histories in the city and in the bush, schools histories, club histories, family histories and more.

" It was an absolute thrill to be involved with Theo and to see his diligence and passion for any project that he tackles"- GORDON BRAY AM, International Rugby & Olympic broadcaster, 7 August 2015.

"It's a Jolly Good Story All The Same" is an Australian story, professionally produced" - JIM DAVIS, Rugby News, 25 & 26 Aug 2012.

"The View from 62" is a breakthrough. A commemorative film that is also utterly professional and historically sharp and enlightening. - GERARD WINDSOR, author, critic, historian, 2012.

"What you've achieved is remarkable... a unique memoir... compliments on a major achievement" - MEL MORROW, Popinjay Productions, 2012.

I thought it was terrific... especially the bit about me!!!!"- BOB CONNOLLY, multi-award winning, Oscar Nominated (First Contact, 1983) producer/director, 2012.

Launch of "Sometimes the Best Ever" at Rugby Australia HQ, 2017

Bravo!! Bravo!! "From an Ace to a Puma" is a masterpiece. Professional, revealing and as close to the real thing as you can get!- JJ NOONAN 2014 President of the Warren Rugby Club.

Video Samples:

"We Had to Bloody Win": Kokoda, Remembered by Fred Westphal.

For ANZAC 2019, I'd like to share this remarkable account of Australia's Kokoda campaign, told by Fred Westphal of the AIF, who died before Christmas 2018, at the age of 99. It's an incredible story of "courage, endurance, mateship and sacrifice", that was a privilege to record.

Vale John Thornett

A tribute to John Thornett and the "Thornett Era" of Australian rugby (1962-1967), when the Wallabies "arrived" as a force in the global game. This is an extended version of the tribute video by Theo Clark Media produced for Thornett's memorial service at the SCG on 17 January, 2019. The memorial service video and eulogies can be purchased here.

Extended version of tribute film shown at the Memorial Service for John Thornett MBE.

Sometimes the Best Ever: The Story of the 1966/7 Wallabies

The epic story of the 5th Wallaby tour of the British Isles, France and Canada, featuring rare footage and interviews with the men who built Australian rugby, including the last interview with the late great Ken Catchpole.

This three part documenary shows all the drama and excitement of a Wallaby tour in rugby’s amateur heyday, and tells how a generation of players lit up the world stage with their football, forged life-long friendships, and then helped mastermind Australian rugby success for decades to come.

Includes interviews with Rob Heming, Dick Marks, Johnny Brass and the 5th Wallabies, as well as commentary by Alan Jones, Bob Dwyer, Gerald Davies, Walter Spanghero and more.

Purchase full documentary here

"A fine documentary" - Greg Growden, ESPN.

Directed and written by: Theo Clark
Filmed & edited by: Theo Clark
Narrator: Gordon Bray

Produced for the 50th anniversary of the 1966/7 Wallaby tour of the British Isles, France and Canada.

The Day the All Blacks went Outback

In 1957, the famous New Zealand All Blacks went to play at Warren, a sheep farming centre in western NSW. A special scene from the 2014 DVD "From an Ace to a Puma" featuring commentary by Gordon Bray and Jon White.

Purchase full documentary here.

An excerpt from "From an Ace to a Puma: 60 Years of Warren Rugby"

Greg Storer sings 'Get the Gong'

This is an extended scene from my 2014 documentary, 'From an Ace to a Puma', featuring the original song 'Get the Gong' by country music singer-song writer, Greg Storer.

Purchase full documentary here.

Filmed, edited and directed by Theo Clark
Song by Greg Storer.

"Skiing Kiandra"

This mini-doco was made for the Kiandra Project and was shown as part of the Kiandra exhibitions for Easter 2013, and featured on smh.tv

Kiandra is the ghost town in the Snowy Mountains where skiing in Australia began during the goldrush in 1861. Playwright Justin Fleming recalls his boyhood experiences in the town and talks about its place in Australian literature.

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Featured Australia-wide on Fairfax Digital

Director: Theo Clark
Narrated by: Justin Fleming
Filmed & Edited by: Theo Clark

"It's A Jolly Good Story All The Same"
A history of the Lane Cove Rugby Club

A social history of the Lane Cove Rugby Club with a foreword by Gordon Bray and including interviews with Wallaby greats Ken Yanz and Saxon White and Kangaroo Greg Florimo.

From the 1950s, Lane Cove rose to produce Kentwell Cup winning sides, along the way collecting everything from garbos to doctors and forging them together as lifelong friends.

The film was a showpiece for the rich social history of Australian rugby – from the 1953 Wallaby tour of Apartheid South Africa; to a diplomatic incident at Buckingham Palace in 1958; and an examination of the down-the-pub training regime of John “Singo” Singleton’s 1977 Judd Cup winning side (dubbed by Rugby League Week “The team that set rugby union back 30 years”).

"A fantastic DVD" - HOLDINGS BITS, NSW Suburban Rugby Union newsletter, August 2012.

"Thank you... The love of sport draws people together in a wondrous way". - Dame MARIE BASHIR, Governor of New South Wales, Aug 2012.

"Great production and great production values" - JOHNNY BAY, Baypond Productions & ex-NSW Waratah.

Director: Theo Clark
Producer: Rob Sinclair
Foreword: Gordon Bray

Camera: Theo Clark
Post Production: Theo Clark
Research: Rob Sinclair and Theo Clark
Interviews: Rob Sinclair and Theo Clark

"The View from 62"
Remembering Riverview 1955-1962

A unique and entertaining social history of St Ignatius' College Riverview, featuring original interviews filmed around New South Wales.

The View from '62 captures the folklore of a Sydney boarding school of a bygone era - with its larrikins and scholars, bushies and day-boys, rugby and regattas, vanished Latin Masses and cadet parades, and full complement of colourful Jesuits.

In the excerpt shown here, the Class of 62 recall the experience of school cadets in the Vietnam War era. One year they were "playing soldiers" in a school parade and the next, if their marble came up in the national draft, they would be off to war. One of their classmates became a war hero.

"It is hard to speak more highly of this video... a sort of compressed sociological audio-visual essay that captures, on several levels, a time and culture that has now receded into history. You wouldn’t normally see something like this outside the highly funded programs that the ABC’s documentary people used to produce." - PAUL JOHNSON, Class of '62 Reunion Committee.

"The director's eye for talent, his subtle and often quite beautiful settings, his sense of context, his neat segues, his lively variations, his neat and even ironic balances and juxtapositions, mark this as the work of a very artistic and intelligent craftsman." - GERARD WINDSOR, author, critic, historian.

Director: Theo Clark
Camera: Theo Clark
Post Production: Theo Clark
Interviews: Theo Clark

Funded by: Riverview's Class of 1962 and the Old Ignatians' Union at the instigation of Paul Keighery and the Class of 62 Reunion Planning Group Committee.