G'Day.

Welcome to Kokoda.com.

PHASE IB

You have arrived at the gateway to the Australian feature film production company RISING SUN FILMS (RSF) web site for the feature film "KOKODA!"©. This site is Phase I of a four phase rolloaut over the next two years that will follow the development of RSF exciting slate of feature films, mini-series and "KOKODA!". We wish to use the site to inform you of our progress, assist in raising finance and commence marketing our projects.

Rising Sun Films

Kokoda: The Movie

Kokoda : The Track

Kokoda: The History

 

Who is Rising Sun Films??

RSF is an Independent Australian owned feature film company producing films for global theatrical/cinema release from its Gold Coast base here in Queensland AUSTRALIA. The name "Rising Sun" was inspired by the Australian Army rising sun emblem adopted at Australia's Federation in 1901. The name is synonymous with the proud traditions established by the Defence Forces and symbolic of the sacrifices made by all soldiers for their nation.

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"KOKODA!": The Movie

An all Australian Production

RSF has been developing for some years the feature film ("KOKODA!") based on the actual events and characters of a very famous Australian WWII campaign, outlined further down. It is an exciting concept brought to you by the Writer/Director of the mini-series ANZACS and Writer of the feature films MAN FROM SNOWY RIVER I & II (John Dixon) and the Creator and Producer of the documentary KOKODA-THE BLOODY TRACK, George Friend.

"KOKODA!" is an action-adventure drama set in modern day PNG. It is about the head to head clash of two veterans of the WWII campaign, who find themselves on Kokoda once again, some 50 years later.

Their younger charges, an injured pilot and two reluctant locals accompany them. The audience and our characters, are all taken on a roller coaster journey over the old battleground. Confronted by nature's fury and demons from the past, we have a cross cultural, cross generational conflict with their environment, themselves and each other.

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Kokoda: The Track and the History

Kokoda is the name of a Village at the foot of northern edge of the Owen Stanley Ranges, Papua New Guinea (PNG). It is the start of a very famous National Walking Trail crossing the Owen Stanley's on a North-South lateral over some of the most difficult terrain in the world. It is known as the "Kokoda Trail" and referred to often as "the track", which is colloquial Australian for a rough or unformed path or road.

The trail is 90 kilometres in length between Kokoda and Ower's Corner, just 42 kilometres north of Port Moresby (the capital of PNG). It ascends up to nearly 3,000m (7,000ft) at its highest, plunging up and down, sometimes 1,000m to 2,000 m at a time, see-sawing its way over the mountain ranges. Distance is measured in time rather than kilometres.

Passing through high altitude rain forests, thick jungles, along knife edge ridges down into dank, dark, morose creeks or crossing wide raging torrents at the valley floors. Crossing these obstacles by either wet, slippery and treacherous logs, fording them up to your neck in chilly mountain waters or using temporary and rudimentary native bridges.

The Kokoda walking trail, is a 2,000 year old communications path between the villages over the mountains. This was also the battleground for one of the most bitter and savagely contested campaigns of the South Pacific in World War II (WWII). The Campaign was Officially referred to by the War Nomenclatures Committee as the battle of the "Kokoda Trail", hence the appearance of that name in Official records and on Regimental Banners of units that fought there.

Just short of Ower's Corner is a village called Iorabaiwa (pronounced ee-ora-bee-wa), this was the southern most point the Imperial Japanese Army reached in their sweep through the South Pacific in 1942.

It was on this unrelenting terrain and in oppressive jungle heat that the two opposing forces clashed head to head from the 21 July till 3 November 1942 and provides the backdrop for the action and drama in the feature film "KOKODA!".

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Hasn't something been done on this before ??

Yes, Kokoda, the Campaign, has been the subject of over 22 books on the history of the Battle and Australia's first Academy Award for Damien Parer's documentary KOKODA - FRONT LINE in 1943.

More recently the 50th Anniversary (1992) documentary KOKODA-THE BLOODY TRACK and a number of other television specials since. Plus, at least half a dozen walking books for the dedicated bush trekker and adventurer.

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Acknowledgments

All of the materials and information on this site has been collected over many years from a vast range of private, professional and public domain sources. RSF would like to acknowledge and thank all of those persons, agencies and organisations who have assisted in the collation and preservation of those materials. In particular, the Veterans and their families without which their sacrifices, contributions and support the word "Kokoda" would not mean what it does to Australians today.

So Welcome to Kokoda.Com.

Please enter and enjoy the journey.

P.S. Ko-ko-da also happens to be Japanese for "here it is."

"Expect the Unexpected"

Copyright and TM 2004 Rising Sun Films Pty Ltd. All Rights Reserved. All information and materials on this site, including but not limited to images, illustrations, maps, audio clips, and video clips (collectively the "information" and "material/s") are protected by RSF Pty Ltd. These materials are only for personal and non-commercial use. UNAUTHORISED COPYING, REPRODUCTION, REPUBLISHING, UPLOADING, POSTING, TRANSMITTING OR DUPLICATING OF ANY MATERIAL IS STRICTLY PROHIBITED. Copyright © Rising Sun Films Pty Ltd 2004


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