John D. Lamond

John D. Lamond (1947 – 24 October 2018) was an Australian film director, producer and screenwriter. He was best known for directing such films as Felicity, A Slice of Life, Breakfast in Paris and Nightmares.

Before becoming a director he worked in distribution for Roadshow.

He was featured in the documentary Not Quite Hollywood: The Wild, Untold Story of Ozploitation!

Career Early career Lamond began working in the industry at Channel O in Melbourne in the props department. He later became a film editor and worked for several companies, mostly making TV ads at places such as Ajax Studios.

Distribution In 1969 he moved into the feature film industry when he was hired by Terry Turtle to help with the roadshow release of This Year Jerusalem. After that he became involved in the release of The Naked Bunyip (1970), showing it around the country, which led to him performing a similar function on The Adventures of Barry McKenzie before Roadshow took over the release of the film.

Turtle then hired Lamond to handle the Australian release of Dynamite Chicken. He designed a poster of a nun in a compromising position which caused a great deal of controversy, earning the ire of then-Minister for Customs, Don Chipp, and got Lamond a job offer from the Roadshow organisation to work in distribution.

Lamond stayed with Roadshow for six months, working on the release of Alvin Purple and a number of other films, then he took a trip around the world with Byron Kennedy looking at various production and distribution set ups.

He produced a short documentary with Kennedy, The Devil in Evening Dress (1974), which was an early directorial effort from George Miller.

Australia After Dark and The ABC of Love and Sex He came back keen to make his first film and made the documentary Australia After Dark (1975). The movie was very successful and for the next few years Lamond alternated between making films and working for Roadshow's publicity department, making trailers and radio and TV spots. He would go away for eight weeks to make the movie then promote it while also working at Roadshow. He did this for The ABC of Love and Sex: Australia Style but stopped it in 1977 when it became too time consuming and Lamond became a full-time filmmaker.

Lamond produced and edited an action adventure film, Sky Pirates (1985). He also helped provide the story for what became the melodrama Backstage (1988).

Asia After Sky Pirates, Lamond stopped making movies in Australia and started making them in South East Asia. He later said. It’s actually a lot of fun making a film overseas if you can get the money together. There’s no Film Commission trying to control your money, you know, if it’s made in Singapore “it has to be Singaporean”. It’s more of the real world... I don’t like unions, and I don’t like to not work on weekends. And I like one day off, but I don’t feel the necessity to finish at 5 or 6 at night. Two days off and have coffee breaks and all that sort of thing. However no films resulted.

Lamond died, aged 71, from Parkinson's disease on 24 October 2018 at a nursing home on the Gold Coast, Queensland.

Select filmography Australia After Dark (1975) – writer, producer, director The ABC of Love and Sex: Australia Style (1978) – writer, producer, director Felicity (1979) – writer, producer, director Nightmares (1980) – writer, producer, director Pacific Banana (1981) – producer, director Breakfast in Paris (1982) – producer, director A Slice of Life (1983) – producer, director Sky Pirates (1985) – writer, producer Backstage (1988) – story The Sword of Bushido (1989) – producer North of Chiang Mai (1991) – writer, producer, director True Files (2002) – writer, producer, director