ISLAND MAGIC Surfing poster original or ....?

John

I recently auctioned this Island Magic Surfing poster and received a message from someone on ebay saying that it was a "bootleg". I asked him for more information and he said that the film was never authorised for release in Australia. Any screenings were "bootlegs" hence the posters must also be "bootlegs" by definition. He said that he had been given the information by John Hitchcock, the director. He offered to put me in touch with Hitchcock but I haven't heard back from him.

Its notoriously difficult to get information about release dates, etc of surfing films in Australia and whether or not they were "officially" authorised. My thinking is that the film was screened in Australia, irrespective of whether it had approval or not. I feel that the posters were produced for the film's screening in Australia (whenever that may have been) so they can be referred to as original undated. Apparently John Hitchcock will be making some sort of announcement about this but in the meantime does anyone have any information that can shed some light on whether these posters are authentic?

HONDO

I don't know if the film was screened in Australia or not.

A few observations. Bruce has auctioned only seven posters of Island Magic and all have been this poster from Australia in current discussion. Three auctioned in 2015 and four in 2016. If you search on Google currently this same poster is  available to purchase from many other sources as well. The film wasn't submitted to the Australian censor for classification and no classification rating appears on the poster. No newspaper advertisements found advertising this film which are limited for that period of time.

I am wondering if the film was ever released anywhere in the world as posters, other than the Australian one in dispute, can't seem to be located at present?

John

Interesting observations Lawrence. I think that these posters came from an Australian dealer but there is actually nothing to identify them as Australian as far as I can see. He had a lot of surfing posters in quantity and they seem to be turning up quite frequently now. The person that contacted me said that the American original poster has different colours but similar artwork although not exactly the same.