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It was the Swinging Sixties in London when a group of young Australians began making waves in the underground arts scene, producing a magazine that led to the longest obscenity trial in British legal history.
Contributors to Oz included feminist Germaine Greer, art critic Robert Hughes and artist
Martin Sharp. It was edited by Richard Neville, Jim Anderson and an Englishman, Felix Dennis.
Those colourful individuals are the subject of a new British-made film, Hippie Hippie Shake, directed by Beeban Kidron and based on a memoir by Neville. Although not due for release until late next year, it has already stirred up controversy, with many of the original protagonists complaining about how they are depicted.
Chief among them is Greer, who wrote: "You used to have to die before assorted hacks started munching your remains and modelling a new version of you out of their own excreta."
But more sober voices have also spoken out. After expressing serious concerns about the script, Martin Sharp, who lives in Sydney, was shown a revised version in which he counted 55 scenes featuring his character, all fictitious.
"It's a form of theft," he said. "They're stealing your identity for their own purposes."
Other protagonists have signed waivers allowing the production company, Working Title Films, to use dramatic licence with their names and characters - reportedly accepting fees of about £10,000 ($26,600) apiece.
The film tells the story of Neville and his girlfriend, Louise Ferrier, who posed naked on one Oz cover. Ferrier, who is played by Sienna Miller, is among those co-operating.
Oz was founded in Australia in 1963 and within a year had landed its editors in legal trouble. But it was not until Sharp and Neville moved to Britain in 1966 and launched a London version that it gained global notoriety.
The counter-culture of the 1960s was at its height, and Oz tapped into it, tackling subjects such as sex, drugs and the Vietnam war. In 1970 the editors invited a group of secondary school pupils to edit an issue, Schoolkids Oz, which featured a parody Rupert Bear with an erection.
Neville, Dennis and Andersen were charged with conspiracy to corrupt public morals, which carried a maximum penalty of life in jail.
At their Old Bailey trial in 1971, their lawyer, John Mortimer, QC - who later created Rumpole - declared that the case "stands at the crossroads of our liberty, at the boundaries of our freedom to think and draw and write what we please".
The defendants were jailed and although the convictions were later overturned on appeal, the magazine had lost its lustre and closed in 1973.
- Independent
