Finger Licking Good (1972)
A visit to a chicken ‘processing’ factory, where live white birds are converted into frozen carcasses. This film shows the whole process, and the migrant women working on the production line.
Made as a short political documentary in 1972 by three students studying drama and filmmaking at Flinders University. This film was inspired by anger at the arrival in Australia of American junkfood giant Kentucky Fried Chicken. On the advertising billboard which closes the film, a roast chicken under the gaze of Colonel Sanders is declared as ‘Womens’ Liberation’. Feminists and their supporters read this as an insult to their cause, others saw it as yet more foreign cultural imposition.
The film is set with a mix of good old fashioned big band music. Soundtrack includes a section of silence where the plucked chickens have their heads removed by a neck-stretching machine. Shot on a Bolex H16 Reflex camera, using black and white 16mm film, on a low editing ratio of about 1:2.
Direction, camerawork and editing by Richard Tipping.
Producer: Tess McGough.
Soundtrack by Bernard Neeson (Doc Neeson).
Finger Lickin’ Good was distributed by the Sydney Filmmakers’ Co-operative during the 1970s.