Guide to David Bradbury's "Frontline", Vietnam 1962 - 1972

Bradbury donated archival footage as part of the 1977 Australian War Memorial research grant for his Vietnam documentary film that eventually became Frontline. Frontline was filmed in 1978. Bradbury's initial theme of Australian correspondents who covered the Vietnam War is difficult to realise as Australian journalists were not in Vietnam for any continuous length of time. But from these preliminary interviews Bradbury captures some rare footage of Australian correspondents reflecting on the media coverage of the war, and catalyse a change in the direction of the film. The focus of Frontline shifts as Bradbury, acting on suggestions from other Australian correspondents, finds a natural subject matter in Australian Neil Davis, whom he meets that year while on leave in Sydney. Davis, a cameraman for Visnews, an international news agency, in his 11th year covering the war had more exposure to combat than any soldier. Interviews of Bradbury for Frontline were shot in 1979 in Bangkok as Bradbury and Davis were denied visas to enter Hanoi. In between Davis's assignments filming action of the Vietnamese invasion of Cambodia from the Thai border. Billed as "an eyewitness account of the Vietnam War"Frontline features Davis's Visnews footage.