The film wooed crowds at the Byron Bay film Festival and premiered in front of the Governor of NSW Marie Bashir last month.

“She wrote a lovely letter of support,” director Russell Kilbey said.

“She said it was a beautiful film about one of the most beautiful places on planet earth”.

The film follows the travails of a Blue Mountains family, the Carlons who have had a chequered history with the National Parks. 

The family took tourists on horse rides for 40 years along the Coxs River until the area was declared a wilderness. 

A National Parks ranger has a job that only some one like Luke Carlon can do, locate and capture a mob of brumbies that live around Sydney’s water catchment. 

Only problem is there are no roads and everything has to be done on horseback.

So begins an amazing, intense and heartwarming journey as the two men try and work together to remove and re-home the brumbies.

The film has been so successful at Mt Vic Flicks the theatre has had to install crowd control measures. 

“We had to turn 40 people away every session we've played the film” theatre owner Adam Cousins said.

“Now we have developed a system to not keep people waiting and have added more sessions to meet the demand.”

Synopsis

Can a near impossible mission to save a mob of doomed brumbies in an inaccessible wilderness bring a fiercely independent horseman and feral control National Parks Ranger to see the world through each other's eyes?

As the budgetary clock ticks, we investigate wilderness management, heritage and the call of the wild, riding out on a horsey adventure not seen since Banjo Patterson penned that poem.

“The Man from Coxs River was completed in November 2013 after nearly five years of hazardous and gruelling filming in the Blue Mountains National Park. 

The film crew lived with the stockmen for up to a week at a time in the wilderness filming amongst  snakes, 40 degree heat, boggy river crossings and of course wild, kicking and biting brumbies. 

Most of the filming was done off horseback using Crumpler bike courier bags to cart cameras. 

by former Champion Post journalist, Joy Allen.

The old adage of six degrees of separation is now thought to be only 3.5 degrees due to technological advancements, particularly with travel and communication.  

 So when I heard that the new Australian independent movie, The Man from Cox's River was screening at the Amuso Theatre at Manildra on Saturday, May 10, it prompted an email to the Champion Post - and then top up my bucket list.

Yes, I am sure the Champion Post can do a story on the movie and if you want a taste of the true story, the previews and visuals on www.themanfromcoxsriver.com will get you in!

The movie has a few connections to the district:

• Anyone who has driven from Parkes to Sydney has crossed the Cox’s River near Wallerawang power station

• The Man from Cox’s River, Luke Carlon has family in Parkes – his brother-in-law Anthony Tolhurst 

• Another star of the movie, Adam Boyd is a Canowindra local and his family also farm a former Hando property just north of Peak Hill

• Adam’s aunt, Bev Boyd lives in Parkes

• Mary Meagher in Forbes is a descendent of the Carlon clan.

And the list goes on (we don’t want to let every skeleton out of the closet!)

And now for the bucket list, the long list of things I want to do before I die ....

One simple thing on my list was to see a movie at an old fashioned country cinema. - seemingly simple enough, but with fewer theatres left, it could have been a little challenging.

But through another Parkes connection, I ticked that one off my list last December on my way back from the Companions Thru Cancer lunch at Parkes. 

The movie was screening at Mt Vic Flicks at Mount Victoria.  

I even had to drive across the Cox's River to get there and had old fashioned jaffas to roll down the aisle!

Perhaps going to an old fashioned cinema is on your list?  

If so, seize the opportunity this Saturday when The Man from Coxs River screens at the Amuso Theatre, Manildra, with the added bonus of a Q& A session with its independent producers, Russell Kilbey and Amy Scully.

Now, one for the record, as a trained journalist, appearing before the ICAC is NOT on my bucket list and so here is my list of declarations:

• Yes, I am a former Champion Post Journalist;

• the main man in the movie is my cousin Luke;

• the old fashioned jaffas were from The Lolly Bug, Hartley, owned by  Luke's sister Sharon; 

• I’m a part-time funeral celebrant so a Bucket List goes with the job,and

• No, I can't be at the Amuso this weekend because I’m catching up with an old Peak Hill friend in the Hunter Valley.

Note to self: it really is 3.5 degrees of separation –yes, you can run but you can’t hide!