Australian director Matthew Holmes has brought Forbes’ history to life.
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His passion project, The Legend of Ben Hall, which premiered at the Forbes Showground on Saturday night, gave an astounding insight into the life of outlaw bushranger, Ben Hall, in the place he is most renowned.
It was the first time the gang of actors Jack Martin, Jamie Coffa, William Lee and Callan McAullife, viewed the action-packed historical feature film.
Holmes made sure each of his actors held resemblance to the 1800’s bushrangers.
William Lee, who plays young recruit John Dunn, said the actors had to delve into historical archives to discover what their assigned character was like.
He said bringing the film back to Forbes for it’s debut was an incredible experience.
“Forbes is one of the main places that has kept the Ben Hall story alive, and they really deserve the premiere based on that fact.
“It is their history and to pay homage to where it all happened I think is really good, considering we are respecting the history of the story and we are doing it so accurate to history,” he said.
Under the stars in ‘Ben Hall country’, the people of Forbes were among the first in the world to see the Australian film.
The regional and metro tour now continues on to Young, Orange, Bathurst, Goulburn, Canberra, Wollongong, Tamworth, Brisbane, Melbourne, Bendigo, Shepparton, Geelong, Adelaide, Gawler and Murray Bridge.
The feature film, which began as a Kickstarter project, was shot in locations across regional New South Wales and Victoria.
The Legend of Ben Hall is an Australian epic that unveils the untold story of one of the most wanted men in Australian outlaw history.
The film follows his crimes, love interests and traitors leading up to the bushranger’s death, just kilometres from Forbes.
Ben Hall and the story of his infamous band of outlaws has been mirrored in Holmes’ feature, resembling history as closely as possible. The Legend of Ben Hall will be released in select cinemas from December 1, 2016.