J.D. Goes Hunting

This 1960 tourism film, produced by the National Film Unit, is aimed at a particular market niche: hunter holidaymakers. It follows a visitor from Omaha, USA, ‘JD’, who flies down to the “land of countless deer”: Dart Valley in the Southern Alps. A folk song extols the joys of answering the call of the wild — “The very best thing for a man: To hunt and fish and sleep out of doors, eat his tucker where he can” — as JD and his guide climb via bird-filled beech forest onto scree slopes to nab a 14-point stag; before a ciggie on the ridge and a squiz at the scenery.

We say goodbye to our girlfriends and wives / Leave all our troubles behind / Put up our swag on the packhorse train / Head for the stag and hind ...

– from a song accompanying the film

Key Cast & Crew

Bob Lapresle

Director, Writer, Editor