Mao's Last Dancer

Bruce Beresford is an Australian film director who has made more than 30 feature films over a 40-year career. Beresford was born in Paddington, Sydney, the son of Lona and Leslie Beresford, who sold electrical goods. He grew up in the then outer-western suburb of Toongabbie, and went to The... King's School, Parramatta. He made several short films in his teens. He completed a bachelor's degree in humanities majoring in English at Sydney University, and then moved to England in 1962 in search of film work. He could not break into the British film scene, so he answered an advertisement for an editing job in Nigeria, where he worked for two years, in Enugu. He then returned to England and worked for the British Film Institute as a producer of short films by first-time directors. Beresford returned to Australia in 1970 to make his first feature film, The Adventures of Barry McKenzie, and spent the next 10 years working in Australia's developing film industry. He established his reputation as one of Australia's best directors with a series of notable films in the 1970s, including Don's Party, The Getting of Wisdom, The Club and Breaker Morant.
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