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Clip description
Anna (Jacki Weaver) announces to her four housemates that she is pregnant, and will not have an abortion. When her acknowledged boyfriends Tony (Sean McEuan) and Clyde (Helmut Bakaitis) discover that both Stork (Bruce Spence) and Westy (Graeme Blundell) could also be the father, they react conventionally, and with scant regard for Anna.
Curator’s notes
The consequences of the new sexual freedoms of the 1960s and 70s are a frequent theme in Tim Burstall’s films (see Petersen and Alvin Purple). He usually depicts the fun, with frequent nudity, then the consequences, with unwanted pregnancy or other recriminations. Feminism is apparent in his female characters, but it’s usually not treated with as much respect as it is in Jacki Weaver’s character – who demands both her freedom to choose multiple sexual partners and the respect of the man she chooses. One of the themes of Stork is that most men are conventional, even those who think they are not. Anna is the only truly free spirit among these four.
