Reunion International Pictures is not real . . . it doesn't really exist, well not as a company or formal entity. You may have seen references to it at the end of our reunion promos or at the bottom of this webpage.

So who are we and what is this all about?

Reunion International Pictures began with a small group of people who were associated with Turtle Video in the mid 1970's.

Seven years after Turtle.

On and off since 1988, this group of past members, joined together to organise Turtle Video reunions.

On March 18th 1989, the first reunion was held, where footage and programs made in the seventies were shown and enjoyed by the small group who attended.

These were the pre internet days and finding people wasn't always easy to do.

On January 9th 1990, we once again came together to hold the Robin Kenny Reunion, a roast of the man himself. Robin is a sci-fi fan and was one of the early members of Turtle Video in Altona.

On that night we decided to create a new five minute "movie" for a reunion planned to be held some time in the future. The idea was to invite as many past access video members to play the individual roles - a movie starring all of us, the community of Turtle Video.

That movie turned out to be the 46 minute feature called "Scarless The Movie" shot and edited entirely on broadcast quality equipment.

On November 4th 1991 the movie premiered to the group at a black tie affair held at the Glasshouse theatre in Melbourne.

Many people from the old days participated in making the Movie along with a small group of new "members". In 1991 our access video community continued to grow!

Three years later in 1994, the fourth reunion was held, this time a documentary on the making of Scarless debuted. By this stage we had found a few more people and the night was once again a great success.

Then . . .

suddenly . . .

all went quiet for fourteen years . . . until 2008.

Seventeen years after "Scarless The Movie"

Rob Manderson flew in from the USA on a two week holiday back to Australia. Around the same time, Heino Saarelaht had purchased a broadcast quality videotape machine off Ebay so he could transfer the Scarless master to DVD in order to preserve it, file it and perhaps watch it again in his old age.

Rob and Heino met up and reminisced. They thought they would try and catch up with Gary Shaw who they hadn't seen for 5 years. The three reminisced and a copy of the movie on DVD was given to Gary. At this time all copies of "Scarless the Movie" including the broadcast quality master were now approaching 20 years old and were starting to deteriorate.



Here we go again!

First we thought the time was right to hold another reunion to re release "Scarless the Movie" on DVD.

We were just starting to get ourselves organised when we came to the conclusion that something wasn’t quite right. We realised it was time to do what we set out to achieve in 1988 and so began a full on assault to locate and contact every past video member no matter where they were in the world - we realised it was time for the "Westcom" reunion.

Since 2008 all efforts have been made to find every member, document, video, photo, press article and audio tape so it can all be brought together in one place. Finally we can record and celebrate our piece of Australia's Access Video history.



So who are we?

Reunion International Pictures is a non profit group and was born to reunite ALL past members and friends of the Access Video movement in Melbourne's Western Suburbs.

All those involved from the early days of Turtle, the members and friends from Footscray Video, the people who became part of Western Communications Co operative Ltd through to our latest members involved in "Scarless " can be referred to as Reunion International Pictures.

We are a community of people linked by our association to a collective video past.

No matter how small or large each individuals involvement, we, you, were there, we lived it and form part of its history.

So who is Reunion International Pictures? YOU are Reunion International Pictures, each and every one of you.

Gary Shaw, Rob Manderson and Heino Saarelaht 1975 and 2008

Reuniting friends and members of Community Access Video Centres from Melbournes Western Suburbs, Victoria, Australia
A non profit project � REUNION INTERNATIONAL PICTURES 2010 - 2011