Battle Cry short film by Byron Kennedy

A wounded soldier crawls across a desolate battlefield, surrounded by explosions. Overhead, a fighter jet launches airstrikes on a tank below. The inventive short film Battle Cry was made by a teenage Byron Kennedy using puppetry, stop-motion animation and miniature techniques. He crafted a dramatic and imaginative war story with toys, models and firecrackers, and it's easy to forgive a hand creeping into shot or a visible wire pulling the plane.

The film is worthwhile in its own right but has added interest because Byron Kennedy (1949–1983) later produced Mad Max (1979) and Max Max 2 (1981). His death in a helicopter crash at age 33 was a blow to the Australian film industry. His name lives on through his work, the production company he founded with George Miller (Kennedy Miller Mitchell), and in the AACTA Byron Kennedy Award, which has been presented to filmmakers such as Jane Campion, Baz Luhrmann and Catherine Martin since 1984 for their outstanding creative enterprise.