Ben Apfelbaum

SYDNEY PREMIERE : RED DOG: TRUE BLUE

The Sydney premiere of RED DOG: TRUE BLUE, directed by Kriv Stenders, took place recently at Event cinemas in George  Street with many of its stars in attendance. The biggest star of all was Phoenix, the Red Dog. Unfortunately, the original Red Dog, Koko, died of congestive heart failure in 2012.

This film is a prequel to the original film and shows the relationship of a young boy with the young dog who later grows up to be a real life legend.

The film first premiered in Karatha, Western Australia, the movie’s locale, and Phoenix’s performance  at the AACTA’s Red Carpet did not phase him.

Phoenix is in fact the younger cousin of Koko. When producer Nelson Woss was asked to compare the personalities of the two dogs he stated that Koko was a pure ham, lapping up all the attention whereas Phoenix was a consummate professional.

RED DOG:TRUE BLUE opens in  cinemas on Boxing Day.

Featured image- Cast and crew shot. All images  by Ben Apfelbaum. 

Published by Ben Apfelbaum

My photography began when my father handed me the proverbial brownie box camera as a child. As cameras developed I went through Fujica and Olympus range finders graduating to my first single lens reflex camera, the Minolta SRT101, the latter being the greatest facilitator to my growth as a photographer. Digital photography has only added to this. I was a regular contributor to Camera Craft magazine (Australian Camera ) for over three years. During Australia’s Bicentennial year (1988) I made it a personal project to document the celebrations. This culminated in the creation of a book of my photos which was published in 1989. The book was called CELEBRATING AUSTRALIA and came with an accompanying calendar. My works have appeared in a number of publications including the coffee book entitled MY AUSTRALIA (1989), publisher Robertsbridge Severn. This book had a preface by the then Australian Prime Minister Bob Hawke. I was a co-photographer on a book entitled SYDNEY- DISCOVER THE CITY with text written by Robert Treborland. Major Mitchell Press was the publisher. Also for two years I was the photographer for calendars celebrating Sydney’s multicultural communities. The two calendars were entitled MULTICULTURAL SYDNEY. My work appeared in a group exhibition held at Sydney’s Town Hall pertaining to the diversity of life in South America to raise money for orphanages there. I have over one hundred photos stored in the New South Wales State Library archive. I had a solo exhibition held in 2007 entitled Ben’s Lens at the Sydney Jewish Museum which celebrated the vibrancy of the Sydney Jewish community. Some of these photos are on the Museum’s permanent display. I have exhibited internationally firstly at the Spruill Gallery in Atlanta Georgia, united states, and in an exhibition entitled Kosher and Co at the Jewish Museum in Berlin. Currently I am a regular contributor to J-Wire and this esteemed publication.