Bill Mousoulis - A shout out for an indomitable film-maker in advance of the Australian screenings of his new film SONGS OF THE REVOLUTION

Bill Mousoulis

Melbourne film-maker, founding co-editor of Senses of Cinema, and serious intellectual gadfly Bill Mousoulis has during the course of this year completed two new films, Songs of Revolution and Song of the Underground. The longer of the two films, Songs of Revolution, will screen in Sydney in February 2018, and Adelaide and Melbourne in March 2018. Details of the screenings will be posted here as soon as they are public.

In October 2017 Bill has also completed the short film Smash the Fascists:OUST!

Bill is a Greek-Australian independent filmmaker and critic, now based in Europe (Greece). Since 1982, he has made over 100 films, including 10 features.  In 2003 he founded the database Melbourne Independent Filmmakers. The aim of this website is to provide some documentation about the various independent filmmakers (note: directors only) that have existed, and exist now, in Melbourne. For information you should click here

Bill is continuously adding to his site and has announced these new profiles  released December 2017:
Sarah Barton Darcy Gladwin  Christina Heristanidis 
Matthew Victor Pastor  Andrew Walsh Click on the names to go to each page

As an inveterate list maker and list lover I cant resist pillaging a little from one of the website pages, that which is devoted to Bill’s selection of the best fifty Australian indie films. With permission I’m giving his Top Ten. For the rest you’ll need to 

click here.  I’ve only seen four. How many have you….

Bill selects and writes:
1. Turnaround (Michael Lee, 1983, 60 mins)

For me, this is Lee's ultimate and sublime film, post his acknowledged masterwork The Mystical Rose (see below). It brims with spirituality, Lee's personal redemption melding with the Australian psyche of the land. It's like an earthquake that is full of wonder and joy.

Peter Tammer

2. Fear of the Dark (Peter Tammer, 1985, 59 mins)

An extraordinary essay film about acting on the one hand (with playful jokes) and murder on the other (with disturbing details). An unusual and powerful collage of elements, one of the best Australian films ever.

3. Pure Shit (Bert Deling, 1975, 83 mins)

Bert Deling (in Brian Davies Pudding Thieves)

An Australian film classic, from a time (mid '70s) when even mainstream Australian cinema was not bad. A pure heroin ride, a freedom in its narrative and structure, they don't make 'em like this anymore.

4. Sick to the Vitals (Kim Miles, 2005, 20 mins)

Miles has a peculiar vision which can tend to overpresent itself, but this film is a masterpiece from top to bottom. The banal opening scene ushers in a nightmare that is extraordinarily executed, with black humour, metaphysical space travel, scungy manouevrings, and an ending full of magical redemption.

5. The Butler (Anna Kannava, 1997, 58 mins)


Kannava's ultimate film, nominally about her brother Nino, but in the end about herself too, and her condition (which took her life in 2011), this is a documentary full of surprises and delights.

6. The Mystical Rose (Michael Lee, 1976, 65 mins)


Michael Lee's recognised masterpiece, his exorcism of catholicism in stunning virtuoso cinematic effects (animation, etc.), this still stands as a freak film in the history of Australian cinema. Has to be seen.

7. Original Copy (Mark Zenner, 1989, 23 mins)


The enfant terrible of Melbourne arts culture, the late great Mark Zenner left us with very few (completed) films. This Super 8 puzzle is a masterwork of alienation, suspicion, and terror.

8. Untitled (Rolando Caputo, 1986, approx. 7 mins) 


Caputo, an academic, made some Super 8 films around the themes and style of post-modernism in the early '80s. This later film is a romance, a doomed moment, with music by John Cale, and it is brilliant.

9. Palm Beach (Albie Thoms, 1980, 88 mins)


Abbie Thoms

One of the very few Australian films in existence truly labelled "experimental narrative feature". The film is composed of long sequence shots, of different characters. A delight to watch.

Paul Winkler shooting Brickwall

10. Brickwall (Paul Winkler, 1975, 22 mins)


An Australian masterpiece of experimental cinema, we see bricks, bricks and more bricks. Winkler has a rigour that is undeniable. People always walk out of his films. A good sign.

Thanks to Bill for permission to pillage.