A Tribute to Michael Edols - 25 September at 6.00 pm - AFTRS Theatre

A big thank you to AFTRS for the theatre. 

Speakers Bios

 

LES McLAREN a documentary filmmaker who worked as enthnomusicologist in PNG where he also produced 5 films.  A long collaboration with Annie Stiven includes Cowboy & Maria in Town (Best Doc SFF 1992) and Taking Pictures. He was Assistant Director, Film Editor & Sound Designer on the Edols Kimberley project, and most recently with Annie Stiven produced and directed the feature documentary Life is a very strange thing about life in post-colonial France.

HAYDN KEENAN Ex enfant terrible.  Currently gentleman filmmaker. First film 1969. First Government production investment 2005. Youngest winner:  best feature film in the history of the AACTA Awards. Produced three feature films two of which he directed. Also documentaries, music videos and a party political ad for the Australian Marijuana Party. His most recent series won Best Documentary from the Australian Film Critics Circle, was nominated for a Walkley Award and NSW Premier’s History Award. Developing: A history of men’s tailoring with Britain’s leading rapper and style icon Tinie Tempah; Series on the screen monsters we’re hooked on; Web doco series hosted by New York Times and a feature film.

JUNO GEMES is one of Australia’s most celebrated contemporary photographers. In words and images she has spent 40 years documenting the changing social landscape of Australia, and in particular the lives and struggles of Aboriginal Australians, a process that culminated in her being one of the ten photographers invited to document the National Apology in Canberra in 2008.

MARK GOULD –is a documentary filmmaker and theatre director who was touched by Mike Edols work. Mark has made over 35 documentaries: Moulin Rouge Girls (series); TIBET: Murder in the Snow; A Winners’ Guide to the Nobel Prize; Gut Instinct; Miss Tibet and the Limbo of Exile, the pilgrimage trilogy – The Holy Dip, Easter in Jerusalem and A Pilgrimage to the Kalachakra and in collaboration with Michael – Here’s My Hand. Mark has directed for Compass, Four Corners, Foreign Correspondent and Australian Story.

 

PAT FISKE is an experienced director and producer. She started making films in 1973. In 2001 she was awarded the prestigious Stanley Hawes Award for her outstanding contribution to the documentary industry in Australia. Some of the films she has directed are the award-winning documentaries:  Rocking the Foundations; Woolloomooloo; For All the World to See; Australia Daze, Following the Fenceline, Larrikin Lad and Footprints on Our Land. She has produced Business Behind Bars, Selling Sickness, River of No Return, Scarlet Road, Love Marriage in Kabul and Oyster. At present, she is producing When the Camera Stopped Rolling and developing several other projects.  Pat has mentored many emerging filmmakers and was co-head of documentary at AFTRS from 2002-2008. She is a founding member of Ozdox.

MAX HENSSER, Artist has enjoyed a 40-year career as a Professional Film Location Sound Recordist, working predominately in the Documentary Field. He trained in London in the 60’s and worked on many projects all over the planet.   Some Projects: A Clockwork Orange ~ Stanley Kubrick. (1971); Tamu ~ The story of Donald Friend) in Bali (1972);  Lalai Dreamtime ~ When the snake bites the sun ~ Director Michael Edols; Birdmen of Kilimanjaro ~ Best Sound AFI Award; Art From The Heart ~ Dir Richard Moore; An Artist in Egypt ~ with Tim Storrier;  Filming with Mike Edols and the Aboriginal people of the Kimberley in 1973 was a profoundly life changing experience. Vale Michael!!! 

 

WILL DAVIES graduated from ANU and worked at the CFU in 1972. He travelled overseas in 1975-76, worked in Hollywood and BBC Bristol. He set up Look Films in1977, was a documentary producer from 1983-2010 mainly for the ABC and SBS. Since 2002 Will has had nine books published and has just submitted his ANU PhD thesis. Currently he is a battlefield tour guide in France and is developing history tours.

JOHN OGDEN is a visual artist, writer, publisher and educator based in Sydney, Australia. Ogden’s career began as a photojournalist in Southeast Asia during the early seventies, before joining the infamous Tracks magazine as a correspondent while freelancing for other counterculture publications. In 1979 he graduated from the Western Australian Institute of Technology (now Curtin University) having studied literature, anthropology and filmmaking. Over the last four decades he has worked as a Director of Photography, and is an accredited member of the Australian Cinematographers Society (ACS). Following a life-changing accident in 1998 he established Cyclops Press in a mission to publish books that promote Australian stories. 

ANDREW PIKE is a film distributor, historian and documentary filmmaker.  With Ross Cooper, he co-authored Australian Film 1900-1977. His company, Ronin Films, has distributed many Australian films including STRICTLY BALLROOM and SHINE, and today specialises in documentaries, among them films by Michael Edols. He was a Board member of the National Film and Sound Archive 2009-12. His documentaries as director include THE CHIFLEYS OF BUSBY STREET, EMILY IN JAPAN and MESSAGE FROM MUNGO.  

JENNIFER ISAACS AM is an award winning author of twenty influential books on Australian art, culture, environment and history. She has also curated numerous Indigenous art exhibitions in Museums and Galleries across Australia and has mounted exhibitions in major art museums in the USA. Jennifer is a pioneer in the field of indigenous arts working with remote communities to advance their aims for 48 years, educating Australians about the richness and diversity of Aboriginal cultures in an effort to change the way Australians think and see themselves.

MARION VAN DEN DRIESSCHEN (EDOLS) is an artist, teacher and librarian. She and Michael married in 1998. Their partnership of 22 years has been one of collaboration both artistically and working together to digitise and rerelease Michael’s collection of documentaries. During the last 2 years their focus had been seeking funding for the Galangala Project, aiming to create a living resource from the digitised Edols Collection held by AIATSIS. For the last 3 years they lived on their yacht, the Bird of Passage surrounded by the beauty of Pittwater and a loving community, of which they have been a part for the last 20 years.

NICK TORRENS Facilitator: His much-awarded, idiosyncratic films over 40 years observe the critical forces that shape lives. A founding member & former National Chair of the AIDC, he has commissioned SBS documentary, conducted development programs for the SAFC & state film agencies & was Artistic Director of HEADLANDS, Australia’s first National Documentary Development Program. He designed courses for the AFTRS, acts as mentor for emerging filmmakers and works to enhance the Documentary profile and sense of community.  Recent awards include: China’s 3Dreams Best Documentary Australian Film Critics Circle plus six international Best Doc awards; Liberal Rule: The Politics that Changed Australia Best Documentary Series from both AFI and Australian Directors Guild, The Men Who Would Conquer ChinaSydney FF Dendy Award and AFI Award for Editing.