Aaron Wilson is an Australian filmmaker, known for the 2013 suspense war drama '' Canopy'' and the 2021

period drama A historical drama (also period drama, costume drama, and period piece) is a work set in a past time period, usually used in the context of film and television. Historical drama includes historical fiction and romance film, romances, adventure f ...

'' Little Tornadoes''.

Early life

Wilson was born on a farm on the Murray River in rural Australia, with his grandparents living only around away. His grandmother, who moved to

Melbourne Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung/Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Its name generally refers to a met ...

after her husband died, became a strong influence in Wilson's life.

Career

Wilson has made several

short film A short film is any motion picture that is short enough in running time not to be considered a feature film. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences defines a short film as "an original motion picture that has a running time of 40 minutes ...

s, which have screened at numerous festivals, with some gaining international sales and garnering awards. These include ''Ten Feet Tall'', ''Feng (Wind)'', ''Leap Year'', ''My Name is Martin'', and ''Ahmad’s Garden'', which premiered at the 2008

Melbourne International Film Festival The Melbourne International Film Festival (MIFF) is an annual film festival held over three weeks in Melbourne, Australia. It was founded in 1952 and is one of the oldest film festivals in the world following the founding of the Venice Film Fest ...

(MIFF). He has also made

commercials A television advertisement (also called a television commercial, TV commercial, commercial, spot, television spot, TV spot, advert, television advert, TV advert, television ad, TV ad or simply an ad) is a span of television programming produce ...

Southeast Asia Southeast Asia, also spelled South East Asia and South-East Asia, and also known as Southeastern Asia, South-eastern Asia or SEA, is the geographical United Nations geoscheme for Asia#South-eastern Asia, south-eastern region of Asia, consistin ...

. Wilson developed the script for his first

feature film A feature film or feature-length film is a narrative film (motion picture or "movie") with a running time long enough to be considered the principal or sole presentation in a commercial entertainment program. The term ''feature film'' originall ...

''Canopy'', while he was undertaking a filmmaker residency program with Objectifs Centre for Filmmaking and Photography in Singapore. The film dealt with war and its impact on people, and had very little dialogue. His second feature film is ''Little Tornadoes'', which was co-written by Australian author Christos Tsiolkas, who was brought into the project in 2019 when he felt that the narration needed stronger writing. It was filmed in 2009 on a tiny budget, back to back with ''Canopy'', and Wilson has described it as second film in his PTSD trilogy. The film, set in 1972 rural Australia, deals with the impact of post-traumatic stress disorder on a family. It had its world premiere at MIFF in 2021, and also screened at

Brisbane International Film Festival The Brisbane International Film Festival (BIFF) is an annual film festival held in Brisbane, Australia. Organised by the Screen Culture unit at Screen Queensland, the festival has taken place since 1992, with the program including features, doc ...

and CinefestOZ. It received an honourable mention as one of ACMI's Best Films of 2021. The film was released in Australian cinemas on 12 May 2022. Wilson has said that he explores the themes of

masculinity Masculinity (also called manhood or manliness) is a set of attributes, behaviors, and roles associated with men and boys. Masculinity can be theoretically understood as socially constructed, and there is also evidence that some behaviors con ...

and isolation (physical and emotional) in both ''Canopy'' and ''Little Tornadoes''. Wilson's short VR film, ''Iopu'' is about a

queer ''Queer'' is an umbrella term for people who are not heterosexual or cisgender. Originally meaning or , ''queer'' came to be used pejoratively against those with same-sex desires or relationships in the late 19th century. Beginning in the lat ...

Samoan-Australian performer. It also premiered at MIFF in 2021, and Wilson won the 2021 ADG Award for Best Direction in an Interactive or Immersive Title for the film. , Wilson is again working with Tsiolkas on a film set in rural Australia that is "perhaps a little more fun".

References

External links

* * * * (7 May 2022; 14 mins) {{DEFAULTSORT:Wilson, Aaron Australian film directors