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Ronin Films
Dr. Andrew Pike, OAM (born 1 January 1946) is an Australian film historian, film distributor and exhibitor, and documentary producer and director. Pike formed Ronin Films, an Australian film distribution company, with his first wife, Dr Merrilyn Fitzpatrick, in 1974. With Ross Cooper, he co-authored the book, ''Reference Guide to Australian Films 1906–1969'' and has produced and directed many documentaries since 1982. Pike has been honoured with numerous awards including a plaque on the ACT Honour Walk in Canberra City, appointed of the Order of Australia (OAM) and an Honorary Doctorate from the University of Canberra. Personal life Pike was born in Adelaide, South Australia. He moved to Canberra in 1963 to obtain a B.A. (Hons) and M.A. in Australian history at the Australian National University. Career After completing an M.A. on the history of Australian cinema at the Australian National University in Canberra, Pike worked as a cinema manager. During this time, he ...
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Film Historian
The history of film chronicles the development of a visual art form created using film technologies that began in the late 19th century. The advent of film as an artistic medium is not clearly defined. However, the commercial, public screening of ten of the Lumière brothers' short films in Paris on 28 December 1895 can be regarded as the breakthrough of projected cinematographic motion pictures. There had been earlier cinematographic results and screenings by others like the Skladanowsky brothers, who used their self-made Bioscop to display the first moving picture show to a paying audience on 1 November 1895 in Berlin, but they lacked neither the quality, financial backing, stamina, or the luck to find the momentum that propelled the cinématographe Lumière into worldwide success. Those earliest films were in black and white, under a minute long, without recorded sound and consisted of a single shot from a steady camera. The first decade of motion pictures saw film mo ...
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Australian Capital Territory
The Australian Capital Territory (commonly abbreviated as ACT), known as the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) until 1938, is a landlocked federal territory of Australia containing the national capital Canberra and some surrounding townships. It is located in southeastern Australian mainland as an enclave completely within the state of New South Wales. Founded after Federation as the seat of government for the new nation, the territory hosts the headquarters of all important institutions of the Australian Government. On 1 January 1901, federation of the colonies of Australia was achieved. Section 125 of the new Australian Constitution provided that land, situated in New South Wales and at least from Sydney, would be ceded to the new federal government. Following discussion and exploration of various areas within New South Wales, the ''Seat of Government Act 1908'' was passed in 1908 which specified a capital in the Yass-Canberra region. The territory was transferred to the ...
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Papua New Guinea
Papua New Guinea (abbreviated PNG; , ; tpi, Papua Niugini; ho, Papua Niu Gini), officially the Independent State of Papua New Guinea ( tpi, Independen Stet bilong Papua Niugini; ho, Independen Stet bilong Papua Niu Gini), is a country in Oceania that comprises the eastern half of the island of New Guinea and its offshore islands in Melanesia (a region of the southwestern Pacific Ocean north of Australia). Its capital, located along its southeastern coast, is Port Moresby. The country is the world's third largest island country, with an area of . At the national level, after being ruled by three external powers since 1884, including nearly 60 years of Australian administration starting during World War I, Papua New Guinea established its sovereignty in 1975. It became an independent Commonwealth realm in 1975 with Elizabeth II as its queen. It also became a member of the Commonwealth of Nations in its own right. There are 839 known languages of Papua New Guinea, one of ...
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CAAMA
The Central Australian Aboriginal Media Association (CAAMA) is an organisation founded in 1980 to expose Aboriginal music and culture to the rest of Australia. It started with 8KIN-FM, the first Aboriginal radio station in the country. Based in Alice Springs, the organisation is particularly focused on the involvement of the local Indigenous community in its production. CAAMA is involved in radio, television and recorded music. History Origins and Imparja In 1980, CAAMA originally established itself as a public radio station by two Aboriginal people and one " whitefella": Freda Glynn, Phillip Batty, and John Macumba. 8KIN-FM was the first Aboriginal radio station. The success of the station quickly grew, leading its content to extend into music (country music and Aboriginal rock), call-ins, discussion, and news and current affairs. Broadcasts were made in six different languages, alongside English, and operated about fifteen hours every day. Later expansions saw the station move ...
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Art Cinema
An art film (or arthouse film) is typically an independent film, aimed at a niche market rather than a mass market audience. It is "intended to be a serious, artistic work, often experimental and not designed for mass appeal", "made primarily for aesthetic reasons rather than commercial profit", containing "unconventional or highly symbolic content". Film critics and film studies scholars typically define an art film as possessing "formal qualities that mark them as different from mainstream Hollywood films". These qualities can include (among other elements): a sense of social realism; an emphasis on the authorial expressiveness of the director; and a focus on the thoughts, dreams, or motivations of characters, as opposed to the unfolding of a clear, goal-driven story. Film scholar David Bordwell describes art cinema as "a film genre, with its own distinct conventions". Art film producers usually present their films at special theaters (repertory cinemas or, in the U.S., art- ...
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Tian Zhuangzhuang
Tian Zhuangzhuang (; born April 1952 in Beijing) is a Chinese film director, producer and actor. Tian was born to an influential actor and actress in China. Following a short stint in the military, Tian began his artistic career first as an amateur photographer and then as an assistant cinematographer at the Beijing Agricultural Film Studio. In 1978, he was accepted to the Beijing Film Academy, from which he graduated in 1982, together with classmates Chen Kaige and Zhang Yimou. The class of 1982 collectively would soon gain fame as the so-called Fifth Generation film movement, with Tian Zhuangzhuang as one of the movement's key figures. Tian's early career was marked both with avant-garde documentary infused films (''On the Hunting Ground'' (1985), ''The Horse Thief'' (1986)) to more commercial fare ('' Li Lianying: The Imperial Eunuch'' (1991)). In 1991, Tian began work on a quiet epic about one of modern China's darkest moments. This film, ''The Blue Kite'' (1993), would ...
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Huang Jianxin
Huang Jianxin (born 14 June 1954) is a Chinese filmmaker. He also writes film scripts under the pen name Huang Xin. He is normally considered part of the fifth generation of Chinese filmmakers (a group that includes Chen Kaige, Zhang Yimou and Tian Zhuangzhuang),Pickowicz, Paul G. (1994). "Huang Jianxin and the Notion of Postsocialism" i''New Chinese Cinemas: Forms, Identities, and Politics'' Cambridge University Press, p. 54. . Google Book Search. Retrieved 2008-09-05. due to shared traits in his works, although he was not a strictly a member of the inaugural 1982 class of the Beijing Film Academy.Zhang, Yingjin & Xiao, Zhiwei (1998). "The Fifth Generation" i''Encyclopedia of Chinese Film'' Taylor & Francis, p. 164. . Additionally, Huang's films are distinguished from his contemporaries in that they focused on urban contemporary life, as contrasted to historical dramas, as well as for their satirical observations of the Chinese bureaucracy. Biography Huang was born in Xi'an, th ...
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Wu Tianming
Wu Tianming (; December 5, 1939 – March 4, 2014) was a Chinese film director and producer who was considered one of the leading "Fourth Generation" directors. Biography Wu was born in Sanyuan County, Shaanxi Province, China on December 5, 1939. In 1960, aged twenty, he was accepted into a training class for film acting run by the Xi’an Film Studio. There were sixteen state-run studios in China at that time, and this was the closest to his home in Sanyuan, Shaanxi Province. He was put on the studio's payroll and had some bit-parts in the studio's productions of the early 1960s. In 1966, Mao's Cultural Revolution stopped productions in the studios. In 1974–1976, the last three years of the Cultural Revolution, Wu studied at the partly re-opened Beijing Film Academy, majoring in Film Directing. In 1982, Wu co-directed two features at Xi’an with his friend Teng Wenji. Afterwards Wu made his debut as a solo director with ''River Without Buoys'', whose commercial success le ...
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Chen Kaige
Chen Kaige (; born 12 August 1952) is a Chinese film director and a leading figure of the fifth generation of Chinese cinema.Berry, Michael (2002). "Chen Kaige: Historical Revolution and Cinematic Rebellion" in Speaking in Images: Interviews with Contemporary Chinese Filmmakers'. Columbia University Press, pg. 83; His films are known for their visual flair and epic storytelling. Chen won the Palme d'Or at 1993 Cannes Film Festival and the International Federation of Film Critics (FIPRESCI) Award in 1993 for directing '' Farewell My Concubine''. In recent years, Chen directed the war film ''The Battle at Lake Changjin'' and its sequel with Tsui Hark and Dante Lam, with the two films characterized by propagandistic storytelling and made in cooperation with the Chinese Communist Party. Early life Chen Kaige was born in Beijing, China into a family of Changle, Fuzhou origin, and grew up with fellow Fifth Generation alumnus Tian Zhuangzhuang as a childhood friend. His father wa ...
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Road To Nhill
''Road to Nhill'' is a 1997 Australian comedy-drama film directed by Sue Brooks. The film won the "Golden Alexander" (first prize) for Best Feature-Length Film at The International Thessaloniki Film Festival (Greece). Produced by Sue Maslin, it was shot on location in Pyramid Hill, Victoria. Plot A car carrying four lady lawn bowlers on its way to Nhill is involved in an accident on a deserted road in rural Victoria. Locals, not knowing where the accident was, or who was involved, embark on a journey to assist. Box office ''Road to Nhill'' grossed $884,949 at the box office in Australia,. See also *Cinema of Australia The cinema of Australia had its beginnings with the 1906 production of ''The Story of the Kelly Gang'', arguably the world's first feature film. Since then, Australian crews have produced many films, a number of which have received internati ... References External linksRoad To Nhill at the National Film and Sound Archive* ''Road to Nhill''at Oz Movie ...
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Shine (film)
''Shine'' is a 1996 Australian biographical psychological drama film based on the life of David Helfgott, a pianist who suffered a mental breakdown and spent years in institutions. The film stars Geoffrey Rush, Lynn Redgrave, Armin Mueller-Stahl, Noah Taylor, John Gielgud, Googie Withers, Justin Braine, Sonia Todd, Nicholas Bell, Chris Haywood, and Alex Rafalowicz. The film was directed by Scott Hicks. The screenplay was written by Jan Sardi. ''Shine'' had its world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival. In 1996, Geoffrey Rush was awarded the Academy Award for Best Actor at the 69th Academy Awards for his performance in the lead role. Plot A young man wanders through a heavy rainstorm, finding his way into a nearby restaurant. The restaurant's employees try to determine if he needs help. Despite his manic mode of speech being difficult to understand, a waitress, Sylvia, learns that his name is David Helfgott and that he is staying at a local hotel. Sylvia returns him to the ...
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Strictly Ballroom
''Strictly Ballroom'' is a 1992 Australian romantic comedy film directed and co-written by Baz Luhrmann in his feature directorial debut. The film is the first in his "Red Curtain Trilogy" of theatre-motif-related films; it was followed by 1996's ''Romeo + Juliet'' and 2001's ''Moulin Rouge!'' ''Strictly Ballroom'' is based on a critically acclaimed stage play, originally set up in 1984 by Luhrmann and fellow students during his studies at the National Institute of Dramatic Arts in Sydney. An expanded version of the play became a success at the Czechoslovakian Youth Drama Festival in Bratislava in 1986. In 1988, it had a successful season at Sydney's Wharf Theatre, where it was seen by Australian music executive Ted Albert and his wife Antoinette. They both loved it, and, when Albert, soon after, set up the film production company M&A Productions with ex-Film Australia producer Tristram Miall, they offered Luhrmann their plan to transform his play into a film. He agreed on the ...
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