BIOGRAPHY:Hanna Chetwin is an
experimental film maker based in Melbourne.
After majoring in art
history at Melbourne University, encounters with Agnes Varda’s The Gleaners
and I and an exhibition of 16mm works by Tacita Dean (in particular her films
Kodak and Michael Hamburger), lead Hanna to transition into filmmaking,
studying a Bachelor of Film and Television at Swinburne University where she
dipped her toe into the world of narrative short films and documentaries.
She joined Artist Film
Workshop in 2012, helping to set up the AFW lab space in Goodtime studios, and
began working experimentally with celluloid film.
Her short films and expanded film
works have been included in festivals such as the Melbourne International Film
Festival (2015, 2016), the Milwaukee Underground Film Festival (2015, 2016),
the Kuala Lumpur Experimental Film and Music Festival (2015) and the Florida
Experimental Film Festival (2015).
Her expanded audio-visual work has
been performed at Liquid Architecture (2016) and at the Inland Concert Series
(2016, 2017, 2018) and the Astra Concert Series (2018) and her collaborative
work with film lab Artist Film Workshop has been exhibited at Centre for Contemporary Photography gallery
(2017), screened at the MCA in Sydney, Australian International Experimental Film Festival and Slopes Gallery, Melbourne
(2014).
CRITICAL
OVERVIEW: Since joining Artist
Film Workshop in 2012 I have worked exclusively with 16mm and have made only
experimental films (and the occasional music video).
Southern Climes
At AFW I learned how to
film on a Bolex and process my own film, and what continues to excite me about
working this way is the endless possibilities to explore in celluloid image
making.
In the last few years my
films have tended to focus on minute details of the everyday and the
environment around me (in my films SALT, Southern Climes and Tilings) as well as the
photochemical, lab-based possibilities of 16mm (SODA), or a combination of the
two (Intimacy is Hair in the Drain,Watercourse, Detail).
I always try and keep in
my mind a quote I once read by Agnes Varda where she talks about keeping
herself ‘open’ to the world around her; a particular way of seeing that I try
and use when filming and structuring my films.
Things that have
influenced my films include: the brevity and simplicity of Kurt Kren, the
violence of Jeff Keen, the ‘hand and machine’ of Richard Tuohy and Dianna
Barrie and the colour and structure of Esther Urlus.
In the last few years I also have enjoyed working with a number
of experimental musicians and composers, (Francis Plagne, Rohan Drape, James
Rushford and Alexander Garsden). I like the process of handing over a finished
or almost finished film and seeing how the tone
of a film is transformed when set against sound and music.
- Hanna Chetwin, January 2019.
SALT
FILMOGRAPHY:
Short Films
Intimacy is Hair in the Drain
SALT (2018, 15
mins, 16mm dual projection) funding provided by Creative Victoria
Southern Climes (2018, 12
mins, 16mm)
Opaquing (2017, 5
mins, 16mm triple projection)
SODA (2017, 7
mins, 16mm)
Holiday Snaps (2016, 15
mins, 16mm and 35mm slides)
Tilings (2016, 15
mins, 16mm dual projection and 35mm slides)
Detail (2015, 12
mins, 16mm dual projection)
Intimacy is Hair in
the Drain (2015, 8 mins, 16mm)
Watercourse (2014, 5
mins, 16mm)
Path Subject to
Flooding (2013, 5 mins, 16mm)
Opaquing
Watercourse (2014, 5 mins)
Intimacy is Hair in the Drain (2015, 8 mins)
Music Videos
Lyse Striber (2016, 3
mins, 16mm transferred to digital) music video for True Strength
Hearing Every Drop (2015, 5
mins, 35mm transferred to digital) music video for Francis Plagne
I hope you had a nice
life before you flew into my eye (2014, 3 mins, 16mm transferred to
digital) music video for Inevitable Orbit
Oranges (2011, 3
mins, digital video) music video for Francis Plagne
Collaborative Works
Film Baton (2014, 30
mins, 16mm) film by Artist Film Workshop (directed a 3 minute section)
Omnibus (2014, 40
mins, 16mm) film by Artist Film Workshop (directed a 3 minute section)
