Marie Craven
(Anne-Marie Elizabeth Crawford)
b. Deniliquin, NSW.

BIOGRAPHY:   Based in Queensland since 2003, Marie Craven spent her early years on a cattle station in outback NSW before her family relocated to Melbourne in the late sixties. She was an actor in theatre in her teens and early twenties, becoming involved in film-making in the mid-1980s. She played a significant role in the development of the Melbourne Super 8 Film Group and MIMA (now Experimenta Media Arts). She has also been a freelance film reviewer and teacher of film-making.

During the early 1990s, she moved from experimental into narrative film-making and her films over the next decade and into the 2000s were very successful on the international film festival circuit.

In recent years she has been centrally involved with making alternative/electronic music with producers around the world under the artist name 'Pixieguts'.

CRITICAL OVERVIEW:   When she began her career, Marie Craven approached the world of film-making head on, joining the explosion of Super 8 practitioners in the 1980s in a movement of open and expressive independent film-making. A background in performance and theatre gives her a connection with actors and the ability to direct mainstream narrative, which contrasts with her experimental styles of film-making. This versatility in artistic tastes allows her to delve into various genres and simultaneously draw upon different techniques and styles. Craven's work is enigmatic, emotive and ambiguously stimulating, working with themes of feminine pressures and identity with a refreshingly original style and a deftly subtle humour. Her first 35mm short Maidenhead (1995, 15 mins) explores a young woman's dreamlike encounters through a vibrantly coloured world and stylized series of interconnected vignettes. Reflected across the shorts created thus far in her career are recurrent themes of female journey, surreal settings, oppression of women and their societal fears.

Karen Miley, April 2003

See also Sourcing a Maiden's Head by Freda Freiberg

	Underground

FILMOGRAPHY:

As Director/Writer/Producer (unless otherwise noted):

Journey (1984, 7 mins, Super 8, self-funded)

Death City (1985, 9 mins, Super 8, self-funded)

Underground (1986, 4 mins, Super 8, self-funded)

Morena (1987, 4 mins, Super 8, self-funded)

	Morena

White Woman (1988, 4 mins, Super 8, self-funded)

Plateau (1989, 30 secs, Super-8/Beta SP, AFC-funded as part of 'Personal Ads' TV project)

Pale Black (1992, 13 mins, 16mm, AFC-funded)
Best Film, General Cat., Dendy Awards, Sydney Film Festival 1993

Maidenhead (1995, 16 mins, 35mm, AFC-funded)
Director and Writer
Awarded at seven film festivals including Gold Plaque, Chicago International FF 1996

Blow (2002, 10 mins, 16mm, AFC-funded)
Director and Co-Writer
Awarded at fifteen festivals including Gold Plaque, Chicago International FF 2002

	White Woman

F.A. (2002, 4 mins, DV, self-funded)
Director and Producer
Selected Finalist Tropfest 2002 & Melbourne Comedy Film Festival 2002

Boredwalk (2004, 5 mins, DV, self-funded)
As part of the duo ehmse Tt (Image: ehmse [Marie Craven] / Sound: Tt)

EMme (2004, 5 mins, DV, self-funded)
As part of the duo ehmse Tt (Image: ehmse [Marie Craven] / Sound: Tt)

Mum (2004, 2 mins, DV, self-funded)
As part of the duo ehmse Tt (Image: ehmse [Marie Craven] / Sound: Tt)

OH (2004, 2 mins, DV, self-funded)
As part of the duo ehmse Tt (Image: ehmse [Marie Craven] / Sound: Tt)

	Maidenhead

42 (2005, 3 mins, DV, self-funded)

Brisbane Forest (2005, 5 mins, DV, self-funded)
As part of the duo ehmse Tt (Image: ehmse [Marie Craven] / Sound: Tt)

Firewords (2005, 5 mins, DV, self-funded)
As part of the duo ehmse Tt (Image: ehmse [Marie Craven] / Sound: Tt)

Sundyarvi (2005, 3 mins, DV, self-funded)

Citizen Minna (2005, 5 mins, DV self-funded)

Holiday (2005, 14 mins, DV, self-funded)

Speech (2007, 1.5 mins, DV)

Jali, Gracie & Lily (2008, 1.5 mins, DV)

	Blow

Cwtch - Fragility (2009, 5 mins, music video)

In Other Roles:

Congratulations Gazelle-Head (Dir. Chris Windmill)
(Sound Recordist, 1987, 20 mins, Super 8/video)

Personal Ads (TV/Media Art Project in collaboration with Chris Windmill & others)
(Co-Producer, 1989, 8 x 30 secs, film/video/TV project, AFC-funded)

Thread of Voice (Dir.s Arf Arf)
(Associate Producer, 1993, 20 mins, 16mm, AFC-funded)

Red Frogs (Dir. Kerry McCure)
(1^st AD, 1997, 20 mins, 16mm, VCA Graduate Production)

SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY:

"Going Underground" by Bill Mousoulis, Filmnews, November 1986.

"Breathless Wonder" (review of Morena) by Bill Mousoulis, Melbourne Super 8 Film Group Newsletter, No. 13, April 1987.

"Morena" by Ian Kerr, Melbourne Super 8 Film Group Newsletter, No. 13, April 1987.

"Case Study: White Woman" by Rolando Caputo, Taking Care of Business: Case Studies in Independent Production, AFC/AFTRS, 1988.

"Fragments of a Working Diary" artist's text & film stills, Cantrills Filmnotes, #55/56, May 1988.

"Drop in a Sniplet (and Kiss Nine's Ads)" by John Hartley, Artlink, Vol.9 No.4, Summer 89/90.

"Thirty Seconds of Fame" - interview, Paraphysics, Issue F, 1990.

"Post ARXism" by Adrian Martin, Agenda #10, March 1990.

"Collage and Montage in Australian Experimental Film & Video" by Adrian Martin, Contemporary Australian Collage and Its Origins, Craftsman House, 1990.

"Hovering in the Shades of the Dark" by Vikki Riley, Cantrills Filmnotes, #68/69, 1993.

"Light Shadows: Reflections on Pale Black" by Freda Freiberg, Photofile, #41, March 1994.

"Hidden Treasures: Short Films at the Melbourne Film Festival" by John Cumming, Filmnews, July 1995.

"Sourcing a Maiden's Head" by Freda Freiberg, Cinema Papers, August 1995.

"Some Short Sharp Shocks to the System" by Leigh Paatsch, InPress, 14 February 1996.

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