Julian
Dahl
b. July 23, 1966, Melbourne, Australia.
BIOGRAPHY:
Born 1966, Melbourne, Australia. Completed
university with 1st class major in politics; moved
overseas. Published poet from the age of 16. In 1989, began making
experimental Super 8 shorts and working with Melbourne Super 8
Film Group and Modern Image Makers' Association (MIMA). Travelled
and worked in 48 countries as teacher, journalist, book &
magazine editor. Lived in Senegal, West Africa, for 2 years making
mystical African sci-fi short (INSECT, 2000). After stint
on Los Angeles commercial film sets, helped set up LA
Filmmakers' Co-op. Shorts have appeared on TV, on DVD, and
in several festivals in USA, Australia and Europe. Teaching ghetto kids how to make films with Peapod, an educational
foundation set up by the Black Eyed Peas.
Aspiration:
Piloting the mercury of your pupils.
Camjackers
CRITICAL
OVERVIEW:
Julian Dahl has been an active experimental
filmmaker for over 25 years in Australia, Africa and the USA using
mainly Super 8, though increasingly moving towards multi-format
texturing of associationist perspectives on the underclass experience.
Work
spans the poetic and raw End Of Beast (1989), to the mystical
and mystifying INSECT (2000) "recall[ing] some of the best
films of Maya Deren and Kenneth Anger" (FilmThreat), and to his feature release, Camjackers (2006), called "a
funny post-Reality hip hop mindtrip" or even "Christopher Guest
but with surveillance tapes" (Current).
Julian Dahl's DIRECTOR REEL (2012)
CamjackersTRAILER (2006)
FILMOGRAPHY:
INSECT
End of
Beast
(Aust., 1989, 17 mins, Super 8, B&W, mono sound)
A Man
Walking, Falls (Aust., 1990, 8 mins, Super 8, B&W, mono
sound)
Puppy
Love (Aust., 1991, 8 mins, B&W/colour, Super 8 original,
Betacam SP master, stereo sound)
Slaughter
of the Strawberry (Aust., 1992, 25 mins, B&W/colour, Super
8 original, Betacam SP master, mono sound)
INSECT
(Senegal/Aust./USA, 2000, 30 mins, B&W/colour, Super 8 original,
Digital Betacam master, mono sound)
Blonde
& Blue (USA, 2000, 4 mins 57 secs, colour, VHS-C original,
Betacam SP master, stereo sound)
lick
(USA, 2001, 3 mins, color, MiniDV and Super 8, Betacam SP master,
stereo sound)
Being Fat: Fat Hatred in America (USA, 2012, 96 mins, color/B&W)
DISTRIBUTION
AND EXHIBITION OF FILMS:
Vanguard
Cinema now distributes Camjackers and Utopia
One (Julian's best shorts from 10 years of filmmaking) on
cable and DVD in USA and Canada.
AWARDS:
Camjackers Winner, Best Editing, Ann Arbor Film Festival
(2006); INSECT, Winner, Best Experimental Film Prize, SXSW
(South by Southwest Film Festival, Austin, TX, USA) 2001
SCREENINGS:
Films screened at Ann Arbor Film Festival, Harlem International
Film Festival, Syracuse International, Lens politica, SURGE!,
Urban Literary Film Festival, Z Film Festival (Chicago, USA),
Melbourne International Film Festival, Hamburg International Film
Festival, Crossroads Film Festival (Jackson, USA), Seattle Underground
Film Festival, Melbourne Super 8 Film Festival, and others.
