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Ten
Years After ... Ten Years Older
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CRITICAL
OVERVIEW:
I came to Australia when I was fifteen.
I had great difficulty with English because I kept holding on
to my old language because I could feel it. The teacher asked
me what I wanted to do with my life and I said I really wanted
to do some directoring. But it was the theatre I was in love with
since I was a child. One day a friend took me to the Valhalla
Cinema in Richmond. It was a Fellini double. 8˝ and The
Clowns. Fellini was actually one of the clowns. After that
I saw Bergman, Antonioni, Truffaut, Nicolas Roeg films and others
there. I think they’re still my favourite filmmakers along with
Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton. Then I got into Rusden College,
now called Deakin University, which was a teacher’s College. I
got in through an audition. Had I not made it I would have not
gone on to a higher education - it was official, I was a double
Drama student. I had to pick up extra subjects however, so I chose
Media Studies which included TV, graphics, film and photography.
I also studied dance and art.
Suddenly
I had fallen in love and this time I knew it was for real. I had
discovered filmmaking. Practical filmmaking meant three hours
a week and very little access to anything. Luckily for me, a wonderful
lecturer and filmmaker called Graeme Cutts liked my first personal
film Kannava You Can’av’er or as the boys used to call
it Anyone Can Have Her (in their dreams) and gave me all
the 16mm film stock and equipment I wanted - an absolute privilege.
I made a film each year. Graeme Cutts also introduced me to experimental
films. Sometimes I think my style is a combination of silence
and slapstick from the silent era, experimentation from countless
hours of experimental film screenings and atmosphere from the
Europeans. The voice-over just comes to me; I have no control
over it. At school I also met and became friends with filmmakers
Brian McKenzie and Ray Argall, tutors there, just out of film
school.
After college
I bought a 16mm Bolex from the Trading Post and set off to make
a film in Cyprus, which recorded my return after a ten year absence.
More than anything I wanted to teach myself how to make films.
The film was called Ten Years After … Ten Years Older and
was the second personal documentary I have made which was then
followed, ten years later, with another about my family and especially
my brother Nino called The Butler.
I have just
completed a drama called Dreams for Life. What excites
me about the film is the fact I have used everything I have learnt
over the years but the film is fiction. I find making personal
films very distressing.
Some
kind of statement
I'd much
rather see a film which pushes the boundaries and takes risks
because even if it doesn’t completely work such a film is likely
to liberate and illuminate me.
My love for
film stems from my love for all arts. Filmmaking comes the closest
to incorporating all of the arts together. If the actors are not
moving then the camera does or just the fact that film consists
of jumping from frame to frame, from shot to shot, to me is a
dance. There is the rhythm of the shots and flow of the film from
beginning to end, another dance, a piece of music. Then there
are the colours, textures, patterns, shades and light in each
shot and frame like in a painting or a photograph. I love the
power of sound, the word and the theatrical aspects of film. Perhaps
I see myself as a collage artist; I try to mix and clash all the
different elements and styles within the one film.
- Anna
Kannava, May 2004.
See also
Dreams for Life page.
FILMOGRAPHY:
Kannava
You Can'av'er (1980, 1 min, 16mm)
The Wedding
of Venus (co-directed with Annie Duncan, 1981, 14 mins, 16mm)
Tightrope
Water (co-directed with Annie Duncan, 1982, 12 mins, 16mm)
Ten Years
After ... Ten Years Older (1986, 35 mins, 16mm)
Vanilla
Essence (1989, 16 mins, 16mm)
The Butler
(1997, 58 mins, 16mm)
Dreams
for Life (2004, 76 mins, Super 16/35mm)
FESTIVALS/AWARDS:
1997 -
The Butler
One
hour personal documentary commissioned and screened by ABC Television.
- EAC Dendy
Award Sydney Film Festival 1997
- Diploma
Merit Vision Du Reel, Switzerland 1997
- Nominated
Best Documentary 1997 AFI awards
- Nominated
Best Director Open Craft 1997 AFI awards
- Diploma
Merit St Kilda Film Festival 1997
- Finalist
- New York Short Film Expo 1998
1989 -
Vanilla Essence
Short
silent drama
- St Kilda
Film Festival 1989
- Numerous
experimental film festival screenings
1986 -
Ten Years After … Ten Years Older
A
half hour personal documentary
- ATOM award
for Best Australian film 1987
- Diploma
of Merit Melbourne Film Festival 1986
- Diploma
of Merit St Kilda Film Festival 1987
- Nominated
Best Documentary Dendy Awards 1987
- Broadcast
by SBS Television
1982 -
Tightrope Water
Short
experimental narrative
- Melbourne
Film Festival 1982
- Numerous
experimental film festival screenings
1981 -
Wedding of Venus
Short
experimental narrative
- Numerous
experimental film festival screenings
1980 -
Kannava You Can'av'er
Short
personal documentary
- Numerous
experimental film festival screenings
FEATURE SCREENPLAYS:
(written
1997-2003)
- Dreams
for Life - (Writing completed to Final script) produced
2004
- The
Distance - (Writing completed to Final script) unproduced
- The
Beautiful Woman - (Writing completed to Final script) unproduced
SELECT
BIBLIOGRAPHY:
"A
Guide to Greek-Australian filmmakers", by Bill Mousoulis,
Innersense
website, 1998.
Is
Your Film Language Greek?
by Bill Mousoulis, Senses of Cinema, Issue No.1, December
1999.
Are
Their Eyes Greek? by Vicky Tsaconas, Senses of Cinema,
Issue No.4, March 2000.
"Performing
the Self in Australian Documentary Film" by Meredith
Seaman, published online, November 1999.
Womenvision,
ed. Lisa French, Damned Publishing, Melbourne 2003. (the Seaman
essay, above, is in this book)
©
Anna Kannava, June 2004
Back
to Melbourne independent filmmakers index page
Melbourne
independent filmmakers -
a web resource
is compiled by Bill Mousoulis.
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