CRITICAL
OVERVIEW:
My first film Fundeath (1969,
10 mins) was shot on Super 8 and later blown up to 16mm. All my
subsequent work has been on 16mm. My early films were primarily
animations, growing out of the drawing and painting I did as a
youth. As I developed I incorporated live action footage. Formally,
I was never concerned with characterisation or narrative but with
the communication of emotions and moods. Painting and music were
my inspiration rather than theatre.
Apart
from some shorter films concerned with formal structure and the
parameters of the motion picture medium, my main thematic concern
has been the search for meaning. My big efforts were The Mystical
Rose (1976, 65 mins), which expresses the confused dissolute
narcissism of my youth, Turnaround (1983, 60 mins), which
illustrates the search for a centre or foundation, and A Contemplation
of the Cross (1989, 27 mins), which communicates the acceptance
of Christian faith. My latest films are totally abstract animations.
Michael
Lee, April 2003
See also
essay on
A Contemplation of the Cross.
FILMOGRAPHY:
Fundeath
(1969,
10 mins, Super 8/16mm)
Black
Fungus (1971, 20 mins, 16mm)
National
Geographic (1972, 10 mins, 16mm)
The Mystical
Rose (1976, 65 mins, 16mm)
Contemplation
of the Rose (1977, 10 mins, 16mm)
Meditation
upon Impermanence (1980, 40 mins, 16mm)
Turnaround
(1983, 60 mins, 16mm)
Dance
for Love (1984, 20 mins, 16mm)
Rock Heart
Fire (1985, 17 mins, 16mm)
A
Contemplation of the Cross (1989, 27 mins, 16mm)
Razzle
Dazzle Rhapsody (1992, 15 mins, 16mm)
Screen
(1994, 5 mins, 16mm)
SELECT
BIBLIOGRAPHY:
"Michael
Lee talks about The Mystical Rose" Cantrills Filmnotes,
No. 25/26, May 1977.
"Michael
Lee's Meditation upon Impermanence", Cantrills
Filmnotes, No. 39/40, November 1982.
"Turnaround"
by Michael Lee, Cantrills Filmnotes, No. 43/44, 1984.
"Crossing
the Great Stream with Camera in Hand" by Dirk de Bruyn, Filmviews,
No. 133, Spring 1987.
In Black
& White and Colour: Aboriginies in Australian Feature Films
by Peter Malone (Spectrum Publications, Richmond, Victoria,
1987 pp. 97-99).
The Australian
Screen edited by Albert Moran and Tom O'Regan (Penguin, 1989,
pp. 173, 231, 235, illus. 20).
"Text-Texture-Gesture"
by Dirk de Bruyn, Continuum, Vol. 8, No. 1, 1994.
"A
Contemplation of the Cross: The intentions of the filmmaker"
by Michael Lee, Melbourne independent filmmakers
- a web resource, 2003. (essay written in 1989)
"The
Mousoulis vision of independence", by Jake Wilson, RealTime
OnScreen #63 Oct/Nov, 2004
©
Michael Lee, April 2009
Contact
Michael Lee
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