Irene Proebsting
b. 1957, Melbourne, Australia.

BIOGRAPHY:   Irene began her studies in Fine Art at RMIT before obtaining a Diploma in Visual Arts (Painting) from the Gippsland Institute of Advanced Education in the late '70s. She moved to Melbourne in the early '90s and studied towards an Advanced Diploma of Multimedia at Western Melbourne Institute of TAFE.

In the '90s Irene was a member of the Melbourne Super 8 Film Group and regularly participated in monthly open screenings and festivals. She was also active within the group assisting with production of monthly newsletters and designing posters and catalogues for several MS8FG film festivals.

Irene participated in Ultraprojections, a collective initiated by Arthur & Corinne Cantrill which organised and promoted independent film screenings at La Mama and Dancehouse in Carlton, and she also exhibited multimedia work with Modern Image Makers’ Association and New Media Network.

As well as her own films, she collaborated with Barry Brown on several projects and he produced the sound which accompany their films.

	Field

CRITICAL OVERVIEW:   Coming from a background in painting and photography and after being exposed to Experimental Cinema through joining the Melbourne Super 8 Film Group, I was immediately attracted to the material qualities that could be produced by using soft focus, camera movement and single frame accumulation. I especially enjoyed the resulting montaged and fractured narrative abstraction that ensued. Films took shape in the form of diary recordings, re-filming footage from television, video, books, magazines and my own artwork.

I am interested in feminism, social and environmental issues on a personal and political level and this informs most of my work.

Irene Proebsting 2008

FILMOGRAPHY:

	Still Life without Oranges

Yallourn Power Station (1994, 3 mins, Super 8)

Six Sequences for Jordan (1995, 3 mins, Super 8)

Newport Open Day (1995, 4 mins, Super 8)

The Trades Assistant (1995, 2 mins, Super 8)

Philip Island (1995, 3 mins, Super 8)

Mayana (1995-96, 9 mins, Super 8)

Field (1997, 6 mins, Super 8)

Water Music (1997, 3 mins, Super 8)

Mayana (remix) (1997, 6 mins, Super 8)

	Instruments for Chorus & Orchestra

Postcodes (1998, 4 mins, Super 8)

Escape from Station E (1998, 3 mins, Animation, Digital sound)

Made In Collaboration With Barry Brown:

The Last Metal Trades Junior (1992, 15 mins, Computer, photocopies, 2 tape players)

Industrial Vespers #11 (1993, 18 mins, Computer & tape player)

Still Life without Oranges (1997, 7.5 mins, Super 8)

Instruments for Chorus & Orchestra (1999, 12 mins, Super 8)

The Noojee Garden (1996-2001, 16 mins, Super 8)

All sound apart from ‘Escape from Station E’ produced by Barry Brown.

	The Noojee Garden

Selected Screenings:

1995, Reel Art, Gorman House Arts Centre, ACT. Super 8 Film

1995, Virtualities, Industrial Vesper #11 with Barry Brown, Scienceworks, Melbourne. Computer Installation

1996, VIVA 8, London Filmakers Co-op, Super 8 Film

1996, Dispersions, Erwin Rado Theatre, Melbourne. Super 8 Film

1997, SURPRISE International Short Film Festival, Taichung City, Taiwan. Super 8 Film

1999, Ultraprojections #2, Dancehouse, Melbourne, Super 8 Film

2001, Ultraprojections #3, La Mama Theatre, Melbourne, Super 8 Film

SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY:

"Industrial Vespers #11", by B. Brown & I. Proebsting. Cantrills Filmnotes, No. 79-80, November 1995.

"Field Recordings", by Irene Proebsting, Cantrills Filmnotes, No. 85-86, June 1997.

"Naked 8, Heinz Boeck examines the state of Super 8", by Heinz Boeck, Cinema Papers, No. 114, February 1997.

"Escape from Station E", by Irene Proebsting, RealTime, August-September 1999.

Contact Irene Proebsting

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Melbourne independent filmmakers - a web resource is compiled by Bill Mousoulis.