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Melbourne independent filmmakers

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Giorgio Mangiamele
Michael Buckley
Moira Joseph
 
     


Angelo Salamanca
(Angelo Simon Salamanca)
b. September 2, 1955, Caltagirone (Sicily), Italy.

BIOGRAPHY:   Angelo graduated from Swinburne Film and Television School in 1991, where his graduate film Urban Myth was picked up for distribution by the AFI and received a Certificate of Merit at the Nimes Film Festival, France.

He has been professionally active in film and video production for 19 years with experience in directing, screenwriting and casting. His first efforts at screenwriting included co-writing Hungry Heart (Edinburgh and Montreal Film Festivals) directed by Luigi Acquisto, and writing Closer and Closer Apart, described by David Stratton in Variety as "a well-written script".

He was a member of the Melbourne International Film Festival features and documentary pre-selection panel for 11 years, and has also served twice on the AFI Awards panel for shorts and animation.

 


He has written and directed two feature films, Hostage to Fate, produced by Michael Agar, and Zyco Rock, produced by Ian Handasyde.

See also Extended Biography



 
 
Urban Myth

CRITICAL OVERVIEW:   In my works I have, by and large, attempted to explore the dark side of the human psyche within the context of gender and sexual politics. My feeling is that the "dark side" needn't be forbidding. I'm excited by examining the comedic and farcical in drama, as well as the tragic in the mundane. I'm fascinated by how much an "ordinary" life may be deemed heroic, how the minutiae of everyday existence can assume epic proportions.

The exploration of the self is a common theme in any genre of story-telling. I suppose this as sub-text is the motif which is integral to most of my work. For the medium of film-making affords one the tools with which to depict character in all its hues in different time and space. Also, the juxtaposition of naturalism and the stylized, is a constant source of fascination to me. I'm interested in playing the two against each other and seeing what emerges from the drama.

I can't be certain that I've succeeded in my attempts. Nor can I be certain that I'll endeavor to continue this exploration in future films. Suffice to say that I have learnt a good deal by attempting it and, I suspect, will learn heaps more.

Angelo Salamanca, April 2003

See also statement "life at 24 frames a second"


FILMOGRAPHY:

 
 
Zyco Rock

As writer/director:

Deadly Diane (1973, 7 mins, Super 8)

Urban Myth (1991, 20 mins, 16mm)
VCA graduate film distributed by the AFI. Certificate of Merit: Nimes Film Festival 1992

Something Lost, Something Gained (1993, 10 mins, 16mm)

The Right Moves (1998, 20 mins, Super 8)
(as director only, produced by Ian Handasyde)

The Spider and the Fly (2002, 15 mins, 35mm)
(as director only, produced by Savant Films)

Hostage to Fate (2000-03, 95 mins, Super 16)

 
 
ReVivo

Zyco Rock (2008, 88 mins, HDV)

The Last Babushka Doll (2017, 15 mins, HD)
(as Director)
(Georgina Luck as Writer and Producer)

ReVivo (2018, 20 mins, CGI animation)
(as Writer and Director)
(Steve Middleton as Animator and Producer)

ReVivo, a 7 year project, is in final stages of post-production (late 2017).

Life on Earth: Severance (feature, 2018, currently in post)
(as Director)
(Kieran King as Writer / Kieran King and Emma Burnside as Producers)

As writer:

 

Closer and Closer Apart (1988, 87 mins, 16mm)
Directed by Steve Middleton and produced by Rosa Colosimo.

As co-writer:

Hungry Heart (1987, 95 mins, 16mm)
Directed by Luigi Acquisto and produced by Rosa Colosimo.

The Barbecue (2018, feature, completed, due for release in 2018)
Directed by Stephen Amis.


Script readings at ScreenPlay:

director of reading of Bella Donna
(feature film script by Susannah Farrow, Chapel off Chapel, 2003)

director of reading of Yellowing
(short film script by Meg McNenna, Chapel off Chapel, 2003)


director of reading of Sells Like Teen Spirit
(feature film script by Warwick Holt and m. blackwell, ACMI, Feb 2004)

writer of feature film script God's Little Children
(reading directed by Jan Sardi, ACMI, June 2004)


Feature film projects in Development:

 

A Woman Apart    

Twenty years in the life of Lucia, a Sicilian proxy bride who is coerced into leaving her village to join her husband in Australia.

Gatecrash      

Twenty-year old Ronny, only child of a wealthy family, has heaps of emotional baggage and it’s eating away at his soul. As a fourteen year old kid, living in a coastal town, rebelling against his dictatorial parents, Ronny got drunk, stole a car and went joy-riding. He ended up killing the driver and his wife and left their seventeen year-old daughter with horrific injuries. Now, seven years later, Ronny has the incident playing over and over in his head and he needs more than just therapy, soul-searching, and profound feelings of remorse to exorcise demons within him.

God's Little Children     

A gritty drama about love lost, love found, humanity gained, on pitiless urban streets and lonely country roads. (script edited by Luigi Acquisto)


See also About produced work


Angelo Salamanca's Showreel
The Spider and the Fly TRAILER (2002)

Life on Earth: Severance TRAILER (2019)


© Angelo Salamanca, November 2017.

Angelo Salamanca's website

Contact Angelo Salamanca

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Melbourne independent filmmakers is compiled by Bill Mousoulis