Angelo Salamanca

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 one feature film, Hostage to Fate, produced by Michael Agar. He is currently in post-production on his second feature, 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)

Zyco Rock (2008, feature, HDV)
currently in post-production

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.

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 Changing Sky A bio-pic of Deborah Wardley, Australia's first female pilot for a major airline. (developed with the assistance of Film Victoria; script edited by Annette Blonski)

Slow Burn Reality becomes fractured when you're lying on an operating table with a bullet in your head and a life demanding to be re-played. (to be produced by Kate Whitbread)

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)