Dennis Tupicoff
b. March 23, 1951, Ipswich, QLD, Australia.

BIOGRAPHY:   After graduating from Queensland University in 1970, Dennis Tupicoff worked as an archivist and teacher before making his first animated film in Toowoomba. He moved to Melbourne and the Swinburne Film and TV School animation course in 1977. While sometimes making a living with TV ads and other commercial and sponsored work, and later teaching at the VCA School of Television (1992-4), he has made both animated and live-action independent films as writer, director, producer, and animator.

CRITICAL OVERVIEW:   Animation has often been called "the illusion of life". And in live-action cinema there has always been a tension between "the reality of death" and "screen immortality". These ideas, played out in the world of human experience and emotion, continue to exert a strong influence on the work of Dennis Tupicoff. Whether in his autobiographical The Darra Dogs (1993, 10 mins), the binocular "animated documentary" His Mother’s Voice (1997, 14 mins 30 secs), the cartoon violence of Dance of Death (1983, 7 mins), or his more recent television work, death is never far away.

FILMOGRAPHY:

	The Darra Dogs

Please Don’t Bury Me (1976, 4 mins, 16mm)

My Big Chance (1977, 1 min 30 secs, 16mm)

Dance of Death (1983, 7 mins 30 secs, 16mm)

The Bear (1990, 30 mins, 16mm)

The Darra Dogs (1993, 10 mins, 35mm)

His Mother’s Voice (1997, 14 mins 30 secs, 35mm)

The Heat, The Humidity (1999, 4 mins, 16mm)

Into the Dark (2001, 6 mins, 35mm)

Taringa (2002, 26 mins, Betacam)

SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY:

	Into the Dark

Cartoons: One Hundred Years of Cinema Animation - Giannalberto Bendazzi (John Libbey, 1994)

Review of His Mother’s Voice by Emru Townsend, Animation World Network, February 01, 1998

"Death in Animation" by Luca Raffaelli

"The View From The Child" by Keith Gallasch, RealTime, Issue 51, Oct-Nov 2002.

"Animation - der imaginare signifikant des Dokumentarischen" by Michael Renov in: TEXTE ZUR KUNST No. 51 - September 2003 - "Nichts als die Wahrheit".

"Bathing in the Sunlight of Dennis Tupicoff" in: Unsung Heroes of Animation by Chris Robinson (London, John Libbey Publishing, 2005)

"Radio With Pictures (Thousands of Them): His Mother's Voice" by Dennis Tupicoff in: CARTOONS: The International Journal of Animation Vol 1 Issue 1 Summer 2005.

Contact Dennis Tupicoff

Back to Melbourne independent filmmakers index page

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