Happy New Year! Well I finished up the final episode for Inside John Lewis which is coming soon on BBC2, and have started on a four-part Australian history series for the ABC called The Making of Modern Australia. Exciting for me however is the Australian free-to-air premiere of Secrets of the Forbidden City Monday 18th January at 8:40pm on ABC1. Big budget and hugely entertaining I hope you all get to see it.
At a fantastic ceremony in Sydney last Monday night for the Annual APRA/AGSC Screen Music Awards I won in the ‘Best Music for a Short Film’ category for my score to Lucy Wants to Kill Herself. Congratulations once again to Andrea and Craig Brookes for their wonderful film. It was an honour to be entrusted with the score for their film. Music from the film can be heard here.
Also, Indonesia Calling has been selected to screen at the prestigious Amsterdam International Documentary Film Festival IDFA, which is a huge honour. Congratulations to John Hughes and Andrea Foxworthy for their compelling film.
Now it’s back to work on the 3-part reality documentary series called Inside John Lewis for the BBC.
Two episodes down, one to go!
I have just been nominated for an APRA/AGSC Australian Screen Music Award for my score to Lucy Wants to Kill Herself. Congratulations to Andrea and Craig Brookes for their fine and darkly comic film. The awards ceremony is to be held in Sydney on the 2nd November, to be hosted by the Chaser boys. Should be a good night!
Dead Famous rated highly last Thursday and was well reviewed in the press. Next up is A Thousand Encores: The Ballets Russes in Australia on 3rd November at 8.30ppm on ABC1. Quite a contrast!
As you know, Dead Famous is airing Thursday 8th October at 8.30pm on ABC1. More information and music from this insightful documentary can be found here, and likewise for the upcoming documentaries Indonesia Calling, A Thousand Encores and The Ocean’s Supermum.
I’m currently writing the score for a 3-part BBC series called ‘Inside John Lewis’. More details shortly.
Just had an incredibly rewarding experience scoring Terry Carlyon’s atmospheric and compelling film Dead Famous documenting Melbourne’s underworld war through the eyes of the journalists and Leadbelly authors Andrew Rule and John Sylvester. It’s a great mix and should air on 8th Oct at 8.30pm on ABC1.
A Thousand Encores: The Ballets Russes in Australia for director Mandy Chang is also another film I’m proud of and is to air on ABC1 on November 3rd.
Yes, ‘Indonesia Calling’ is screening at MIFF on Saturday 25th July at 4:45pm and Monday 3rd August at 2:30pm. See here for details. Further information can also be found at the Early Works website. It is also screening at BIFF on Sunday August 9th at 1:30pm and the director John Hughes is speaking at the Indonesia Calling seminar with filmmakers Robert Connolly and Gotot Prakosa prior to the screening. If you can’t make it the ABC is screening this outstanding historical feature documentary in full later in the year.
In other news I’ve just finished up a stellar doco on the Ballet Russes and their tours to Australia in the ’30s and ’40s. and their impact on our cultural landscape called ‘Ballet Russes: Our Cultural Revolution’ I’ll keep you posted on screening dates.
Finishing up two new documentaries the first titled The Ocean’s Supermum for director Susan McMillan and Absolutely Wild Visuals examining efforts to save Australia’s endangered Sea Lion population for the ABC and National Geographic International. The other is a feature doc called Indonesia Calling for director John Hughes for the Melbourne International Film Festival and the ABC. Exciting times.
Rogue Nation is screening This Sunday 15th and next Sunday 22nd March at 7.30pm on ABC1, I hope you’ll all tune in. From the ABC website…
“Historian Michael Cathcart tells the epic story of how the colourful characters of early colonial Australia transformed a penal settlement into a land with rights and opportunity in a mere 40 years. This sweeping two-part dramatised documentary covers formative events in Australia’s history, including the Rum Rebellion and early court cases which established independence and civil rights for all settlers.
With an all-star cast including Peter O’Brien, John Wood, Leanna Walsman, Geoff Morrell, Les Hill and Heather Mitchell, Rogue Nation introduces well known figures including pastoralist John Macarthur, barrister and newspaper proprietor William Wentworth, and Governors William Bligh, Lachlan Macquarie and Ralph Darling.”
Rogue Nation will also shortly be available to puchase on DVD and is available even now to pre-order from ABC Shops. Also Rare Chicken Rescue has just won a Film Critics Circle of Australia Award for Best Short Documentary.
Rare Chicken Rescue has just been awarded the Grand Jury Award for Best Documentary Short at the 2009 Slamdance Film Festival, Utah. It’s also screening this month in competition at Cinequest in the US and at the Festival International du Film documentaire Océanien Prochain in Tahiti. In other news I’m shortly to begin the score for ‘Ocean’s Supermum’ a documentary about the precarious existance of the Sea Lion and those who seek to preserve this beautiful species.
Quick update, but I just noticed that the ABC is re-screening The Floating Brothel this Thursday 8th Jan at 9.55pm. Hope you can catch it if you haven’t already – it’s a hugely entertaining and fascinating doco.
