Biographies of Key Personnel
Writer & Director: VAN SOWERWINE
Van Sowerwine is an animator and new media artist who works across the areas of stop motion animation, interactives, photography and painting. Her work explores ideas of childhood and its darker underpinnings, and Van has exhibited widely both nationally and internationally.
Her previous animation, Gillian, was highly commended in the 2001 Dendy Awards as part of the Sydney Film Festival, and won Best Animation at the National Student Film and Video festival. It was screened at NewFest 2003: the 15th Anniversary New York Lesbian & Gay Film Festival.
Van also incorporates stop motion animation into her installation practice. Her most recent animated installation (with CLARA animator Isobel Knowles) Expecting is toured around Australia in 2004/2005 as part of the Experimenta: House of Tomorrow exhibition. Her previous interactive Play With Me (2002) was selected for the inaugural Anne Landa Award (2004/2005) at the Art Gallery of New South Wales - the first award-exhibition for the moving image and new media in Australia. Both Expecting and Play With Me have also been shown as part of Media City Seoul 2004, the Korean biennale of new media art.
Producer: PHILIPPA CAMPEY
Philippa Campey is a Melbourne based producer, whose company Film Camp has produced Van Sowerwine's Clara (2004, a 7 minute stop motion animation awarded a Special Mention by the Palm d'Or Jury at Cannes 2005, and the Gold Hugo for Best Animated Film at Chicago Film Festival 2005); Iraq, My Country (2004, a one-hour documentary for SBS TV, nominated for an AFI Award); Satellite (2005, an experimental feature film by Ben Speth); and Open Cut (2003, a documentary by Phil Burke).
She has also worked with the Australian Centre for the Moving Image, Production Managing ARTV (2004, 16 x 30 second video interstitials for ACMI and SBS made by 16 of Australia's best contemporary artists). Most recently Philippa has produced The Archive Project (2005, John Hughes' feature length documentary) and has Line Produced John Hughes' and Betty Churcher's The Art of War (2004, a 4-part art history series for SBS TV).
In 2005 Philippa was also the Short Film and Accelerator Coordinator at the Melbourne International Film Fesitval, and is currently in production of a feature documentary Words From The City about Australian hip hop with Rhys Graham and Natasha Gadd and Running With Scissors about musician Ben Lee, with Amiel Courtin-Wilson. Film Camp also has a number of films in development, for production in 2006/7.
Animator: ISOBEL KNOWLES
Isobel Knowles is an animator who lives and works in Melbourne. Isobel completed a Bachelor of Media Arts at RMIT in 2001. Inspiration for her work comes from arcade games, children’s book illustrations and film noir, and her animations explore a range of techniques including cut-outs, drawing and stop motion animation.
Isobel’s recent works include Expecting, an interactive installation made in collaboration with Van Sowerwine for Experimenta: House of Tomorrow, September 2003, and Like a Call, an animated music clip for Architecture in Helsinki, April 2003. Isobel has also exhibited at West Space Gallery as part of the 2004 Next Wave Festival. (See ik.rocks.it)
Sound Designer: JENNIFER SOCHACKYJ
Jennifer Sochackyj integrates her love of sound effects recording into soundtrack, sound for installation and live performance. Field recordings are manipulated by any means available to create a layered wall of shifting sound. Jennifer completed a Master of Arts Degree at Media Arts RMIT in 2001.
Editor CASSANDRA TYTLER
Cassandra Tytler has been producing and directing films and videos since 1994. Her work explores contemporary cultural iconography, idealised reality and realised fantasy. She completed her Masters degree in Media Arts in 2003. Her work has been screened in numerous festivals including Microcinema all over the U.S.A., Raindance in London and Kurtzfilm in Vienna, and she has exhibited work in Melbourne galleries such as Gertrude Contemporary Art spaces and Westspace Gallery.
ctytler.customer.netspace.net.au
Model Maker and Armature Maker SCOTT EBDON
Scott Ebdon works as a model maker and armature maker specialising in stop motion animation. He originally trained as a jeweller, and now specialises in building ball and socket armatures. He works in a wide variety of materials and mediums including wood, metal, plastics, polyester/epoxy resins and polyeurathanes.
He has worked on many animated films and television series including Plasmo, Slim
Pickings, Bad Baby Amy and Dad's Clock as well
as television commercials for Maltesers, Kraft Peanut Butter, Yogo
and Cadbury.