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Facilitator's Biographies
> Workshop Presenters’ Biographies
> Youth Documentary Facilitators Biographies

Workshop Presenters’ Biographies

Ellery Ryan
Ellery has been working in camera departments for three decades. From great Australian feature films such as Spotswood, Death in Brunswick and Angel Baby, through to more contemporary works The Rage in Placid Lake, Secret Life of Us, and award-winning short film Ain’t Got No jazz, Ryan has created consistently powerful and evocative images throughout his career. Born in Melbourne, he continues to be based here, working not only as a cinematographer but also as a director, taking up jobs around the world.

Ellery is now part of the stable of directors at high-end production house, Renegade Films. He has a significant number of directing credits with the group, working on such commercials campaigns such as for the Transport Accident Commission and the new generation of Sunraysia commercials.
More information: www.renegade.com.au

Alice Garner
Alice is best known for her roles as Carmen in ABC-TV’s SeaChange and for her performances in Love and Other Catastrophes (Film Critics’ Circle Award, AFI nomination for Best Supporting Actress). Other television and feature film credits include Secret Life of Us, Strange Planet, Nostradamus Kid, Loverboy and Monkey Grip (AFI nomination) and short films Maidenhead, Just Do It (It Awards, Best Short Film), and Frail Mary (Brisbane Short Film Festival, Acting Award). Most recently she has been working on Lantana director Ray Lawrence’s new feature film, Jindabyne. She has also worked regularly in theatre (Anthill, Playbox, MTC) and radio (ABC radio drama) for nearly twenty years. She is a founding member of Actors for Refugees, an informal network of actors who volunteer to perform stories of refugees and asylum seekers to community and school groups, to encourage a humanitarian response to their situation.

Alice also has a PhD in history from the University of Melbourne. She has just published her first book, A Shifting Shore: Locals, Outsiders, and the Transformation of a Fishing Town, 1823-2000 (Cornell University Press), a history of tourism and its impact on a fishing community over the 19th and 20th Centuries. Alice is currently a research fellow in the history department at Melbourne University. She is also a French-English translator, and plays cello with Euphonia. Alice co-wrote, arranged and recorded the soundtrack to Rachael Perkins’ award-winning feature film One Night the Moon, starring Paul Kelly.
More information: www.stageleft.com.au

Glendyn Ivin
Glendyn commenced his film education at the Victorian College of the Arts, at age 25, taking up the documentary stream. After completing his time studying, he found himself at Exit Films, one of the most prolific production companies in Melbourne. Exit Films also produced his first dramatic work, Crackerbag, which won the coveted Palme D’Or for short film at the Cannes Film Festival 2003. He also won accolades for his graduating film titled Neverland, an investigation of the culture surrounding bicycle couriers.

Glendyn has continued to work on commercials, having directed for campaigns such as Maggi Noodles, Nestle Wicked Ice cream, The Salvation Army and Twinings. He has also worked on a number of music clips and promos, including those for Magic Dirt and Eskimo Joe, always exhibiting his skills as a strong and unique image maker.

More information:www.exit.com.au

Robert Stephenson
Robert studied Media and Education at Melbourne University from 1982 to 1985, learning animation techniques from Bruno Annetta and started animating in 2D for educational projects while still studying. In 1988, he studied at Swinburne School of Film and Television (now the VCA) and created an award winning stop-motion short film, Still Flying, about a war veteran lost in his reminiscences and dreams. In 1989, the film won an AFI (Australian Film Institute) award for the Best Achievement in Animation.

From 1989 to1994 he worked in partnership with Anthony Lucas (now at 3D Films) and Paul Gehrig (now at Swish), creating a company called Oddball Animation. This was a time when stop-motion was beginning to become a more popular technique in advertising and there were few people in Australia offering it commercially. So, Oddball Animation made stop-motion a specialty. Productions included commercials for Kraft, Heinz and Duracell, and animated sequences for television series produced by the Australian Children’s Television Foundation. Taking up teaching at VCA in 1996, Robert has created a number of animations working across the narrative and commercial fields.

In 2004, his latest film Lucky For Some was released and has screened at festivals including the London Film Festival, the Bradford Animation Festival, the Asia Pacific Film Festival, Adelaide, Brisbane and Perth Film Festivals and was nominated for an AFI Award in 2004. He recently completed a ‘4-Minute Wonder’ music video for the ABC and he is currently working as a producer on two animated shorts.


Youth Documentary Facilitators Biographies

Nick Fernandez
Nick Fernandez first completed a BA in painting at Monash University (1999) before studying filmmaking at RMIT. While at RMIT he started working with a group who formed Foreshore Film Festivals (FFF), which provides the creative direction and much of the focus for the Bayside Film Festival. He has finished work on two short films and is currently in post-production for a third. His last film History was co-directed with Nick McInerney, and was his most successful to date. It has played at a number of screenings, including St Kilda Film Festival, Home Brewed Film Festival and most significantly, the esteemed Palm Springs International Film Festival in the United States.

Michael Rowe
Michael currently works as an editor and producer on Cactus Garden, a free sports and culture show on Channel Ten. He is also a co-founder of FFF which has presented various screenings around Melbourne and is the creative base behind the Bayside Film Festival. Michael has written, directed, produced and been the Director of Photography for various short films, film clips, promotional trailers and documentaries.

Michael has completed courses in both Media Studies and Film and Television production.

Opie Sayner-Hassell
Opie has spent most of his 26 years surrounded by cameras. His passion for the visual world began with photography at Eltham High School. This gradually paved his way to working with video cameras with the making of his first short film Vexation (1996). During and after his final years in high school, Opie was involved with the under-age non-alcoholic and drugs free music show. Fruitbowl, a locally-funded project held in association with the government run youth initiative group, FREEZA. Prior to commencing three years of film studies at RMIT University in 2001, Opie worked as a freelance camera operator and sound technician on various television shows and short film productions. Currently finishing an undergraduates degree in Multimedia at RMIT University, Opie has also been working on corporate and commercial productions in a number of major roles for the last couple of years. His main focus and goal is to be producing and directing television commercials and music videos, with the intention of moving into feature films.


Don Linke
Currently lecturing in the Diploma of Film and Video production course at RMIT, Don has more than 20 years of experience in the film and television industry as an assistant director, production manager and scriptwriter. He has worked in Australia, New Zealand and Hong Kong in film, television drama, commercials and radio productions (Voodoo Baby 2005, Affair 2004, Deeper Than Blue 2002).

He has been the associate-producer on two feature films and produced the low budget feature; Affair shot in Melbourne last year. He has also been involved in production development of numerous other projects. As well as teaching, he is currently developing a slate of projects of which Wil is the first.


Nick McInerney
Nick McInerney is a Melbourne based graduate of RMIT’s School of Creative Media. He has worked on documentary, reality television and drama productions in a variety of roles. His 2003 co-production with Nick Fernandez, the short drama History was screened at festivals both in Australia and internationally.

He is currently working in post-production for film and television commercials, and as a freelance camera-operator/editor.


Colleen Hughson
Born in Warrnambool, Victoria, Colleen is currently teaching VCE Media Studies and Studio Arts-Video at Sandringham Secondary College. Her interest in teaching developed after working as a Media Technician and A/V Co-ordinator at Xavier College for the past two and a half years. Colleen completed her Dip.Ed in 2004, and previously studied filmmaking at RMIT University and completed a BA in Media Studies at La Trobe University in 1993.

Colleen has made two very successful documentaries, Chicks with Decks and All The Ladies, which both examine the roles of women in the skate and hip hop communities respectively. Her films have screened at significant festivals such as Real: Life on Film Documentary Festival (both titles), as well as the Melbourne and Vancouver Hip Hop Film Festivals, and most recently the Woodford Festival 2005. Chicks with Decks also won five awards at different festivals, including Best Film at the Open Channel Love Your Work screenings. In 2005 Colleen continues to be active in the skating community, also working on a number of community-based video projects.

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