Editing a movie beside the late, great Paul Cox was like attending ‘a one on one’ film school. The growling auteur was a brilliantly stubborn man, who treated film with reverence and wore his heart on his sleeve.
Reg Grundy, who has died at 92, was an Australian TV mogul who never owned a TV station. He did for TV content what Ford did for car production - marketing a product of proven appeal to people around the world.
One of Victoria Wood’s recurring themes was television, something that until recently, held the nation together. As such, she is the consummate English comic.
Despite Prince’s many transformations – musically and visually – he extended his signature energy over 39 albums. His broad sonic church attracted fans from every walk of life.
Celebrated architect Zaha Hadid, who died last week, had three projects on the go in Australia. Will there be a surge of interest in her work - as has happened to other architects who have died prematurely?
From Judas Iscariot, to a string of pop hits, to the Pirate King, Jon English defied easy categorisation. With his distinctive gravelly rasp, he straddled TV, stage and the pop charts.
As a theatre director and supporter of the arts, Jules Wright was political, provocative and passionate. She was also overlooked in Australia’s obituaries when she died earlier this year. Why?
The death of Gordon Darling last month reminded many in the arts community of the key role that he played in fostering the visual arts in Australia. But should his contribution have been more widely noted?
I suggest we take a couple of hours tonight to watch (or re-watch) The People Under the Stairs. And then we can relegate Craven, and the film, to the dustbin of history, sticking them under the stairs where they belong.
Over the course of almost six decades, Doctorow – who has died – wrote himself into the canon of American literature. He embodied the virtues of a classical storyteller.
The country lost two utterly different, and utterly compelling interpreters of India’s urban world this month. They left a legacy rich with beauty and meaning.
Honorary (Senior Fellow) School of Culture and Communication University of Melbourne. Editor in Chief, Design and Art of Australia Online, The University of Melbourne