ADG BOARD
Ray Argall
Ruth Cullen
Peter Duncan
Ben Grant (Treasurer)
Catriona McKenzie
Kay Pavlou
Howard Rubie
Nadia Tass
Stephen Wallace
Ray Argall (President)
Drama Director & DOP
MDA, Return Home, Look Both Ways (DOP)
graduated from the Australian Film Television and Radio School in 1980 and has enjoyed a colourful and productive filmmaking career spanning more than thirty years. In that time he has worked as a director, producer, DOP, editor and writer on features, short dramas, documentaries, and established a reputation as one of Australia's most innovative cinematographers through his work on features such as Wrong World, The Prisoner of St Petersberg and most recently Look Both Ways. Ray's first feature, Return Home, received the 1990 AFI Award for Best Director, and the Film Critics Circle of Australia Award for Best Director and Best Film; and screened at Berlin, Edinburgh, Seattle and a retrospective in Cannes.
Ray has also produced numerous music videos for Midnight Oil, Crowded House and Hoodoo Gurus among others; and has produced several feature concert films, most recently for Split Enz. He also produced the animated short feature Les Contes des Animaux for theatrical and DVD release in France. Ray has directed hours of TV drama, and has specialised in setting up drama series such as Sea Change and MDA. He has been a lecturer at AFTRS and the Victorian College of Arts, teaching screen performance to the drama students and acting as supervising producer for the final year film students.
Sue Brooks
Documentary Director / Producer
(Born 1 May 1953) Sue is a director and producer. She has directed five films since 1984. She won the "Golden Alexander" (first prize) for Best Feature-Length Film at The International Thessaloniki Film Festival for her film Road to Nhill (1997). Her film Japanese Story was screened in the Un Certain Regard section at the 2003 Cannes Film Festival.
Her most recent film Subdivision will be released in 2010 – 11.
Ruth Cullen
Documentary Director / Writer / Producer
Neil Perry's High Steaks, Two of Us, Heat in the Kitchen, Becoming Julia
Ruth Cullen is a Documentary Director, Writer and Producer whose credits include the highly acclaimed Neil Perry's High Steaks, Two of Us, Heat in the Kitchen, Becoming Julia. Ruth’s recent films include the documentaries Painted Lady, which explores the world of artist Vali Myers, and Becoming Julia - fast cars and a sex change that followed a macho Aussie farmer through his sex change into Julia.
Ruth’s films have screened at IDFA, Montreal, Los Angeles, Sydney & Melbourne Film Festivals and she has written for The Sydney Morning Herald, POV, and Filmink magazine. Ruth has worked as an assessor for the NSW Film and Television Office and the Australian Film Commission, and as a specialist consultant to the FFC (now Screen Australia).
www.ruthcullen.com
Catriona McKenzie
Writer/Director
Ran, The Alice, Satisfaction
Catriona McKenzie graduated with Honours in Directing at the Australian Film, Television and
Radio School in 2000.
During her time there, Catriona directed
numerous critically acclaimed and award
winning short films, including
Box, The Third
Note, Road and
Redfern Beach.
In 2004 Catriona directed two episodes of
Fire
Flies for ABC TV and also directed the multi
award winning documentary
Mr Patterns for
ABC TV and Film Australia.
Catriona directed the half hour drama
Grange,
written by Reg Cribb for ABC TV. Following
this, Catriona then went on to direct
RAN for Chapman Pictures/SBS TV;
The Alice for
Channel 9 and was set up director on the
award winning TV series
The Circuit for Media
World Pictures and SBS TV. In 2007 Catriona
spent time in the US as a director's attachment
on the TV series Prison Break.
In 2008 Catriona shot two episodes of the
Showtime series
Satisfaction and is in
development on the feature film
Satellite Boy,
which was accepted into the coveted FTO
Aurora program, and is scheduled to shoot in
2009.
Catriona has also done video installations for National Australia Museum in Canberra and
4a gallery in Sydney. In August 2008, the
Australian Centre of Moving Image in Federation Square Melbourne showcased Catriona's work, including her short films, TV drama work, documentaries and commercials.
Howard Rubie
Director / Writer / Director of Photography ASC
Escape of the Artful Dodger (D&P), Search for Treasure Island (D&P), Mission Top Secret (D)
Commenced employment in the film industry in the fifties as a camera assistant at the Cinesound Studios and moved through the ranks to become head cinematographer then an established director of commercials and Documentary films.
In the seventies he joined Ajax films and directed the drama tv series Animal Doctor, Spyforce. The next move was to the ABC to direct TV dramas Over There and Certain Women. and a number of live shows.
For the last 20 years he has been a freelance director and in that time directed over 80 hours of television. Including six tele movies , cinema feature film, The Settlement, and three pilot programmes that have become television series. The latest being The Escape of the Artful Dodger 13 episodes completed in 2003. Howard now has a number of film and audio visual interactive projects currently in development.
In the early eighties he was appointed by the AFTRS to design and direct a number Professional Industry Courses including computer editing and the first camera assistant course.
His work as a film maker has been recognised nationally and international with 17 Industry awards including an Emmy nomination and winning two best in category Prix Jeunesse (European Awards) and the Grand Prix at the Moscow Film festival 1999. Best series of the Millennium. Search for Treasure Island . A recent production was in association with the Sydney Conservatorium of Music a televising of the Haydn opera La Vera Constanza (True Constancy). Followed by Die Fledermaus ( The Bat) by Johann Strauss .
Currently Howard is a Board Member of the Australian Directors Guild.
Vicki Sugars
1st Assistant Director / Director / Writer / Producer
Vicki Sugars background is in film production having been the 1st assistant director on 9 feature films. Credits include Parklands, Greenkeeping, Mary, Turning April, Diana & Me, Closed For Winter and Me Myself I, along with 120 hours of TV drama including McLeod’s Daughters, Heartbreak High, Naked and Wildeside to name a few.
In 2004 Vicki received her Masters in Creative Writing from UTS and also directed her first short film Moustace that screened in competition at the Venice Film Festival. The film won 11 awards internationally and sold to Canal+, MTV USA, ZDF, ABCTV and ARTE TV Belgium, screening in over 130 festivals worldwide.
That same year Vicki was an associate producer to Bridget Ikin on the multi-award winning feature film Look Both Ways and produced the 6 minute claymation Extreme Makeover which premiered at Annecy in France and took out Best Animation at St Kilda Film Festival in 2007. Her 2nd short film Past Midnight premiered at the Adelaide Film Festival in 2009 and won Best Director at the SASA Awards. Most recently Vicki was associate producer on Gillian Armstrong’s feature length documentary Love Lust & Lies scheduled for release in May 2010. With co-producer Julie Byrne, Vicki has recently established VELVET ORANGE a production house based in Adelaide, facilitating interstate productions in the State while also developing their own slate of features, TV drama and documentary.
Nadia Tass
Director
Malcolm, Rikky and Pete, The Big Steal, Mr Reliable, Amy, Pure Luck, the Miracle Worker, Stark
directed her first feature film, Malcolm, in 1986. Since then she has directed the Australian features Rikky and Pete, The Big Steal, Mr Reliable and Amy, which received 23 international awards including Best Film at the Paris Film Festival (99), Grand Prix de Cinecole at Cannes Film Festival (99), Grand Prix Cannes Junior (99) and the Humanitarian Award at Asia Pacific Film Festival.
Nadia’s work in the US includes Pure Luck for Universal Studios, The Miracle Worker for Disney, Child Star: The Shirley temple Story for Disney, Undercover Christmas for CBS Network, Samantha: An American Girl Holiday, and Felicity: An American Girl Adventure for Warner Bros, and Custody for Jaffe Braunstein Films. She also directed Stark), a mini series for The BBC/ABC television.
Nadia has continued her relationship with commercial theatre by directing for the Melbourne Theatre Company, and in 2002/2003 directed the musical theatre production of The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe, which toured Australia and New Zealand. Nadia's work was rewarded with a nomination for Best Direction of A Musical 2003 at the prestigious Sir Robert Helpmann Awards.
Nadia is currently in post-production of a feature film with the working title Love and Mortar, which will be distributed by Twentieth Century Fox in Australia. She also has a number of feature films in development with American studios, in addition to the slate of projects being developed through her production company Cascade Films.
Stephen Wallace
Drama Director
Water Rats, Twisted Tales, Blood Oath
Stephen Wallace is a filmmaker who has directed five feature films; Stir (1980), The Bpy Who Had Everything (1984), For Love Alone (1865), Blood Oath (1990) and Turtle Beach (1992). After making several short films (including Break Up and Brittle Weather Journey) he began his professional career with the low budget 50 min drama The Love Letter From Teralba Road in 1977 and followed this another hour long low budget drama Captives of Care. He has directed a number of features (one off dramas) for television including Gordon Bennett (Ch 9), Quest Beyond Time (Ch10) Women of the Sun (SBS) and Mail Order Bride, Hunger, Olive and Envy for the ABC. During the last ten years he has also directed for series television (Water Rats, Flying Doctors, Pig's Breakfast and Twisted Tales), was the president of the Australian Screen Director's Association (ASDA now ADG) between 1992-2000.
He has always had an interest in theatre and acting and has his own small theatre company with Michael Gillett, Impulse Theatre. They have produced several versions of Oedipus plus Lysistrata, Cosi and Away and have completed four productions for the Short and Sweet series at the Seymour Centre as well as short film with the company Disconnected. He continues workshopping with actors to prepare for new productions.
State Representatives
Australian Capital Territory
TBA
Northern Territory
David Curl
Queensland
Sally McKenzie
South Australia
TBA
Victoria
Joel Loxton
Western Australia
Ross McGregor
