Warwick Thornton x Light
'Sweet Country' filmmaker Warwick Thornton is heading to ACMI to chat about his career, and screen two of his features with two movies that've inspired his cinematography.
Overview
When the Australian Centre for the Moving Image announced Light: Works from Tate's Collection, the venue's huge winter exhibition, you could be forgiven for thinking that it sounded like a bit of a departure. But light is critical to moving images — we wouldn't have the striking visuals that grace cinema and television screens without it.
We wouldn't have the work of Australian filmmaker Warwick Thornton, either — and, given that he not only writes and directs, but is also a cinematographer on his own and other creative's efforts, he's well aware of how crucial light is to telling filmed stories. Everything he's helped splash across a screen makes that plain, from his own features such as Samson & Delilah and Sweet Country through to TV shows Mystery Road and Firebite, and also lensing Radiance and The Sapphires.
Please credit Mark Rogers as photographer when published.
Don't just take our word for it — take Thornton's himself. Across the three-session Warwick Thornton x Light program between Friday, July 15–Sunday, July 17, he's heading to ACMI to explore how mastering the technical language of light has shaped his work.
If you're keen to hear the Kaytetye man and one of the nation's best directors talk about his career, then head along at 6.30pm on Friday, when he'll be chatting with none other than beloved film critic Margaret Pomeranz.
Or, at 12.30pm on Saturday, he'll introduce a session of Sweet Country that'll play as a double with Jim Jarmusch's Down by Law, which was shot by director of photography Robby Müller — and at 3pm on Sunday, he'll do the same with Samson & Delilah and Wim Wenders' Paris, Texas, which Müller also lensed.
Images: Mark Rogers.
