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Friday on My Mind Sydney – Gillian Armstrong

Gillian Armstrong: Women He’s Undressed

The first lady of Australian film, Gillian Armstrong’s most recent work is a documentary about a long-forgotten Australian, yet once famous, three-time Academy Award-winner; Orry Kelly.

Documentaries are a regular feature in the rich and diverse body of work of the much lauded filmmaker which includes; five installments of a 7Up-esque series that begun in 1976 with Smokes and Lollies through to the latest installment Love, Lust & Lies (2010), which candidly examine and document the lives of a group of Adelaide teenage girls, now adult women; the 2005 documentary Unfolding Florence: The Many Lives of Florence Broadhurst (which was nominated for the Grand Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival) and the critically acclaimed, Women He’s Undressed, a stylish celebration of the life of costume designer Orry-Kelly that premiered at the Sydney Film Festival earlier this year and is playing in Australian cinemas now.

Gillian Armstrong has said that documentary-making is like “writing detective stories” and recalls that even when she first heard his name she had no idea who Orry Kelly was, even though he created costumes for the likes of Marilyn Monroe in Some Like it Hot. Thinking that was “criminal” she felt “Orry deserved a film.” Women He’s Undressed is the result of serious detective work by Armstrong, writer Katherine Thomson and many others over a period of eight years as they rediscovered the Kiama born man who made it in Hollywood in the 1930s, designing costumes for some 285 films including Casablanca, winning Academy Awards for his work on An American in Paris, Les Girls and Some Like it Hot.

The long and distinguished career of Gillian Armstrong began in the 1970s, (after she graduated as part of the first AFTRS intake in 1973) with the seminal adaptation of author Miles Davis’ novel My Brilliant Career, the first Australian feature film directed by a woman in nearly 50 years. My Brilliant Career was nominated for an Academy Award, a Golden Globe and two BAFTAs, and won 6 AFI Awards. Alternating between period pieces and contemporary projects Gillian has directed Dianne Keaton & Mel Gibson in romantic period drama Mrs Soffel, Jimmy Smits and Greta Scacchi in Fires Within (co-written by Taxi Driver screenwriter Paul Schrader), Susan Sarandon, Winona Ryder and Christian Bale in Little Women (nominated for three Academy Awards), Ralph Fiennes and Cate Blanchett in Oscar and Lucinda, Cate Blanchett again in Charlotte Gray and Guy Pearce and Catherine Zeta-Jones in Death Defying Acts. Her many Australian films include Starstruck, High Tide and The Last Days of Chez Nous.

Gillian and host Luke Buckmaster will cover the experiences the accomplished director has garnered over the years that span the entire spectrum of the craft, from Hollywood features to locally devised and crafted documentaries.

Guest: Gillian Armstrong
5:30pm
AFTRS Theatre 1

When

31st July 2015 05:30 pm
To 31st July 2015 06:30 pm

Where

Australian Film Television and Radio School
Building 130, Lang Road
Moore Park 2021