Matthew Clayfield
b. September 12, 1985, Mount Gambier, SA, Australia.

BIOGRAPHY:   As I'm only twenty years old (in early 2006), it seems slightly ludicrous to me to write about myself and what's come before now, especially as I feel that both my career and life in general are only just about to begin. I spent the first eighteen years of my life in Mount Gambier, South Australia; attended film school on the Gold Coast in 2004 and 2005 (where I found myself cast as the atypical thorn in the bureaucracy's side); and in December 2005, I was accepted into the postgraduate cinema studies program at the University of Melbourne. I moved to the city in February 2006 and hope to call it both home and workplace well into the future.

Ultimately, I hope to one day lecture on and/or write about cinema, in both an academic context and otherwise, so that I may, in the off-season, work quietly on my own little films, without having to play ball too much with the gatekeepers of the industry. That's the goal for the next twenty years, anyway. We'll see what happens in the interim.

- Matthew Clayfield, March 2006

Note from Bill Mousoulis, December 2017: Matthew Clayfield has, since he wrote this, devoted himself to journalism in subsequent years. Check his website for more info.

	Writing: An Homage to James and Abbas

CRITICAL OVERVIEW:   That my current filmography runs the stylistic and thematic gamut should come as no surprise; I've been making films seriously since I was about seventeen, and thus throughout that formative period of one's life which is characteristically marked by rapid change and development (and in my case by greater access to a number of life-altering films).

My work has therefore dealt with a variety of subjects-from homesickness and masculinity to street art and the internet-in a variety of ways-from three-way split screens and handheld home video to contemplative long shots and cold Kubrickian modernism.

That said, a number of reoccurring concerns have begun to emerge since the completion of Flushed, which was a painful experience, in 2004; there's been a conscious shift on my part towards questions of truth and fiction; towards documentary, reflexivity, and self-representation; towards minimal crews, run-and-gun production schedules, and an increased emphasis on editing; and most importantly, towards an engagement with politics and history, and towards the development of open forms.

- Matthew Clayfield, March 2006

FILMOGRAPHY:

	Mark and Katrina Go Boating

Once (2002, 3 mins, video, drama)

Three Card Monte (2003, 3 mins, video, comedy)

Film No. 2 (2004, 2 mins, video, documentary)

Flushed (2004, 7 mins, video, drama)

Notes from the Arctic Circle (2005, 7 mins, video, drama)

Mark and Katrina Go Boating (2005, 6 mins, video, comedy)

On Hyperlinkage and the Evolution of the Species (2005, 4 mins, video, documentary)

Writing: An Homage to James and Abbas (2005, 11 mins, video, experimental)

Firelight (2005, 6 mins, video, documentary)

	On Hyperlinkage and the Evolution of the Species

FILMOGRAPHY AS PRODUCER:

Kite Circuit (2005, 10 mins, 16mm, drama)

FILMOGRAPHY AS SCREENWRITER:

Oblivion (2004, 71 mins, video, drama)

How My Next Door Neighbour Discovered Life on Mars (2005, 10 mins, 16mm, drama)

FESTIVALS AND AWARDS:

Once
2003 Bond University Film and Television Awards, Best Overall Film, Best Film (Drama)

	Firelight

Three Card Monte
2003 Crank! Film Project, Best Overall Film, Best Secondary School Film (Edited)
2003 Bond University Film and Television Awards
2004 Noise Spirit of Youth Awards

Film No. 2
2004 Gold Coast Future Film Fantastic, Runner-Up Best Documentary

Flushed
2005 Shorts Film Festival
2005 Media Art Friesland Festival

Kite Circuit
2006 Tribeca Film Festival

SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY:

WRITING ON FILM AND NEW MEDIA:

'Killing the Gatekeeper: Autonomy, Globality and Reclaiming Australian Cinema' (Senses of Cinema, Iss. 33, Oct. - Dec. 2004)

'Lock, Stock and Fuji 250T' (view.finder, Iss. 145, Jan. 2005)

'Digital Histoire(s): The Cyber-cinema of Evan Mather' (Senses of Cinema, Iss. 35, Apr. - Jun. 2005)

'The Bleeding Eyes of a Festival Regular: The 14th Brisbane International Film Festival' (Senses of Cinema, Iss. 37, Oct. - Dec. 2005)

'A Cinema Exploded: Notes on the Development of Some Post-Cinematic Forms' (BRAINTRUSTdv, Nov. 2005)

'The Audiovisual in Transit' (BRAINTRUSTdv, roundtable: 'The Video iPod', Nov. 30, 2005)

Matthew Clayfield's website

Contact Matthew Clayfield

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