Richard
Lowenstein
b. March 1, 1959, Melbourne, Australia.
BIOGRAPHY:
Richard Lowenstein is a graduate of
Melbourne's Swinburne Film and Television school. He has written
and directed the feature films, Strikebound, Dogs in
Space, Say a Little Prayer, He Died with a Felafel
in His Hand, and the telemovie Ghost Story, as well
as numerous award-winning music-videos, concert films and commercials,
including one for the 1990 election campaign of the Sandinista
Government of Nicaragua.
He has Executive-Produced the ten-part satirical music
series 'John Safran's Music Jamboree' and 'John Safran vs. God'
for SBS Independent. He is a partner in the Melbourne-based
production company, GHOST, as well as a partner in the feature
film production company, Fandango Australia Pty Ltd, with Italian
Producer - Domenico Procacci, Producer - Sue Murray, Lawyer -
Bryce Menzies and Director - Rolf de Heer.
He
Died with a Felafel in His Hand
CRITICAL
OVERVIEW:
The dumbing down of the art of filmmaking
to merely that of efficient "storytelling" surely has
to be one of the most depressing things about the current state
of mainstream cinema. Would we say to a composer, painter, writer
or designer they they were merely "storytellers"? Yet, this seems
to be the main expectation that we as a society have of cinema.
The history of the artform has proved that it is much more than
that, yet when it comes to cinema language, history seems to be
going backwards...
-
Richard Lowenstein, June 2004.
"Lowenstein's
approach effectively brings to the screen a beautiful, brooding
character study that's one part dirty realist comedy, one part
existential allegory, but more than anything, a maturation of
Lowenstein's own directorial style, as evidenced in his last cult
hit, Dogs in Space. This film's fine performances, allegorical
dialogue, philosophical themes, use of music and sense of muted
melodrama also stands up well alongside the fine tradition of
American independent filmmaking propounded by directors such as
Hal Hartley and Jim Jarmusch."
- Vanessa
Long on
He Died with a Felafel in His Hand,
2002 (see link below, in Bibliography).
FILMOGRAPHY:
Strikebound
Evictions
(1979, 27 mins, 16mm)
Strikebound
(1984, 101 mins, 35mm)
White
City (1985, 58 mins, 35mm)
Dogs in
Space (1986, 108 mins, 35mm)
Say a
Little Prayer (1993, 98 mins, 35mm)
Ghost
Story (1995, 55 mins, Super 16mm, telemovie)
He
Died with a Felafel in His Hand
(2001, 108 mins, 35mm)
We're Livin' on Dog Food (2009, 94 mins, documentary)
Autoluminescent: Rowland S. Howard (2011, 110 mins, documentary)
Ecco Homo (2015, 98 mins, documentary)
FESTIVALS/AWARDS:
Dogs
in Space
Evictions Winner "Best Australian Short Film" - Melbourne Film Festival
1980
Official entrant - Oberhausen Short Film Festival 1980
Kodak Award - Best Australian Cinematography Short Film 1980
Strikebound Winner "Jury Prize" Karlovy Vary Film Festival 1985
Nominated 9 AFI Awards, Winner Best Production Design 1985
Official Selection - 'Critics' Week' Venice Film Festival 1985
Official Selection - Edinburgh, Tokyo, Taormina, New York, London,
Montreal Film Festivals 1985
White
City Winner MTV "Best Longform Video" 1986
Dogs in
Space Official Selection Berlin, Taormina, London, Edinburgh, New
York Film Festivals
Say a
Little Prayer Official Selection - Berlin, Giffoni & Bellizona Film Festivals
Ghost
Story Winner 'Special Jury Prize' - Cinema Tout Ecran Switzerland
1997
Evictions (1979, 27 mins)
Dogs in SpaceTRAILER (1986)
Ghost
Story
SELECT
BIBLIOGRAPHY:
Harlan Kennedy,
"The New Wizards of Oz", Film Comment, September-October
1989, pp. 73-77
Brian McFarlane
and Geoff Mayer, New Australian Cinema, Cambridge University
Press, Cambridge, 1992
Tom O'Regan,
Australian National Cinema, Routledge, London, 1996
Richard Lowenstein
in Raffaele Caputo and Geoff Burton (eds.), Second Take: Australian
Film-Makers Talk, Allen and Unwin, Sydney, 1999, pp. 273-304
Geoff Andrew
and Helen Hawkins, in John Pym (ed.), Time Out Film Guide,
Eleventh Edition 2003, Penguin Books, London, pp. 321, 1054, 1158
