Giorgio
Mangiamele
b. August 13, 1926, Catania, Italy.
d.
May 13, 2001, Melbourne, Australia.
Page
compiled by Graeme Cutts, film historian.
Thanks
to Rosemary Mangiamele for images.
BIOGRAPHY:
Giorgio Mangiamele studied Fine Arts
in Catania, Italy; Film Production at the Polizia Scientifica,
Rome, Italy; and journalism in the Faculty of Journalism, Pro-Deo
University in Rome, Italy.
He
emigrated to Australia in 1952, and became a Naturalised Australian
citizen in 1957. Soon after arrival
in Australia, he set up a photographic studio in Carlton, and
started making films. In the late fifties he took over a cinema
school in Russell Street, Melbourne, which had run into difficulties,
and which later he shifted to his photographic/film studio in
Carlton.
Between 1979
and 1982, he held a contract with the PNG Government, Prime Minister's
Department, making five films and thereby basically establishing
a PNG Film Unit. Over the next years, until his death, he worked
on various unfulfilled scripts, mainly one finally known as Sogeri
Road.
Clay
CRITICAL
OVERVIEW:
Giorgio said that in film there is
a timing, that everything has to be just right, and as well that
places and their events always suggest themselves to him. So it
is no surprise that his work ranges from the cinema verite style
of Il Contratto (before the Nagra was available and the
term was coined), through the neo-realist documentary style of
his other migrant films, to the magic of Clay, with a dash
of pragmatism, particularly in Boys in the Age of Machines,
and in the PNG films. In Giorgio's films the breeze blows in and
from Carlton, to and from Eltham and the PNG: leaves, light, movement,
stillness, beauty and truth are the stuff of Giorgio's films.
Il Contratto
(1953, 92 mins, B&W, 16mm), unfinished.
Unwanted
(ca 1957, B&W, 16mm), lost.
The Brothers
(1958, 20 mins, B&W, 16mm)
The Spag (1960, 25 mins, B&W, 16mm) unreleased version of the film, with different actors/storyline
The Spag
(1962, 37 mins, B&W, 16mm)
Ninety
Nine Per Cent (1963, 41 mins, B&W, 16mm)
Boys in
the Age of Machines (1964, 20 mins, COL, 16mm)
Clay
(1965, 84 mins, B&W, 35mm)
Beyond
Reason (1970, 79 mins, COL, 35mm)
Papua
New Guinea Joins the Silk World (1979, 22 mins, COL, 16mm)
South
Pacific Festival of Arts (1980, 65 mins, COL, 16mm)
"Living
Museum" (1980, 34 mins, COL, 35mm)
The Caring
Crocodile (1981, 13 mins, COL, 16mm)
Sapos...
(1982, 54 mins, COL, 35mm)
As
cinematographer, and director of photography:
Sebastian
the Fox (12 out of 13 episodes), directed by Tim Burstall,
(1962-1963,
each 11 mins, B&W, 35mm)
The Crucifixion:
Bas Reliefs in Silver by Matcham Skipper, directed by Tim
Burstall, (1963, 11 mins, B&W, 35mm)
On Three
Moon Creek: Australian Paintings by Gil Jamieson, directed
by Tim Burstall (1963, 7 mins, COL, 35mm)
AWARDS:
Winner of
the Silver Award, Silver Medallion and Kodak Silver
Trophy at the Australian Film Awards Competition in 1965 for
Clay.
Winner of
an Honorable Mention at the Australian Film Awards Competition
for Ninety Nine Per Cent in 1963.
Winner of
an Honorable Mention at the Australian Film Awards Competition
for The Spag in 1962.
DVD release:
The Giorgio Mangiamele Collection. 5 Films and interviews on 2 DVDs : Il Contratto; The Spag (unreleased); The Spag (released); Ninety Nine Per Cent; and Clay.
By Ronin Films, in collaboration with the National Film and Sound Archives. 2011.
The Giorgio Mangiamele Collection (2011)
Films featuring Mangiamele:
Nigel Buesst's
2003 documentary Carlton
+ Godard = Cinema features extracts from Giorgio's films,
and interviews with Giorgio and Graeme Cutts.
Three clips of Giorgio's films were used in the 2013 film Lygon Street - Si Parla Italiano, directed by Angelo Pricolo and Shannon Swann.
Clips from Il Contratto, and an interview with actress Halina Kisilevski, feature in the 2017 video installation Hem of Memory, directed by Ettore Siracusa.
Clips of Giorgio's films, with a focus on their locations in Melbourne, are in the 2019 film Reel Streets of Melbourne - Giorgio Mangiamele, directed by Paul Hagl. (entire film is below)
Reel Streets of Melbourne - Giorgio Mangiamele (2018)
SELECT
BIBLIOGRAPHY:
Australian
Film, 1900-1977,Ross Cooper & Andrew Pike (OUP, 1978).
"Giorgio
Mangiamele", Interview by Graeme Cutts, Cinema Papers,
Number 90, October 1992.
"Giorgio",
Quentin Turnour, Cteq: Annotations on Film 4/97, in Metro
No.112, 1997.
"Giorgio
Mangiamele - Passionate filmmaker, 13 Aug 1926 - 13 May 2001",
Scott Murray, The Age, May 22, 2001.
"Farewell
to a passionate poet of the image", and "Mangiamele's
last interview", Rob Ditessa, Italy down under, No.6,
Spring 2001.
Celluloid Immigrant - Italian Australian Filmmaker Giorgio Mangiamele.
Authors : Gaetano Rando and Gino Moliterno.
Publishing : The Moving Image Number 10, 2011 by ATOM.
Giorgio Mangiamele Cinematographer of The Italian Migrant Experience.
Author : Raffaele Lampugnani
Publisher: Connor Court Publishing Company Pty Ltd. 2012.
