Andrew Merlino
b. October 18, 1985, Melbourne, Australia.

BIOGRAPHY:   Andrew’s passion for filmmaking was born during his first trip overseas with his father and sister when he graduated from high school in late 2003. Before they departed, Andrew’s father Tony revealed he had purchased a Panasonic miniDV consumer-level video camera so they could document their trip. Despite their excitement and gratitude, they also asked if he was bringing a photo camera too, as this seemed to them an obvious necessity for their first trip overseas. Andrew and his sister Romina thought it was strange their father only wanted to bring with them a video camera that didn’t take still shots. To this day Tony insists he doesn’t know what drove him to make that choice.

During their travels, Andrew had a passionate love affair with the video camera, filling up more than six one-hour tapes with footage. It was the first time he had ever audio-visually recorded anything. From that point on, he was deeply in love with the act of filmmaking.

From 2006 to 2014, he made 25 films, from short fictions to documentaries to music clips, and including one feature film, Imitating Charlie (2010, 88 mins).

Since then, he has led a different life, away from filmmaking, in New Zealand, but has recently resumed some filmmaking with the short film Keeper's Crossing (2021).

CRITICAL OVERVIEW:  Andrew’s films are artistic studies, stripped back to the bare essentials.

They were made purely, the way a fine artist uses a paint brush, or a poet uses a pen. Made firstly for self-expression, and then secondly to connect with others.

The films' thematic concerns are self-awareness, isolation and the discovery of purpose and meaning in everyday life.

Andrew was inspired by filmmakers such as John Cassavetes, Jean-Luc Godard, David Lynch, Michelangelo Antonioni, Gregory Pakis and Bill Mousoulis.

FILMOGRAPHY:

	Lucid Place

Friendship (2006, 15 mins, miniDV)

Safe House (2006, 5 mins, miniDV)

Her Sun (2007, 31 mins, miniDV)

Lucid Place (2007, 15 mins, miniDV)

Imitating Charlie: Cinema in Silence (2010, 88 mins, HDV)

electiontwentyten (2010, documentary, 8 mins, HD)

Get Up (2010, 90 sec, HD)

	Jesus Came

I Grew Up In The 90s (2010, documentary, 14 mins, mixed media)

Bridge Over Trouble (2010, 9 mins, HD)

protesttwentyten (2010, documentary, 3 mins, HD)

That Surface on the Floor Beneath Me (2011, 9 mins, miniDV)

Ugly Place (2011, music video, 4 mins, HD)

Jesus Came (2011, music video, 3 mins, HD)

Chickentown (2011, documentary, 6 mins, HD)

Nothing Familiar (2011, music video, 4 mins, HD)

	Imitating Charlie: Cinema in Silence

New Girl Now (2012, 3 mins, Super 8)

Privacy Park (2012, 3 mins, Super 8)

Sanctum Theatre’s Cabinet of Antiquated Recording Devices (2012, documentary, 10 mins, HD)

Confessional (2012, 18 mins, HD)

The Last Iron Curtain: a glimpse inside DPRK (North Korea) (2012, documentary, 15 mins, HD)

What Man? (2012, music video, 4 mins, HD)

Still the Sky Stands (2013, 3.5 mins, HD)

Privacy Road (2013, 7 mins, HD)

Safe Space (2013, 3 mins, HD)

Act Your Self (2014, documentary, 30 mins, HD)

Keeper's Crossing (2021, documentary, 4 mins, HD)

SCREENINGS:

	Confessional

2006
Friendship – Glitch Cinema, North Fitzroy – August 2006

2007
Safe House – Official Selection, Electric Shorts Film Festival – Loop Cinema, Melbourne - October 2007

2008
Lucid Place – West Side Shorts – Customs House Hotel, Williamstown - September 2008

2010
Imitating Charlie: Cinema in Silence - Sun Theatre, Yarraville – April 2010, May 2010
Imitating Charlie: Cinema in Silence - Long Play Cinema, North Fitzroy – June 2010
Imitating Charlie: Cinema in Silence – Winter Sleepout, Sydney – August 2010

I Grew Up in the 90s – We Grew Up In The 90s, 2010 Melbourne Fringe Festival exhibition – Collingwood Underground
Arts Park, Collingwood – October 2010

	New Girl Now

2011
That Surface on the Floor Beneath Me – Fetish mixed media group exhibition – Owl and Pussycat Gallery, Richmond – March 2011
Ugly Place – Official Selection, Made in Melbourne film festival – Great Northern Hotel, Carlton North – December 2011
Ugly Place - Comfortable Shorts – Loop Cinema, Melbourne - December 2011
Nothing Familiar and Silent Portrait of a Deaf Boy (scene from Imitating Charlie: Cinema in Silence) – Montsalvat Film Feast – Montsalvat Estate, Eltham – November 2011

2012
New Girl Now and Privacy Park – Sanctum Theatre’s Cabinet of Antiquated Recording Devices – Montsalvat Estate, Eltham – March 2012
New Girl Now and Privacy Park - Guerilla Film Nite –Birmingham Hotel, Fitzroy - June 2012
Confessional – Comfortable Shorts – Loop Cinema, Melbourne – November 2012
Confessional – Official Selection, Electric Shorts Film Festival – Loop Cinema, Melbourne - Novemer 2012

2013
Privacy Road – Official Selection, Electric Shorts Film Festival – Loop Cinema, Melbourne – October 2013
Safe Space – UN World Habitat Day panel discussion forums - The University of Auckland - October 2013
protesttwentyten – UN World Habitat Day panel discussion forums - The University of Auckland - October 2013

2014
Ugly Place - Made in Melbourne @ White Night Melbourne - Southgate Cinema, Melbourne - February 2014
New Girl Now - Art Film Night - Auckland - June 2014
Privacy Park - Art Film Night - Auckland - June 2014
Privacy Road - - Art Film Night - Auckland - August 2014
Safe Space – Official Selection, Electric Shorts Film Festival – Loop Cinema, Melbourne – October 2014

SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY:

	Her Sun

"Already his film Her Sun is an ambitious and interesting work –
there is a depth to the characters, and also a dexterity to the form,
which is a real sign he could develop into a very good filmmaker."

Bill Mousoulis (September 2007), reference letter.

Jake Wilson (film reviewer, The Age)

Andrew Merlino's Vimeo page

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