Dennis
Tupicoff
b. March 23, 1951, Ipswich, QLD,
Australia.
BIOGRAPHY:
After graduating from Queensland University
in 1970, Dennis Tupicoff worked as an archivist and teacher before
making his first animated film in Toowoomba. He moved to Melbourne
and the Swinburne Film and TV School animation course in 1977.
While sometimes making a living with TV ads and other commercial
and sponsored work, and later teaching at the VCA School of Television
(1992-4), he has made both animated and live-action independent
films as writer, director, producer, and animator.
The
Darra Dogs
CRITICAL
OVERVIEW:
Animation has often been called "the
illusion of life". And in live-action cinema there has always
been a tension between "the reality of death" and "screen
immortality".
These ideas, played out in the world of human
experience and emotion, continue to exert a strong influence on
the work of Dennis Tupicoff.
Whether in his autobiographical The
Darra Dogs (1993, 10 mins), the binocular "animated documentary"
His Mother's Voice (1997, 14 mins 30 secs), the cartoon
violence of Dance of Death (1983, 7 mins), or his more
recent television work, death is never far away.
FILMOGRAPHY:
Into
the Dark
Please
Don't Bury Me
(1976, 4 mins, 16mm)
My Big
Chance (1977, 1 min 30 secs, 16mm)
Dance
of Death (1983, 7 mins 30 secs, 16mm)
The Bear
(1990, 30 mins, 16mm)
The Darra
Dogs (1993, 10 mins, 35mm)
His Mother's
Voice (1997, 14 mins 30 secs, 35mm)
a photo of me
The Heat,
The Humidity (1999, 4 mins, 16mm)
Into the
Dark (2001, 6 mins, 35mm)
Taringa
(2002, 26 mins, Betacam)
Chainsaw
(2007, 25 mins, 35mm)
Silly and Serious: William Robinson and Self-portraits (2008, 25 mins, Betacam)
The First Interview (2011, 15 mins & 27 mins, Betacam)
a photo of me (2017, 11 mins, digital)
Chainsaw (2007, 25 mins)
5 Animated filmsTRAILER
SELECT
BIBLIOGRAPHY:
Compilation available now
More info - PDF download
Cartoons:
One Hundred Years of Cinema Animation
- Giannalberto Bendazzi (John
Libbey, 1994)
"Animation
- der imaginare signifikant des Dokumentarischen" by Michael Renov
in: TEXTE ZUR KUNST No. 51 - September 2003 - "Nichts als
die Wahrheit".
"Bathing
in the Sunlight of Dennis Tupicoff" in: Unsung Heroes of Animation
by Chris Robinson (London, John Libbey Publishing, 2005)
"Radio With
Pictures (Thousands of Them): His Mother's Voice" by Dennis
Tupicoff in: CARTOONS: The International Journal of Animation
Vol 1 Issue 1 Summer 2005.
Introduction to Documentary by Bill Nichols (Bloomington, Indiana University Press, 2010)
Australian Documentary: History, Practices and Genres by Trish FitzSimons, Pat Laughren, Dugald Williamson (Melbourne, Cambridge University Press, 2011)
"Documentary Filmmaking with an Animator's Sensibility: Dennis Tupicoff" in: Animated Realism by Judith Kriger (Focal Press, 2012)