Steven Ball
Marie Craven
Solrun Hoaas
Daryl Dellora

Melbourne independent filmmakers

Leo Berkeley
Giorgio Mangiamele
Michael Buckley
Moira Joseph
 
     


Chris Windmill
b. February 9, 1959, Melbourne, Australia

BIOGRAPHY:   Chris Windmill studied film at three local institutions: Rusden College, Swinburne, and the Melbourne Super 8 Film Group, the latter being the most productive learning environment. He thanks their eminent professors. He has made over 20 films, some of which have received that great and transient prize: the audience seemed to like them. SBS even bought a couple.

He has worked for years and years as an editor for the ABC in both Melbourne and Darwin, and is terribly grateful to have an income in this indifferent world.

 


CRITICAL OVERVIEW:   Adrian Martin has described the films of Chris Windmill as: "Quietly mad, his films begin from the charming, irritating minutiae of everyday experience - shopping, cleaning shoes, hanging out the washing, going for a picnic in the park - and enlarge them into magnificent, terrifying obsessions. Windmill's ever-modest heroes and heroines live for no higher purpose than to fill out the days and minutes of their ordinary lives. As a consequence, every imaginable flight of poetry is concentrated in these little activities."

from "The Windmill of my Mind" by Adrian Martin.


FILMOGRAPHY:

 
 
Queen's Birthday

Queen's Birthday (1979, 5 mins, 16mm)
Broadcast in Australia on SBS.

A Nocturne (1982, 6 mins, 16mm)

Monster Beetle (1983, 6 mins, Super 8)

The Miracles of Hilda (1984, 13 mins, Super 8)
Winner of the Kodak Award for Super 8 at the 1987 St Kilda Film Festival.

Beards of Evil (1984, 10 mins, 16mm)

The Vacuum (1985, 6 mins, 16mm)

Mystery Love (1985, 5 mins, 16mm)

 
 
Mystery Love

The Lime Drink (1985, 11 mins, 16mm)

The Foxicle (1986, 6 mins, Super 8)

The Bowel-Houndromat (1986, 5 mins, Super 8)

Congratulations Gazelle Head (1987, 20 mins, Super 8/Video)

The Maybe Cage (1987, 5 mins, Super 8)

Mr. Benevolent (1988, 13 mins, Super 8)

Heresies Ancient and Modern (1989, 13 mins, Super 8)

The Shimmering Basset (1989, 30 secs, 16mm)
part of the "Personal Ads" project shown on Channel 9 in Perth, co-produced with Anne-Marie Crawford (now Marie Craven), featuring films by Dirk de Bruyn, Stephen Cummins, The Marine Biologists, Maj Green and Ewan Cameron, Bill Mousoulis, Anthony Foot.

 
 
The Cuttock-Heads

The New Shoes (1990, 8 mins, 16mm/Video)
Broadcast on SBS.

The Cuttock-Heads (1990, 6 mins, Super 8)
Broadcast on SBS.

Eiffel Tower Sponge Film (1991, 4 mins, Super 8)

O Elusive Sparrow (1992, 10 mins, Super 8)

The Buffs (1994, 7 mins, Betacam SP)
produced by Sarah Johnson (now Sarah Zadeh)
Broadcast in Australia on the Australian Broadcasting Commission.

The Birds do a Magnificent Tune (1996, 26 mins, 16mm)
produced by Sarah Zadeh
Winner of the succinctly titled Kino Cinemas Award for Creative Excellence in an Australian Short Film at the 1996 Melbourne International Film Festival.

 
 
Satan's Machine

Why do I Bother (1996, 9 mins, Super 8)

Actual Events Which Have Taken Place (1999, 5 mins, Mini-DV)
Winner Best Direction at the 1999 Darwin Fringe Festival

Postcode 0820 (1999, 2 mins, Super 8/Video)
made with Jennifer Pinry Ross

A Woman is Doing the Dishes (1999, 15 mins, 16mm)

Satan's Machine (2000, 5 mins 30 secs, 16mm/Video)
made with Jennifer Pinry Ross

The New Shoes (1990, 8 mins)
The Cuttock-Heads (1990, 6 mins)


SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY:

 
 
The Buffs

"Don't Sulk Let's Frolic" by Chris Windmill, Cantrills Filmnotes, No. 57-58, December 1988.

"The Windmill of my Mind" by Adrian Martin, September 1994.

"The Birds do a Magnificent Tune" by Chris Windmill, Cantrills Filmnotes, No. 83-84, December 1996.

"The Mousoulis vision of independence", by Jake Wilson, RealTime OnScreen #63 Oct/Nov, 2004

"Barberblader? Nei, Super 8 (Razor blades? No, Super 8)" by King Harald V of Norway, Oslo Aftenposten, February 9 2001 (made possible with the generous assistance of the Centenary of Federation Fund).


© Chris Windmill, November 2017

Contact Chris Windmill

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Melbourne independent filmmakers is compiled by Bill Mousoulis