)
Director Matthew Thorne joins Good Oil
)
Director Matthew Thorne joins Good Oil’s roster for exclusive representation in Australia and NZ.
Good Oil's newest director Matthew Thorne combines story, cinematic narrative, and observed documentary, to hypnotic effect.
His film Marungka Tjalatjunu’ (Dipped in Black), created with
Yankunytjatjara artist Derik Lynch, just premiered at Berlinale and was celebrated with two
awards: The Silver Bear Jury Prize' for Short Film and the TEDDY Berlinale Queer Award for
Short Film. It was the first Australian film to win a Bear.
Thorne's work spans film and photography, and his influences are far reaching and medium agnostic, stretching from the South American magical realists to an American sitcom. “I’m inspired by Australian cinema at its most honest, magic and direct. Films like Wake in Fright, Walkabout, Ten Canoes. When he talks about the honesty of Australian cinema, one of his favourite commercials comes to mind: Christopher Riggert’s Road Trip for Bond. A decade later, it still sticks.
“Writers with grit and thought and artists with heart and politics. Sidney Nolan, Marina Gioti, Susan Sontag and Nicanor Para,” Thorne further describes. That grit speaks to his photography credits on films such as Justin Kurzel’s The True History of the Kelly Gang and additional unit direction on Ridley Scott’s on Alien: Covenant. Not to mention his photography for the Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds album Ghosteen. He lists this as one of his career highlights, alongside “Re-enacting Sorry camp with the Elders in Aputula. The prayer they made over us and the film, Dipped in Black.”
Thorne's arresting photography work has been exhibited across the country and in galleries across Europe, and he has brought his considered photographic eye to his commercial slate. This includes the New Paths spot for Commbank which captured the heartache of living apart from family with poetic and considered lensing, and an intimate portrait of David Mack (lead dancer, Sydney Dance Company) for Lexus Step Forward (M&C Saatchi).
Other spots include work for GMHBA, and moving films for Maurice Blackburn Lawyers (Howatson + Co). “And Seinfeld,” he adds as his last influence. An old one but always a good one.
