Fred Schepisi

Frederic Alan Schepisi ( ; born 26 December 1939) is an Australian film director, producer, and screenwriter. His credits include The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith, Plenty, Roxanne, A Cry in the Dark, Mr. Baseball, Six Degrees of Separation, and Last Orders.

Early life and education Frederic Alan Schepisi was born in the Melbourne suburb of Richmond on 26 December 1939, the son of Loretto Ellen (née Hare) and Frederic Thomas Schepisi, who was a fruit dealer and car salesman of Italian descent.

As part of his high school education, he spent 18 months in Macedon in regional Victoria. The Film House founded became an important player in the "new wave" of Australian filmmaking, along with Gillian Armstrong, Bruce Beresford, and Peter Weir. Since Cinesound had stopped making films during World War II, there hadn't been many Australian films made.

Films His first fiction film was a 30-minute short film, part of the anthology feature film Libido in 1973. In collaboration with Australian author Thomas Keneally, he made the short film The Priest.

In 2011, Schepisi directed The Eye of the Storm. Filmed in Melbourne, Sydney, and Far North Queensland, and based on the novel by Patrick White, The Eye of the Storm stars Charlotte Rampling, Judy Davis, and Geoffrey Rush. The story is about "children finally understanding themselves through the context of family".

In 2013, he directed Words and Pictures, starring Juliette Binoche and Clive Owen.

Music videos Schepisi has also directed a number of music videos, including for the 2008 song "Breathe" by Kaz James featuring Stu Stone.

Other activities In the mid-1960s, he campaigned strongly, along with MP Barry Jones, broadcaster and writer Phillip Adams, for the establishment of a film school in Melbourne. This led to the first course in filmmaking at Swinburne Technical College in 1966, leading to the establishment of the Swinburne Film and Television School a few years later. Schepisi became an examiner of its first film course, an unpaid role.

, Schepisi is a patron of the National Film and Sound Archive.

Recognition and awards Schepisi won a number of Australian Film Institute (AFI) and Australian Writers' Guild Awards.

Other honours and awards include: 1973: Co-winner, with Thomas Keneally of a Silver AFI Award, for The Priest 1991: Winner, AFI's Raymond Longford Award 2004: Officer of the Order of Australia in the Australia Day Honours, "For services to the Australian film industry as a director, producer and screenwriter, the development of creative talent as a mentor and to support for the preservation of Australia's film heritage" – the first honorary doctorate to be awarded by the Victorian College of the Arts 2006: Golden Globe Award for Best Miniseries or TV Movie, for Empire Falls They had two daughters together, but their marriage ended in 1983. Rhonda remarried and did casting in the UK and US. She went on to establish her own production company, Rhonda Schepisi Productions, in Melbourne. While working on the production of a screen adaptation of Tim Winton's short story "A Blow, a Kiss", she died of cancer on 30 October 1995. Filming had finished three days earlier, and production was completed by the film's director, Rey Carlson.

His third wife, Mary, whom he married in 1984 and with whom he had a seventh child, is American.

In 2011, asked about the "gypsy-like existence" of a filmmaker, Schepisi said: "It's the hardest thing. I think we're today's circus people. It's very hard on your family. [His wife] Mary travels with me and when everyone was younger and it was possible, I liked them to travel with me and be with me. Fortunately, Mary's an artist; she paints, and often finds inspiration from our locations."

He supports Australia becoming a republic and is a founding member of the Australian Republican Movement.

Filmography

The Devil's Playground (1976) The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith (1978) Barbarosa (1982) Iceman (1984) Plenty (1985) Roxanne (1987) Evil Angels (A Cry in the Dark) (1988) The Russia House (1990) Mr. Baseball (1992) Six Degrees of Separation (1993) I.Q. (1994) Fierce Creatures (1997) Last Orders (2001) It Runs in the Family (2003) Empire Falls (2005) The Eye of the Storm (2011) Words and Pictures (2013)

Unmade films Bitter Sweet (1979) – romance drama for Avco Embassy

Footnotes