Alison Murray (director)

Last updated

Alison Murray is a Canadian director of films, documentaries and music videos. She is well-known for writing and directing Mouth to Mouth (2005) starring Elliot Page, and documentaries such as Carny (2008) and Train on the Brain (2000).

Contents

Early life

Murray was born in Nova Scotia, Canada and ran away to London when she was 15. She studied theatre writing, dance and choreography before completing a M.A. in Film Direction at the Royal College of Art (1995). [1] [2] [3] [4]

Career

Murray has been making short films since Kissy Suzuki Suck (1992), [5] with commissions for BBC television as well as European broadcasts and an international tour compiled by the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris. Her work has been presented alongside that of Harmony Korine, Paul Thomas Anderson, Michel Gondry and Atom Egoyan (executive producer of Mouth to Mouth ) in "RET. INEVITABLE" at Brooklyn Bridge Anchorage – an event billed as "screening today's most important visualists". The Institute of Contemporary Arts in London has presented a retrospective of her short films, also shown at the Tate Gallery and Toronto's Royal Cinema. Between 1996 and 2002, she directed over twenty music videos for British pop acts such as The Sugababes, Busted, and B*Witched, and was nominated for a CAD award for Best New Director in 1997, and for Best Pop Video in 2003. [2]

Many of her films incorporate her approach to dance, and in 1995, [6] she received a Paul Hamlyn Award for Choreography. She has choreographed and directed two films for the BBC's Dance for the Camera series. [4]

In 2000, she completed Train on the Brain, an hour long documentary for Channel 4 and TVOntario in which she rode the rails across North America, armed with a DV and Super 8 camera. In 2003, Alison collaborated with London based rapper Jonzi D to make Aeroplane Man, a film adaptation of Jonzi D's hit theatre show of the same name. [5] Mouth to Mouth is her first feature film as a writer and director, premiered at the San Francisco International Film Festival and went on to win Best Feature Prizes at the Brooklyn International Film Festival, Berlin's Britspotting Festival, and Festival D'Annonay, France. [4] [3]

She produced and directed a documentary about Carnys that was broadcast on the Sundance Channel, Channel 4 and TVOntario. [7] [8] [9] It premiered at the Hot Docs Festival in Toronto and won Diane Seligman Award for Best Documentary in the Brooklyn International Film Festival in 2008. [10] Her feature documentary Caprichosos de San Telmo (2011), which she shot on location in Buenos Aires, premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival. [2]

As of 2020, Murray is working on a new fictional feature film called The Vegas, developed with The Film Farm and co-produced with JA Productions and Cepa Cine. [2]

Themes

Murray's films show her interest in subcultures. In her dramatic feature Mouth to Mouth, a teenager who runs away from home and ends up in a European youth cult. Train on the Brain chronicles the lives of teenage hobos. Carny looks into the private lives of carnival workers. [11]

Personal life

Murray is a dancer and teacher of Argentine tango. She and her husband Carlos Boeri won First Place at the Campeonato Metropolitano de Baile de Tango de Buenos Aires in 2014. [2]

Related Research Articles

Catherine Annau is a Canadian documentary filmmaker and writer.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ondi Timoner</span> American film director

Ondi Doane Timoner is an American filmmaker and the founder and chief executive officer of Interloper Films, a production company located in Pasadena, California.

Paul Jay is a journalist, filmmaker, is the founder, editor-in-chief, and host of theAnalysis.news, a news analysis service. He was the founder, CEO and senior editor of The Real News Network (TRNN). Jay was born and raised in Toronto, Ontario and holds dual-citizenship with the United States. Jay is the nephew of screenwriter Ted Allan. A past chair of the Canadian Independent Film Caucus, the main organization of documentary filmmakers in Canada, Jay is the founding chair of the Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival. He chaired the Hot Docs! board for its first five years.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lucy Walker (director)</span> English film director

Lucy Walker is an English film director. She has directed the feature documentaries Devil's Playground (2002), Blindsight (2006), Waste Land (2010), Countdown to Zero (2010), The Crash Reel (2013), Buena Vista Social Club: Adios (2017), Bring Your Own Brigade (2021), and Mountain Queen: The Summits of Lhakpa Sherpa (2023). She has also directed the short films The Tsunami and the Cherry Blossom (2011) and The Lion's Mouth Opens (2014). Waste Land was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature and The Tsunami and the Cherry Blossom was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Documentary.

Sarah Price is an American filmmaker, director and producer known for the feature documentary American Movie.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jennifer Goodridge</span> American entertainer

Jennifer Goodridge Cruz is an American film and television producer, writer, director, and musician. She has produced notable works for Netflix, The Disney Channel, and YouTube Red as well as many commercials and music videos. Her films have premiered at The Sundance Film Festival, L'Étrange Festival, HollyShorts Film Festival, Sidewalk Film Festival among others. She was a guest panel speaker at Slamdance Film Festival in 2018 for the polytechnic series, Life As A Truly Independent Filmmaker: Survival guide and is a member of the Producers Guild of America.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ellen Kuras</span> American cinematographer (born 1959)

Ellen Kuras is an American cinematographer whose work includes narrative and documentary films, music videos and commercials in both the studio and independent worlds. One of few female members of the American Society of Cinematographers, she is a pioneer best known for her work in Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004). She has collaborated with directors such as Michel Gondry, Spike Lee, Sam Mendes, Jim Jarmusch, Rebecca Miller, Martin Scorsese and more. She is the three-time winner of the Award for Excellence in Dramatic Cinematography at the Sundance Film Festival, for her films Personal Velocity: Three Portraits, Angela and Swoon, which was her first dramatic feature after getting her start in political documentaries.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Liz Garbus</span> American film director and producer

Elizabeth Freya Garbus is an American documentary film director and producer. Notable documentaries Garbus has made are The Farm: Angola, USA,Ghosts of Abu Ghraib,Bobby Fischer Against the World,Love, Marilyn,What Happened, Miss Simone?, and Becoming Cousteau. She is co-founder and co-director of the New York City-based documentary film production company Story Syndicate.

Nick Basile is an American film director, producer, actor and screenwriter. Films produced and directed by Basile include The Adventures of Captain Steel, Slasher Flick ; the futuristic thriller Beyond Dreams and the award-winning thriller/modern-day western The Man Who Knew Belle Starr. January 8, 2008 saw the DVD release of Basile's full-length documentary American Carny: True Tales from the Circus Sideshow, released by Cinema Epoch & Koch Entertainment. American Carny made its television debut on October 19, 2009 on the Documentary Channel. Basile's next project is the psychological thriller DARK. The movie is set in New York City during the 2003 blackout. It stars Whitney Able, Alexandra Breckenridge, Brendan Sexton III, Michael Eklund and the rapper Redman. The movie is produced by Minerva Pictures in association with Renfield Productions. Gremlins director Joe Dante serves as Executive Producer. The film held its world premiere at the 22nd Annual Oldenburg International Film Festival.

Doan Hoang or Đoan Hoàng or Doan Hoàng Curtis is a Vietnamese-American documentary film director, producer, editor, and writer. She directed and produced the 2007 documentary Oh, Saigon about her family, after leaving Vietnam on the last civilian helicopter as Saigon fell. The documentary won several awards at film festivals and was broadcast on PBS from 2008 to 2012, and multiple channels at streaming services. Hoang was selected to be a delegate to Spain for the American Documentary Showcase. Hoang has received awards and grants from the Sundance Institute, ITVS, Center for Asian American Media, the Ms. Foundation for Women, Brooklyn Arts Council, and National Endowment of the Humanities.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Blanca Li</span> Spanish dancer, actress, director (born 1964)

Blanca Li, originally Blanca María Gutiérrez Ortiz is a Spanish choreographer, film director, dancer, and actress.

Yvonne Welbon is an American independent film director, producer, and screenwriter based in Chicago. She is known for her films, Living with Pride:Ruth C. Ellis @ 100 (1999), Sisters in Cinema (2003), and Monique (1992).

The Brooklyn Film Festival(BFF), prior to 2011 called the Brooklyn International Film Festival(BiFF) is an independent film festival held every June in New York City. Started by Marco Ursino, Susan Mackell, Abe Schrager, and Mario Pegoraro in 1998, its mission is to “discover, expose, and promote independent filmmakers while drawing worldwide attention to Brooklyn as a center for cinema." Its base is South 4th Street, Williamsburg.

Noémie Lafrance is a Canadian-born choreographer living and working in New York since 1994. She is known for making large-scale site-specific dance performances that use the architecture of the city as the setting for her work. She is the founder and artistic director of Sens Production—a not-for-profit dance production company based in Brooklyn founded in 2001. She has received a Bessie Award and an MVPA award for her work. The Feist music video1234 that she choreographed was nominated for a Grammy.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Eliza Hittman</span> American film director

Eliza Hittman is an American screenwriter, film director, and producer from New York City. She has won multiple awards for her film Never Rarely Sometimes Always, which include the New York Film Critics Circle Award and the National Society of Film Critics Award—both for best screenplay.

Nicole L. Franklin is an American filmmaker, activist, writer and media professional. She founded Hack4Hope, a hackathon in St. Louis. Franklin writes for The Good Men Project, Toronto publication ByBlacks.com and NBCBLK.

Marina Zenovich is an American filmmaker known for her biographical documentaries. Her films include LANCE, Robin Williams: Come Inside My Mind, Richard Pryor: Omit the Logic and Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired, which won two Emmy awards.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alysa Nahmias</span> American director, producer, and writer

Alysa Nahmias is an American filmmaker and the founder of Ajna Films.

Angela Tucker is an American writer, and Emmy and Webby award winning producer/director. She is best known for her work on Black Folk Don't, (A)sexual and All Styles.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Suki Hawley</span> American filmmaker (born 1969)

Suki Hawley is an American indie filmmaker and a partner in the production and distribution company RUMUR. Either solo or with Michael Galinsky, she has directed low-budget fictional narratives but has mostly concentrated on documentaries in recent years.

References

  1. ↑ Alison Murray : The Hellhound
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 "Director Alison Murray – Hellhound Productions".
  3. 1 2 "Mouth to Mouth : Directed by Alison Murray". Archived from the original on 2007-06-29.
  4. 1 2 3 "Mouth to Mouth : Directed by Alison Murray". Archived from the original on 2007-06-29.
  5. 1 2 Alison Murray : The Hellhound
  6. ↑ "Previous recipients - Paul Hamlyn Foundation".
  7. ↑ "Sundance Channel : Film : Carny". www.sundancechannel.com. Archived from the original on 11 July 2010. Retrieved 12 January 2022.
  8. ↑ "A Carny's Transient Life Revealed -- in Film Showing Saturday".
  9. ↑ "Sideshow World, Sideshow Performers from around the world, Freak, Central".
  10. ↑ "CARNY by Alison Murray @ Brooklyn Film Festival".
  11. ↑ Archived February 10, 2011, at the Wayback Machine

Further

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.