Luke Walker (filmmaker)

Last updated

Luke Walker is a British/Australian film maker. His 2008 documentary film, Beyond Our Ken explored the group Kenja Communication, a controversial Australian "self-empowerment" organisation. It garnered Walker an AACTA Award for Best Direction in a Documentary nomination (shared with co-director Melissa Maclean). Beyond Our Ken was also nominated for Best Documentary at the Film Critics Circle of Australia Awards and also by the Australian Film Institute. [1]

Walker's 2013 documentary feature Lasseter's Bones explores a fabled seam of gold said to be lost in Central Australia, the notorious Lasseter's Reef . [2] The film follows Harold Bell Lasseter's elderly son on his last desert expedition to find his father's lost gold. [3]

Lasseter's Bones was nominated for Best Documentary at the Film Critics Circle of Australia Awards. [4]

Walker’s 2017 documentary PACmen follows the Super-PACs backing Ben Carson’s ill-fated presidential campaign. [5] PACmen premièred at Hot Docs Canadian International Film Festival in May 2017. [6]

Walker was born in Birmingham, West Midlands, England, and is a graduate of the Victorian College of the Arts. [7]

Related Research Articles

<i>Cars</i> (film) 2006 American computer-animated sports comedy film directed by John Lasseter

Cars is a 2006 American computer-animated sports comedy film produced by Pixar Animation Studios for Walt Disney Pictures. The film was directed by John Lasseter from a screenplay by Dan Fogelman, Lasseter, Joe Ranft, Kiel Murray, Phil Lorin, and Jorgen Klubien and a story by Lasseter, Ranft, and Klubien, and was the final film independently produced by Pixar after its purchase by Disney in January 2006. The film features an ensemble voice cast of Owen Wilson, Paul Newman, Bonnie Hunt, Larry the Cable Guy, Tony Shalhoub, Cheech Marin, Michael Wallis, George Carlin, Paul Dooley, Jenifer Lewis, Guido Quaroni, Michael Keaton, Katherine Helmond, John Ratzenberger and Richard Petty, while race car drivers Dale Earnhardt Jr., Mario Andretti, Michael Schumacher and car enthusiast Jay Leno voice themselves.

Lasseter's Reef refers to the purported discovery, announced by Harold Bell Lasseter in 1929 and 1930, of a fabulously rich gold deposit in a remote and desolate corner of central Australia. Lasseter's accounts of the find are conflicting and its precise location remains a mystery—if it exists.

<i>Gettin Square</i> 2003 Australian film

Gettin' Square is a 2003 crime caper movie set on Australia's Gold Coast and directed by Jonathan Teplitzky. The protagonists are ex-criminals trying to keep out of trouble.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sheffield DocFest</span> Documentary festival in Sheffield, England

Sheffield DocFest, short for Sheffield International Documentary Festival (SIDF), is an international documentary festival and Industry Marketplace held annually in Sheffield, England.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kenja Communication</span>

Kenja Communication, or simply Kenja, is an Australian company co-founded in 1982 by Ken Dyers and his partner, Jan Hamilton. The word 'Kenja' is derived from the first letters of their names. There are four Kenja centres, in Sydney, Greater Western Sydney, Melbourne and Canberra. Kenja Communication runs classes, workshops and one-to-one sessions, as well as events and activities at different venues around Australia. It has gained public attention through court trials involving various members of the group, leader Ken Dyers' suicide following allegations of child sexual abuse, and the group's alleged involvement in the Cornelia Rau case.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lewis Harold Bell Lasseter</span>

Lewis Harold Bell Lasseter, also known as Harold Lasseter, was an Australian gold prospector who claimed to have found a fabulously rich gold reef in central Australia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Marshall Curry</span> American film director (born 1970)

Marshall Curry is an Oscar-winning American documentary director, producer, cinematographer and editor. His films include Street Fight, Racing Dreams, If a Tree Falls: A Story of the Earth Liberation Front, Point and Shoot, and A Night at the Garden. His first fiction film was the Academy Award-winning short film The Neighbors' Window (2019).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">David Vadiveloo</span> Australian lawyer

David Selvarajah Vadiveloo is an Australian lawyer, human rights and education consultant, cultural broker and screen producer.

Beyond Our Ken is a 2008 Australian documentary film directed by Luke Walker and Melissa Maclean by the controversial organization Kenja Communication. Released to Australian theatres on 18 September 2008, the film was nominated for Best Documentary at the Film Critics Circle of Australia Awards and also by the Australian Film Institute.

Melissa Maclean is an Australian film maker. Her 2008 documentary film, Beyond Our Ken garnered Maclean a nomination for the AACTA Award for Best Direction in a Documentary. Beyond Our Ken was also nominated for Best Documentary at the Film Critics Circle of Australia Awards and also by the Australian Film Institute. Melissa is also a factual, reality and light entertainment show runner. She co-created the factual entertainment series, Parental Guidance for Nine in 2021.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Amiel Courtin-Wilson</span>

Amiel Courtin-Wilson is an Australian filmmaker. He has directed over 20 short films and several feature films. His debut feature film, Hail, premiered internationally at Venice Film Festival in 2011. He is also a musician, music producer, and visual artist.

High Adventure with Lowell Thomas is an American TV series presented by Lowell Thomas. It ran on CBS from 1957 to 1959. Some episodes were made by the Australian producer Lee Robinson.

Maya Newell is an Australian filmmaker, known for the feature-length documentaries Gayby Baby (2015) and In My Blood It Runs (2019). She works at Closer Productions in Adelaide, South Australia.

<i>Command and Control</i> (film) 2016 American film

Command and Control is a 2016 American documentary film directed by Robert Kenner and based on the 2013 non-fiction book of the same name by Eric Schlosser. It was released initially in the United States at the Tribeca Film Festival and then in the United Kingdom at the Sheffield Doc/Fest on June 11, 2016. It is based on the 1980 Damascus Titan missile explosion in Damascus, Arkansas between September 18–19, 1980. The film aired on the PBS network series American Experience on January 10, 2017.

<i>Chuck Jones: Extremes & Inbetweens – A Life in Animation</i> American TV series or program

Chuck Jones: Extremes & Inbetweens – A Life in Animation is a 2000 American television documentary film directed by Margaret Selby. The film chronicles the career of legendary Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies director, Chuck Jones. The film features interviews with Jones himself, as well as animators Matt Groening, Eric Goldberg, and John Lasseter, critics Roger Ebert and Leonard Maltin, film directors Steven Spielberg, Ron Howard, and Joe Dante, and comedians Whoopi Goldberg, Lorne Michaels, Robin Williams, and June Foray, as well as others. The film was originally broadcast as part of the Great Performances series on November 22, 2000 on PBS, and later released to VHS and DVD by Warner Home Video on October 22, 2002.

Koneline: Our Land Beautiful is a 2016 Canadian documentary film, directed by Nettie Wild and produced by Betsy Carson. The film explores the different lives of the Tahltan First Nations located in northern British Columbia. Through an objective lens, the audience experiences different perspectives from natives, miners, hunters, linesmen, geologists and tourists in Telegraph Creek. "Koneline" means "our land beautiful" in the Tahltan language.

Bill Nye: Science Guy is a 2017 American biographical documentary film produced and directed by David Alvarado and Jason Sussberg of structure films, and produced by Seth Gordon, Kate McLean and Nick Pampenella. The documentary concept was pitched to the film's subject, Bill Nye, by Alvarado, Sussberg, and Gordon at a hotel bar in San Francisco in October 2014. Upon release, it was selected as a NYT Critic's Pick.

<i>Nîpawistamâsowin: We Will Stand Up</i> 2019 Canadian film

nîpawistamâsowin: We Will Stand Up is a Canadian documentary film, directed by Tasha Hubbard and released in 2019. The film centres on the 2016 death of Colten Boushie, and depicts his family's struggle to attain justice after the controversial acquittal of Boushie's killer.Narrated by Hubbard, the film also includes a number of animated segments which contextualize the broader history of indigenous peoples of Canada.

The Opposition is a 2016 investigative documentary. directed by Hollie Fifer. The film follows Joe Moses as he struggles to save his community from policemen wielding machetes and guns descending on the Paga Hill Settlement to bulldoze their houses to the ground.

Jacquelyn Mills is a Canadian documentary filmmaker. She is best known for her films In the Waves and Geographies of Solitude.

References

  1. "Home". Beyond Our Ken - 2008 Australian documentary about Kenja Communication. Retrieved 24 July 2020.
  2. "Luke Walker digs up a hot prospect with Lasseter's Bones | the Australian". www.theaustralian.com.au. Archived from the original on 24 October 2013. Retrieved 17 January 2022.
  3. "Graffiti with PunctuationREVIEW: Lasseter's Bones (Luke Walker - 2012) | Graffiti with Punctuation". Archived from the original on 8 May 2014. Retrieved 8 May 2014.
  4. "Lasseter's Bones - A Documentary by Luke Walker - Home". Lassetersbones.com.au. Retrieved 24 July 2020.
  5. "'PACmen' Film Review | Hot Docs 2017". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved 24 May 2017.
  6. Schager, Nick (30 January 2017). "Ben Carson's Vacuousness Is on Full Display in a Disturbing New Documentary". The Daily Beast. Retrieved 24 May 2017.
  7. Jim Schembri (18 September 2008). "Beyond Our Ken". The Age . Retrieved 24 July 2020.