Stephen Wallace

Last updated

Stephen Wallace A.M.
Born
Stephen Henry Wallace

(1943-12-23) 23 December 1943 (age 79)
New South Wales, Australia
Occupations
Years active1969 to present
Board member of ASDACS - Chair The Australian Directors Guild - President (1991-2000), Treasurer (Present)
SpouseFiona Verge
ChildrenLucinda Verge-Wallace, Guy Verge-Wallace
Awards Order of Australia

Stephen Henry Wallace A.M. (born 23 December 1943) is an Australian film and television director, screenwriter, producer, published author and acting coach. He has directed eight feature films, nine telemovies, numerous short films, worked on multiple television series and has a small theatre company. [1]

Contents

Known for his eye for talent and passion for working with young artists, many now established actors can attribute their first feature film, or on-screen debut to working with Wallace; from Bryan Brown to Russell Crowe, Naomi Watts and many others.

Over the course of his career, Wallace's films have been recognised with over 38 nominations at local and international film festivals. [2] In 2005, Wallace was awarded an Order of Australia in the Queen's Birthday Honours List for his contributions to the Australian film and television industry as both a director, and to the Australian Screen Directors' Association. [3] [4] In 2012, the ADG awarded Wallace the prestigious Cecil Holmes Award, [5] presented in recognition of advocacy for, and services to directing.

A founding signatory, Wallace was President of the Australian Directors Guild between 1991 and 2000 and remains on the Board today as Treasurer. He currently sits as Chair of The Australian Screen Directors Collecting Society (ASDACS). [6]

Short films

Early in his career, Wallace worked at Film Australia as a production assistant and director of documentaries. [7]

Wallace then made several short 16mm fiction films, including: The Look, Brittle Weather Journey (screened at Ann Arbor Film Festival and at the Sydney Filmmakers' Co-op, 1974), Break Up (a finalist in the Greater Union Awards at the 1976 Sydney Film Festival) and Con Man Harry (winner of the Experimental section of the Chicago Film Festival, 1980).

Telemovies and documentaries

Wallace then transitioned into making a series of one hour telemovies and documentaries for Australian television networks. These included: the award winning Women of the Sun for SBS (1982); Quest Beyond Time for the Children's Television Foundation (1984); an ABC feature film Hunger (1987) for Jan Chapman; Gordon Bennett, a one hour drama for The Nine Network, as well as several documentaries for Seven Network.

Feature films

The Love Letters from Teralba Road (1977)

His first short feature film was The Love Letters from Teralba Road (1977). Wallace found a number of letters in a Sydney flat in 1972 which had been written by a man living in Newcastle in 1959. He had beaten up his wife, who subsequently moved to Sydney and was asking for her forgiveness. Wallace drew inspiration from these to both write and direct the short film. The film is widely known as Bryan Brown's on-screen debut. In 1980 David Stratton called it, "not only the most moving love story given to us by the Australian cinema, but also probably the best featurette of the decade." [8]

The film won three awards at the 1977 Film Institute Awards (Best Cinematography in a Non-Feature Film, Best Short Fiction Film, Special Award) and in 1978 the Interfilm Award at the Berlin International Film Festival.

Stir (1980)

His feature directorial debut took place with Stir in 1980. The New South Wales Film Corporation was looking at investing in additional features films made by directors in whom they saw potential. Wallace had just made the critically acclaimed one-hour drama The Love Letters from Teralba Road and was asked if he had any new projects. He told them about this prison drama.

The film, also starring Bryan Brown, was written by Bob Jewson and based upon his own experiences while incarcerated during the 1974 prison riots at Bathurst Correctional Complex and subsequent Royal Commission into New South Wales Prisons. The film was shot over five weeks in October and November 1979 in South Australia at an abandoned prison in Gladstone. [9]

Of the experience, Wallace recalls:

"Bob Jewson said one thing - and I think this is what we tried to make the theme of the film, although it was very hidden - that riots don't happen out of the blue. The prison authorities make you believe that all these criminals that are incarcerated are at all times dangerous and they're trying to get out. But Bob said that's never true; most of them have accepted their lot and they're trying to serve their time. They only get into a riot situation when they're treated badly and unfairly over a long period. He said most people don't want a riot; they know what it's going to mean - longer in jail." [10]

The firm premiered at the 1980 Cannes Film Festival, [11] also showing at the 1980 Edinburgh International Film Festival (UK), 1980 San Francisco International Film Festival (USA), Canale 5 in Italy, and many more. [12] At the 1980 Australian Film Institute Awards, Stir received 13 nominations but did not win any categories.

The Boy Who Had Everything(1986)

In 1984, Wallace wrote and directed his third feature film, The Boy Who Had Everything . The film began as autobiographical for Wallace but made some creative compromises in consultation with his Producers and Script Editors in the hope it would make the film more commercial. [3] The film starred Sean Connery's first wife Diane Cilento and their son, Jason Connery - playing mother and son on-screen.

The film was first released at the 1985 Moscow Film Festival.

For Love Alone(1986)

In 1986, Wallace directed and adaptation of Christina Stead's novel, For Love Alone, in a film by the same title. Wallace also wrote the screenplay adaptation. The film starred critically acclaimed actors Helen Buday, Hugo Weaving and Sam Neill, as well as marking Australian actress Naomi Watts' feature film debut. [13]

The film was a pet project for Producer Margaret Fink who took six years to raise financing. The bulk of the money came from a pre-sale to Greater Union and from UA. Fink had been impressed by Stir and asked Stephen Wallace to direct the feature. An earlier draft of the adaptation had been written, but neither Fink nor Wallace were happy with it so Wallace did the adaptation himself. [14] Wallace says it took him three and a half years to write the script. [15]

The film was entered into the 37th Berlin International Film Festival with Wallace being nominated for the prestigious Golden Berlin Bear Award, as well as receiving five nominations at the Australian Film Institute Awards.

Olive (1988)

Wallace made Olive in 1988. The film earned four nominations at the 1988 Australian Film Institute Awards, with Kerry McGuire winning Best Performance by an Actress in a Telefeature. [16]

Blood Oath (1990)

In 1990, Wallace directed Blood Oath (known in some countries as Prisoners of the Sun ). The film was co-written by Denis Whitburn and Brian A. Williams. The film is based on the real-life trial of Japanese soldiers for war crimes committed against Allied prisoners of war on the island of Ambon, in the Netherlands East Indies (Indonesia), such as the Laha massacre of 1942.

Blood Oath stars Bryan Brown, George Takei, Terry O'Quinn, John Bach, John Clarke, Deborah Kara Unger, John Polson, Nicholas Eadie, David Argue and Ray Barrett. The film is also widely known as the first film debut for both Russell Crowe and Jason Donovan. It was nominated for several 1990 Australian Film Institute Awards, including "Best Film". It won the AFI Awards for Best Achievement in Sound and Best Achievement in Costume Design.

Turtle Beach (1992)

Wallace's final feature film before taking a hiatus from directing was Turtle Beach . Wallace was hired because the financiers who had invested in his movie Blood Oath loved his work and saw him as a good choice. The screenplay was written by Ann Turner, based on the 1981 novel of the same name by Blanche d'Alpuget. The film stars Greta Scacchi and Joan Chen.

A Suburban Love Story(2018)

In 2014, it was announced that Wallace was directing again. The low budget film, The Body in the Yard (later changed to A Suburban Love Story) , was set to begin shooting on 28 August 2014, with an all-Australian cast. [17] This film is based on an Australian newspaper story Wallace read back in the 1980s or 90s, about the murder by a husband of his wife; the husband buried his murdered wife in the backyard and continued to live with his girlfriend in the same house. [17]

Television

Stephen Wallace has directed various TV series and nine telemovies, four of which were made for the Australian Broadcasting Commission (ABC). [17]

Between 1985 and 1998, Wallace directed episodes of Women of the Sun, The Flying Doctors, Australians, Seven Deadly Sins, Twisted Tales and Water Rats , among others [1] .

Theatre and Developing Actors

From the onset of his career, Wallace has been widely known to have a passion for working with actors, both as a professional coach, in theatre, and to get the most out of his cast. Wallace has worked on and off as an acting teacher for Screenwise Australia for several years.

Many now established actors can attribute their first feature film, or on-screen debut to working with Wallace; from the likes of Bryan Brown to Russell Crowe, Naomi Watts and many others. Wallace has also worked with critically acclaimed actors Sam Neill, Hugo Weaving and Greta Scacchi.

Impulse Theatre Company

In taking a break from filmmaking, Wallace founded a small Theatre Company, Impulse Theatre [18] where he ran a method acting workshop known as The Growtowski Workshop. [18]

Through Impulse Theatre, Wallace produced several productions of Oedipus, [19] Lysistrata, Cosi, Romeo and Juliet, As You Like It, Shoehorn Sonata,Away and more. He completed four productions for the Short and Sweet Festival at the Seymour Centre as well as creating a short film with the company Disconnected.

On Oedipus the King (Impulse Theatre Company, 2003), The Sydney Morning Herald wrote,

"This version, directed by Stephen Wallace, is billed as a "Grotowski workshop", in regards to the late Polish director's style. Audiences are welcome to turn up an hour early to watch the cast warm up. Often productions dedicated to a particular performance style can use the text as an excuse for stylistic pyrotechnics and barren "look at me" performance athletics.

Fortunately, this is not the case here. Much guff has been opined about the revered Jerzy Grotowski but his key concerns were about simplicity (stripping away everything non-essential), the centrality of the actor to the creation of meaning, and ritualistic, essentialist physicality. The production is certainly an example of [this] - there are no set, almost no props and very simple costuming.

The Grotowski influence also shows in its careful but subtle physicality, an economy of character-identifying gesture and simple but affecting grouping of performers." [20]

With Impulse Theatre Company, Wallace also directed 16 full-length plays from within the NSW school syllabus, [18] taking the crew on tour to schools across regional parts of NSW to share his love of theatre with their students.

Advocate for directors

During his career, Stephen Wallace has played an instrumental role in advocating for directorial rights, both in Australia and abroad, beginning as early as 1982.

As one of the original signatories to the ASDA Articles of Association (now known as the Australian Director's Guild) on 15 January 1982, Wallace and his team worked hard to build membership and fight for appropriate regulation and resources on top of advocating for better rights, opportunities and recognition for screen directors. After 40 years, the ADG now represents the interests of over 1,000 Screen Director members working across film, television, streaming and digital media.

In 1991, as President of ASDA, Wallace was determined to re-invigorate what the team had originally set out to do. Recognising their members’ interest in the art/craft of directing, he proposed the institution of a Directors Conference and Directors Discussion Screenings. During this period also, ASDA continued its participation in industry policy development with relevant government departments. In 1994, ASDA President Stephen Wallace, at the invitation of the late John Juliani of the DGC (Directors Guild of Canada) met in Toronto with the DGA (Directors Guild of America) and BECTU (Britain's Broadcasting, Entertainment, Cinematograph and Theatre Union), thus beginning a process of achieving closer relationships with overseas guilds. Subsequently, ASDA regularly participated in the annual International Directors' Guild Forum, an event which it hosted in Sydney in 1998.

Similarly, in 1995 ASDA formed ASDACS (the Australian Directors Collecting Society) after having been approached by the Société des Auteurs et Compositeurs Dramatiques to distribute money collected on behalf of directors from the sale of video tapes in France and formed further relationships with other European collecting societies. In recent years they have distributed over half a million dollars annually to their 800 director members in Australia and New Zealand.

Wallace remains on the board of the Australian Directors Guild [18] and chairs the Australian Screen Directors' Collecting Society. [18]

In his career, he's also spent five years as a Senior Project Manager for the Australian Film Commission. [17]

Awards

Stephen Wallace was awarded the A.M. (Order of Australia) in the 2005 Queen's Birthday Honours List for his contributions to the Australian film and television industry as a director and to the Australian Screen Directors' Association. [3] [4] In 2012, the ADG awarded Wallace the Cecil Holmes Award for Outstanding Contribution to the Australian Directors Guild. [5]

His first film The Love Letters from Teralba Road, won the Interfilm Award at the 1977 Berlin International Film Festival and three Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts (AACTA) Awards (known then as the AFI Awards). He was awarded Best Short Fiction Film for Captives of Care at the 1981 AACTA Awards. [21] His 1986 film For Love Alone was nominated for the Golden Berlin Bear at the 37th Berlin International Film Festival [22] and his 1984 film, The Boy Who Had Everything, was nominated for the Golden Prize at the 14th Moscow International Film Festival. [23]

Filmography

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bryan Brown</span> Australian actor

Bryan Neathway Brown AM is an Australian actor. He has performed in over eighty film and television projects since the late 1970s, both in his native Australia and abroad. Notable films include Breaker Morant (1980), Give My Regards to Broad Street (1984), F/X (1986), Tai-Pan (1986), Cocktail (1988), Gorillas in the Mist (1988), F/X2 (1991), Along Came Polly (2004), Australia (2008), Kill Me Three Times (2014) and Gods of Egypt (2016). He was nominated for a Golden Globe Award and an Emmy Award for his performance in the television miniseries The Thorn Birds (1983).

Matthew Saville is an Australian television and film director, known for Noise (2007) and A Month of Sundays (2015).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Matt Day</span> Australian actor

Matthew Day is an Australian actor and filmmaker.

Nadia Tass is an Australian theatre director and film director and producer. She is known for the films Malcolm (1986) and The Big Steal (1990), as well as an extensive body of work in the theatre, both in Australia and internationally.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Craig Melville</span> Australian television comedy director

Craig James Melville is an Australian television comedy director. He is best known for his collaborations with comedians John Safran, Lawrence Leung and The Chaser.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Thomas M. Wright</span> Australian actor

Thomas Michael Wright is an Australian actor, writer, film director and producer. He is the co-founder (2006) and director of theatre company Black Lung and director of the feature film Acute Misfortune (2019). As an actor he came to attention in Jane Campion's series Top of the Lake, for which he was nominated for Best Supporting Actor at the (US-Canadian) Critics' Choice Awards. He directed the thriller film The Stranger, which appeared at the 2022 Cannes Film Festival.

Michael Carson was an Australian television director who was responsible for some of Australia's most significant series in the last decades of the twentieth century. His work as a director, producer and script editor was recognised with AFI Awards, Logie Awards, Penguin Awards and AWGIE Awards.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alyssa McClelland</span> Australian actress

Alyssa McClelland is an Australian director, writer and actress.

<i>The Love Letters from Teralba Road</i> 1977 Australian film

The Love Letters from Teralba Road is a 1977 Australian short film directed by Stephen Wallace. In 1980 David Stratton called it "not only the most moving love story given to us by the Australian cinema, but also probably the best featurette of the decade."

Denise Roberts, is an Australian actress and director who has worked in theatre, film and television since 1980. She gained initial fame when she played Julie Winters in the ABC-TV medical drama G.P. from 1989 to 1996. Roberts's mentor was Hayes Gordon, with whom she studied solidly for three years. During her seven-year stint on G.P., she taught film and television for Hayes at his Ensemble Studios.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Warwick Thornton</span> Australian film director

Warwick Thornton is an Australian film director, screenwriter, and cinematographer. His debut feature film Samson and Delilah won the Caméra d'Or at the 2009 Cannes Film Festival and the award for Best Film at the Asia Pacific Screen Awards. He also won the Asia Pacific Screen Award for Best Film in 2017 for Sweet Country.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gracie Otto</span> Australian filmmaker (born 1987)

Gracie Otto is an Australian filmmaker and actress. She made her feature-length directing debut with the 2013 documentary The Last Impresario about prolific British theatre impresario and film producer Michael White. She has also directed a variety of screen content such as television commercial videos (TCVs), shorts, television series, feature films and documentaries.

Screenwise is an Australian film and television school for actors based in Surry Hills, Sydney. The school, established in 2000 and using only Australian Film Institute Award winners as teachers, is overseen by actor Denise Roberts. By June 2010, Screenwise was considered one of Australia's leading film and television schools for actors.

<i>Stir</i> (1980 film) 1980 Australian film

Stir is a 1980 Australian film directed by Stephen Wallace in his feature directorial debut. The prison film was written by Bob Jewson, based upon his own experience, while incarcerated, of the 1974 prison riot at Bathurst Correctional Complex and the subsequent Royal Commission into New South Wales Prisons. The film was shot in Clare Valley, Gladstone and the Flinders Ranges in South Australia. It premiered at the 1980 Cannes Film Festival.

The 1977 Australian Film Awards ceremony, presented by the Australian Film Institute (AFI), honoured the best Australian films of 1976 on 21 September 1977 at Regent Theatre, in Sydney, New South Wales. It was televised on ABC. Actors Keir Dullea and Karen Black, and former Australian Prime Minister John Gorton hosted the show.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kriv Stenders</span> Australian writer, producer and director

Kriv Stenders is an Australian writer, producer and director best known for the film Red Dog and the thriller film Kill Me Three Times.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Australian Directors' Guild</span>

The Australian Directors' Guild (ADG) is an industry guild representing the interests of film, television, commercials and digital media directors, including documentary makers and animators, throughout Australia. With its headquarters in Sydney, the ADG has branches in New South Wales, Queensland, South Australia, Victoria and Western Australia. As of 2022 the president of ADG is Rowan Woods.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sophie Hyde</span> Australian film producer, writer and director

Sophie Hyde is an Australian film director, writer, and producer based in Adelaide, South Australia. She is co-founder of Closer Productions and known for her award-winning debut fiction film, 52 Tuesdays (2013) and the comedy drama Animals (2019). She has also made several documentaries, including Life in Movement (2011), a documentary about dancer and choreographer Tanja Liedtke, and television series, such as The Hunting (2019). Her latest film, Good Luck to You, Leo Grande, premiered at the Sundance Festival on 23 January 2022, and was released on Hulu and in cinemas in the UK and Australia.

Serhat Caradee is an Australian filmmaker, writer and actor based in Sydney, New South Wales. He is known for feature films Cedar Boys (2009) and A Lion Returns (2020) and short films previously.

Matthew J. Saville is an actor, writer and film director from New Zealand.

References

  1. 1 2 "Stephen Wallace". IMDb. Retrieved 29 January 2022.
  2. "Stephen Wallace". IMDb. Retrieved 29 January 2022.
  3. 1 2 3 "Interview with Stephen Wallace", Signis, 21 November 1998 accessed 21 November 2012
  4. 1 2 "Stephen Wallace - Biography - IMDb". IMDb .
  5. 1 2 "Australian Directors Guild Awards". Australian Television Information Archive. November 2013. Retrieved 31 January 2022.
  6. "ASDACS About". ASDACS Website. Retrieved 30 January 2022.
  7. Danny Torsh, "Love Letters and Stephen Wallace", Cinema Papers, January 1978 p221-223
  8. Stratton, David (1980). The Last New Wave: The Australian Film Revival. Angus & Robertson. p. 286.
  9. Stratton, David (1980). The Last New Wave: The Australian Film Revival. Angus & Robertson. p. 33.
  10. ""Interview with Stephen Wallace"". Signis. 21 November 1998. Archived from the original on 20 December 2012. Retrieved 21 November 2012.
  11. "Stir 1980 Source Info". IMDB. Retrieved 29 January 2022.
  12. "Stir Release Info". IMDb. Retrieved 30 January 2022.
  13. "Naomi Watts". IMDb. Retrieved 30 January 2022.
  14. Stratton, David (1990). The Avocado Plantation: Boom and Bust in the Australian Film Industry. Pan MacMillan. pp. 178–179–181.
  15. "Wallace, Samuel Thomas Dickson, (7 March 1892–2 Feb. 1968), Capt. late RFA", Who Was Who, Oxford University Press, 1 December 2007, doi:10.1093/ww/9780199540884.013.u58526 , retrieved 29 January 2022
  16. "Olive". IMDb. Retrieved 30 January 2022.
  17. 1 2 3 4 "New Film for Screenwise tutor Director Stephen Wallace!", Screenwise, 7 July 2014 accessed 14 December 2014
  18. 1 2 3 4 5 Stephen Wallace, LinkedIn Archived 2014-12-14 at archive.today accessed 14 December 2014
  19. "Oedipus the King, Impulse Theatre Company". The Sydney Morning Herald. 16 July 2003. Retrieved 30 January 2022.
  20. "Oedipus the King, Impulse Theatre Company". The Sydney Morning Herald. 16 July 2003. Retrieved 18 February 2022.
  21. "Captives of Care". IMDb. Retrieved 30 January 2022.
  22. "Berlinale: 1987 Programme". berlinale.de. Retrieved 27 February 2011.
  23. "14th Moscow International Film Festival (1985)". MIFF. Archived from the original on 16 March 2013. Retrieved 10 February 2013.