The Fall Of The House, the intriguing story of British composer/conductor Sir Eugene Goosens and his fall from grace in the arms of the Kings Cross witch Rosaleen Norton in cold war colonial Australia, has been announced as the latest documentary to be fully funded by the Australian Film Commission.
The Fall Of The House will be written and directed by Geoff Burton - who has achieved considerable acclaim as a director, writer and cinematographer on features and documentaries including The Sum Of Us, Flirting, Sirens and the two-hour documentary Flight Over The Equator and produced by Sharon Bell, who wrote and produced the recent documentary The Actor And The President.
The AFC selects one documentary each year to be fully funded to $250,000. This funding scheme, introduced two years ago, is an opportunity for strong original documentary ideas to be supported outside the more conventional funding structures. The first film, Rainbow Bird And Monster Man, (writer/director Dennis Smith, producer John Lewis) recently screened on SBS, won the Australian Writers Guild script prize and received four 2002 AFI nominations. The second project, Anthem, (writer/director Tahir Cambis and Helen Newman, producer Ross Hutchens) is in production.
Sir Eugene Goosens is credited with transforming the Sydney Symphony Orchestra into a world class orchestra. He arrived in Australia initially as an internationally famous English conductor, on a large salary, and departed in total and utter ignominy. He returned to Europe where he was unable to resurrect his career, and he died alone in 1962, well before his cherished idea for a Sydney Opera House came to fruition.
"Geoff Burton has written a beguiling script. The mix of techniques is ingenious and it should be a fascinating program on all levels, historical, political, sociological, emotional. The Fall Of The House is another strong project that this particular AFC funding strand is able to support," said Carole Sklan, Director, Film Development at the AFC.
Geoff Burton (writer/director) has worked on a total of 46 Australian and American features as a DOP. He co-directed The Sum Of Us and directed Aftershocks, and has specialised in documentary making for the past five years.
Sharon Bell (producer) co-produced/co-directed The Sri Lanka Series of documentaries in the late seventies. She has worked for Film Australia and AFTRS and was instrumental in establishing the Film Illawarra initiative. Her most recent project The Actor And The President was directed by Geoff Burton. |
