BONZA
BONZA - Australia & NewZealand
Home    |    About    |    Search    |    Essays    |    Contact    |    Login

AFI research collection
   
Name Richard Lowenstein
Comments Richard Lowenstein was born in Melbourne in 1960.

His parents met through a Communist Party youth club in the 1950s. His father was a dental technician, his mother, Wendy, a historian and author.

Lowenstein attended Brinsley Road Alternative School, a 70s- type ‘free’ school, and completed HSC at Camberwell High School. He excelled in science.

He graduated from Swinburne Film and Television School (now VCA) in 1979. His first film as a student was a 25 minute drama based on his mother’s oral history of the Depression - Weevils in the Flour. The film was Evictions and was a recreation of the evictions which took place during the Depression when landlords tried to evict tenants who could no longer pay the rent. The film is a celebration of the struggles of the working class tenants to combat the landlords. Evictions won the Erwin Rado prize for the best short film at the Melbourne film Festival in 1980.

His next film, Strikebound, was released in September 1984. Like his first film it is based on his mother’s research of the Depression. It tells the story of Australia’s first ever stay-in strike, down the coalmines of Korrumburra, in South Gippsland. The film is set in the late 1930s and was shot on location. It starred Chris Haywood and Carol Burns as Watty and Agnes Doig.

Between films Lowenstein supported himself by making rock videos for most of Australia’s premier acts. He has directed and produced videos for INXS, Hunters and Collectors, Jo Camilleri,Tim Finn, Jenny Morris, Crowded House, and even U2 and Hothouse Flowers.

In 1985 Lowenstein directed White City, an extended film clip for Pete Townshend’s solo project. Townshend had seen and liked Strikebound and arranged to have the director go to England for the filming.

Lowenstein’s next film, and the one he is best remembered for, was Dogs in Space. Released on New Year’s Day in 1987, the film chronicles the punk/new wave scene in Melbourne at the end of the 1970s. Written by Lowenstein and based on his memories of the era, the film focuses on the inhabitants of a shared house in Berry Street, Richmond. The film stars INXS singer, Michael Hutchence, in his first dramatic role, and Saskia Post.

In 1987 Lowenstein directed Australian Made, a live concert documentary celbrating Aussie rock, and in 1990, Love Town, for U2. Also that year he made a three minute election advertisment for the Sandanista government in Nicaragua.
Lowenstein disappeared from the public eye during the 1990s. He continued making film clips and television commercials, and one film, Say a Little Prayer, (1992) an Australian comedy which flopped badly.

In 1998 he was planning to make a film based on John Birmingham’s book, He Died with a Falafel in his Hand.

Filmography:

Evictions 1979 30 minutes 16mm

Strikebound 1984 101 minutes 35mm

White City 1985 50 minutes 35mm

Dogs in Space 1986 108 minutes 35mm

Say a Little Prayer 1992 98 minutes 35mm

Australian Made 1987 100 minutes

Love Town 1990 50 minutes

Music Videos:

INXS: Burn for You; Dancing on the Jetty; All the Voices; The Swing and Other Stories; What you Need; Listen Like Thieves; Need U Tonight; Tear Us Apart; New Sensation; Guns in the Sky; Suicide Blonde; Bitter Tears; By my Side; Heaven Sent; Not Enough Time.

Hunters and Collectors: Talking to a Stranger; Lumps of Lead.

Tim Finn: Fraction Too Much Fiction (Best Rock Video prize at 1984 Countdown Awards, listed in the Top 10 Videos in the Los Angeles Times); Staring at the Embers; Through the Years.

Crowded House: Mean to Me; Into Temptation.

Jenny Morris: Saved Me.

Big Pig: Hungry Town.

Max Q: Way of the World; Sometimes.

Michael Hutchence: Rooms for the Memory.

Joe Camilleri: Taxi Mary.

Hot House Flowers: One Tongue.

U2: Desire, Angel of Harlem.
tags:
add tag
Author ( click to view )
 
Other Roles ( click to view )
 
References ( click to view )
 
 

Search - Australia & New Zealand  |   Search - French Cinema  |   Terms of Use