Some Writings About Mike ( ANU Film Group - Documentary Workshops/Mike Rubbo )

Mike Rubbo, who brought the documentary series Race Around The World to ABC TV, will soon tour the country talking about Race and the documentary genre. He will be going to 25 Universities, from Northern Teritory to Tasmania. The Tour will
be self financing. Enrolment will be $18 for students and $22 for non-students
for the marathon five hour sessions. Mike is a major international documentary guru. He has spent a lifetime making
and promoting the genre. He was the first Australian to work full time as a director at the legendary National Film Board of Canada where he made most of his films. He has made over 30 prize winning docs himself, winning first prize at the American Film Festival, New York, four times.
Some of his most famous docs, like Waiting for Fidel, are in the Museum of Modern Art (MOMA) in New York. He has been broadcast in many countries with several important screenings on PBS in the US. Mike Rubbo is listed in the documentary textbooks as one of the most important film makers of his era and was honoured with retrospectives of his work in San Francesco and at the Sydney Film Festival.
The documentaries that gained this attention look like parents of Race Around the World. Shot in Vietnam, Cuba, France, Indonesia, they are very personal, very racey. He was one of the first documentary makers to include himself as the
stumbling traveller.
He has taught all over the world. In the early '80s he taught for three years at the AFTRS, where he inspired film makers like Bob Connollly and Robin Anderson, David Bradbury, and Dennis O'Rourke. His public seminars at Film Australia and elsewhere led to major funding initiatives for docs. He taught at Harvard for four years. He was an important lobbyist for Film Australia's freedom from Government censorship in the early seventies, and set up the first co-production between Film Australia and The
National Film Board of Canada.
During his time as Head of ABC Documentaries (1996-1997) he not only brought Race from Canada (where a French version had played for 8 years) but moved ABC documentaries towards the true life drama of the observational film. Films like Sussie is a Fish, The Human Race, Rats in the Ranks, Maverick on a Mobile, Hospital and No Place Like Home have all gone to air under his leadership. Mike believes documentaries play a vital social function in that they allow us
to walk in the shoes of others, and in doing so develop sympathy and
understanding. Race Around the World shows what an inspirational experience this
can be, and how sympathetic young Australians are. Currently Head of Special Projects at ABC Documentaries, Mike's first project is to tour Australia and turn the fascination for Race Around the World into an interest in docs in general. Mike wants to bring a young public to ABC's longer docs in the Inside Story, Big Picture and other slots. He wants to ground people in the fascinating history of the documentary as a way of getting them hooked on the genre. He will be on the road with his unique
collection of classic docos collected over many years in many lands. These will be mixed with recent and up-coming ABC programs and material from Race, of course.

Taken from the ABC TV publicity article: "Mike Rubbo Documentary Seminars"
Published by kind permission.

Back