The many notable alumni of Swinburne Film and Television School include directors Gillian Armstrong, Garth Davis, Richard Lowenstein, and Sarah Watt, and cartoonist Michael Leunig.
[1][2] The film school,[a] which offered the first tertiary course in filmmaking in the country,[4] was founded in 1966 by filmmaker Brian Clark Robinson (1934–1991), after he,[5] along with polymath and MP Barry Jones, broadcaster and writer Phillip Adams, and acclaimed director Fred Schepisi, had campaigned strongly for its establishment.
He first attained a graphic design diploma, and was then accepted by Robinson into the postgraduate film course.
The group comprised Paul Goldman, Chris Kennedy John Hillcoat, and Evan English.
[1][2] In 1987, when Robinson was appointed dean of the faculty of arts at the university, he chose Jennifer Sabine to lead the film school.
[10] The school had its 21st anniversary in 1989, on which occasion it was visited by Michael Leunig,[18] who also created a cartoon poster to commemorate the event.
At that time, the other main practical film courses in Australia were offered at the Australian Film, Television and Radio School (Sydney), Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology, Queensland College of Art (now Queensland College of Art & Design, with Griffith Film School taking over since 2004[23]), Charles Sturt University (Wagga Wagga, NSW; no longer offered), and Flinders University (Adelaide).
It was surmised that the main two reasons were firstly, that women often have no access to the means of film or video production, so have no work to submit to support their applications; and secondly, their performance at interview was affected by lack of confidence.
The intensive course, which was developed and administered by Lou Hubbard and producer Sue Maslin, was offered to nine women each year, and spanned two weeks.
[27] Richard Lowenstein, appraising the work, called it a "brave attempt at an immense task", to capture 30 years of the history of the school.