Anna Helme

Free Jazz (1min 31sec, 2009) is a short film about how far you can push music beyond its boundaries, before it breaks. Emile Ouiseau is an experimental saxophonist who plays such free music that his notes literally escape him. Can he re-capture his errant quavers in time?

John Maloney in Free Jazz (photo by Florence Holmes)

This is the first short I made at film school earlier this year, dedicated to my dear little H. I made it for his birthday, but then I gave him a fishing rod, which will no doubt give him more pleasure than this film ;{)

Update: Cutest quotes ever from H after watching the film “I love you and I hope you come back to you again, I loved the movie, Maisey plays the trumpet, I’m thirsty, I love all the bits that have Hunter in them, I want you to guess, I think it was, uh, love how you make movies, goodnight.” However, I can also confirm that the fishing rod still managed to trump it.
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CHEAP (6 mins, 1995) is an off-kilter short about consumerism and desire. Two teens on a sugar-rush and a hormone-high, ache for each other across aisles of groceries, in a strange supermarket which is a hotbed of queers and shoplifters. They wanna know what love is – is romance real, or just a fantasy of manufactured appetites?

I was an avid videomaker in high school, from age 13 when my folks got a Handycam. This isn’t my first production (that would be too embarrassing) but I made it when I was 17 (1995) for final year art class. It was selected for ArtExpress and screened at the Gallery of NSW before touring regional galleries. In some ways its still my favourite piece, made before I thunk too much

Still from "Snap!"

Snap! (1 min, 2004). Two ladies playing cards find their cards come to life, leading to a diva-off between the two pairs of femme Queens. Features the marvellous marker-pen portraits of unique women un-dressed-up in their own private environs by Arlene Textaqueen

From Acmi.net.au: “Arlene TextaQueen uses the marvellous medium of felt-tip marker to create Textanudes: portraits of unique women un-dressed-up in their own private environs. With the collaboration of video maestra Anna Helme, Snap! brings to life her felt-tipped friends for the first time when a game of Textanude cards deals out more than expected to its lovely live players. The intimate illustrations are re-con-texta-ualised in their interactions with the actress’s colourful characterisations, playing with caricature across media to a comedic conclusion.”

This is a longer version than the one we made for the SBS TV / ACMI ARTV project, which was commissioned as a 30 second filler for in-between programs.