Mitzi Goldman

Mitzi Goldman "has been working in the film industry for 20 years. After several experimental shorts, Mitzi wrote and directed her first one-hour documentary called Snakes and Ladders (1987). Filmed with drama and comedy, the film screened in many international festivals, and was sold to ABC TV and Channel 4 (UK) and is still in distribution in the USA.

"Following this Mitzi worked at SBS TV, producing and directing documentaries for the Australian Mosaic series. These included Things I Call Mine, and Many Homes, Many Names. In 1989 she moved to New York and lived there for three years, editing, writing, researching and teaching.

"After her return to Australia in 1992, whilst teaching film and television production at Murdoch University in Perth, she produced and directed the documentary film Hatred (1996). This film deals with race and ethnic hatred, nationalism and xenophobia. It has screened at festivals in Germany, South Africa, France, Spain, USA and Australia, was nominated for best documentary and best editing in Australia (AFI Awards) and was the winner of the ATOM award for Best Social Issues Documentary in 1997. It has sold to ABC TV and is in distribution in the USA, Europe and Asia. Mitzi has a PhD in Cultural Studies on the topic of Hatred: A Psycho-Political Perspective.

"Her next film Ports of Destiny (1998) was pre-sold to SBS TV and screened in January 1999. Shot in Argentina, it tells the story of a reunion after 60 years of separation, between the filmmaker's father, then a 76 year old man living in Australia, and his aunt of 96, living in Buenos Aires. It is a film about aging and destiny.

"Parra (2000) is a half hour documentary about the hybrid life of an enormous shopping centre in Western Sydney, and the young people who congregate there, using the space as their own unique venue. It is a collaboration with the Research Centre of Intercommunal Studies at the University of Western Sydney, for the SBSI commissioned series, Hybrid Life which screened as part of a series in 2001 to commemorate the centenary of the Federation of Australia.

"Chinese Take Away (2002) is a development of themes explored in all of Mitzi's previous work, albeit in a new direction. Goldman's documentaries have all dealt with issues of personal history and cultural heritage. In her latest film, adapting the stage play Chinese Take Away, Goldman has explored cinematic language in a more dramatic way than in previous work, without sacrificing either its documentary or theatrical roots."


 * Executive Director, Documentary Australia Foundation