Academy Award winning production designer Colin Gibson has been the architect of the end of the world. George Miller’s go-to guy for two decades now, he’s credited for creating the look and feel of Mad Max: Fury Road and Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga, as well as such iconic Australian films such as The Adventures of Priscilla Queen of the Desert, and Babe: Pig in the City. It’s undeniable that Gibson has it in him to make it epic. Join us for a dynamic conversation with Gibson as he takes us through his craft and the process of collaboration in creating these unforgettable worlds.
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Colin Gibson
As a failing actor with two children to support and a hefty community service detention left to run, Colin took what he thought would be the easy option and joined the Art Department. Be careful what you wish for… too loud for props, too bad with crayon or calculator for art directing, he was eventually forced into production design when he became too old and grumpy to take orders from other elderly curmudgeons. Unless they were directors…
And it is largely directors we have to blame for his laughable “career”: lovely, otherwise talented people like Ray Lawrence, Gillian Armstrong, John Duigan, Stephan Elliott, Wim Wenders, Zhang Jimou and of course George Miller. All contributed to the delinquency in their own way, either through apathy, benign neglect or the sort of active amusement one might show a monkey on a bicycle.
Riding on the coat-tails of the talented has proven, if not lucrative, at least amusing and has been a hell of a way to kill time before he must face the reality of his wasted life; to the televisual wonderment of Love My Way, 9 Perfect Strangers and Operation Buffalo and feature films including Bliss and Priscilla, Queen of the Desert, Babe and The Great Wall, Until the End of the World and Fury Road and Furiosa (A Mad Max Saga).
Perhaps not entirely a wasted life, then?
— Colin
Missing VIFF? Check out what's playing at the VIFF Centre
Misericordia
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The Stand
This rousing doc explores a 1985 dispute over logging in the Haida Gwaii. Taking us from canny retrospective commentary to the thick of the action, director Chris Auchter employs animation and a wealth of archival footage to riveting effect.
Julie Keeps Quiet
When her coach falls under investigation for inappropriate behaviour, a young tennis ace is thrown into turmoil. Her reluctance to testify about her experience puts her at odds with the club, her parents and her friends.
Resident Orca
Captured in Puget Sound in 1970, killer whale Lolita spent the next half century in a cramped tank in Seaquarium, Miami. The film follows a coalition of Lummi elders, animal lovers and philanthropists on a rescue mission to return her to the ocean.
The Way, My Way
All manner of pilgrims flock to France and Spain to walk the 800 km Camino de Santiago. One such is Bill, a stroppy sexagenarian Australian filmmaker who's determined to do the Camino with minimal prep, a dickey leg, and no firm idea why.