Image: Katie Pye in Jane Campion’s short, An Exercise in Discipline: Peel.
In a fit of constructive nostalgia, the Australian Film Television and Radio School has made a deal with the ABC to put classic shorts by early graduates on iView.
Born in 1950, Gillian Armstrong made One Hundred a Day as an inaugural AFTRS student in 1973, after making Old Man and a Dog in 1970 and The Roof Needs Mowing in 1971 at Swinburne. Her documentary about Adelaide teenagers, Smokes and Lollies, was made for Film Australia in 1976, followed by the short feature The Singer and the Dancer in 1977. Her feature career took off with My Brilliant Career, dated to 1979. She made Mrs Soffel for Hollywood in 1984.
