Special Guests Thursday 21 September

The Survival of Kindness

TICKETS & INFO

Rolf de Heer

Rolf de Heer (b. 1951) was born in Heemskerk, Holland, and migrated to Australia with his family in 1959. He spent seven years working for the ABC before gaining entry to Australia's Film, Television and Radio School, where he studied Producing and Directing. His first film as writer/director was the children's picture Tail of a Tiger (1984). He later scored a cult hit with Bad Boy Bubby (1993), which won four AFI awards as well as a Grand Special Jury Prize and International Film Critics Prize at the 1993 Venice Film Festival. His next two films, The Quiet Room (1996) and Dance Me to My Song (1998), were both selected for official competition at Cannes. His subsequent movies have included The Old Man Who Read Love Stories (2001), featuring Richard Dreyfuss, and The Tracker (2002), starring David Gulpilil and Gary Sweet. In 2003 Rolf de Heer released his 10th film as director, the acclaimed Alexandra's Project.

- National Portrait Gallery

Mwajemi Hussein

Mwajemi Hussein had never set foot inside a cinema before she auditioned for the lead role in a film by one of Australia’s most celebrated directors. Growing up in a village in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), there were no cinemas. In her 20s, fleeing war, she lived for eight years in a refugee camp in Tanzania with her husband and children. Later, after the family were granted asylum in Australia, there was simply no time. “I was busy learning English and raising children, going everywhere, volunteering,” she grins.

- Cath Clarke, The Guardian