Paul Winkler (director)


Paul Winkler is a German-born Australian filmmaker who lives and works in Sydney. He was associated with Corinne and Arthur Cantrill, Albie Thoms and David Perry in pioneering local experimental film production in the 1960s.

Career

Born in Hamburg, Germany Winkler underwent a bricklaying apprenticeship before migrating to Australia in 1959. His self-education in film and film history began in 1962, when he produced his first films in 8mm on Bell & Howell and Canon cameras. In 1967, he switched to 16mm and a Bolex camera which he has used ever since.
Winkler characterises his films as "a synthesis of intellect and emotion, filtered through the plastic material of film". "I try to let 'imagines' flow freely to the surface". The ideas which he terms ‘imagines’ may reflect Australian icons like Bondi Beach, Ayers Rock/Uluru and the Sydney Harbour Bridge, or textures, as in Bark/Rind, Green Canopy, and the bush.
In 1973, Winkler's film Dark identified with the Aboriginal land rights movement, acquiring a spirituality which was also manifested in Chants and Red Church. Later films take contemporary society for their subject, as in Rotation, Time out for Sport and Long Shadows. His early apprenticeship is recalled in Brickwall, Backyard and Brick and Tile.
In 1995, the Museum of Contemporary Art and Sydney Intermedia Network mounted a retrospective screening of 30 of his films. The following year, the Carpenter Center for the Visual Arts, Harvard University, United States screened 30 films in a three-day retrospective.

Films in 16 mm