The Audition

A film by Anna Campion

England | 1990 | 24 minutes | Color | 16mm/DVD | Order No. 99013

SYNOPSIS

The filmmaker's sister, Jane Campion, journeys home to New Zealand to audition her onetime actress mother for a small role as a schoolteacher in her film adaptation of Janet Frame's autobiographies, AN ANGEL AT MY TABLE. The mother is somewhat resistant to the role, the camera and what she perceives as her daughter's manipulation. The daughter has her own resistance-to her mother's dark vision of the world. This deceptively simple drama, filmed with elegance and restraint, reveals nuances of mother/daughter roles while challenging the realist aesthetic.

PRESS

"The most outstanding women's short feature ...that deals with the mother-daughter relationship."

Paula Langguth Hot Wire

"Convincing, riveting."

Jonathan Rosenbaum Chicago Reader

SCREENING HIGHLIGHTS AND AWARDS

  • Films de Femmes, Creteil, France
  • New Directors/New Films
  • Montreal Women's Film and Video Festival

ABOUT FILMMAKER(S)

Anna Campion

Anna Campion was born in Wellington, New Zealand to a noted theatrical family. Campion worked for five years as professional actress before moving to London to pursue a fine arts degree at Goldsmith College. Encouraged by sister, Jane, to make films, Campion completed an MA in film at the Royal College of Art. Her first short , The Audition , featuring her sister and mother, won a BBC Student Drama Prize in 1989. Campion’s second short, Broken Skin (1991), competed at the Cannes Film Festival. Anna Campion is also the writer and director of Loaded (1994). (08/09)

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