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Director Matthew Thorne Joins Good Oil’s Roster for Exclusive Representation in Australia and NZ.

22/03/2023
Production Company
Sydney, Australia
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Good Oil introducing Matthew Thorne with everything you need to know
Born -  Adelaide. Flat suburbia. Big sunsets. Kagemusha on laserdisc. Got coffee on Snowtown. Dropped out of film school. Alien: Covenant. Dad dies (23). South America. Iran. Russia. Heart condition. A film about opal mining country. True History of the Kelly Gang. Berlin. Photos for Nick Cave. Start making Marungka Tjalatjunu. Learn German. COVID (x3). Kyiv, slava Ukraini. Engaged. Publish a photo book. Buy a Landcruiser 80. Live in it. Start to learn Yankunytjatjara. No longer engaged. Athens. 

Mythic, inimitably dream-like, and intimately observed. Good Oil’s newest director Matthew Thorne combines story, cinematic narrative storytelling, and observed documentary, to hypnotic effect. His film ‘Marungka Tjalatjunu’ (Dipped in Black), created with Yankunytjatjara artist Derik Lynch, just premiered at Berlinale and was celebrated with two awards: The Silver Bear Jury Prize for Short Film and the TEDDY Berlinale Queer Award for Short Film. It was the first Australian film to win a Bear. 

We spoke to him about his influences, his favourite commercial, and what inspires him.

Highlights 
Everything we did together for Justin Kurzel’s blood soaked, graffitied reimagining for True History of the Kelly Gang. 
Blasting smoke across Malibu beach at first light for Nick Cave’s Ghosteen artwork. Re-enacting Sorry camp with the Elders in Aputula. The prayer they made over us and the film. 

Influences 
Australian cinema at its most honest, magic, and direct.
Artists with heart and politics. 
Writers with grit and care. 
Seinfeld. 

Some Favourite Films 
The House is Black. Whores Glory. 8 1/2. God’s Country. In the Time of the Gypsies. Close Up. 

Best Soundtrack 
The imagined soundtrack for Solaris by Daniel Bjarnason and Ben Frost. 
A commercial I can’t stop thinking about 
Christopher Riggert - Bonds “Road Trip”. 

Words that mean a lot to me 
My laptop has a grey backdrop with two texts in white in the top left corner: Ithaka by C.P Cavafy (1975) and An incomplete list of what the cameraperson enables by Kirsten Johnson (2016). 

Number one rule for a film set 
No lying to ourselves, only to the audience. 

Key ingredients in an MT film 
Story, magical realism, honesty, and care. 
His commercial slate includes the ‘New Paths’ spot for Commbank which captured the heartache of living apart from family with poetic and considered lensing, and an intimate portrait of David Mack (lead dancer, Sydney Dance Company) for Lexus ‘Step Forward’ (M&C Saatchi). Other spots include work for GMHBA, and moving films for Maurice Blackburn Lawyers (Howatson + Co). 



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