Arthur & Corinne Cantrill

Arthur and Corinne Cantrill (both born in Sydney, in 1938 and 1928 respectively) have made more than 100 films made since 1960. Their work covers different forms and genres: documentary, experimental cinema, expanded cinema, performance and sound art. They met in Brisbane in the late 1950s, since when they have shared a long, prolific personal and artistic relationship. Their first films were educational documentaries for children about nature, literature and art: short, 16mm films that led them to experiment with image and sound and to become interested in the abstract potential of cinema.  

After spending some time in Europe and making several documentary and experimental films, they returned to Australia where they produced a series of works that examine perception, the possibilities of color, re-filming and multi-screening. This was a period of great experimentation in which Arthur and Corinne Cantrill began to question the traditional projection space, introducing performance elements and different-shaped screens. During this time, they also set up Cantrills Filmnotes, an independent magazine devoted to experimental cinema and contemporary arts, which the filmmakers published between 1971 and 2000.

By adopting traditional methods from the very beginning, their filmmaking practice has produced a body of research on the history of cinema, a rigorous examination of the photochemical nature of film, and a study of the forms in the Australian landscape made through cinema. By also exploring the formal possibilities of separating colors, the Cantrills have created unique views of the world with their images.