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Life through a looking glass

by Emma Masters

Peter Wintonick showing the finer points of using a video camera
Internationally renowned documentary film and media director/producer Peter Wintonick has made his mark and forged many ties with UniSA as a recent Thinker in Residence, working with UniSA’s film and video production and multimedia students, architecture and design staff, as well as researchers at the Wearable Computer Laboratory.

In Adelaide for the past four months, Wintonick has been looking at how South Australia can play a national leading role in online, television and film production, building on current talent and networks and taking advantage of emerging media and technology.

Wintonick gave two guest lectures to UniSA film and video production students about the documentary mode, outlining its history and its possible futures.

“It was fascinating hearing ideas and thoughts on the whole process of documentary filmmaking from someone who is so well respected for his work,” said Jessica Patterson, a third year film and video production student.

“I especially loved hearing his ideas about the different ways in which you can produce a documentary. Admittedly, I always thought documentary making was pretty straight forward – that it was just about presenting the facts, but he showed how you can be creative within the facts, fusing experimental film and animation with dramatisation.”

Wintonick also visited Mawson Lakes campus and delivered a seminar to computer and information science students, as well as the Wearable Computer Laboratory where he tested advanced systems.

Moving across the disciplines, he also spent time with architecture and design staff, discussing their teaching and learning approaches to experimental digital thinking and production, and how architecture and design practices intersect with film, video, documentaries, and gaming.

“I had some rich experiences at UniSA, looking at the different areas involved in shaping the future of film, media and computer technology,” Wintonick said.

South Australia has a warm climate of collaboration and it certainly showed through in my time in Adelaide.”

Wintonick’s knowledge on the documentary and media industry is recognised the world over. Most noted for co-producing and directing one of the most successful documentaries in Canadian history – Manufacturing Consent: Noam Chomsky and the Media – he was also
co-founder of one of the first global internet sites for independent film (The Virtual Film Festival) and has served on film boards across the world.

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