Martin Fabinyi
Encyclopedia
Martin Fabinyi is an Australian film and television producer and director, songwriter and screenwriter and has written books on the local rock music scene. He was the Chief Executive Officer of Mushroom Pictures from its formation in 1995 to 2009. His film projects include the features Chopper
(2000), Gettin' Square
(2003) and Macbeth
(2006). In 2001, Fabinyi was named one of the top ten international producers to watch by Variety
and one of the most influential people in the Australian film industry by Screen International
magazine.
In 1978, Fabinyi and composer, Cameron Allan, formed the Regular Records label, initially for releases by pop
and R&B band, Mental As Anything
, which were soon managed by his younger brother, Jeremy.
, he then spent two years studying drama at Flinders University
in Adelaide
from 1969 where he founded and edited the student newspaper Empire Times and mobilised the student body against the Vietnam war
.
In 1972 he moved to Sydney and joined the Filmmakers Co-op
, which at the time not only counted experimental film makers such as Albie Thoms, Aggy Read and Mick Glasheen as members, but also filmmakers who would become some of the most popular and commercial directors including Peter Weir
, Phillip Noyce
and Bruce Beresford
. Fabinyi, who had shot independent works in Adelaide, received a grant from the Experimental Film Board to make The Vacuum, one of the first projects in Australia to be shot on portable videotape. A satire on the personalities behind religious cults, featuring a game show starring Johnny O’Keefe and drag act Sylvia and the Synthetics, the video premiered at the Co-op and toured universities with a live performance from the Synthetics and Fabinyi’s earlier work, including the controversial TV Dinner, which polarised audiences due its uncompromising and unerotic sexual subject matter. Fabinyi, who was influenced by German artist Otto Muehl
, continued to work in video and was a founding member of Bush Video, the group which wired up and broadcast on-site during the 1973 Aquarius Festival
in Nimbin
, an event that has become the epitome of the hippie movement. In 1974 Fabinyi received a grant to screen a selection of Australian experimental films in London which was warmly received.
He continued working with the group Sylvia and the Synthetics in performance art and was invited to participate in the Adelaide Fringe Festival
in 1975. His piece, which involved nudity and video (the audience only seeing the video and therefore not sure whether the event was live or not) was staged in a tent next to the Torrens River and attracted the attention of the local police who claimed they could see behind the screens and charged Fabinyi with "Aiding and abetting an indecent act". Whilst the Adelaide Festival organisers debated whether to show the video across the city (that year monitors screened events on most city street corners), Fabinyi was in court. Eventually, after an appeal was lost, he was sentenced to three months hard labour. This was reported in Sydney by Richard Neville
in the Nation Review as an outrage, prompting still more debate.
Fabinyi returned to Sydney and the world of rock and roll, teaming with photographer Philip Morris for the book, The Bumper Book Of Rock. He and Philip designed record covers, photo shoots and documented the 1970s Sydney scene and the life of Johnny O’Keefe.
Fabinyi began writing scripts for directors Phillip Noyce
, Jim Sharman
and Michael Thornhill
, and with composer Cameron Allan. Allan and Fabinyi also shared a passion for pop music and Sydney-based band Mental As Anything
became the first signing for their new label, Regular Records, formed in September 1978. The band were soon managed by his brother, Jeremy. Although distributed by Festival Records, Regular Records remained as an independent label for fifteen years, breaking artists such as Icehouse
, Austen Tayshus
and Kate Ceberano
. In 1986, with music journalist, Toby Creswell
, he co-wrote Too Much Ain't Enough, a biography of pub rocker
and former Cold Chisel
vocalist Jimmy Barnes
.
In 1990, Fabinyi was appointed editor of Follow Me Gentlemen, the men’s fashion version of Follow Me. Changing the name to FMG, the magazine was a precursor to men’s fashion and general magazines. In 1999, Fabinyi and Creswell co-authored The Real Thing, a history of Australian rock and roll between 1957 and the late 1990s.
When Regular Records was sold to its distributor, Mushroom Pictures began with documentaries, for the ABC, Discovery Channel and the Nine Network. Titles such as Tribal Voice featuring Yothu Yindi
, Kate Ceberano
& Friends, Next To Nothing and Nothing to Hide (on lingerie and swimwear) and The Singer and The Swinger (the story of Johnny O’Keefe and Lee Gordon
) cemented Mushroom’s documentary credentials.
In 2000, Mushroom Pictures produced and released the horror feature spoof Cut
starring Molly Ringwald
and Kylie Minogue
, which was sold worldwide and achieved box office success in Europe and Asia. Mushroom Pictures’ second feature, Chopper
, which Fabinyi executive produced, was the first Australian “R” rated feature to go #1, grossing over $5 million. It became a worldwide cult phenomena and launched the careers of both director Andrew Dominik
and actor Eric Bana
. Mushroom Pictures moved into local distribution with Russian Dolls. In 2003, Fabinyi produced Gettin' Square
, directed by Jonathan Teplitzky and starring David Wenham
and Sam Worthington
, which garnered box office success and critical acclaim. This was followed by Geoffrey Wright’s take on Macbeth
, also starring Sam Worthington. Mushroom Pictures moved back to television with Great Australian Albums Volumes 1 & 2, an eight-hour documentary set of the most influential Australian bands for SBS Television. It was described by Graeme Blundell
in The Australian
as one of the most important local documentary series ever produced. Mushroom Pictures distributed the U.S. documentary Anvil! The Story of Anvil
and Cedar Boys
, and will distribute the Australian feature Mad Bastards in 2010. Fabinyi left Mushroom Pictures in 2009 and works independently as both a producer and writer.
Chopper (film)
Chopper is a 2000 Australian film, written and directed by New Zealand film-maker Andrew Dominik and based on the semi-autobiographical books by Mark Brandon "Chopper" Read. The film stars Eric Bana as the title character, and co-stars Vince Colosimo, Simon Lyndon, Bill Young and David Field...
(2000), Gettin' Square
Gettin' Square
Gettin' Square is a crime caper movie set on Australia's Gold Coast and directed by Jonathan Teplitzky. The protagonists are ex-criminals trying to keep out of trouble....
(2003) and Macbeth
Macbeth (2006 film)
Macbeth is an Australian 2006 film adaptation of William Shakespeare's Macbeth. It was directed by Geoffrey Wright and features an ensemble cast including Sam Worthington, Victoria Hill and Lachy Hulme...
(2006). In 2001, Fabinyi was named one of the top ten international producers to watch by Variety
Variety (magazine)
Variety is an American weekly entertainment-trade magazine founded in New York City, New York, in 1905 by Sime Silverman. With the rise of the importance of the motion-picture industry, Daily Variety, a daily edition based in Los Angeles, California, was founded by Silverman in 1933. In 1998, the...
and one of the most influential people in the Australian film industry by Screen International
Screen International
Screen International is a multimedia film magazine covering the international film business. It is published by EMAP, a British b2b media company.The magazine is primarily aimed at those involved in the global movie business...
magazine.
In 1978, Fabinyi and composer, Cameron Allan, formed the Regular Records label, initially for releases by pop
Pop music
Pop music is usually understood to be commercially recorded music, often oriented toward a youth market, usually consisting of relatively short, simple songs utilizing technological innovations to produce new variations on existing themes.- Definitions :David Hatch and Stephen Millward define pop...
and R&B band, Mental As Anything
Mental As Anything
Mental As Anything are an Australian New Wave–rock music band formed at an art school in Sydney in 1976. Their most popular line-up was Martin Plaza on vocals and guitar; Reg Mombassa on lead guitar and vocals; his brother Peter "Yoga Dog" O'Doherty on bass guitar and vocals; Wayne "Bird"...
, which were soon managed by his younger brother, Jeremy.
Biography
Martin Fabinyi has a younger brother, Jeremy. Fabinyi was educated at Wesley College, MelbourneWesley College, Melbourne
Wesley College, Melbourne is an independent, co-educational, Christian day school in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. Established in 1866, the college is a school of the Uniting Church in Australia. Wesley is the largest school in Australia by enrolment, with 3,511 students and 564 full-time staff...
, he then spent two years studying drama at Flinders University
Flinders University
Flinders University, , is a public university in Adelaide, South Australia. Founded in 1966, it was named in honour of navigator Matthew Flinders, who explored and surveyed the South Australian coastline in the early 19th century.The university has established a reputation as a leading research...
in Adelaide
Adelaide
Adelaide is the capital city of South Australia and the fifth-largest city in Australia. Adelaide has an estimated population of more than 1.2 million...
from 1969 where he founded and edited the student newspaper Empire Times and mobilised the student body against the Vietnam war
Vietnam War
The Vietnam War was a Cold War-era military conflict that occurred in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. This war followed the First Indochina War and was fought between North Vietnam, supported by its communist allies, and the government of...
.
In 1972 he moved to Sydney and joined the Filmmakers Co-op
Sydney Filmmakers Co-op
The Sydney Filmmakers Co-operative was a co-operative of independent filmmakers, funded by the Australian Film Commission set up to distribute and exhibit their films and the films of other independent filmmakers both Australian and overseas. These included short films, low budget features, and...
, which at the time not only counted experimental film makers such as Albie Thoms, Aggy Read and Mick Glasheen as members, but also filmmakers who would become some of the most popular and commercial directors including Peter Weir
Peter Weir
Peter Lindsay Weir, AM is an Australian film director. After playing a leading role in the Australian New Wave cinema with his films such as Picnic at Hanging Rock, The Last Wave and Gallipoli, Weir directed a diverse group of American and international films—many of them major box office...
, Phillip Noyce
Phillip Noyce
Phillip Noyce is an Australian film director.-Life and career:Noyce was born in Griffith, New South Wales, attended Barker College, Sydney, and began making short films at the age of 18, starting with Better to Reign in Hell, using his friends as the cast...
and Bruce Beresford
Bruce Beresford
Bruce Beresford is an Australian film director who has made more than 30 feature films over a 40-year career.-Early life:...
. Fabinyi, who had shot independent works in Adelaide, received a grant from the Experimental Film Board to make The Vacuum, one of the first projects in Australia to be shot on portable videotape. A satire on the personalities behind religious cults, featuring a game show starring Johnny O’Keefe and drag act Sylvia and the Synthetics, the video premiered at the Co-op and toured universities with a live performance from the Synthetics and Fabinyi’s earlier work, including the controversial TV Dinner, which polarised audiences due its uncompromising and unerotic sexual subject matter. Fabinyi, who was influenced by German artist Otto Muehl
Otto Muehl
Otto Muehl is an Austrian artist, who is best known as one of the co-founders as well as a main participant of Viennese Actionism. In 1972 he founded the Friedrichshof Commune that existed for several years before falling apart in the 1990s...
, continued to work in video and was a founding member of Bush Video, the group which wired up and broadcast on-site during the 1973 Aquarius Festival
Aquarius Festival
The Aquarius Festival was a counter-cultural arts and music festival organised by the Australian Union of Students and sponsored by Peter Stuyvesant and held at Nimbin...
in Nimbin
Nimbin, New South Wales
Nimbin is a village in the Northern Rivers area of the Australian state of New South Wales, approximately 30 km north of Lismore, 33 km southeast of Kyogle, and 70 km west of Byron Bay....
, an event that has become the epitome of the hippie movement. In 1974 Fabinyi received a grant to screen a selection of Australian experimental films in London which was warmly received.
He continued working with the group Sylvia and the Synthetics in performance art and was invited to participate in the Adelaide Fringe Festival
Adelaide Fringe Festival
The Adelaide Fringe Festival is an arts festival held annually in the South Australian capital of Adelaide. The event is the Southern Hemisphere's largest arts event and the second-largest fringe festival in the world, second in size only to the Edinburgh Fringe...
in 1975. His piece, which involved nudity and video (the audience only seeing the video and therefore not sure whether the event was live or not) was staged in a tent next to the Torrens River and attracted the attention of the local police who claimed they could see behind the screens and charged Fabinyi with "Aiding and abetting an indecent act". Whilst the Adelaide Festival organisers debated whether to show the video across the city (that year monitors screened events on most city street corners), Fabinyi was in court. Eventually, after an appeal was lost, he was sentenced to three months hard labour. This was reported in Sydney by Richard Neville
Richard Neville
Richard Neville may refer to:*Richard Neville, 16th Earl of Warwick , known as 'Warwick the Kingmaker', English noble, fought in the Wars of the Roses...
in the Nation Review as an outrage, prompting still more debate.
Fabinyi returned to Sydney and the world of rock and roll, teaming with photographer Philip Morris for the book, The Bumper Book Of Rock. He and Philip designed record covers, photo shoots and documented the 1970s Sydney scene and the life of Johnny O’Keefe.
Fabinyi began writing scripts for directors Phillip Noyce
Phillip Noyce
Phillip Noyce is an Australian film director.-Life and career:Noyce was born in Griffith, New South Wales, attended Barker College, Sydney, and began making short films at the age of 18, starting with Better to Reign in Hell, using his friends as the cast...
, Jim Sharman
Jim Sharman
James "Jim" Sharman , the son of boxing tent entrepreneur Jimmy Sharman, is a director and writer for film and stage with over 70 productions to his credit...
and Michael Thornhill
Michael Thornhill
Michael Thornhill is a film producer, screenwriter, and director.He has a background in freelance journalism and publishing including working as a film critic....
, and with composer Cameron Allan. Allan and Fabinyi also shared a passion for pop music and Sydney-based band Mental As Anything
Mental As Anything
Mental As Anything are an Australian New Wave–rock music band formed at an art school in Sydney in 1976. Their most popular line-up was Martin Plaza on vocals and guitar; Reg Mombassa on lead guitar and vocals; his brother Peter "Yoga Dog" O'Doherty on bass guitar and vocals; Wayne "Bird"...
became the first signing for their new label, Regular Records, formed in September 1978. The band were soon managed by his brother, Jeremy. Although distributed by Festival Records, Regular Records remained as an independent label for fifteen years, breaking artists such as Icehouse
Icehouse
Icehouse or ice house may refer to* Ice house , a building where ice is stored* Vivekanandar Illam, a palace at Chennai, India, also known as Ice House* National Ice Sports Centre, Melbourne, Australia...
, Austen Tayshus
Austen Tayshus
Austen Tayshus is the stage name of Jewish Australian comedian Alexander Jacob Gutman. He is best known for the comedy single "Australiana", a spoken word piece filled with Australian puns.-Biography:...
and Kate Ceberano
Kate Ceberano
Kate Ceberano is an Australian singer. She achieved success in the soul, jazz and pop genres as well as in her brief forays into musicals with Jesus Christ Superstar and film...
. In 1986, with music journalist, Toby Creswell
Toby Creswell
Toby Creswell is an Australian music journalist and pop-culture writer. He was editor of Rolling Stone and a founding editor of Juice. In 1986 he co-wrote, with Martin Fabinyi, his first book Too Much Ain't Enough a biography of pub rocker and former Cold Chisel vocalist Jimmy Barnes...
, he co-wrote Too Much Ain't Enough, a biography of pub rocker
Pub rock (Australia)
Pub rock is a style of Australian rock and roll popular throughout the 1970s and 1980s, and still influencing contemporary Australian music today....
and former Cold Chisel
Cold Chisel
Cold Chisel is a rock band that originated in Adelaide, Australia. It is one of the most acclaimed Australian rock bands of all time, with a string of hits throughout the 1970s and 1980s and huge sales that continue to this day, although its success and acclaim was almost completely restricted to...
vocalist Jimmy Barnes
Jimmy Barnes
James Dixon Swan , better known as Jimmy Barnes, is a Scottish-born Australian rock singer-songwriter. His father Jim Swan was a prizefighter and his older brother John Swan is also a rock singer. It was actually John who had encouraged and taught Jim how to sing as he wasn't really interested at...
.
In 1990, Fabinyi was appointed editor of Follow Me Gentlemen, the men’s fashion version of Follow Me. Changing the name to FMG, the magazine was a precursor to men’s fashion and general magazines. In 1999, Fabinyi and Creswell co-authored The Real Thing, a history of Australian rock and roll between 1957 and the late 1990s.
When Regular Records was sold to its distributor, Mushroom Pictures began with documentaries, for the ABC, Discovery Channel and the Nine Network. Titles such as Tribal Voice featuring Yothu Yindi
Yothu Yindi
Yothu Yindi are an Australian band with Aboriginal and balanda members formed in 1986. Aboriginal members come from Yolngu homelands near Yirrkala on the Gove Peninsula in Northern Territory's Arnhem Land...
, Kate Ceberano
Kate Ceberano
Kate Ceberano is an Australian singer. She achieved success in the soul, jazz and pop genres as well as in her brief forays into musicals with Jesus Christ Superstar and film...
& Friends, Next To Nothing and Nothing to Hide (on lingerie and swimwear) and The Singer and The Swinger (the story of Johnny O’Keefe and Lee Gordon
Lee Gordon (promoter)
Lee Gordon was an American entrepreneur and rock and roll promoter who worked extensively in Australia in the late 1950s and early 1960s...
) cemented Mushroom’s documentary credentials.
In 2000, Mushroom Pictures produced and released the horror feature spoof Cut
Cut (film)
Cut is a 2000 Australian comedy horror film, which was directed by Kimble Rendall and stars Kylie Minogue, Molly Ringwald and Tiriel Mora.-Synopsis:...
starring Molly Ringwald
Molly Ringwald
Molly Kathleen Ringwald is an American actress, singer and dancer. Having appeared in the John Hughes movies Sixteen Candles , The Breakfast Club , and Pretty in Pink , Ringwald has been frequently named the greatest teen star of all time...
and Kylie Minogue
Kylie Minogue
Kylie Ann Minogue, OBE - often known simply as Kylie - is an Australian singer, recording artist, songwriter, and actress. After beginning her career as a child actress on Australian television, she achieved recognition through her role in the television soap opera Neighbours, before commencing...
, which was sold worldwide and achieved box office success in Europe and Asia. Mushroom Pictures’ second feature, Chopper
Chopper (film)
Chopper is a 2000 Australian film, written and directed by New Zealand film-maker Andrew Dominik and based on the semi-autobiographical books by Mark Brandon "Chopper" Read. The film stars Eric Bana as the title character, and co-stars Vince Colosimo, Simon Lyndon, Bill Young and David Field...
, which Fabinyi executive produced, was the first Australian “R” rated feature to go #1, grossing over $5 million. It became a worldwide cult phenomena and launched the careers of both director Andrew Dominik
Andrew Dominik
Andrew Dominik is a New Zealand-born Australian film director and screenwriter. He has directed two films so far: Chopper and The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford.-Early life and career:...
and actor Eric Bana
Eric Bana
Eric Bana is an Australian film and television actor. He began his career as a comedian in the sketch comedy series Full Frontal before gaining critical recognition in the biopic Chopper...
. Mushroom Pictures moved into local distribution with Russian Dolls. In 2003, Fabinyi produced Gettin' Square
Gettin' Square
Gettin' Square is a crime caper movie set on Australia's Gold Coast and directed by Jonathan Teplitzky. The protagonists are ex-criminals trying to keep out of trouble....
, directed by Jonathan Teplitzky and starring David Wenham
David Wenham
David Wenham is an Australian actor who has appeared in movies, television series and theatre productions. He is known in Hollywood for his roles as Faramir in The Lord of the Rings film trilogy, Carl in Van Helsing and Dilios in 300 and Neil Fletcher in Australia...
and Sam Worthington
Sam Worthington
Samuel Henry J. "Sam" Worthington is an English born, Australian actor. After almost a decade of roles in Australian TV shows and films, Worthington gained Hollywood's attention by playing Marcus Wright in Terminator Salvation and the lead role, Jake Sully, in James Cameron's science...
, which garnered box office success and critical acclaim. This was followed by Geoffrey Wright’s take on Macbeth
Macbeth (2006 film)
Macbeth is an Australian 2006 film adaptation of William Shakespeare's Macbeth. It was directed by Geoffrey Wright and features an ensemble cast including Sam Worthington, Victoria Hill and Lachy Hulme...
, also starring Sam Worthington. Mushroom Pictures moved back to television with Great Australian Albums Volumes 1 & 2, an eight-hour documentary set of the most influential Australian bands for SBS Television. It was described by Graeme Blundell
Graeme Blundell
Graeme Blundell is an Australian actor, director, producer, writer and biographer.Blundell was born in Melbourne; he grew up in Clifton Hill, a suburb of Melbourne...
in The Australian
The Australian
The Australian is a broadsheet newspaper published in Australia from Monday to Saturday each week since 14 July 1964. The editor in chief is Chris Mitchell, the editor is Clive Mathieson and the 'editor-at-large' is Paul Kelly....
as one of the most important local documentary series ever produced. Mushroom Pictures distributed the U.S. documentary Anvil! The Story of Anvil
Anvil! The Story of Anvil
Anvil! The Story of Anvil is a 2008 documentary film about the Canadian heavy metal band, Anvil. The film is directed by screenwriter Sacha Gervasi, whose previous credits include The Big Tease and The Terminal....
and Cedar Boys
Cedar Boys
Cedar Boys is a 2009 Australian film about life of Middle Eastern young adults in Western Sydney, Australia. Written/directed/co-produced by Serhat Caradee, the film is his directorial debut, and took him 7 years from script to screen. Cedar Boys has a dedication at the end to his mother who died...
, and will distribute the Australian feature Mad Bastards in 2010. Fabinyi left Mushroom Pictures in 2009 and works independently as both a producer and writer.
Filmography
- The Swinger and the Singer (1999) (Executive Producer)
- CutCut (film)Cut is a 2000 Australian comedy horror film, which was directed by Kimble Rendall and stars Kylie Minogue, Molly Ringwald and Tiriel Mora.-Synopsis:...
(2000) (Producer) - ChopperChopper (film)Chopper is a 2000 Australian film, written and directed by New Zealand film-maker Andrew Dominik and based on the semi-autobiographical books by Mark Brandon "Chopper" Read. The film stars Eric Bana as the title character, and co-stars Vince Colosimo, Simon Lyndon, Bill Young and David Field...
(2000) (Executive Producer) - Horseplay (2003) (Executive Producer)
- Gettin' Square Gettin' SquareGettin' Square is a crime caper movie set on Australia's Gold Coast and directed by Jonathan Teplitzky. The protagonists are ex-criminals trying to keep out of trouble....
(2003) (Producer) - Wolf CreekWolf Creek (film)Wolf Creek is a 2005 independent Australian horror film written, co-produced and directed by Greg McLean. The story revolves around three backpackers who find themselves held captive by a serial killer in the Australian outback...
(2005) (Executive Producer) - MacbethMacbeth (2006 film)Macbeth is an Australian 2006 film adaptation of William Shakespeare's Macbeth. It was directed by Geoffrey Wright and features an ensemble cast including Sam Worthington, Victoria Hill and Lachy Hulme...
(2006) (Producer) - Great Australian Albums (2007) (Executive Producer)
- Bait (2011) (Co-Executive Producer)
- Dirt Music (2011)
Awards & nominations
- 2003 AFI AwardsAustralian Film Institute AwardsThe Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts Award, known as the AACTA Award , is an accolade presented annually by the Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts . The awards recognize excellence of professionals in the film industry and television industry, including directors,...
- 'Best Film' (Gettin' Square) - nominee - 2003 IF AwardsInside Film AwardsThe Inside Film Awards is an annual awards ceremony and broadcast platform for the Australian film industry, a format created by Australian Producer Andrew Dillon...
- 'Best Film' (Gettin' Square) - nominee
External links
- Fabinyi interview with Andrew Urban.