Michael Rubbo
Encyclopedia
Michael Dattilo Rubbo is an Australian filmmaker who has written and directed over 50 films in documentary and fiction.
Rubbo studied anthropology at Sydney University, and then travelled on a Fulbright scholarship to study film at Stanford University
, California where he got his MA in Communication Arts.
, taking time off in between films to teach both in Australia at the just opened National Film School, and U.S. universities (including Harvard University
). At the NFB, Rubbo directed over 40 documentaries, winning many international prizes. His best known documentaries are Sad Song Of Yellow Skin, (1972) (filmed in Vietnam during the war), Waiting for Fidel
(1973), Wet Earth and Warm people (a personal journey though Indonesia), Margaret Atwood: Once in August (1984), and Much Ado About Something (2001)
In 2001, he presented a 15 week TV documentary series, Stranger than Fiction.
His films have been widely shown on TV, and are in the collections of the Museum of Modern Art
(MOMA) New York and film schools around the world.
He has been visiting lecturer at New York University
(NYU), UCLA, Stanford. Univ. of Florida with longer teaching periods at Harvard University
and the Australian Film, Television and Radio School (AFTRS). In 1973, he helped found Film Australia, an independent organization devoted to the promotion of Australian cinema.
Rubbo has also directed and written four children’s feature films including The Peanut Butter Solution
(1985), Tommy Tricker and the Stamp Traveller
(1988) along with its sequel The Return of Tommy Tricker (1994), and the Daytime Emmy award winning film Vincent and Me
(1990). More recently he spent some time as the Head of Documentaries at Australian Broadcasting Corporation
(ABC) Television, encouraging Verite and instigating the very popular Race Around the World series.
Freelancing, he directed the much loved; All about Olive for the ABC. This documentary followed the feisty and funny Olive Riley, then 104, back to her birthplace, Broken hill, to discover the fights she'd been in, the husband she'd left, the beloved sister, the only one who ever loved her, all so long ago.
Olive enjoyed the movie making so much that Rubbo and she went onto another project. Olive had been given a co directors credit and a place in history as the world's oldest director. While Guinness was not impressed, another very old person, Madam Jeanne Calmant , who featured in Rubbo's Vincent and Me, she having met Vincent van Gogh as a girl, did make it into the record book as the world's oldest actress. Madame Calmant was 114 at the time of filming.
Whilst Rubbo's connection with Madam Calmant was brief, he set up a blog for Olive so that for three years till he death at 108, she reigned as the worlds oldest blogger gaining hundreds of thousands of fans all over the world. When she died the story was carried by wire services all over the world. Olive had inspired people everywhere never to fear old age, never to stop joking and singing.
There are currently 30 films on YouTube exploring various aspects of cycling with a particular focus utility cycling
(i.e. going from A to B by bicycle) on 'sit-up' bikes.
Three bike reated issues dominate the films and the blog which hosts them, www.situp-cycle.com. Firstly, electric bikes which Rubbo believes are a way back to cycling for many Australians. Secondly, the sit-up style of riding which Rubbo believes is one key to bicycles again becoming useful transport in Australia. Thirdly , the issue of compulsory helmets concerns him.
In his films and on his blog, he has been campaigning for helmet choice every since he made two early films on Sue Abbott. Sue went to court to fight against wearing a helmet and won.
Presently, Rubbo and colleagues are focussing on bike share schemes here and around the world, believing that not only is Bike Share the way to dramatically grow city cycling, but that it is key bringing back helmet choice. Rubbo is convinced bike share cannot work with compulsory helmets, as now being proven in Melbourne and Brisbane and for it to survive here - and it's too valuable to lose - a helmet exemption for such bikes is something he believes is required.
Rubbo has always been a social activist. He was a fervent campaigner against the Vietnam war, running risks with his protests, and more recently as will as his bike campaign, he's been making films for his village on an issue or concern
This series of films opposes sinking of a navy Frigate, the Adelaide as dive site just off Avoca Beach. he has also done films, pro bono, for his federal MP. Deborah O'Neill. All of this work, plus local portraits of people and events can be found on youtube.
Rubbo is a semi-popular after dinner speaker and has become something of an expert on the singer Steven Page and his role in the continuing decline of popular music.
s on community art sites.
Rubbo lives in Avoca Beach with his wife Katerina (a Russian interpreter, icon painter and fundraiser for Russian orphans) and his daughter, Ellen Rubbo (studying events management). He also has a son, Nicolas, living in Canada working at McCarthy Tétrault, a top ranked Canadian business law firm, as Director, Marketing and communications.
Rubbo studied anthropology at Sydney University, and then travelled on a Fulbright scholarship to study film at Stanford University
Stanford University
The Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University or Stanford, is a private research university on an campus located near Palo Alto, California. It is situated in the northwestern Santa Clara Valley on the San Francisco Peninsula, approximately northwest of San...
, California where he got his MA in Communication Arts.
Early career
For 20 years he worked as a documentary film director at National Film Board of CanadaNational Film Board of Canada
The National Film Board of Canada is Canada's twelve-time Academy Award-winning public film producer and distributor. An agency of the Government of Canada, the NFB produces and distributes documentary, animation, alternative drama and digital media productions...
, taking time off in between films to teach both in Australia at the just opened National Film School, and U.S. universities (including Harvard University
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...
). At the NFB, Rubbo directed over 40 documentaries, winning many international prizes. His best known documentaries are Sad Song Of Yellow Skin, (1972) (filmed in Vietnam during the war), Waiting for Fidel
Waiting for Fidel
Waiting for Fidel is a documentary film from the National Film Board of Canada. Joey Smallwood, former Premier of the Canadian province of Newfoundland and Labrador; Newfoundland media mogul Geoff Stirling; and director Michael Rubbo documented their visit to Cuba in an unsuccessful attempt to...
(1973), Wet Earth and Warm people (a personal journey though Indonesia), Margaret Atwood: Once in August (1984), and Much Ado About Something (2001)
In 2001, he presented a 15 week TV documentary series, Stranger than Fiction.
His films have been widely shown on TV, and are in the collections of the Museum of Modern Art
Museum of Modern Art
The Museum of Modern Art is an art museum in Midtown Manhattan in New York City, on 53rd Street, between Fifth and Sixth Avenues. It has been important in developing and collecting modernist art, and is often identified as the most influential museum of modern art in the world...
(MOMA) New York and film schools around the world.
He has been visiting lecturer at New York University
New York University
New York University is a private, nonsectarian research university based in New York City. NYU's main campus is situated in the Greenwich Village section of Manhattan...
(NYU), UCLA, Stanford. Univ. of Florida with longer teaching periods at Harvard University
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...
and the Australian Film, Television and Radio School (AFTRS). In 1973, he helped found Film Australia, an independent organization devoted to the promotion of Australian cinema.
Rubbo has also directed and written four children’s feature films including The Peanut Butter Solution
The Peanut Butter Solution
The Peanut Butter Solution is a 1985 family film. The movie was directed by Michael Rubbo and is the 2nd in the Tales for All series of children's movies created by Les Productions la Fête.-Plot:Michael Baskin is an average 11-year old boy...
(1985), Tommy Tricker and the Stamp Traveller
Tommy Tricker and the Stamp Traveller
Tommy Tricker and the Stamp Traveller is the name of a 1988 Canadian film, which was written and directed by Michael Rubbo. It is the seventh in the Tales for All series of children's movies created by Les Productions la Fête.-Premise:...
(1988) along with its sequel The Return of Tommy Tricker (1994), and the Daytime Emmy award winning film Vincent and Me
Vincent and Me
Vincent and Me is a 1990 family film. The movie was directed by Michael Rubbo and is the 11th in the Tales for All series of children's movies created by Les Productions la Fête....
(1990). More recently he spent some time as the Head of Documentaries at Australian Broadcasting Corporation
Australian Broadcasting Corporation
The Australian Broadcasting Corporation, commonly referred to as "the ABC" , is Australia's national public broadcaster...
(ABC) Television, encouraging Verite and instigating the very popular Race Around the World series.
Freelancing, he directed the much loved; All about Olive for the ABC. This documentary followed the feisty and funny Olive Riley, then 104, back to her birthplace, Broken hill, to discover the fights she'd been in, the husband she'd left, the beloved sister, the only one who ever loved her, all so long ago.
Olive enjoyed the movie making so much that Rubbo and she went onto another project. Olive had been given a co directors credit and a place in history as the world's oldest director. While Guinness was not impressed, another very old person, Madam Jeanne Calmant , who featured in Rubbo's Vincent and Me, she having met Vincent van Gogh as a girl, did make it into the record book as the world's oldest actress. Madame Calmant was 114 at the time of filming.
Whilst Rubbo's connection with Madam Calmant was brief, he set up a blog for Olive so that for three years till he death at 108, she reigned as the worlds oldest blogger gaining hundreds of thousands of fans all over the world. When she died the story was carried by wire services all over the world. Olive had inspired people everywhere never to fear old age, never to stop joking and singing.
Recent work
Blogging for Olive led to Rubbo mastering short film making skills, initially so as to be able to post Olive movie clips on Youtube. There are currently almost 100 viewable online. Starting crudely, the films became more polished with time. By the time Olive died, and Rubbo had become a cycling advocate, these YouTube films had become more refined.There are currently 30 films on YouTube exploring various aspects of cycling with a particular focus utility cycling
Utility cycling
Utility cycling encompasses any cycling not done primarily for fitness, recreation such as cycle touring, or sport such as cycle racing, but simply as a means of transport...
(i.e. going from A to B by bicycle) on 'sit-up' bikes.
Three bike reated issues dominate the films and the blog which hosts them, www.situp-cycle.com. Firstly, electric bikes which Rubbo believes are a way back to cycling for many Australians. Secondly, the sit-up style of riding which Rubbo believes is one key to bicycles again becoming useful transport in Australia. Thirdly , the issue of compulsory helmets concerns him.
In his films and on his blog, he has been campaigning for helmet choice every since he made two early films on Sue Abbott. Sue went to court to fight against wearing a helmet and won.
Presently, Rubbo and colleagues are focussing on bike share schemes here and around the world, believing that not only is Bike Share the way to dramatically grow city cycling, but that it is key bringing back helmet choice. Rubbo is convinced bike share cannot work with compulsory helmets, as now being proven in Melbourne and Brisbane and for it to survive here - and it's too valuable to lose - a helmet exemption for such bikes is something he believes is required.
Rubbo has always been a social activist. He was a fervent campaigner against the Vietnam war, running risks with his protests, and more recently as will as his bike campaign, he's been making films for his village on an issue or concern
This series of films opposes sinking of a navy Frigate, the Adelaide as dive site just off Avoca Beach. he has also done films, pro bono, for his federal MP. Deborah O'Neill. All of this work, plus local portraits of people and events can be found on youtube.
Rubbo is a semi-popular after dinner speaker and has become something of an expert on the singer Steven Page and his role in the continuing decline of popular music.
Personal life
Rubbo is the son of Australian microbiologist, Sydney Rubbo, and the grandson of the painter and teacher, Antonio Dattilo Rubbo. He has always been a painter as well as film-maker. He has been the 'village painter' in Avoca Beach for a while now and is launching some of his bicycle art in the form of linocutLinocut
Linocut is a printmaking technique, a variant of woodcut in which a sheet of linoleum is used for the relief surface. A design is cut into the linoleum surface with a sharp knife, V-shaped chisel or gouge, with the raised areas representing a reversal of the parts to show printed...
s on community art sites.
Rubbo lives in Avoca Beach with his wife Katerina (a Russian interpreter, icon painter and fundraiser for Russian orphans) and his daughter, Ellen Rubbo (studying events management). He also has a son, Nicolas, living in Canada working at McCarthy Tétrault, a top ranked Canadian business law firm, as Director, Marketing and communications.
External links
- Michael Rubbo's cycling blog
- Michael Rubbo's biography on the Internet Movie DatabaseInternet Movie DatabaseInternet Movie Database is an online database of information related to movies, television shows, actors, production crew personnel, video games and fictional characters featured in visual entertainment media. It is one of the most popular online entertainment destinations, with over 100 million...
- Review of Solzhenitsyn's Children
- Watch films by Michael Rubbo at the National Film Board of Canada