Recent Recordings: Les McLaren; Christine Olsen (by Rod Freedman)

I’ve recently had the pleasure of recording the oral histories of two significant filmmakers from very different areas of the industry:

• Les McLaren musicologist, composer, sound editor, editor, director, producer, writer
• Christine Olsen – writer, director, producer.

Both worked on significant productions and contributed enormously to the film industry. One of the things I appreciate about recording these practitioners is learning about the processes and behind-the-scenes aspects of films that I’ve often seen but have never known the context of why and how they were made.

It’s also interesting learning how freelance creative people have survived without an obvious career path, apparently stumbling from one project to another, partly by design and oftentimes, by chance. A combination of fortuitous meetings, who they knew and what they knew.

Les McLaren was born in Mildura in 1949, grew up in the Victorian mallee and studied engineering and film and TV production in Melbourne. He then worked in the Papua New Guinea culture arena for 10 years filming, recording traditional music and editing. He also taught music at the National Art School of Papua New Guinea and was head of the government music archive. Les has freelanced in film, video, TV, corporate and multimedia production in the roles of editor, composer, sound editor, assistant director, director, producer, and writer. He worked for the Australian Department of Defence for over a decade, writing, directing, and producing military history documentaries, and oversaw civilian video production units involved in pioneering educational multimedia. He has made six independent documentaries, including three and a cross-media project with his partner, Annie Stiven.
Les’s accounts of starting his filmmaking in remote areas of New Guinea in the 1970s and his subsequent reflections on the ethics and issues around that work is fascinating.

Christine Olsen is a producer, director and writer. Born and educated in New Zealand, Christine’s media career began in Hong Kong in 1977, working in radio as a producer, making programmes, writing radio documentaries and being on air. In 1985 she moved to Australia with documentary director Curtis Levy and together they formed Olsen Levy Productions, making documentaries and short films over the next twenty years. Christine worked in variety of roles from sound recordist to writer, director and producer. In 1997, she began researching and writing the feature film, Rabbit Proof Fence, which was released in 2002, winning multiple awards for scriptwriting and adapted screenplay. Christine continued working as a writer and script consultant on short films.

Christine’s story of how she came to get the rights to Rabbit Proof Fence and then to get Phillip Noyce to direct while she produced the film, is a tale of sheer determination and unstoppable faith. From little ideas, big films grow.

Both recordings are available via the NFSA, along with full transcripts.

Rod Freedman
January 2024