Lindsey Merrison
Director and Producer Lindsey Merrison was born in Britain in 1959. She studied English and film studies at the University of Kent at Canterbury, graduating with a first class honours degree in 1981. Moving to Berlin at the end of the same year, she began her career as a film curator, during which time she devised film events for venues all over Germany, such as a festival of British experimental film and a major retrospective of the work of Derek Jarman. A regular translator (for Helma Sanders-Brahms, Rudolf Thome and Heinz Emigholz among others) and an occasional writer, Lindsey also has a number of publications to her credit, including a study of the British film industry and a short book, The Complete Derek Jarman.
Lindsey Merrison joined the film industry in 1985, working as Ken Loach's assistant on the Channel Four/ZDF co-production, Fatherland. She was subsequently awarded a bursary from the German government's Filmfsrderungsanstalt to train in film production, and worked on a variety of German-produced features and documentaries by Roland Klick, Helga Reidemeister and Jeanine Meerapfel among others. Her linguistic abilities and her knowledge of both German and English cultures was an invaluable asset when working as assistant director to Australian filmmaker Ian Pringle and British director Stewart Mackinnon.
Lindsey Merrison's producing career began in 1989. Perceiving her role as a creative one long before the term 'Creative Producer' became common currency, Lindsey has always made a strong artistic contribution to all her projects from co-writing the treatment to fleshing out a structure for the final film, writing commentary and inter-titles. Lindsey's documentary credits as producer include Frances Calvert's Talking Broken, a witty portrait of the Torres Strait Islanders, Australia's 'other' indigenous minority; Last Year in Germany, a major cinema documentary by four German directors for Channel Four and Bayerische Rundfunk chronicling the year from the fall of the Berlin wall to the reunification of Germany; Two Men, about two brothers who meet after a lifetime spent on opposite sides of the Berlin wall, and Frances Calvert's multi-award-winning Cracks in the Mask, about the repatriation of artefacts from the world's greatest museums to their original owners in the Torres Strait.
Founding her own production company in 1993, Lindsey made her debut as a director in her own right in 1996: Our Burmese Days, which she also produced, documents the filmmaker's journey with her Anglo-Burmese mother and uncle back to the country of their birth, where a tragicomic drama on the meaning of the past and cultural identity ensues. Lindsey returned to Burma (now Myanmar) for her most recent documentary, the award-winning Friends in High Places (also producer), about a lively cult peopled by talented mediums, many of them homosexual, that makes life under one of the world's harshest regimes more bearable. In the wake of both her Burma films, Lindsey has taken part in discussions and seminars in Germany and abroad on topics such as the filming of personal histories, gender and the post-colonial approach to filming other cultures.
In 2005 Lindsey and seven other experienced filmmakers mounted the first Art of Documentary Filmmaking workshop in Myanmar, during which they trained 12 young Burmese men and women to develop their own skills as documentarians. Lindsey has since mounted a second workshop, The Art of Documentary Editing (2006), and founded the non-profit organization, Yangon Film School - Association for the Promotion of Young Burmese Film and Video Artists, with the aim of setting up a permanent school in Yangon with a regular curriculum. This series was expanded in 2009 with the release of Stories from Myanmar, which showcases the work of participants of the 2007 Yangon Film School workshops in Myanmar.
Filmography
Talking Broken (Producer)
Talking Pictures Frances Calvert, 1990, 78 Min, 16mm.
A witty portrait of the Torres Strait Islanders, Australia's 'other' indigenous minority, which was shown at over 20 international film festivals. Talking Broken was sold to the ABC (Australia), ARTE (SWF/ORB), Taiwan Public Television and Plante Cable in France.
Aufbruch Filmproduktion, 1991, 100 Min, 16mm.
Major documentary chronicling the year from the fall of the Berlin wall to the reunification of Germany directed by Dagmar Benke, Lars Barthel, Beate Schönfeldt, Jürgen Seidler. Made in association with Channel Four and Bayerische Rundfunk, with financial assistance from Berliner Filmförderung.
Aufbruch Filmproduktion, 1992/93, 89 Min, 16mm. Documentary directed by Dagmar Benke. Made with financial assistance from Kuratorium junger deutscher Film and Berliner Filmförderung. This film, which was sold to NDR, focuses on two brothers - one an ex-headteacher in West Germany and the other a former GDR army major controlling the border - who meet again after a lifetime on different sides of the wall.
Our Burmese Days (Director and Producer)
Lindsey Merrison Film, 1996, 90 Min, Super 16m/Blow Up 35mm.
This documentary follows the filmmaker's journey with her Anglo-Burmese mother and uncle back to the country of their birth, where a tragicomic drama on the meaning of the past and cultural identity ensues. This film was presented at over 15 film festivals worldwide. It was released theatrically in Berlin and has sold to SBS Australia, TV1 Finland and Plante Cable.
Talking Pictures Frances Calvert, 1997, 57 Min, Super 16mm/Blow Up 35mm.
Award-winning documentary which looks at the repatriation of artefacts from the world's greatest museums to their original owners. Worldwide festival participation; sales to Plante Cable.
86 and 58 Min, Super 16mm/Blow Up 35mm.
How the lively animist cult of the 'nat' makes life in dictatorial Burma more bearable.
Related Links Lindsey Merrison's Official Site International Movie Database Profile Human Rights Watch International Film Festival