Storytelling mentor leads watch-and-discuss nights for film buffs

A film industry legend who never had access to television until his 20s is hosting screenings at Coledale Community Hall on the first Saturday night of the month.

Graham Thorburn has had a stellar career as a director, screenwriter and teacher. He directed iconic TV shows Countdown and BeatBox, served as the president of the Australian Directors Guild, taught at the Australian Film, Television and Radio School and worked as a “book doctor” with authors including Pulitzer prize-winner Geraldine Brooks.

South Coast Writers Centre director Dr Sarah Nicholson said the group was “ridiculously lucky” that Graham had volunteered his time, knowledge and skills, to work with local screenwriting hopefuls both via SCWC and Screen Illawarra. 

“Screenwriters who have worked with Graham in our screenwriting program over the last couple of years have given absolutely glowing reviews,” Sarah said.

At the next meeting, on Saturday, March 7, Graham will be screening 1997's Wag the Dog, starring Robert De Niro and Dustin Hoffman, before leading a discussion of the political satire.

Graham took an unusual path to film. He was born in Australia, but spent his first 12 years in Tanganyika (later Tanzania), where his parents were missionaries.

“It’s funny – my family traditions meant I never lived in a house that had a television until I was in my 20s,” he says.

“Because we were in Africa and my parents were quite fundamentalist, when we came back to Australia, they wouldn't have a television. It was only at university that I started discovering cinema, theatre and all these things I’d never been exposed to.”

His career began with a cadetship in electronic engineering but Graham soon switched to designing sound and lights for theatre before stepping into the limelight himself. "I went into acting pretty full-time professionally for about five years.”

His professional life has always been about integration, not separation, Graham says. “I know that there are people who really love the idea that work is one thing and the rest of their life is really separate and they keep them really separate; I'm not that kind of person,” he said.

“I eventually moved away from acting because I found I didn't have any control over the situation, and moved into directing and writing. That search for purpose led me to education, including becoming the head of directing and then the head of teaching at the film school [AFTRS].

"My work as a consultant or 'book doctor' with writers, including Geraldine Brooks, is similar; it involves a brief period of working intensely with them before they go away to write the next draft and then I don't hear from them for six months, really.”

Instead of Sydney, Graham has chosen to run his film courses and club from the modest community hall at Coledale – it's from a small basement office here that SCWC's part-time team of three organises writing workshops, classes and events for people of all ages across the South Coast. Graham volunteered after noticing that the centre didn't offer a course in screenwriting.

“I think the Illawarra offers the necessary distance and perspective to foster genuine Australian creativity,” he says.

“One of the reasons I do these down here and not in Sydney is because I think that one of the things that I feel about Australian film at the moment is it's lost touch with 'Australianness'.

"I think too much of our film is influenced by the American model, which doesn't reflect who we are. Also, if I did any of these things in Sydney, there would be people in the audience whose only aim would be to prove that they know more than I do, and to be frank, I don't give a s**t about that, that's not the point.

“I feel like it's a bit closer to truthfulness about who we are as a culture here, more than in Sydney."

While popular in the US, 'the hero's journey' story structure doesn't suit Australians, he says.

“I believe Australians are generally a much more consensus-driven society, whereas the American foundational story is inherently individualistic. I just don't see that in the application of that kind of Hollywood model hero's journey to our film.

“I think the whole hero's journey as it's interpreted within Hollywood effectively reflects that: 'Here’s this paradise and how much of it can I grab for myself?' Whereas Australian culture is kind of about how do we make... how do we make community work better? Accepting that we're all a little bit different and we're all going to rub each other up the wrong way sometimes, but essentially we're together.”

Film club meetings run at 7:30pm on the first Saturday of each month at Coledale hall and everyone is welcome to attend.

“We watch the film, and then we sit in a big circle and discuss what people noticed and how they responded,” Graham says.

“It's truly surprising what people see. I try and get films across the eras and across the different film cultures. Here's a film you've probably never heard of that's actually really good, or here's a film that you've probably seen and heard of, but actually it's about something that's more than you might think.

“Ultimately, I'm interested in why people do what they do.”

Film Club is on the first Saturday of each month. $7 for SCWC & Screen Illawarra members, and $10 for general admission. Entry fee includes tea and coffee. Graham's screenwriting program this year is focused on working with graduates from the 2024 and 2025 programs. For more information, visit the SCWC website