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Filmmaker David Robinson-Smith is one of the major voices of the new Australian film industry. His films include Mud Crab, We Used to Own Houses, and his latest effort, The Shirt Off Your Back, each an essential entry in an increasingly vital filmography.
I first encountered Mud Crab via one of those online film festivals in the middle of the pandemic. It hollowed me out with its soul shaking intensity, the sight of a group of shirtless men, bullying, cajoling, shoving another man, all the while Laneikka Denne's singular observer, an unreliable narrator, watches and waits in the wings. That sense of hollowing out felt even more urgent and intense with DRS' follow up short, We Used to Own Houses, a poem about the crippling nature of the housing crisis, playing out against the startling and stark imagery captured by cinematographer Jaclyn Paterson.
Stepping back further, we have films like Budgewoi Boy, a dance film of sorts that, like most of DRS' work, dismantles masculinity, or Trap and Go or Don't Go. These shorts are available to view via DRS' Vimeo and are well worth digesting.
That sense of masculinity and what it means in a modern sense is a fundamental theme that is explored in David Robinson-Smith's work. His latest short, The Shirt Off Your Back, is equally essential, somehow marking a step forward in his filmography in the way he centres the storytellers as co-authors, with the two young boys in the film receiving co-writing credits. Dubbed as a dark fairy tale, The Shirt Off Your Back leaves a mark in the way only a David Robinson-Smith film can do: it's hard to scrub out, and if you manage to get that dirt and grime loose, then you're left with the scar of what he and his regular collaborators put on screen.
When we talk about this 'new wave of Australian filmmakers', a term which I'm starting to lean towards calling 'the rising swell of modern Australian cinema' - it doesn't role off the tongue, it's at least distinct from the last Australian new wave that we had, - we then think of people like David Robinson-Smith, cinematography Jaclyn Paterson, actor-writer Laneikka Denne, actor-director Frazer Bull-Clark, or actor Josh Mehmet.
Over the coming months, this notion of the rising swell of Australian cinema is one that I'll explore at length via conversations like this one with David Robinson-Smith, or essays about the creatives I'm spotlighting. Look out for upcoming chats with filmmakers like Lucy Coleman and Kate Fitzgerald.
To find out more about David's work, visit DavidRobinsonSmith.com.
Listen to the Not a Rich Kid podcast here.
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Watch We Used to Own Houses here:
Watch Budgewoi Boy here:
Watch Mud Crab here: