13 October 2006
A short film about the poetic quest of a smoking dog, by Monash University Faculty of Art and Design lecturer Dr Michael Vale, has won the Best Art Film award at the Asolo Art Film Festival, in Northern Italy.
Dr Vale won the award for The Long Walk, originally created for his PhD exhibition, Le Chien Qui Fume (The Smoking Dog), exhibited at Monash University's Caulfield campus in March.
Just 45 of the 700 films entered into the Asolo Art Film Festival were selected to be screened.
"We are ecstatic about the win," Dr Vale said. "The Long Walk was the only Australian film selected and it screened on opening night."
Set in the 1920s, the film presents the journey of a tall, dapper, upright dog's search for the French poet, Arthur Rimbaud, through Italy and France. The action unfolds after a suitcase is discovered on a train platform in Charleville, Rimbaud's birth place.
Collaborating with Dr Vale on the project was his wife Ms Donna McRae, a Monash photomedia Masters student, and special effects artist Mr Paul Nichola.
The five-minute film was shot on video with a mini DV camera, but Dr Vale was reluctant to reveal the exact techniques used to bring life to the central figure, Le Chien Qui Fume.
"Some people have theorised that it might be me in a suit, but I think those people are just too cynical," he said. On the question of breed, Dr Vale was prepared to be more specific. "A lot of people think that he's a Great Dane, but he is, in fact, a non-specific mongrel."
The Long Walk can be seen in Melbourne at Span Galleries, 45 Flinders Lane, until 28 October in the exhibition Pet Project, as part of the Melbourne International Arts Festival. From December to February the exhibit will be at the Australian Centre for Photography in Sydney.
The film will also be seen on Italian television, to promote the Asolo Art Film Festival. The Festival was established in 2001, to revive the cultural tradition of the Festival Internazionale del Film sull'Arte e di Biografie d'Artisti, founded in the Northern Italian town of Asolo in 1973.
For more information please call Dr Michael Vale on +61 3 9530 3809 or Media Communications Officer Ms Sharon Lee on +61 3 9905 9919. Images from the film are available.
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