SCWC Film & Screenwriting Programs
The SCWC are thrilled to present two film programs, Film Club & the SCWC Screenwriting Program, both hosted by veteran director Graham Thorburn.
Graham Thorburn interviews Sam Twyford Moore about Castmastes: Australian Actors in Hollywood and Home at the 2023 SCWF
Graham Thorburn has had a very long career in film and television, as an actor, producer, writer and academic, but principally as a director. He mostly worked as a director for short-run TV drama (over 70 prime time hours), but he also produced and directed Countdown and created, produced and directed BeatBox. Graham was the third President of the Australian Screen Directors Association (now the Australian Directors Guild) and served in various other executive positions for ten years. He was Head of Directing, then Head of Teaching at AFTRS for 11 years. Before that he wrote and delivered course work in acting, writing and directing for the screen at UTS, NIDA and AFTRS, and has chaired international undergraduate and postgraduate curriculum and teaching assessment panels.
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The Film Club runs at 7:30pm on the first Saturday of each month at Coledale Community Hall. Discover past Film Club screenings here.
Hosted by Graham, and open to anybody interested in seeing, thinking, and having fun talking about films; each Film Club session will start with some background information about the film – the times and context of its making, the people who made it, and something notable about the content or techniques of the film – perhaps even a bit of gossip. After the film screening, we talk about the film over a cup of tea and a biscuit, or a glass of wine (BYO).
Films are mostly feature-length, include both English language and foreign language films, and both fiction and documentary. Graham curates and introduces the films, but also welcomes participants proposing, researching and presenting films they care about. We occasionally have filmmakers present their own films.
“Attending Film Club is both huge fun and highly informative. Graham Thorburn's insights and the discussion afterwards increase my enjoyment of the film being shown as well as knowledge about film making. We are privileged to have Graham and the club so accessible to people in the area“ Christine S.
“Even on a cold, rainy night, I can't wait to see the next film. Graham Thorburn, who runs the film club shares all sorts of fascinating facts - and goss - about the stars, and the makers. After the show everyone talks about the whole amazing endeavour. You meet interesting people, and hear all sorts of opinions. I love going to Film Club!” Virginia R.
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The Screenwriting Group focuses on the craft of screenwriting for drama. As in 2024, industry veteran Graham Thorburn is looking to form a small group of mutually supportive writers with some experience in writing (though not necessarily either fiction or screenplays) interested in writing a first draft of their own feature length screenplay over the course of 2025. Although Graham’s process has strong theoretical underpinnings, it is at heart an intensely practical step-by-step process. At the beginning of the year the group will explore the elements that underpin a character-driven screenplay, and then each participant will be encouraged to develop their own script, and to share their developing script and their journey with the group.
Workshops will be held fortnightly on Thursday nights from 6:30pm at Coledale, starting in February 2025 and will run until December with roughly 18 meetings.
Places in the program are in high demand and are available by application to SCWC members only. This program has an annual fee of $150 which supports Film Club screenings.
Application form below, closes Friday 20 December 2024.