Dr Vincent Giarrusso

Biography

Vincent Giarrusso is lecturer in Film and Television specialising in writing for screen and direction . His practice, teaching and research is underpinned by an emphasis on the social and cultural significance of filmmaking.
 
Vincent is passionate about sharing knowledge at a undergraduate level working mainly in scriptwriting and directing with first year and graduate students. He had been previously program co-ordinator of Swinburne Film and Television in 2008 and then between January 2013 and January 2014 . During this period he oversaw the successful redesign and re-accreditation of the FTV course as well an AQF compliance and audit as well as co ordinate the new curriculum through the university's compliance system. Vincent has an understanding of both the academic and administrative side of the FTV course. He has overseen the co-ordination of sessional appointments across the program and his industry expertise and engagement, working closely with producers and practitioners in the local and international industry, means he brings a diverse and experienced cohort to the film and television program. 

Vincent brings an international focus to FTV activities having successfully run eight study tours. Two to Berlin for the Berlinale Film Festival in January 2013 and 2017 and Italy with the Film and Culture Study Tour (Italian Neo Realist Cinema) in June 2009, 2011, 2013, 2015, 2016, 2017 and 2018 . He also secured an international internship for FTV students to Berlin to work in the VOD industry.  He has recently set up an ongoing collaboration with the cultural institution Fondazione Cini in Venice for future research and study opportunities for undergraduate students from 2018. Vincent has also secured $30K NCP funding for a study tour to North Thailand.  The tour combines filmmaking practice and ethnographic methods with young filmmakers collaborating and mentoring young people from remote hillside tribes in North Thailand. The study tour was successfully run in February 2019. 

Vincent has successfully submitted his PhD for examination in 2018. His thesis called A Country Practice: A Study of Mediation in Scriptwriting Practice is an autoethnographical analysis of scriptwriter practice in the Australian film industry.

Vincent is also collaborating with Dr Glenda Ballantyne and the Victorian Multicultural Commission (VMC) on a research project " Zooming in: multiculturalism through the lens of the next generation" which uses film and sociology to generate new perspectives on multiculturalism .  This program and research project was successfully run in 2016 with an additional 3 year contract starting in 2017. The research extends to an ongoing collaboration between Swinburne University and the VMC to present the Victorian Multicultural Commission Film Festival at ACMI in May 2018 . An open call to filmmakers in Australia was co ordinated by Vincent for the  VMC film festival in 2018 around theme “My Generation: stories of everyday multiculturalism” and in 2019 around the theme "Making Diversity Great Again" .  

Vincent is also an active practitioner in the film and music industries.  His film Mallboy (2000)  , which he wrote , directed and composed music for was selected for the Directors Fortnight at Cannes International Film Festival and won an AACTA award.  Vincent is also an ARIA award winning and AMP (Australian Music Prize) nominated musician in 2018 and 2019 , nominated for AMCOS/APRA Australian Song of the year 2019 and and  was recently the subject of a 2 hour retrospective produced by Double J ( ABC)