Low budget cinema? Just not greedy

Thrifty veteran filmmaker Paul Cox says he doesn't make low budget films. He is simply responsible and happy to undermine a greedy system.
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Image: still from Exile, made in 1994, starring Aden Young, Beth Champion and Claudia Karvan. 

Paul Cox had made a total of 27 substantial films since Illuminations in 1976, and between 1988 and 2001 he basically made one picture every year.

He is an indefatigable independent, a position only reinforced by his biggest excursion into directing a picture he didn’t own. He describes Molokai as a disaster, in which his cut was destroyed. ‘Every time I’ve done a film for other people I’ve been in terrible trouble,’ he says. ‘I’ve never had the nature to take all that rubbish, you know.’

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David Tiley was the Editor of Screenhub from 2005 until he became Content Lead for Film in 2021 with a special interest in policy. He is a writer in screen media with a long career in educational programs, documentary, and government funding, with a side order in script editing. He values curiosity, humour and objectivity in support of Australian visions and the art of storytelling.