Robert Connolly (born 1967) is an Australian film director, producer and screenwriter based in Melbourne, Victoria. He is best known as the director and writer of the feature films Balibo, Three Dollars and The Bank, and the producer of Romulus, My Father and The Boys. He is head of the film distribution company, Footprint Films, owned by Arenafilms.
Early life and education
Connolly was born in 1967. Along with David Wenham, he worked in theatre before transitioning to filmmaking. They were both involved in a production of The Boys at the Griffin Theatre Company in Sydney. Connolly graduated from the Australian Film, Television and Radio School (AFTRS) in the late 1990s, where he undertook a three-year course that included directing.
Career
Connolly made his first feature film as producer, The Boys in 1998, which had its world premiere in competition at the Berlin International Film Festival. His first film as director, The Bank, was produced by his former mentor and later business partner at Arenafilm John Maynard.
In 2007 Connolly and Maynard together produced the period immigration drama Romulus, My Father, directed by Richard Roxburgh, starring Eric Bana and Franka Potente.
By 2013, he had written and directed four feature films and produced around 12 others, as well as doing work for television.
He directed and produced Paper Planes (2014) and The Dry (2020), and has been nominated for or won numerous Australian and international awards (see lists below).
Balibo
In 2009, Connolly directed Balibo, which he co-wrote with David Williamson. The film examines the politically fraught deaths of Australian-based journalists the Balibo Five and Roger East during the Indonesian invasion of East Timor in 1975. Maynard produced the film, which starred Anthony LaPaglia in the lead role of East. Balibo was the first feature to be shot in East Timor.<
Indonesia continues to maintain that the Balibo Five died accidentally in crossfire as its troops battled East Timorese Fretilin rebels, a version of events accepted by successive Australian governments. But the film depicts the young journalists, who were working for Australian TV networks and presumed their nationality afforded them protection, being slaughtered on the orders of Indonesian military chiefs to prevent news of the invasion reaching the world.
Connolly refuses to apologise for his film's hardline stance, stating that an Australian coroner found in 2007 that the journalists were executed as they tried to surrender to Indonesian forces. He said: "It's quite clear the journalists were murdered... The current Indonesian and Australian (Government) point of view that they were killed in crossfire is quite frankly absurd. I'd imagine the film will be confronting because it represents something contrary to the official view." He points out that the East Timorese Truth and Reconciliation Commission found that up to 183,000 East Timorese people died as a result of the conflict, when the total population was only around 600,000, while both the Australian Government under the Liberals and the opposition Labor Party were focused on oil and gas resources and regional influence.
Themes and views
Connolly has been definitive about his political approach to filmmaking, saying "Without a doubt, in recent times, the political agenda of the work is what drives us. We feel a responsibility to use cinema to put a blow torch to contemporary Australia and contribute to some discussion or debate about where we're headed. That's what I find most rewarding about it." Three Dollars (2005), The Bank (2001) and The Boys (1998) all have a strong political agenda, and have been released in Australia as a DVD box set along with the documentary The Political Arena, which explores the social and political strands of the films.
In 2008, Connolly published a white paper outlining his views on all that could be improved about the Australian film industry, which includes a ten-step plan for reducing production costs.
Arenafilm and Footprint Films
Arenafilm was first incorporated in 1987 by film producer John Maynard and produced The Navigator: A Medieval Odyssey (1988) and Jane Campion's film s Sweetie (1989) and An Angel at My Table (1990) (with Maynard's partner Bridget Ikin). The company went on to produce The Boys (1998) and several other of Connolly's films, including Balibo. Its history is not clear, but Connolly and Maynard became directors of the company during the 2000s. Connolly relocated to set up the Arenafilm Melbourne office in late 2006 (including Arenamedia) and subsidiary companies.