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Ronin Films

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David Caesar

David Caesar worked as a truck driver and played rugby before moving to Sydney where he hung around the film industry, making coffee and painting sets. During this period he financed and produced his first film on 16mm, No More Heroes. On the fourth attempt (he was 15 on the first try) David was accepted as a student into the Australian Film Television and Radio School.

His major work at the film school, SHOPPINGTOWN (on life in a shopping mall) won the Best Film prize in its category at the 1987 Greater Union Awards for Australian Short Films and was released as a short in Sydney. On graduating from film school, David worked on a number of productions for the ABC, SBS, and Channel Nine and BBC television. He has also directed rock video clips for Ed Kuepper, The Clouds and Falling Joys.

David's documentaries include the award-winning LIVING ROOM (on life in the suburbs), BODYWORK (on the funeral industry), FENCES (on the nature and organisation of personal and social space) and CAR CRASH (on Australia's obsession with the car). All were released theatrically. Other credits include the television dramas FlLYING DOCTORS, GP and THE and recently BAD COP BAD COP.

His first feature film was GREENKEEPING, starring Mark Little and Lisa Hensley, a comic look at the life of a greenkeeper and his struggles with the declining fortunes of a lawn bowls club and his wife's drug debts. In 1996 David wrote and directed the feature film IDIOT BOX starring Ben Mendelsohn and Jeremy Sims. In 2000 the critically acclaimed MULLET (starring Ben Mendelsohn and Susie Porter), won David the Best Director Award at the Shanghai International Film Festival in China. His latest film, DIRTY DEEDS (starring Bryan Brown, Sam Neil, Toni Colette and John Goodman), was released in 2002.

David also directed DANGEROUS, an action packed, fast and furious series for Foxtel, breaking new ground as it taps and explores western Sydney youth culture through a classic forbidden love story.

Filmography

CAR CRASH »

Why do we love our cars so much? Why do we, against all advice and obvious evidence, drive so dangerously? No one actually wants to have a crash but most of us, even if only occasionally, drive as if we do...

BODYWORK »

Morticians, embalmers and grave-diggers talk intimately about each stage of the journey from death to dirt, from expiry to exit...