Megan Spencer
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Megan Spencer is an Australian documentary film maker who specializes in the 'guerrilla video' style of documentary portraiture. Based in Melbourne, she is also a prominent film critic and journalist.
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[edit] Biography
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Born in 1966 in Australia, Spencer studied Speech pathology in Melbourne before becoming actively interested in film and radio. In the 1980s, as a volunteer, she co-produced 'Eeek!' a 3RRR cultural theory radio show, hosted by Philip Brophy and Bruce Milne. She later studied Media Arts at RMIT University and completed her first documentary film: Heathens in 1994.
- 1996-98 Co-founded, programmed and ran the VCA Documentary Film Society
- 1999 Joined ABC Radio's Triple J national youth network as resident film critic and journalist
- 2002 Co-founded Triple J's annual Framebreaks National Youth Short Film Festival
- 2002 MIFF Film Critic’s Jury
- 2004-06 Film critic on SBS Television’s The Movie Show
- 2004 Completed her M.A. in Media Arts (Documentary) at RMIT University
- 2007 Guest Director of Revelation Perth International Film Festival
Spencer is also an advocate for film culture, and has been invited as a guest speaker to countless film events around Australia. She broadcasts regularly on ABC Radio National, Sydney and Melbourne metro ABC radio, and regional ABC radio. She has worked as a film programmer (RMIT, VCA, Kingston Arts Centre), and taught documentary and film theory and practice (Melbourne University, VCA, RMIT, AFTRS Melbourne). She has written for publications IF Magazine, Real Time, documenter, The Eye and Like.
She has also been a judge for countless film festivals and competitions across Australia, including Sydney Film Festival, Shoot Out, St. Kilda Film Festival, Brisbane International Film Festival, Melbourne International, Underground and Fringe Film Festivals, Real Life On Film Documentary Festival, Queensland's Pandanus Film Festival, the SA Zoom Fest, Melbourne International Queer Film Festival, SPAA Fringe, the annual AFI Awards and IF Awards.
[edit] Controversy
In June 2006, in a live on-air review on Triple J for the movie X-Men: The Last Stand Spencer said that Jews - represented in the film by the mutant character "Magneto", a Holocaust survivor - "used to be oppressed and now they are the oppressors". This drew strong criticism from Melbourne Ports MP Michael Danby who expressed that while Spencer was free to criticize US and Israeli Government policies, "she is not entitled to refer to the 'the Jews' as though all people of Jewish faith or ethnicity were responsible for Israel's policies, or to suggest that 'the Jews' are a single entity who act together in a malign and conspiratorial way".[1]
Australia/Israel & Jewish Affairs Council director of policy analysis Ted Lapkin said Spencer's comments "bespeak an embarrassing ignorance of history. The remarks ascribed to her about Jewish 'oppressors' have disturbing overtones of ethnic bigotry. I would suggest that Ms Spencer should stick to commentary on Tinseltown, and leave political analysis to those who can conduct it with intelligence and decency."[2]
[edit] Filmography
- Heathens, 1994
- Hooked On Christmas, 1997
- Strange Hungers, 2002
- Lovestruck: Wrestling's No. #1 Fan, 2005
- Brent
