Mel Avanzado

Mel saw 'Star Wars' at aged 5 or 6 at the cinema but could only recall the swing over the chasm by Luke and Leia. When the family got their first video cassette recorder (a Sanyo Betamax) in February, 1984, the first videos rented were 'Spiderman' (TV movie starring Nicholas Hammond), 'Grease' and yes, 'Star Wars'. On 12th October later that year, his mom got him a birthday present that would change his life: 'The Empire Strikes Back' video. Several decades and formats later (VHS, DVD, Blu-ray) it remains as the most watched movie (including in Star Wars movie marathons) of his life. Over 500 times in 37+ years including its release in 1980. How could movies draw such power, such sensory and emotional power? Thank you George Lucas and many others, including non-English language films on SBS TV by Yi-Mou Zhang and first outings to the independent cinema for Hal Hartley, Mike Leigh and Spike Lee films and 'Kids' by Larry Clark. The late film reviewer Bill Collins became a strong influence as did 'At the Movies' and 'The Movie Show's Margaret Pomeranz and David Stratton. Leonard Maltin's Movie Guide was indispensable and 'Movie' magazine (edited by Terry O'Brien) became household staples on top of 'Time', 'Smash Hits' (music) and 'Mad' (satirical) magazines. Today, 'Sight and Sound' adorn Mel's place and hundreds of movie books later, including those signed by 'The Exorcist's William Friedkin, Wim Wenders and the aforementioned David and Margaret, it can been seen that it all began with the music of John Williams, the imagination of George Lucas (who would come to Sydney in 1999 to shoot two Star Wars prequels) plus the thousands of artists, technicians, actors and editors in that first Yoda film that started it all!