Alison Maclean

Alison Maclean (born July 31, 1958) is a Canadian-New Zealand film director of music videos, short films, television (episodes of Sex and the City, The Tudors, Homicide: Life on the Street), commercials and feature films. Her works include the music video "Torn" (Natalie Imbruglia, 1997), the short film Kitchen Sink (1989) and the feature films Jesus' Son (1999) (starring Billy Crudup) and Crush (1992) (starring Marcia Gay Harden). She has been the recipient of several awards (e.g. Best Short Film, Talkback (1987) and Kitchen Sink (1989), New Zealand Film Awards), and often uses themes of communication, gender roles, and power structures in her directorial and filmmaking roles. Early life and education Maclean was born in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, to New Zealand-born parents. As a teenager, she immigrated in 1972 to New Zealand with her parents. She later graduated from the Elam School of Fine Arts, Auckland, with a Bachelor's of Fine Arts, majoring in sculpture in 1982. Career Maclean directed her first short film, Taunt, in 1982 and later directed the short film, Rud’s Wife, in 1985. In 1987, Maclean directed Talkback, a short film centred around issues of gender and communication. Kitchen Sink, debuted at Cannes in 1989 and went on to win eight international awards. That same year, Maclean moved to Sydney, Australia. After Maclean moved to New York in 1992, she directed her first feature film, Crush. A female-driven psychological thriller featuring themes of female relationships, power structures, and emotions at its core, the short film was entered into the 1992 Cannes Film Festival. Set in Rotorua, New Zealand, at an unspecified period in time, Maclean uses setting and cinematography to evoke feelings of uneasiness and distress in what initially appears to be a scenic, lighthearted film.