Solrun Hoaas Dossier

Solrun Hoaas was a groundbreaking producer, writer, director and visual artist who sadly died on 11 December 2009 in Melbourne, Australia. Born in Norway in 1943, she spent much of her adolescence and early adult life in Japan before coming to Australia in 1972. She made a significant number of important and often innovative documentaries and fiction films in the 1980s and 1990s, producing her last film – Rushing to Sunshine: Seoul Diaries – in 2001. Her work betrayed and celebrated a life-long fascination with the cultures of Japan and Korea (both North and South), and represents one of the most sustained, nuanced and respectfully engaged explorations of Asian cultures within Australian and international cinema. This tribute draws together newly commissioned essays by friends and colleagues of Solrun, as well as the first publication of a wide-ranging and fascinating interview conducted in the mid-1990s. It also includes an original review of Aya, Hoaas’ only completed fiction feature, and her “Personal Statement” included in the groundbreaking collection Don’t Shoot Darling! Women’s Independent Filmmaking in Australia. We offer these articles in humble tribute to one of Australia’s most underrated and singular artists.