<br><font size=2 face="Arial">It may only be meaningful to a few list members,
but I should regretfully let you know of the sudden death in Melbourne
of the film-maker and artists Solrun Hoaas, aged 66. </font><br><br><font size=2 face="Arial">Although born in Norway to Lutheran missionary
parents and having lived the last 25 years in Australia, Solrun had strong
links with Japan and Korea. Her childhood was spent in China, and after
1949 in Kobe. Although majoring in anthropology at the University of Oslo,
she returned to Japan to do post-graduate studies at Kyoto and lived there
with her then husband, the American playwright and director Roger Pulvers
(another long-time Japanese resident) until both moved to Australia in
the mid 1970s. </font><br><br><font size=2 face="Arial">She spent long periods filming on Hatoma
Island in Okinawa in the late 1970s and early 80s, resulting in the series
including <i>Waiting for Water, There’s Nothing that Doesn’t Take Time,
The Priestess/the Storekeeper</i> and <i>Sacred Vandals</i>.</font><br><br><font size=2 face="Arial">Solrun's documentaries of the late 1980s
frequently dealt with the Australian-Japanese conection, including her
look at the Japanese brides of the Australians soldiers serving in the
BCOF occupation force in Kure in the late 1940s, <i>Green Tea and Cherry
Ripe </i>(1988). Her only feature film, the Japanese-Australian co-pro
<i>Aya</i> (1990), starring Australian Nicholas Eadie and Eri Ishida, dealt
with similar issues.</font><br><br><font size=2 face="Arial">In the early 1990s, Solrun was able to gain
access and film in North Korea, resulting in the diary film <i>Pyongyang
Diary</i>(1997) and also <i>Rushing to Sunshine </i>(2001).</font><br><br><font size=2 face="Arial">Her films are distributed by Ronin Films
In Australia, with Icarus in the US also distributing some titles.</font><br><br><font size=2 face="sans-serif">Quentin Turnour, Programmer, <br>National Film and Sound Archive, Australia<br>McCoy Circuit, Acton, <br>ACT, 2601 AUSTRALIA<br>phone: +61 2 6248 2054 | fax: + 61 2 6249 8159<br>www.nfsa.gov.au<br><br><br><br></font><font face="sans-serif"><table width="100%" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"><tr><td align="center"><table width="826" height="100" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" bgcolor="#AECD58"><tr><td><a href="http://www.nfsa.gov.au"><img src="http://www.nfsa.gov.au/img/email/email_footer_01.jpg" width="527" height="100" border="0" alt="Collecting, preserving, interpreting and sharing Australia’s historic and contemporary screen and sound cultural heritage"></a></td><td><a href="http://www.nfsa.gov.au/welcome/"><img src="http://www.nfsa.gov.au/img/email/email_footer_02.jpg" width="299" height="100" border="0" alt="Check out what’s new"></a></td></tr></table></td></tr></table></font>