still from Starstruck

1982 / 95 min
Director: Gillian Armstrong / Screenwriter: Stephen MacLean
Cast: Jo Kennedy, Ross O’Donovan
Digital | Courtesy of Shout Factory 

In a wildly eclectic career that has ranged from intimate contemporary dramas like High Tide and The Last Days of Chez Nous to ambitious period epics like Little Women and Oscar and Lucinda, Australian director Gillian Armstrong never made a film as uncharacteristic as Starstruck – a delightful movie musical that embraces both the post-punk energy of Eighties New Wave music and the stylistic fluidity of French New Wave cinema. The charismatic Jo Kennedy plays Jackie Mullens, a young woman who is determined to trade her life working in her family’s pub for the glamorous world of a singing star. Starstruck is a candy-colored, feminist answer to just about every other rock movie, with catchy songs from Aussie notables like Tim Finn and Mental As Anything. (Ira Deutchman distributed the movie while at Cinecom.)

This screening is part of NY Indie Guy: Ira Deutchman and the Rise of Independent Film

On September 14-16 and September 20-23, 2018, Columbia University’s Lenfest Center for the Arts will host a retrospective exhibit honoring the career of Film Professor and Producing Concentration Supervisor Ira Deutchman. Since 1975, Deutchman has been a leader in distributing, marketing, and producing American independent films, international films, and arthouse films. He is perhaps best known for founding and running the distribution companies Cinecom, Fine Line Features, and Emerging Pictures. Deutchman has taught at Columbia since 1987.  

This retrospective will screen essential motion pictures from various points in Deutchman’s career, such as The Brother From Another Planet; Diva; Harlan County USA; sex, lies, & videotape; Swoon; and A Woman Under the Influence. Many showings will feature Q&A talkbacks with filmmakers or performers. The celebration will also include panel discussions and an extensive exhibit covering Deutchman’s impact on cinema.

Sponsors

The Art House Convergence
Cowan, DeBaets, Abrahams & Sheppard
Film and Media Studies, Columbia University School of the Arts
The Society of Fellows and Heyman Center for the Humanities at Columbia University
The Institute for Research on Women, Gender, and Sexuality at Columbia University
The University of Michigan Library