Giorgio Mangiamele is one of the most under-estimated figures in Australian cinema history. Soon after his arrival in Australia in 1952 as a migrant from Italy, he began making films at a time when feature film production in Australia was almost non-existent. His films were seldom seen in Australia, although one - CLAY (1965) - was applauded overseas as an official selection in the Cannes Film Festival. They have been virtually unavailable since. All of these films reveal Mangiameles keen eye for visual poetry and the strong humanism of his concern for his characters. These qualities are amplified in his first completed feature film, CLAY, which explores the alienation, not of migrants, but of a man on the run from the police who is taken in by an isolated community of artists. His emerging love affair with a young sculptor leads to tragedy. The intensity of Mangiameles breathtaking vision recalls the work of Jean Cocteau and other French romantic poet/filmmakers, and signifies the appearance of a major art cinema talent, imbued with European cinema culture, who tragically never found an opportunity to find full expression of his vision after this one extraordinary feature.

Giorgio Mangiamele is one of the most under-estimated figures in Australian cinema history. Soon after his arrival in Australia in 1952 as a migrant from Italy, he began making films at a time when feature film production in Australia was almost non-existent. His films were seldom seen in Australia and they have been virtually unavailable since. Displaying almost Quixotic ambition, Mangiameles first venture into production was a feature film, IL CONTRATTO (1953), which he began within a year of arriving in Australia. This drama about the isolation and alienation of Italian migrants was never completed, but what remains is a remarkably powerful portrait of a neglected segment of Australian society. Please note that this video also contains the program extras, which begin at timecode 1:31:30.