Profiles - Philip Clairmont

Working away in a paint-encrusted studio with Hendrix cranked up to 10, often going days without sleep, Philip Clairmont was the archetypal tortured expressionist. Bruce Morrison and Hamish Keith's documentary explores Clairmont's chaotic bohemian abode in Mount Eden, a house populated by the found objects and abandoned furniture that would inspire his dense, hallucinatory images. At one point the camera fixes on a single lino print that reads "art is my life". One would eventually consume the other — three years after this was filmed, Clairmont committed suicide at the age of 34.

I knew I wanted to be a painter or a bullfighter (and) nothing else.

– Philip Clairmont

Key Cast & Crew

Barry Harbert

Camera

Bruce Morrison

Director

Russell Hay

Sound Mix

Richard S Long

Camera Assistant

Hamish Keith

Interviewer, Reporter

Guy Phillips

Sound Recordist