Michael Rubbo
Director · b. 1938 · Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
Michael Rubbo is an Australian documentary filmmaker, screenwriter, and director known for his innovative and personal approach to nonfiction storytelling. A longtime contributor to the National Film Board of Canada, Rubbo crafted documentaries that blended observation with subjective narration, often inserting himself into the narrative—a style that influenced later generations of documentary filmmakers. His notable works include Sad Song of Yellow Skin (1970), which explored the impact of the Vietnam War on civilians, and Waiting for Fidel (1974), a unique take on political documentary. Beyond documentaries, Rubbo also directed children’s films such as The Peanut Butter Solution (1985) and later pursued a career as an author and painter, continuing his creative exploration across different mediums.
Movies5
Movie8.0DocumentaryIn this heartwarming docudrama, Chilean immigrant Marilú Mallet strives to make a film about her experience of deep isolation. Her English-speaking husband, a prominent film director, criticizes her subjective approach to filmmaking; her young son, raised in Quebec, speaks only French. Interviews with Isabel Allende and other Chilean exiles reveal a deep bond in this powerful and resonant film about language and genre, exile and immigration.
Movie5.1DocumentaryDid Christopher Marlowe write the works of Shakespeare?
Much Ado About Something
2001 · 7 votes
Movie6.0DocumentaryThis feature-length documentary from 1974 takes viewers inside Fidel Castro's Cuba. A movie-making threesome hope that Fidel himself will star in their film. The unusual crew consists of former Newfoundland premier Joseph Smallwood, radio and TV owner Geoff Stirling and NFB film director Michael Rubbo. What happens while the crew awaits its star shows a good deal of the new Cuba, and also of the three Canadians who chose to film the island. (NFB)
Waiting for Fidel
1975 · 5 votes
Movie8.5DocumentaryIn Margaret Atwood: Once in August, filmmaker Michael Rubbo attempts to discover what shapes the celebrated writer's fiction and what motivates her characters. As one of Canada's most distinguished poets and novelists, Atwood is also one of this country's most elusive literary figures.
Margaret Atwood: Once in August
1984 · 2 votes
Movie7.7WarDocumentaryFilmed in Saigon in 1970, this documentary observes the effects of the Vietnam War on daily life away from the battlefield. Through the perspectives of three young American journalists, the film records encounters with street children, refugees, bar workers, and aid efforts shaped by the American presence in the city.
Sad Song of Yellow Skin
1970 · 3 votes