Biography

Andrew Repasky McElhinney is a director whose cinematic work is defined by visionary originality, kinetic acting, sharp editing, and stunning visuals.

Andrew began making movies in 1994. His feature films include the art house splash, A Chronicle of Corpses, the landmark underground movie, Georges Bataille's Story of the Eye, and the family holiday perennial, Christmas Dreams.

Andrew's newest work is the forthcoming five-part epic, Casual Encounters: Philadelphia True Crime Confessions. This multi-format project explores the intersection of crime, economics, addiction and professionalism. Photographed since 2012 in five diverse neighborhoods of the "City of Brotherly Love," Casual Encounters: Philadelphia True Crime Confessions, features an ensemble of over thirty characters, brought to life by a cast of Philadelphia's finest theater actors. Look for it in 2021!

This year is the 20th Anniversary of Andrew's second feature film, A Chronicle of Corpses and the film has been given a new 4K transfer. The Museum of Modern Art, New York, planned a screening of the restoration for the movie's anniversary, March 24. Named as one of the top ten movies of the year it was released by The New York Times and Village Voice, A Chronicle of Corpses is a stylish, somber period suspense-thriller about an isolated colonial American family caught in a slowly unfurling trap of grief and intrigue.

A Chronicle of Corpses, along with Andrew's early works A Maggot Tango and Magdalen are in the permanent collection of The Museum of Modern Art, New York. Visit this link to Andrew's MoMA Works.

Film Threat called McElhinney's cult favorite Georges Bataille's Story of the Eye "a new landmark in underground cinema." Inspired and informed by the cerebral, transgressive and yet oddly sentimental philosophy of Georges Bataille, the movie appropriates the title of Bataille's most famous work for a mesmerizing examination of anticipation and spectatorship.

Always looking to innovate in new genres, Andrew's fourth and fifth feature films took him into the genres of comedic romantic drama and then musical holiday faire... Animal Husbandry is a modern dress production of a 1930s play with the subtext reexamined to explore issues of race, class gender and sexual identity in George W's America. Christmas Dreams (2015) is a holiday dream fantasia, shot entirely on a soundstage, featuring extensive special effects, and set to a score comprising of traditional holiday favorites. With a dose of Alice in Wonderland, Christmas Dreams wordlessly combines the legend of The Little Drummer Boy with ETA Hoffmann's The Nutcracker and the Mouse King, and its variant, Tchaikovsky's Nutcracker ballet.

In addition to Andrew's work as a feature film director he has helmed the short subjects The Scream, Her Father's Expectancy, The Things We Do For Love: A Cinemagic, Haunted Poe: The Tell-Tale Heart & and Poe's Last Train Ride, Shakespeare Action in Harrowgate Park: "To Be, Or Not To Be?" (2018), the hour-long documentary, EGS Digital Video Diary - August 2008, directed theater, and mounted several noted video installations.

Andrew's scholarly book on media culture, Second Takes: Remaking Film, Remaking America is available from McFarland and Company Publishers.
- IMDb mini biography by: Charlie Mackie