More than 200 people last night saw director Bruce Beresford launch a much-anticipated history of cinematography in Australia, written and compiled by filmmaker Martha Ansara.
The Shadowcatchers; A History of Cinematography in Australia is nearly 300 pages in length and includes nearly 400 photographs of working cinematographers taken on films sets from 1901 to the present day. It includes carefully researched text, biographies of significant Australian cinematographers, and personal anecdotes.
Ansara, Ron Johanson, national president of the Australian Cinematographers Society (ACS) and Calvin Gardiner, chair of the ACS book committee, all spoke at the event, held at the Australian Film, Television & Radio School. Committee members helped on every aspect of the book’s development, writing, picture selection and production.
Many stills photographers, cinematographers, directors, producers, archivists and others also contributed to the massive effort which was published by the ACS and designed by ARMEDIA.
Video messages from Dean Semler and Don McAlpine were shown, and email messages read out from John Seale, Dion Beebe and Andrew Lesnie. The many cinematographers present included Russell Boyd, Peter James, David Gribble, Anna Howard, Danny Ruhlmann, Ron Windon, Geoff Burton, Kathryn Milliss, Geoffrey Simpson and Kim Batterham. The families of many important pioneers were also present.
Erica Addis will chair a panel discussion about working in the digital environment titled The Digital Revolution – A Crisis in Cinematography at 7pm on June 12 at the Sydney Film Festival Hub. The author and several cinematographers will be on hand to sign the book.
Only 250 limited edition hard cover copies of The Shadowcatchers have been printed, with each signed by Australia’s five Academy Award winning cinematographers. Less than 15 of these copies are available.