The Workshop Film Group – a History 1968 – 2018
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The Workshop Film Group – A History 1968 – 2018 THE WORKSHOP FILM GROUP A History 1968 - 2018 By Richard Keys, John Lanser and Michael O’Rourke Dedicated to Vi & Laurie Collings and Helen Ramsay. With thanks to all of our members who have contributed so much over the journey. Clockwise from top left: Helen Ramsay, Vi Collings, Laurie Collings First published by the Workshop Film Group, 2018 Workshop Arts Centre, 33 Laurel St, Willoughby, NSW www.workshopfilmgroup.net Copyright © Richard Keys, John Lanser and Michael O’Rourke, 2018 Compiled by Ian Grey 16 July 2018 Printed and bound by Forestville Printing, E4/15 Narabang Way, Belrose, NSW 2085 Page | 1 The Workshop Film Group – A History 1968 – 2018 CONTENTS Background 3 Birth of a film society 4 Programming 5 Technical challenges and significant steps forward 6 Residential film weekends 7 Non-residential film weekends 10 The sound of silents 10 Another dollar, Another Day 12 The Group logo 13 Special guests 14 Committee and membership 19 Appendix 1. Filmography 21 Appendix 2. Milestones 22 Appendix 3. Press clippings 23 Appendix 4 Programs 29 Page | 2 The Workshop Film Group – A History 1968 – 2018 BACKGROUND The Workshop Arts Centre (WAC), established by the artist and teacher Joy Ewart, was officially opened by Australian artist Hal Missingham on August 16, 1963. Prior to this Joy had run an art studio in a two-storey building - a former stable with overhead loft - in Dalton Street, Chatswood. Classes were held there from 1955 until 1961 when the Willoughby Council declared the premises unfit for occupation. A crisis meeting was held in March 1961 and it was clear from the outset that Joy’s plans for her new Arts Centre were to be more ambitious than anything she’d done before. In addition to painting, sculpture and printmaking, she was determined that all of the other arts such as music and film would have a home at the new premises. A few years earlier, Joy had gone to America on a Fulbright Scholarship and returned home with the idea that "All arts are like brothers, each shines its light upon the others” (this quote from Voltaire became the motto of her new arts centre). Joy had also come to believe that the art of the twentieth century was cinematography. Two of Joy’s colleagues were Vi Collings (figure 1), a fellow artist, and Vi’s filmmaker husband Laurie. When Joy first saw Laurie with his cameras and his projector she realised he would be the perfect collaborator to help put her ideas into practice. Laurie was commissioned to make a film about Joy’s art classes for children at Dalton Street. That film, Youth Creates (1959) (Appendix 1), was screened at galleries in Melbourne and New York, where audiences were impressed by Joy’s teaching methods. While Joy and her committee were still seeking premises for their new arts centre, Laurie was asked to screen films at their regular meetings in the supper room of the Willoughby Town Hall, where all of the equipment had to be brought along, with volunteers pitching in to help. After moving to Laurel Street film screenings became very popular despite many inconveniences, such as poor lighting and seating, the projector in the aisle and people perched on stools or up on tables. At a screening of Ian Dunlop’s Australian documentary Desert People (1969) an overflow audience even came out onto the verandah to watch through the windows. Becoming more ambitious and requiring a larger venue Laurie presented a program of Australian films at the Chatswood-Willoughby Town Hall in Victoria Avenue, Chatswood on July 8, 1964. Screening on that occasion were 16mm prints of John Heyer’s The Forerunner (1957), and Playing with Water (1955), Click Go The Shears (Dir: Keith Gow, 1961), Land of Australia (Waterside Workers Federation Film Unit, 1957), and Laurie’s own film The Rocks (1964), with a script by Peter Davison (Appendix 1). Laurie’s passion for cinema included inviting guests to present his programs. In July 1966 John Flaus hosted a weekend of films for the Workshop Arts Centre Film Group at Willoughby with the theme: “If film is an art form, who is the artist?” In July 1967 Ian Klava, former director of the Sydney Film Festival (1962-1965), presented a program of international films. Page | 3 The Workshop Film Group – A History 1968 – 2018 Late in 1967 Vi and Laurie were invited to join a film society run by Peter Johnson who screened films at the kindergarten in Chatswood. When this society folded due to Peter’s other commitments (he went on to become Chancellor of the University of Technology, Sydney), Laurie and Vi decided it was time to form their own film society at the Workshop so a questionnaire was circulated to gauge interest (figure 33). BIRTH OF A FILM SOCIETY At 8pm on August 23, 1968, the inaugural meeting of the Workshop Film Study Group (WFSG) commenced in Studio 1 with Vi Collings acting as Chairman and Margaret Blundell as recorder (figure 34). Most of the people attending were Arts Centre members but there was one ‘outsider’, Richard Keys (figure 1), who had seen an advertisement in the North Shore Times, announcing that the Workshop Arts Centre (which he’d never heard of) was planning to start a film society. Richard was a newsreel cameraman and cinematographer who’d been a member of the Sydney University Film Group during his student days. When speaking about the meeting many years later, Richard recalls that he must have opened his mouth too wide or too often, for much to his surprise he found himself elected as the Group’s inaugural president (a position he held for the next 22 years). It was decided that the new Group should start slowly, with three ‘test’ screenings to be held at the Workshop in Term III, 1968 (figure 34), during which any teething problems could be addressed. A full twelve-month program would commence the following January, with screenings to be held on the third Friday of each month. Richard suggested that the WFSG should join the NSW Federation of Film Societies, which would allow the Group’s activities to be publicised on the Federation’s mailing list, thereby providing much-needed publicity. Federation membership also provided the Group with insurance cover for film loss and damage. The inaugural elected office bearers were: Hon. President: Richard Keys Hon. Treasurer: Richard Elliot Hon. Secretary: Margaret Blundell The president proposed that all of those present should form the inaugural WFSG Committee, so in addition to the above-named office bearers, the first Committee consisted of Vi Collings, Helen Ramsay (figure 29), Len Gayser, Roy Garwood, Dorothy Wootten and Toni Vrisakis. September 27, 1968, was set as the date of the first test meeting, with filmmaker Michael Thornhill as guest presenter for a screening of Sam Fuller’s Hell and High Water (1954). The second test screening a month later in October 1968 was the Figure 2. WFSG’s Czechoslovakian film Peter and Pavla, (Dir: Milos Forman, 1964) with David first film screening Stratton, the Sydney Film Festival director, as the guest speaker (figure 34). Page | 4 The Workshop Film Group – A History 1968 – 2018 The third test screening in November 1968 surprisingly did not mention the name of the film in the promotional leaflet but screened on that occasion was Little Caesar (Dir: Mervyn LeRoy, 1931) with film critic John Baxter as the guest speaker (figure 34). Following the successful test screenings, a program for the first six months of 1969 was distributed. The monthly screenings included Citizen Kane (Dir: Orson Welles, 1941), Stagecoach (Dir: John Ford, 1939), A Bout De Souffle (Breathless) (Dir: Jean-Luc Godard, 1960) and Forgotten Cinema (Dir: Tony Buckley, 1967). The first full program was so successful that it was decided to increase screenings to the first and third Fridays each month. Regular Sunday screenings were tried at one stage but were soon discontinued due to lack of support, though special events on Sundays would occasionally still be scheduled (figure 35). After much debate in the early 1970s the word ‘study’ was eventually omitted from the Group’s name to emphasise the informality of the Group’s activities. PROGRAMMING In addition to their regular twice-monthly screenings, the Group continued to program a wide variety of additional events. An animation weekend was a huge success thanks to strong support from the animation community. “A Weekend of Propaganda Films” became the subject of a lengthy article by Alan Gill in that Saturday’s Sydney Morning Herald. The sudden upsurge in interest caused mayhem in the Arts Centre’s office where the phones rang hot. By the time the Herald’s article appeared, Leni Riefenstahl’s controversial Triumph of the Will (1935) - filmed during the Nazi party’s 1934 rally in Nuremberg - had already been shown so it became necessary to organise an encore screening. Other notable events were a talk on film editing by Peter Vile, and another on screenwriting by Joan Long. A filmmaking training exercise (in collaboration with the Film & Television School) resulted in the production of the Group’s film Another Day (Appendix 1). There was a program on film archives by Ray Edmondson, Chief Librarian of the National Film Library – a joint venture with the Workshop Film Group. On another occasion Mr Edmondson presented a program devoted to “An Evening of Poverty Row or Rubbish Films of the 1930s”. Despite the title, it was a very popular, well-attended session. Over the years the Arts Centre and the Film Group embarked on further joint ventures.