John Heyer
Encyclopedia
John Whitefoord Heyer was an Australian documentary
filmmaker, who is often described as the father of Australian documentary film.
John Heyer spent the majority of his career producing and/or directing sponsored documentaries, and was active from the 1930s until his death. His most successful film was The Back of Beyond
(1954), but many of his films garnered awards at festivals around the world. He was committed to the whole process of filmmaking from the initial research phase to distribution and exhibition. While he was grounded in the British documentary tradition, particularly during his years at the Australian National Film Board working under Ralph Foster and Stanley Hawes
, he developed his own style noted for its lyrical quality.
Heyer was an active participant in the documentary film movement in Australia in the 1940s and 1950s: he was among the first producers employed by the Australian National Film Board, was head of the Shell Film Unit in Australia, and was President of the Sydney Film Society and on the committee which organised the first Sydney Film Festival
. He moved to England in 1956 where he continued to make films for Shell, and then through his own company. While he died in England, he maintained contact with Australia throughout his life, producing films in both countries.
, the son of a doctor. He was educated at Scotch College, Melbourne. In 1942, he married Dorothy Agnes Greenhalgh (1916–1969) who was known, and credited, as Janet Heyer. They had two daughters, Elizabeth and Catherine (more commonly called Anna) and a son called Frederick.
The Heyers moved to England in 1956, and he lived there for the rest of his life, although he regularly returned to Australia and, at times, spent significant times there researching and producing films.
Janet Heyer died in 1969, and in 1999 Heyer married Irmtraud Schorbach. He died in London
, England
.
in 1934 working with sound engineers, editors and cameramen. When Efftee closed in 1935, he joined Cinesound Productions
. In these early years he worked on such feature films as Heritage, Thoroughbred, White Death in which Zane Grey
appeared, and Forty Thousand Horsemen. He also made commercials, training films and documentaries, his first documentary being New Pastures (1940) for the Milk Board. During these apprenticeship years, he worked with some of Australia's most experienced directors and cinematographers, including Charles Chauvel, Arthur Higgins and Frank Hurley
.
In 1944, he joined Ealing Studios
where he worked with Harry Watt
on The Overlanders. It was on this film that he started to develop his vision of making the Australian landscape an active ingredient in Australian films. He strongly supported government involvement in film production and, when the Australian National Film Board was established in 1945, he was appointed its first senior producer. During this time he produced Native Earth, Journey of a Nation, The Cane Cutters, Men and Mobs, and This Valley is Ours.
As a young man learning his trade in the 1930s, John Heyer was keen to expand his knowledge of international films. He worked with another young filmmaker of the period, Damien Parer
and they became good friends, actively reading contemporary avant-garde cinema journals, which analysed the work and theories of European and Russian filmmakers, and watching such Soviet films as The Battleship Potemkin
. A keen supporter of films and the film industry all his life, he was actively involved in promoting and developing the Australian film society
movement in the 1940s and 1950s. He was president of the Australian Council of Film Societies
and the Sydney Film Society, and was involved in the establishment of the Sydney
and Melbourne Film Festivals
. However, his involvement in the film society
movement during the height of the Cold War
also brought him to the notice of ASIO, the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation
, which suspected him of being a communist.
(1954) which quickly became a significant film in European and Australian film circles winning awards at several international festivals, including the Grand Prix Assoluto at the 1954 Venice Biennale
. The British documentary filmmaker, Edgar Anstey, described the film as being "among the half-dozen best documentaries made anywhere since the war".
In 1956, he was appointed Executive Producer, Films and Television, for Shell International in London. During the 1950s and 60s he produced or directed over 60 films for Shell, including The Forerunner which won awards at Cannes, Venice, London and Turin Film Festivals.
In an article in 1957, he praised Shell for being "the first entry of a major private sponsor into the production and distribution of films in Australia on a solid basis". For Heyer, production was only the beginning of the process. He saw distribution as being a critical issue for documentaries and was committed to developing good distribution networks. In an interview in 1976, he agreed that Shell's commitment to distribution, with its libraries and its vans fitted with projectors, was one of the issues that prompted his move from the Film Board.
.
and the Australian History and Film Conference, and other speaking engagements for his expertise and knowledge about documentary film-making in particular.
While, after his initial start in the industry, his career was primarily focused on documentary film, he had a long-standing wish to film Xavier Herbert
's Capricornia
, one which he was not able to realise before his death in 2001.
His most significant films include The Cane-cutters and The Valley is Ours, made for the Australian National Film Board and both screened at the 1949 Cannes Film Festival, and the award-winning The Back of Beyond. These films are good examples of the way Heyer engaged "the aesthetic strategies of [the] international documentary movement filtered through a particular Australian creative imagination".
In 1982, Heyer said "A documentary film increases understanding of the subject and brings out its meaning or significance. At best it enlightens and stimulates; at worst it deceives. It must necessarily be highly creative, but to limit it to the creative treatment of actuality is inadequate. Whether or not it involves reality is unimportant: the essential thing is that it achieve its objective". In other words, Heyer believed that documentary had to tell the truth about its subject but that it could use any of the tools at its disposal: re-enactment, drama, history, science. This was something he had demonstrated, to both critical and popular acclaim, in The Back of Beyond in 1954, and it remained his driving philosophy.
Documentary film
Documentary films constitute a broad category of nonfictional motion pictures intended to document some aspect of reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction or maintaining a historical record...
filmmaker, who is often described as the father of Australian documentary film.
John Heyer spent the majority of his career producing and/or directing sponsored documentaries, and was active from the 1930s until his death. His most successful film was The Back of Beyond
The Back of Beyond
The Back of Beyond is a feature-length award-winning Australian documentary film produced and directed by John Heyer for the Shell Film Unit. In terms of breadth of distribution, awards garnered, and critical response, it is Heyer's most successful film...
(1954), but many of his films garnered awards at festivals around the world. He was committed to the whole process of filmmaking from the initial research phase to distribution and exhibition. While he was grounded in the British documentary tradition, particularly during his years at the Australian National Film Board working under Ralph Foster and Stanley Hawes
Stanley Hawes
Stanley Gilbert Hawes was a British-born documentary film producer and director who spent most of his career in Australia, though he commenced his career in England and Canada. He was born in London, England and died in Sydney, Australia...
, he developed his own style noted for its lyrical quality.
Heyer was an active participant in the documentary film movement in Australia in the 1940s and 1950s: he was among the first producers employed by the Australian National Film Board, was head of the Shell Film Unit in Australia, and was President of the Sydney Film Society and on the committee which organised the first Sydney Film Festival
Sydney Film Festival
The Sydney Film Festival is an annual film festival held in the Australian city of Sydney and is held over 12 days in June. The competitive film festival draws international and local attention, with films being showcased in several venues across the city centre and includes features,...
. He moved to England in 1956 where he continued to make films for Shell, and then through his own company. While he died in England, he maintained contact with Australia throughout his life, producing films in both countries.
Life
Heyer was born in Devonport, TasmaniaDevonport, Tasmania
-Sport:The Devonport Football Club is an Australian Rules team competing in the Tasmanian Statewide League. The Devonport Rugby Club is a Rugby Union team competing in the Tasmanian Rugby Union Statewide League...
, the son of a doctor. He was educated at Scotch College, Melbourne. In 1942, he married Dorothy Agnes Greenhalgh (1916–1969) who was known, and credited, as Janet Heyer. They had two daughters, Elizabeth and Catherine (more commonly called Anna) and a son called Frederick.
The Heyers moved to England in 1956, and he lived there for the rest of his life, although he regularly returned to Australia and, at times, spent significant times there researching and producing films.
Janet Heyer died in 1969, and in 1999 Heyer married Irmtraud Schorbach. He died in London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
, England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
.
Early career
John Heyer was apprenticed to the scientific instrument makers, Alger & Son but, having learnt sound recording and film projection at night school, he obtained a job with Efftee StudiosEfftee Studios
Efftee Studios was established by F.W. Thring in 1930.In 1931 the first commercially viable Australian made sound feature film, Diggers, was produced by Efftee Films in Melbourne using optical sound equipment imported from the USA.Efftee was also the first licensee of Melbourne radio station 3XY...
in 1934 working with sound engineers, editors and cameramen. When Efftee closed in 1935, he joined Cinesound Productions
Cinesound Productions
Cinesound Productions Pty Ltd was one of Australia's first feature film production companies. Established in June 1932, Cinesound developed out of a group of companies centred around Greater Union Theatres, that covered all facets of the film process, from production, to distribution and...
. In these early years he worked on such feature films as Heritage, Thoroughbred, White Death in which Zane Grey
Zane Grey
Zane Grey was an American author best known for his popular adventure novels and stories that presented an idealized image of the Old West. Riders of the Purple Sage was his bestselling book. In addition to the success of his printed works, they later had second lives and continuing influence...
appeared, and Forty Thousand Horsemen. He also made commercials, training films and documentaries, his first documentary being New Pastures (1940) for the Milk Board. During these apprenticeship years, he worked with some of Australia's most experienced directors and cinematographers, including Charles Chauvel, Arthur Higgins and Frank Hurley
Frank Hurley
James Francis "Frank" Hurley, OBE was an Australian photographer and adventurer. He participated in a number of expeditions to Antarctica and served as an official photographer with Australian forces during both world wars.His artistic style produced many memorable images but he also used staged...
.
In 1944, he joined Ealing Studios
Ealing Studios
Ealing Studios is a television and film production company and facilities provider at Ealing Green in West London. Will Barker bought the White Lodge on Ealing Green in 1902 as a base for film making, and films have been made on the site ever since...
where he worked with Harry Watt
Harry Watt (director)
Harry Watt was a Scottish documentary and feature film director, who began his career working for John Grierson and Robert Flaherty. His 1959 film The Siege of Pinchgut was entered into the 9th Berlin International Film Festival...
on The Overlanders. It was on this film that he started to develop his vision of making the Australian landscape an active ingredient in Australian films. He strongly supported government involvement in film production and, when the Australian National Film Board was established in 1945, he was appointed its first senior producer. During this time he produced Native Earth, Journey of a Nation, The Cane Cutters, Men and Mobs, and This Valley is Ours.
As a young man learning his trade in the 1930s, John Heyer was keen to expand his knowledge of international films. He worked with another young filmmaker of the period, Damien Parer
Damien Parer
Damien Peter Parer was an Australian war photographer. He became famous for his war photography of the Second World War, and was killed by Japanese machinegun fire at Peleliu, Palau. He married Elizabeth Marie Cotter on 23 March 1944, and his son, producer Damien Parer, was born after his father...
and they became good friends, actively reading contemporary avant-garde cinema journals, which analysed the work and theories of European and Russian filmmakers, and watching such Soviet films as The Battleship Potemkin
The Battleship Potemkin
The Battleship Potemkin , sometimes rendered as The Battleship Potyomkin, is a 1925 silent film directed by Sergei Eisenstein and produced by Mosfilm...
. A keen supporter of films and the film industry all his life, he was actively involved in promoting and developing the Australian film society
Film society
A film society is a membership club where people can watch screenings of films which would otherwise not be shown in mainstream cinemas. In Spain they are known as "Cineclubs," and in Germany they are known as "Filmclubs"....
movement in the 1940s and 1950s. He was president of the Australian Council of Film Societies
Australian Council of Film Societies
Australian Council of Film Societies ACOFS is the national body for film societies in Australia. The inaugural meeting was held in Sydney in November 1949 and the constitution was adopted at a second meeting which is the official start of ACOFS, in 1950...
and the Sydney Film Society, and was involved in the establishment of the Sydney
Sydney Film Festival
The Sydney Film Festival is an annual film festival held in the Australian city of Sydney and is held over 12 days in June. The competitive film festival draws international and local attention, with films being showcased in several venues across the city centre and includes features,...
and Melbourne Film Festivals
Melbourne International Film Festival
The Melbourne International Film Festival is an acclaimed annual film festival held over three weeks in Melbourne, Australia. It was founded in 1951, making it one of the oldest in the World....
. However, his involvement in the film society
Film society
A film society is a membership club where people can watch screenings of films which would otherwise not be shown in mainstream cinemas. In Spain they are known as "Cineclubs," and in Germany they are known as "Filmclubs"....
movement during the height of the Cold War
Cold War
The Cold War was the continuing state from roughly 1946 to 1991 of political conflict, military tension, proxy wars, and economic competition between the Communist World—primarily the Soviet Union and its satellite states and allies—and the powers of the Western world, primarily the United States...
also brought him to the notice of ASIO, the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation
Australian Security Intelligence Organisation
The Australian Security Intelligence Organisation is Australia's national security service, which is responsible for the protection of the country and its citizens from espionage, sabotage, acts of foreign interference, politically-motivated violence, attacks on the Australian defence system, and...
, which suspected him of being a communist.
Shell Film Unit
Heyer left the government film unit to head the Shell Film Unit (Australia) in 1948. He was asked to produce a documentary that would capture the essence of Australia and in so doing associate Shell with Australia. The result was The Back of BeyondThe Back of Beyond
The Back of Beyond is a feature-length award-winning Australian documentary film produced and directed by John Heyer for the Shell Film Unit. In terms of breadth of distribution, awards garnered, and critical response, it is Heyer's most successful film...
(1954) which quickly became a significant film in European and Australian film circles winning awards at several international festivals, including the Grand Prix Assoluto at the 1954 Venice Biennale
Venice Biennale
The Venice Biennale is a major contemporary art exhibition that takes place once every two years in Venice, Italy. The Venice Film Festival is part of it. So too is the Venice Biennale of Architecture, which is held in even years...
. The British documentary filmmaker, Edgar Anstey, described the film as being "among the half-dozen best documentaries made anywhere since the war".
In 1956, he was appointed Executive Producer, Films and Television, for Shell International in London. During the 1950s and 60s he produced or directed over 60 films for Shell, including The Forerunner which won awards at Cannes, Venice, London and Turin Film Festivals.
In an article in 1957, he praised Shell for being "the first entry of a major private sponsor into the production and distribution of films in Australia on a solid basis". For Heyer, production was only the beginning of the process. He saw distribution as being a critical issue for documentaries and was committed to developing good distribution networks. In an interview in 1976, he agreed that Shell's commitment to distribution, with its libraries and its vans fitted with projectors, was one of the issues that prompted his move from the Film Board.
John Heyer Film Company
In 1967 he retired from Shell and set up the John Heyer Film Company through which he produced a series of documentaries including The Reef for the Australian Conservation FoundationAustralian Conservation Foundation
The Australian Conservation Foundation is an Australian non-profit, community-based environmental organisation focused on advocacy, policy research and community outreach.-History:...
.
Later career
Heyer lived in England for the rest of his life, but maintained a base in Australia, and regularly travelled between the two countries. In his later years, he continued to be in demand at conferences, such as the Australian International Documentary ConferenceAustralian International Documentary Conference
The Australian International Documentary Conference was established in Adelaide in 1987, with the first conference being held in the Clare Valley, north of Adelaide. It was held biennially from 1987 , but became an annual event in 2003. It is described as being 'run by the industry for the industry'...
and the Australian History and Film Conference, and other speaking engagements for his expertise and knowledge about documentary film-making in particular.
While, after his initial start in the industry, his career was primarily focused on documentary film, he had a long-standing wish to film Xavier Herbert
Xavier Herbert
Xavier Herbert was an Australian writer best known for his Miles Franklin Award-winning novel Poor Fellow My Country . He is considered one of the elder statesmen of Australian literature...
's Capricornia
Capricornia (novel)
Capricornia is a novel by Xavier Herbert. Like his later work considered by many a masterpiece, the Miles Franklin Award winning Poor Fellow My Country, it provides a fictional account of life in 'Capricornia', a place clearly modelled specifically on Australia's Northern Territory, and to a...
, one which he was not able to realise before his death in 2001.
Style
Academics and critics have written extensively on his influences, citing particularly his work with Harry Watt on The Overlanders (1944–1945), his training in the Grierson tradition under Stanley Hawes at the Australian National Film Board (1945 1948), and his interest in the British, Russian and American documentaries of the 1930s and 1940s. All of these combine to create what Moran describes as "a distinctive Heyer signature. On the one hand a populism and a commitment to postwar reconstruction ... yet there is also a marked pictorialism. The images are frequently cut together into dynamic montage sequences, the rhythm of the soundtrack controlling and orchestrating the rhythm of the cutting".His most significant films include The Cane-cutters and The Valley is Ours, made for the Australian National Film Board and both screened at the 1949 Cannes Film Festival, and the award-winning The Back of Beyond. These films are good examples of the way Heyer engaged "the aesthetic strategies of [the] international documentary movement filtered through a particular Australian creative imagination".
In 1982, Heyer said "A documentary film increases understanding of the subject and brings out its meaning or significance. At best it enlightens and stimulates; at worst it deceives. It must necessarily be highly creative, but to limit it to the creative treatment of actuality is inadequate. Whether or not it involves reality is unimportant: the essential thing is that it achieve its objective". In other words, Heyer believed that documentary had to tell the truth about its subject but that it could use any of the tools at its disposal: re-enactment, drama, history, science. This was something he had demonstrated, to both critical and popular acclaim, in The Back of Beyond in 1954, and it remained his driving philosophy.
Awards and recognition
Heyer's films garnered over 20 awards at various international film festivals. The following list represents a small sample of these awards and of other recognition he received:- 1954: Grand Prix Assoluto at the Venice BiennaleVenice BiennaleThe Venice Biennale is a major contemporary art exhibition that takes place once every two years in Venice, Italy. The Venice Film Festival is part of it. So too is the Venice Biennale of Architecture, which is held in even years...
for The Back of BeyondThe Back of BeyondThe Back of Beyond is a feature-length award-winning Australian documentary film produced and directed by John Heyer for the Shell Film Unit. In terms of breadth of distribution, awards garnered, and critical response, it is Heyer's most successful film... - 1958: AFI AwardAustralian Film Institute AwardsThe Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts Award, known as the AACTA Award , is an accolade presented annually by the Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts . The awards recognize excellence of professionals in the film industry and television industry, including directors,...
: Silver Medallion (Open) for The Forerunner - 1958: Kodak Festival Award at the Melbourne Film Festival for The Forerunner
- 1958: Trophy presented by the University of Padua International Scientific Film Festival for The Forerunner
- 1970: OBE
- 1983: Retrospectives of his films at the Melbourne and Sydney Film Festivals
- 1997: OAM (Medal of the Order of Australia)Order of AustraliaThe Order of Australia is an order of chivalry established on 14 February 1975 by Elizabeth II, Queen of Australia, "for the purpose of according recognition to Australian citizens and other persons for achievement or for meritorious service"...
- 1999: Stanley Hawes Award for services to Australian documentary
Selected filmography
Note that the dates cited below may vary in different sources; note also that the terminology used for role attribution in documentary film is not always clearly articulated so that such terms as 'producer' and 'director' listed here may not necessarily be those used on the work itself. Works not listed include many of the short advertisements/commercials he produced during his career, both for Shell and through his own company.The early years
- Heritage (General hand, 1935)
- Thoroughbred (General hand, 1936)
- White Death (Sound recordist, 1936)
- Holiday (Producer, 1939)
- 2000 Below (Director and Scriptwriter, 1939)
- Forty Thousand Horsemen (Cinematographer, 1940)
- It Wasn't Luck (Director and Scriptwriter, 1940)
- New Pastures (Director and Scriptwriter, 1940)
- Indonesia Calling (Camera for the scene which became the opening sequence, 1945)
- Jungle Conquest (Producer, Director and Scriptwriter, 1946)
The Australian National Film Board Years
- Native Earth (Producer, Director and Scriptwriter, 1946)
- The Overlanders (Second Unit Director and Scriptwriter, 1946)
- Born in the Sun (Producer and Director, 1947)
- Journey of a Nation (Producer and Director, 1947)
- Lamb: The Story of the Fat Lamb Industry in Australia (Producer, 1947)
- Men and Mobs (Producer and Director, 1947)
- Born in the Sun (Producer and Director, 1948)
- The Cane Cutters (Producer, 1948)
- Knowledge Unlimited (Producer and Director, 1948)
- Turn the Soil (Producer and Director, 1948)
- The Valley is Ours (Director and Scriptwriter, 1948) Watch the video
- Kill As We Go (1948)
The Shell Years
- Shellubrication (Producer and Director, 1951)
- Saving Petrol: Correct Driving (Producer, 1952)
- Rankin's Springs is West (Producer, 1954)
- The Back of Beyond (Producer, Director, Scriptwriter, Dialogue/Narration, 1954)
- Getting out of Trouble (Producer, 1954)
- On Stream (Producer, 1954)
- Playing with Water (Director, 1955)
- Let's Go (Producer and Director, 1956)
- Thrill Drivers (Producer, 1956)
- Saving Petrol: Correct Lubrication (Producer, 1956)
- Saving Petrol: Correct Maintenance (Producer, 1956)
- The Forerunner (Director, 1957)
- Ball and Chain (Director, 1957)
- City of Geelong (Producer, 1957)
- Paving the Way (Producer, 1957)
- Shell Paying Bay (Producer, 1958) OR The Paying Bay
- Arid Lands (Producer and Director, 1960)
- This is it (Producer, c.1960)
- Tumut Pond (Producer and Director, 1962)
The Later Years
- Race Day (Producer, 1966)
- Infinite Pacific (Producer, 1969)
- Visible Manifestations (Director, 1975)
- The South Seas (Director, 1976)
- The Reef (Producer, Director and Scriptwriter, 1977)
- Hatta the Oasis (Producer and Scriptwriter, 1980)
- Mina Jebel Ali (Director, 1980)
- Dubai: State of Change (Director, 1980)
- Explorer Safari (Director, 1985)
- The Reef Builders (Producer, 1985)
Further reading
- Cunningham, Stuart (1987) "To go back and beyond" in Continuum: The Australian journal of media & culture Vol. 2 No. 1
- Lansell, Russell and Beilby, Peter (ed) (1982) The documentary film in Australia North Melbourne, Cinema Papers
- O’Regan, Tom (1987b) "On The Back of Beyond : Interview with Ross Gibson" in Continuum : The Australian journal of media & culture Vol. 1 No. 1