Jonathan Dawson
Encyclopedia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
n academic, filmmaker, film and literary critic and broadcaster.
Background
Jonathan Dawson was born in MelbourneMelbourne
Melbourne is the capital and most populous city in the state of Victoria, and the second most populous city in Australia. The Melbourne City Centre is the hub of the greater metropolitan area and the Census statistical division—of which "Melbourne" is the common name. As of June 2009, the greater...
. At Melbourne University he graduated in English Honours and won awards for acting and two One Act Playwriting Competitions (The World Record Club Award). Published many poems and short stories and, later, as a poetry performer.was often accompanied by guitarist Glen Tomassetti at La Mama. His play, A Cup of Tea with Mrs Groom was performed at La Mama directed by Graeme Blundell
Graeme Blundell
Graeme Blundell is an Australian actor, director, producer, writer and biographer.Blundell was born in Melbourne; he grew up in Clifton Hill, a suburb of Melbourne...
. He also created two of the most successful university revues of the decade (1960s).
Australian Broadcasting Corporation
The Australian Broadcasting Corporation, commonly referred to as "the ABC" , is Australia's national public broadcaster...
as a Trainee Radio and TV Producer/Director and directed many radio dramas and education programmes as well as dramas and documentaries. He left the ABC to join Crawford Productions
Crawford Productions
Crawford Productions is an Australian television production company founded by Hector Crawford; the present incarnation of the company, Crawfords Australia, is now a subsidiary of the WIN television corporation.-History:...
as a writer director on Homicide and later Division 4
Division 4
Division 4 was an Australian television police drama series made by Crawford Productions for the Nine Network between 1969 and 1975 for 300 episodes....
. He then went on to Channel 9
Nine Network
The Nine Network , is an Australian television network with headquarters based in Willoughby, a suburb located on the North Shore of Sydney. For 50 years since television's inception in Australia, between 1956 and 2006, it was the most watched television network in Australia...
in Sydney
Sydney
Sydney is the most populous city in Australia and the state capital of New South Wales. Sydney is located on Australia's south-east coast of the Tasman Sea. As of June 2010, the greater metropolitan area had an approximate population of 4.6 million people...
to direct The Link Men
The Link Men
The Link Men was an Australian television series shown in 1970.The series was the first drama series made in-house by the Nine Network as part of an attempt to rival the cop shows produced by Crawford Productions such as Homicide and Division 4. The Link Men starred Kevin Miles, Bruce Montague and...
and write for other series including Rush and The Box
The Box (TV series)
The Box was an Australian soap opera than ran on Network Ten from February 1974 until 1977.The Box was produced by Crawford Productions who at the time was having great success producing police procedural television series in Australia...
.
He continued to publish poetry and short stories, but left the fulltime film industry to set up the new media studies department and screenwriting courses at the University of Canberra
University of Canberra
Over the years the Stone Day program has gradually become larger and larger, taking up a whole week and now Stonefest is one of Australia's most popular music festivals. The first foundation celebrations were held in 1971. In 1973 Stone Day celebrations were held over two days, which was expanded...
, leaving there to help set up Griffith University
Griffith University
Griffith University is a public, coeducational, research university located in the southeastern region of the Australian state of Queensland. The university has five satellite campuses located in the Gold Coast, Logan City and in the Brisbane suburbs of Mount Gravatt, Nathan and South Bank. Current...
's Foundation Year in 1975 where he worked to create the then new screen studies and production courses now internationally acknowledged , a series of pioneering new degree and postgraduate programmes that have produced and mentored many of the leading film scholars and film makers in international screen studies today.
Jonathan Dawson has two children: Patrick (born 1/2/1971) and Olivia (born 8/10/1972). He now lives and writes full time in Hobart, Tasmania with his wife, fashion designer and writer, Felicity Dawson.
1960s, 1970s work
In the 1960s, Dawson wrote key policy essays (Overland (literary journal)Overland (literary journal)
Overland is an Australian literary and cultural journal. It was founded in 1954, under the auspices of the Realist Writers Group in Melbourne, Australia, with Stephen Murray-Smith being the first editor. The current editor is Jeff Sparrow. The journal has a left-wing orientation.- External links :*...
etc.) on setting up a film industry , as well as becoming Victorian Chair of Australian Writers Guild on a platform of strong lobbying for local industry. He also began his parallel career as a public speaker and theorist on media and film policy issues, lecturing widely in the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
and Ireland
Ireland
Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...
.
While in Canberra he was appointed Art Director for the ground breaking 36 screen audio visual, forerunner of contemporary 'public installation' works, at the Australian Pavilion for Expo '74
Expo '74
Expo '74 was an environmentally themed world's fair in Spokane, Washington that ran from 4 May to 3 November 1974.Expo '74, in proclaiming itself the first exposition on an environmental theme, distanced itself from the more techno-centric world's fairs of the sixties...
in Spokane, Washington
Spokane, Washington
Spokane is a city located in the Northwestern United States in the state of Washington. It is the largest city of Spokane County of which it is also the county seat, and the metropolitan center of the Inland Northwest region...
. At this time he also began reviewing films for the ABC. He also wrote a weekly crime and thriller review column in The Canberra Times
The Canberra Times
The Canberra Times newspaper was founded in 1926 in Canberra, Australia by Arthur Shakespeare.It was the second paper to be printed in the city, the first being The Federal Capital Pioneer. The paper was sold to the Fairfax group in the 1960s by Arthur Shakespeare on the condition that it continue...
(1972-5), and still reviews crime, thriller and cinema reference books in the Hobart Mercury (2000–2010).
Dawson continued to work as a writer director, primarily on commercials for clients like Qantas
Qantas
Qantas Airways Limited is the flag carrier of Australia. The name was originally "QANTAS", an initialism for "Queensland and Northern Territory Aerial Services". Nicknamed "The Flying Kangaroo", the airline is based in Sydney, with its main hub at Sydney Airport...
, Nestle
Nestlé
Nestlé S.A. is the world's largest food and nutrition company. Founded and headquartered in Vevey, Switzerland, Nestlé originated in a 1905 merger of the Anglo-Swiss Milk Company, established in 1867 by brothers George Page and Charles Page, and Farine Lactée Henri Nestlé, founded in 1866 by Henri...
, Volvo
Volvo
AB Volvo is a Swedish builder of commercial vehicles, including trucks, buses and construction equipment. Volvo also supplies marine and industrial drive systems, aerospace components and financial services...
, as well as for many government election campaigns, creating a new style of "presidential" launch for the Federal Labor Party's successful national campaigns in 1983 and 1985 as well as directing TV commercials for Premier Neville Wran
Neville Wran
Neville Kenneth Wran, AC, CNZM, QC was the Premier of New South Wales from 1976 until 1986. He was National President of the Australian Labor Party from 1980 to 1986 and Chairman of both the Lionel Murphy Foundation and the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation from 1986...
in New South Wales.
1980s, 1990s, and beyond
Dawson wrote and directed documentaries and documentary specials for the ABC (Australian Broadcasting CorporationAustralian Broadcasting Corporation
The Australian Broadcasting Corporation, commonly referred to as "the ABC" , is Australia's national public broadcaster...
) and commercial networks and the feature film Ginger Meggs
Ginger Meggs
Ginger Meggs, a popular long-run Australian comic strip, was created in the early 1920s by Jimmy Bancks. The strip follows the escapades of a red-haired prepubescent mischief-maker who lives in an inner suburban working-class household....
in 1982. He was appointed to the ABC's first National Advisory Council after the Incorporation of the ABC in 1983, serving for three terms until 1990. While on the Council, he produced many papers for working parties on various programme areas and audiences as well as helping prepare and edit the new ABC Charter produced by the ABC Board. He has continued to present papers and publish widely on Public Broadcasting and the ABC as well as convening and addressing rallies supporting the ABC and ABC staff.
Screenwriting
Screenwriting is the art and craft of writing scripts for mass media such as feature films, television productions or video games. It is a freelance profession....
http://www.amazon.com/Screenwriting-Manual-Jonathan-Dawson/dp/0195508327 in 2000. As a film maker who welcomed emerging writers, directors and students on his film shoots, he made contributions to the growing film industry of the 1970s right through to his pro bono political commercials on his retirement to Tasmania
Tasmania
Tasmania is an Australian island and state. It is south of the continent, separated by Bass Strait. The state includes the island of Tasmania—the 26th largest island in the world—and the surrounding islands. The state has a population of 507,626 , of whom almost half reside in the greater Hobart...
.
With his 1980 Film Australia documentary The Myth Makershttp://www.imdb.com/title/tt0389187/, and later the Japan Prize
Japan Prize
is awarded to people from all parts of the world whose "original and outstanding achievements in science and technology are recognized as having advanced the frontiers of knowledge and served the cause of peace and prosperity for mankind."- Explanation :...
-awarded TV Open Learning series Images of Australia,(Australian Broadcasting Corporation
Australian Broadcasting Corporation
The Australian Broadcasting Corporation, commonly referred to as "the ABC" , is Australia's national public broadcaster...
), Dawson opened up debate in the 1990s on national identity and the interconnected effects of literature, painting, cartooning, film, propaganda and the arts to constructing and projecting national self-images. This work later translated into many national university programs as well as several national TV series, on SBS (Special Broadcasting Service
Special Broadcasting Service
The Special Broadcasting Service is a hybrid-funded Australian public broadcasting radio and television network. The stated purpose of SBS is "to provide multilingual and multicultural radio and television services that inform, educate and entertain all Australians and, in doing so, reflect...
) and the ABC (Australian Broadcasting Corporation
Australian Broadcasting Corporation
The Australian Broadcasting Corporation, commonly referred to as "the ABC" , is Australia's national public broadcaster...
) following up the intellectual leads sketched in all his earlier work as a teacher and film maker.
At Griffith University, after eight years as Vice Chair of the School of Humanities, he helped plan and then headed up the multi campus Film School (now the Griffith Film School, serving as the School's Foundation Chair and Associate Professor until his retirement in 2000.
From 1972 he had also been a film reviewer for the ABC and occasionally commercial and radio and TV, hosting his own Film TV programme, Cuts, on ABC TV
ABC Television
ABC Television is a service of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation launched in 1956. As a public broadcasting broadcaster, the ABC provides four non-commercial channels within Australia, and a partially advertising-funded satellite channel overseas....
Queensland from 1975. A remarkable number of his students are now active in Universities from the Sorbonne
Sorbonne
The Sorbonne is an edifice of the Latin Quarter, in Paris, France, which has been the historical house of the former University of Paris...
to UCLA and work in the film industry worldwide.
After retiring to Tasmania, Dawson created a radio film chat show on ABC
Australian Broadcasting Corporation
The Australian Broadcasting Corporation, commonly referred to as "the ABC" , is Australia's national public broadcaster...
Radio with Tim Cox http://www.abc.net.au/hobart/topics/arts-and-entertainment/film-movies/ as well as writing for the ABC website and contributing popular weekly podcasts (http://www.abc.net.au/hobart/programs/podcasts.htm) on film and popular culture. As Honorary Research Associate at the University of Tasmania
University of Tasmania
The University of Tasmania is a medium-sized public Australian university based in Tasmania, Australia. Officially founded on 1 January 1890, it was the fourth university to be established in nineteenth-century Australia...
he also introduced contemporary cinema studies courses.
He continues to give many public lectures, addressing the Royal Australian Institute of Architects
Royal Australian Institute of Architects
The Australian Institute of Architects is a professional body for architects in Australia. Until August 2008, the Institute traded as the "Royal Australian Institute of Architects", which remains its official name....
annual awards as Keynote Speaker (2004) on film and architecture as well as creating a series of new adult education courses on screenwriting and contemporary film. In association with Screen Tasmania http://www.screen.tas.gov.au/ and The State Cinema http://www.statecinema.com.au/ he has curated and lectured on film theory and history, hosting movie seasons with themes from Independent Movies to new French Film , Australian Film and Documentary. His regular audiences for these short lecture/film screenings include government ministers,department heads and many film professionals. He also wrote a weekly popular culture column (2002-5) and contributes regular book reviews to the Hobart Mercury http://www.themercury.com.au/ and contributes key essays, Metro http://www.metromagazine.com.au/index.html, Screen Education http://www.metromagazine.com.au/screen_ed/index.html and for the online journal sensesofcinema http://www.sensesofcinema.com/, voted (2007) by The Times
The Times
The Times is a British daily national newspaper, first published in London in 1785 under the title The Daily Universal Register . The Times and its sister paper The Sunday Times are published by Times Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary since 1981 of News International...
as the world's finest international online film journal and contributing major essays to the Dartmouth Medal
Dartmouth Medal
The Dartmouth Medal of the American Library Association is awarded annually to a reference work of outstanding quality and significance, published during the previous calendar year.-History:...
award winning Concise Encyclopedia of the Documentary Film http://www.routledge.com/books/details/9781579584450/ by Ian Aitken
Ian Aitken
Ian Aitken is a British journalist and political commentator. He was educated at the King Alfred School, Hampstead, Lincoln College, Oxford and the LSE. He served in the Fleet Air Arm from 1945-48....
, Routledge
Routledge
Routledge is a British publishing house which has operated under a succession of company names and latterly as an academic imprint. Its origins may be traced back to the 19th-century London bookseller George Routledge...
/Taylor & Francis
Taylor & Francis
Taylor & Francis Group is an international company originating in the United Kingdom which publishes books and academic journals. It is a division of Informa plc, a United Kingdom-based publisher and conference company.- Overview :...
(2006) .
In November 2009 he was elected an Honorary Life Member of the Australian Cinematographer's Society (ACS).
Since 2009 (and continuing) Dawson has acted as Script Editor for short drama and documentary film projects at Wide Angle Tasmania
Wide Angle Tasmania
Wide Angle Tasmania is a not-for-profit screen resource organisation that supports emerging and mid-career screen practitioners with access to training, equipment hire, networking, screenings, forums and production support....
http://www.wideangle.org.au/.
He has been Patron and Senior Judge of the MyState Film Festival since its inauguration in 2003 http://mystatefilmfestival.com.au/about/judges.aspx.
Feature fims by Jonathan Dawson
- Final Cut, writer, 90 mins, 1980< http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0080737/>
- Ginger MeggsGinger MeggsGinger Meggs, a popular long-run Australian comic strip, was created in the early 1920s by Jimmy Bancks. The strip follows the escapades of a red-haired prepubescent mischief-maker who lives in an inner suburban working-class household....
, director, 100 mins, 1983
Select Feature Documentaries
- Horse on the Seventh Floor,(writer/director,1978)
- The Myth MakersThe Myth MakersThe Myth Makers is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in four weekly parts from 16 October to 6 November 1965. The story is set in Homeric Troy, based on Iliad by Homer...
,(writer/director, 1980)
- The Legend of Fred Paterson, (writer/ director,1996)
- no one can find little girls anymore, writer/producer/ director,1998)
Books by Jonathan Dawson
- Media Production (1974) Melbourne: Thomas Nelson. ISBN 17 004978 7
- Queensland Images (1990) Brisbane: University of Queensland Press. ISBN 0 7022 2331 X
- Screenwriting: a Manual (2000; repr: 2001) Melbourne: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0 19 550832 7
External links
Online Film Criticism (examples):ABC Podcasts by Jonathan Dawson at I-Tunes:
- http://itunes.apple.com/au/podcast/jonathan-dawsons-film-reviews/id121728011
See also:
- http://www.abc.net.au/local/stories/2009/03/30/2530119.htm
- http://www.abc.net.au/rn/perspective/stories/2007/2082013.htm
- http://archive.sensesofcinema.com/contents/01/16/bank.html
- http://archive.sensesofcinema.com/contents/01/14/moulin_rouge.html
- http://www.sensesofcinema.com/2004/cteq/trans_europ_express/
- http://www.roninfilms.com.au/video/0/165/1832207.html