Richard Mason (film producer)
Richard Mason (1926–2002) was an Australian film producer and director.
He was born on the South Coast of New South Wales, the son of a parson. During the Second World War he guarded Italian Prisoners of War.[1]
After the war he joined Sydney's Mercury Theatre as an actor, co-starring in Molière's play, The Imaginary Invalid. However, he soon moved to film, starting as a wardrobe assistant for Eureka Stockade (1949), then as an assistant at the Colorfilm lab, before joining the Commonwealth Film Unit (now Screen Australia).[1]
He remained with the Commonwealth Film Unit, which then became Film Australia, for many years before resigning in 1978 over the Australian government's political censorship of The Unknown Industrial Prisoner.[1]
Once independent, he produced Winter of Our Dreams (1981), Far East (1982), and One Night Stand (1984).[1]
Mason died in Sydney on 22 November 2002.[1]
A focus on Australian Aborigines[edit]
A series of short films exploring themes of Aboriginal life in Australia in the 20th century:[2]
- The Change at Groote (1968), a film exploring how an isolated Aboriginal community (of Groote Eylandt in the Gulf of Carpentaria) coped with the discovery of Manganese on their land.
- The Islanders (1968), documenting the lives of the Torres Strait Islander people.
- God Knows Why But It Works (1976); an Australian doctor strives to help the local Aboriginal population.
References[edit]
- ^ a b c d e "Richard Mason". Variety. Retrieved 3 September 2015.
- ^ "Film Australia Indigenous Studies Catalogue" (PDF). Screen Australia. Retrieved 3 September 2015.
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