Joan Long

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Joan Long

AM
Born
Joan Dorothy Boundy

20 July 1925
Rushworth, Victoria, Australia
Died2 January 1999 (aged 73)
Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
Occupation(s)Writer, Producer, Director
SpouseMartin Long
Children4

Joan Long

Member of the Order of Australia
in 1980 for her services to the film industry.

Early life

Joan Dorothy Boundy was born on 20 July 1925 in Rushworth, Victoria,[1] the daughter of Katherine and Frances Boundy. She was brought up in a Methodist family and shared her childhood with four other siblings. Long went to Geelong High School and graduated from the University of Melbourne with a bachelor's degree in History. In 1948, Long made the decision of moving to Sydney, in order to pursue a career in film.[2]

She started working at the

Australian National Film Board. She was working as a secretary. Her main role was to assist producer Stanley Hawse.[2][3]

She eventually started her direction debut in 1952 with a series of short documentaries and, in the process, became the second woman, after Catherine Duncan, to take on this role in the

Commonwealth Film Unit, previously known as the Australian National Film Board.[4][5]

After her marriage with Martin Long, she went on a 10-year break, in order to care for her two stepsons and her own son and daughter. She eventually came back to the Commonwealth Film Unit, and with her family in mind, she opted to work as a freelance scriptwriter rather than a full-time employee. However it was a decision that was frowned upon by certain people in her entourage: ¨What they said to my face was only a fraction of what they said to my back – you still get people who criticize the fact [that] you work […] No one questions a man's right to work or that his career should go on. Whereas women have had to justify their right to work.¨ [6][7]

Career

1968-71: The Pictures That Moved, Paddington Lace and The Passionate Industry

Both The Pictures That Moved: Australian Cinema 1896-1920 (1968) and The Passionate Industry: 1920-1930 (1971) were documentaries portraying the evolution of the Australian film industry the movies were a compilation of different excerpts of newsreels, features and photographs of the addressed periods. She also interviewed several actors who played or participated in these pictures.[7][8][9] The two films were chosen to be among the Official Selections (Out of Competition category), at the 30th Cannes Film Festival, in 1977.[10]

She also wrote Paddington Lace (1970),

artist colony".[12]

1975-77: Caddie and The Picture Show Man

She eventually left the Film Unit and the documentary field in order to pursue the fiction route.[6]

Joan Long wrote the screenplay for Caddie (1976), which was based on the autobiography of Catherine ''Caddie'' Edmond, Caddie, A Sydney Barmaid. The story loosely recounted the life of Caddie Marsh as she desperately tried to hold her life together by getting a job as a barmaid in order to support her two kids, during the Great Depression in Sydney.[13] The film is both a critique of the male-dominated society and its scrutiny on women, and a highlight on the implications of being a working-class single-mother during this period in time.[14][15]

The film was done as part of Australia's participation in the

18th Australian Film Institute Awards. Long's script was nominated for Best Original Screenplay, but lost to Fred Schepisi's The Devil's Playground.[17]

Long founded the company Limelight Productions in 1975 and under its name, she continued to tackle subject matters related to the film industry. She started working on a script revolving around the adventure of a picture showman who travelled across the countryside to bring motion pictures to those who could not access them. The screenplay eventually became The Picture Show Man (1977) which she also worked on as producer.[18] Additionally, the film was also her reaction to Caddie, "[she] wanted something light-hearted"[6] that would get her mind away from the heaviness of her previous work.

1978-1988: Transition from writer to producer

After The Picture Show Man, Long continued on her path as a producer and worked on various other films, with an emphasis on social justice and gender issues.[4]

She worked as a producer with Margaret Kelly on Puberty Blues (1981), an adaptation of Kathy Lette and Gabrielle Carey's book of the same name. The film is a coming of age story that follows two teenage girls in their important life stage. The feature also tackles different themes such as sex, drugs, school, etc.[4][19]

She was involved in

Tom Keneally on board to help forge a story. Eventually, on their eleventh draft, they got green-lit with a story that depicted the Polish post-war refugees' journey to Australia, after World War II, focusing on a time that greatly shaped the nation's current multiculturalism. The film addressed different themes such as identity, assimilation, culture, and ultimately, revolved around the refugees’ relation and interaction with their new home. The film screened throughout Australia, Europe and the United States.[20][21]

Other roles

Long became the first female president of the

Australian Writers Guild (AWG), in 1972.[22] During that same year's inquiry into the Australian film industry, Long who represented the AWG, was one of the two women present among the 99 witnesses, and was, at one point, mistaken for a secretary by one of the male witnesses.[2]

She had also made it a mission of hers to preserve the industry's history. In 1984, she was appointed head for the National Film and Sound Archive's first Advisory Committee.[4]

Recognition

Long received three

AWGIE Award, for the films The Pictures That Moved: Australian Cinema 1896-1920 (1968) and The Passionate Industry: 1920-1930 (1971), and Paddington Lace (1970).[6]

In recognition of her contributions, she received the AWG's

Women in Film and Television, in 1997.[1][2]

Personal life

She married Martin Long, and they had a son and a daughter, and their family included his two sons.[1]

Death and legacy

Long died in Sydney on 2 January 1999.[1]

Isabella).[1]

Select credits

References

  1. ^ a b c d e Buckley, Anthony (1 March 1999). "Obituary: Joan Long". The Independent. Retrieved 23 December 2023.
  2. ^ a b c d Henningham, Nikki. "Long, Joan (1925 - 1999)". The Encyclopedia of Women and Leadership in Twentieth-Century Australia. Retrieved 13 March 2016.
  3. ^ a b Turnour, Quentin. "Work Never Done: Australian Women Filmworkers from the 1930s to 1970s". Sense of Cinema. Retrieved 11 March 2016.
  4. ^ a b c d "Joan Long (1925-1999)". National Film and Sound Archive. Retrieved 11 March 2016.[permanent dead link]
  5. ^ Cunningham , Stuart and Elizabeth Jacka. Australian Television and International Mediascapes. Cambridge University Press, 1996. 111. Retrieved 11 March 2016.
  6. ^ a b c d Knuckey, Marie. "Conversation with Marie Knuckey". The Sydney Morning Herald: 8.
  7. ^ a b "The Reel Joan of Art". The Sydney Morning Herald: 12. 6 October 1997. Retrieved 28 March 2016.
  8. ^ "Pictures That Moved, The 1896-1920". National Film and Sound Archive. Retrieved 28 March 2016.
  9. ^ "Passionate Industry 1920-1930, The". National Film and Sound Archive. Retrieved 28 March 2016.
  10. ^ Angly, Patricia (15 June 1977). "Joan Long: three films at Cannes". The Australian Women's Weekly: 8. Retrieved 28 March 2016.
  11. ^ Paddington Lace
  12. ^ "Paddington Lace (1970)". BFI. Archived from the original on 18 April 2016. Retrieved 28 March 2016.
  13. ^ Musgrove, Nan. "Caddie : The True Story of A Sydney Barmaid" The Australian's Women's Weekly (Trove) 14 April 1976: 42-43. Retrieved 10 March 2016.
  14. ^ McDonald, Douglas. "The Villain of 'Caddie' is society" The Canberra Times (Trove) 22 June 1976: 11. Retrieved 11 March 2016
  15. ^ Cusack, Dymphna, et al. Yarn Spinners: A Story in Letters. Univ. of Queensland Press, 2001. 403. Retrieved 11 March 2016.
  16. ^ Alexander, Sandra. "The Women's Film Fund" Filmnews (Trove) 1 March 1977: 1. Retrieved 10 March 2016
  17. ^ "Past Winners (1970-1979)". AACTA. Retrieved 11 March 2016.
  18. ^ "The Picture Show Man (1977)". National Film and Sound Archive. Retrieved 11 March 2016.[permanent dead link]
  19. ^ Dougal, MacDonald (2 February 1982). "Not nice, but a realistic view". The Canberra Times (Trove): 19. Retrieved 27 March 2016.
  20. ^ Simpson, Catherine and Renata Murawska. Diasporas of Australian Cinema. Intellect Books, 2009. 140-141.
  21. ^ Leuner, Beata. Migration, Multiculturalism and Language Maintenance in Australia: Polish Migration to Melbourne in the 1980s. Peter Lang, 2008. 24. Retrieved 11 March 2016.
  22. ^ Roncoli, Gina. "A History of the Australian Writers' Guild". AWG. Retrieved 13 March 2016.

External links

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Joan_Long&oldid=1212500384"