Brian Syron - Film Career

Film Career

In 1970 Syron left Australia for the USA where he took up a position as Attachment / Assistant on the feature film What's Up Doc? directed by Peter Bogdanovich. Syron's next film project was the short film Jeremy and Teapot (1976) starring Patrick Thompson as Jeremy and Syron as Teapot with the Narrator Jack Thompson, shot on location at Thompson's property at Upper Bo Bo, via Ulong, northern New South Wales. The film went on to win Best Film, 1982 Women's International Film/Video Festival, Tucson, Arizona, USA..

Syron was employed on director Peter Weir's feature film The Last Wave (1977) as Consultant and Aboriginal Liaison with international actor Gulpilil and Nandijiwarra Amagula, Walter Amagula, Roy Bara, Cedric Latara, Morris Latara and Athol Compton.

The Australian Film Commission awarded Syron a grant in 1980 for his script Australian Aboriginal Achievers (1980), which was a biographical documentary recounting the achievements of seven leading Aboriginal achievers: actor/historian Gary Foley, potter Thancoupie, artist Jean Jimmi, bureaucrat Charles Perkins, academic Miriam Rose Ungunmeer-Bauman and artists Jimmy Bienderry and Stumpy Martin Jempijimpa. The script never received production funding and was later used as the basis for the Clare Dunn book People Under the Skin - An Irish Immigrant's Experience of Aboriginal Australia.

In 1981, Syron played a small role of "The Neighbour" in The City's Edge (1983) (aka Running Man Edge of the City)", co-written by Robert Merritt the first Australian Indigenous scriptwriter of a feature film and the Nightclub Manager in Coolangatta Gold (1983) on location in Surfers Paradise Queensland.

Backlash (1986) directed and produced by Bill Bennett featured Lydia Miller with Syron in the role of The Executioner or Kadachi Man. Syron and the lead actors were the co-writers of this production although they were uncredited by Bennett. The script improvisation by the actors is confirmed by Encore

"Bill Bennett's "Backlash", for instance, is a film for which the principals improvised their dialogue...in this his latest effort he tested this technique to its limit"

Syron and Rosalie Kunoth Monks (aka Ngarla Kunoth, the star of Jedda in 1956) were employed as Co-Aboriginal Consultants on the television production Naked Under Capricorn (1989) directed by Rob Stewart, produced by Syron's brother-in-law Ray Alchin and starring Nigel Havers.

From 1990 to 1992 Syron directed the first feature film by an Indigenous Australia Jindalee Lady (1992) and is recognised as being the first First Nations director of a feature film. Dr Lowitja O'Donoghue, Chair of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission wrote saying

Mr Syron is held in high esteem by both indigenous and non indigenous Australians for his work as our first indigenous feature film director..He has made a valuable contribution to indigenous art in this country and has been a strong and articulate advocate in the movement to raise and promote the status of indigenous theatre and film as an integral part of Australia's cultural heritage"

In August 1992 Jindalee Lady was invited to screen at the 1992 Inaugural Brisbane International Film Festival as part of the first Charles Chauvel Tribute which was followed by a debate between Indigenous filmmaker Syron and three non Indigenous filmmakers concerning the invisibility of Indigenous above-the-line personnel. In September 1992 Jindalee Lady' was invited to "Dreamspeakers" International Film & Arts Festival, Edmonton, Canada where it was the only and the first feature film to be directed by a First Nations person and was awarded Best Feature Film at the Festival. Following this screening Jindalee Lady was accepted and nominated for the East West Award - Best Film at the 1992 Hawaii International Film Festival (HIFF), Hawaii where Syron gave a paper The Making of an Indigenous Feature Film at the opening of the Festival and the screening of Jindalee Lady. Syron was joined by leading lady Lydia Miller and Musical Director / Composer Bart Willoughby at the HIFF.

Briann Kearney and Syron applied in a joint application for a Literary Fellowship from Australia Council the federal Arts organisation and were awarded $20,000 to co-write "Kicking Down the Doors - a History of Indigenous Filmmaking from 1968 - 1993 including non Indigenous films for and about Indigenous people" based on research collected by Syron for his submission to the 1992 HREOC submission.

Filmography

Production

• What's Up Doc? (1970) - Attachment Assistant (uncredited)
• The Last Wave (1977) - Consultant and Aboriginal Liaison
• Backlash (1986) - Co-scriptwriter (uncredited)
• Bran Nue Dae (1988) - Director
• Naked Under Capricorn (1989) - Co-Aboriginal Consultant
• Jindalee Lady (1992) - Director - co-scriptwriter

Acting

• Jeremy and Teapot (1976) - Teapot
• The City's Edge (1983) - The Neighbour
• Coolangatta Gold (1983) - The Nightclub Manager
• Backlash (1986) - The Executioner