Stanley Gilbert Hawes (19 January 1905 – 19 April 1991) 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 is best known as the Producer-in-Chief (1946–1969) of the Australian Government's filmmaking body, which was named, in 1945, the Australian National Film Board, and then, in 1956, the Commonwealth Film Unit. In 1973, after he retired, it became

Film Australia Film Australia was a company established by the Government of Australia to produce films about Australia in 1973. Its predecessors were the Cinema and Photographic Branch (1913–38), the Australian National Film Board (1939–1955, under diff ...

Career

He started work in 1922 as a committee clerk with the City of Birmingham Corporation, but started his film career in 1931, when he co-founded the Birmingham Film Society. He arrived in Australia in 1946, from the

National Film Board of Canada The National Film Board of Canada (NFB; french: Office national du film du Canada (ONF)) is Canada's public film and digital media producer and distributor. An agency of the Government of Canada, the NFB produces and distributes documentary f ...

, to take up a position as Producer-in-Chief with the Australian National Film Board, initially as a temporary assignment but made permanent within a couple of years of his arrival. Hawes is regarded as working primarily in the classical style of documentary he learnt with

John Grierson John Grierson (26 April 1898 – 19 February 1972) was a pioneering Scottish documentary maker, often considered the father of British and Canadian documentary film. In 1926, Grierson coined the term "documentary" in a review of Robert J. Fl ...

in the 1930s. As Moran writes, 'Films such as ''

School in the Mailbox ''School in the Mailbox'' is a 1947 Australian short documentary film directed by Stanley Hawes. It was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Documentary Short. References External links * *, posted by the National Film and Sound Archive ...

'', ''

Flight Plan Flight plans are documents filed by a pilot or flight dispatcher with the local Air Navigation Service Provider (e.g. the FAA in the United States) prior to departure which indicate the plane's planned route or flight path. Flight plan form ...

'' and '' The Queen in Australia'' make clear his aesthetic preference for the classic documentary rather than for drama or the more evocative, poetic forms of documentary'. He was elected a member of the board in 1952 and became a member of the British Film Academy the following year. He joined UNESCO in 1958 and chaired the National Film Theatre of Australia between 1970 and 1974. In 1971 he was appointed to chair the Film Board of Review.

Awards

In 1970 he was awarded an MBE and the Raymond Longford Award from the

Australian Film Institute The Australian Film Institute (AFI) was founded in 1958 as a non-profit organisation devoted to developing an active film culture in Australia and fostering engagement between the general public and the Australian film industry. It is responsi ...

The Stanley Hawes Award

The $5,000 Film Australia Stanley Hawes Award was established in 1997 to honour Stanley Hawes as first Producer-in-Chief of the Australian National Film Board and Commonwealth Film Unit. The award recognises the significant support he gave independent filmmakers in the documentary sector and is thus awarded to a person or organisation that makes an outstanding contribution to the documentary sector in Australia. The award is announced annually at the

Australian International Documentary Conference The Australian International Documentary Conference (AIDC) is an Australian conference for the promotion of documentary, factual and unscripted screen content, regarded as one of two major national conferences for filmmakers. History First esta ...

. Awardees: *1997 Graham Chase *1999

John Heyer John Whitefoord Heyer (14 September 1916 – 19 June 2001) was an Australian documentary filmmaker, who is often described as the father of Australian documentary film.''Oxford companion to Australian film'' (1999) John Heyer spent the majo ...

*2001 Pat Fiske *2003 Stewart Young *2004 Robin Hughes *2005 CAAMA ( Central Australian Aboriginal Media Association) Productions *2006 John Hughes *2007 Michael Gissing *2008 David Bradbury *2009

Bob Connolly Bob Connolly is an Australian film director, cinematographer and author. He is best known for his documentaries produced over the past 30 years, including '' The Highlands Trilogy'' and ''Rats in the Ranks''. More recent films include '' Facing ...

*2010 Tom Zubrycki *2011

Rachel Perkins Rachel Perkins (born 1970) is an Australian film and television director, producer, and screenwriter. She directed the films '' Radiance'' (1998), '' One Night the Moon'' (2001), '' Bran Nue Dae'' (2010), and ''Jasper Jones'' (2017). Perkins is ...

*2012 Julia Overton *2013 Documentary Australia Foundation *2014 Chris Hilton *2015 Pauline Clague *2016 Sonya Pemberton *2017 Brian Beaton *2018 Curtis Levy *2019 James Bradley *2020

Janine Hosking Janine Hosking is an Australian documentary film maker. She won a Walkley Award in 1997 for a Seven Network television report titled ''Tjandamurra'', the story of Tjandamurra O'Shane. Hosking has made several other well received documentarie ...

*2021 Michaela Perske *2022 David Tiley

Selected filmography

Producer

*''Today We Live: A Film of Life in Britain'' (1937, Associate producer) *''Here is the Land'' (1937) *''Timber Front'' (1940) *''Heroes of the Atlantic'' (1941) *''

Women are Warriors ''Women Are Warriors'' is a 14-minute 1942 Canadian documentary film, made by the National Film Board of Canada (NFB) as part of the wartime ''Canada Carries On'' series, and dealt with women in war. The film was produced by Raymond Spottiswoode a ...

'' (1942) *'' Crocodile Hunters'' (1949) *''Darwin-Doorway to Australia'' (1949) *''Australia's Greatest River'' (1950) *''Know Your Children'' (1950) *''The Shearers'' (1950) *''Bush Policemen'' (1952) *''Snowy Waters'' (1952) *''

Mike and Stefani Mike and Stefani is a 1952 Australian drama film produced by the Film Division, News and Information Bureau of the Department of Interior for the Department of Immigration. Made to counter criticism of Australia's post-war immigration policy th ...

'' (1952) *''

Outback Patrol ''Outback Patrol'' is a 1952 documentary about the patrol of a policeman in the Northern Territory outback, Constable Robert Darkin, and the various tasks he must perform. The movie has since become a study text in Australian secondary schools. R ...

'' (1952) *''Across the Frontiers'' (1953) *''

Bush Policeman ''Bush Policemen'' is a 10-minute Australian documentary about the work done by a policeman in the Australian Outback. It was released to cinemas as a supporting feature. Robinson said it was "really the story of a river operating policeman." I ...

'' (1953) *'' The Queen in Australia'' (1954) *''Melbourne Olympic City'' (1956) *''

Bring out a Briton ''Bring Out a Briton'' was an Australian propaganda short film directed by Lee Robinson and presented by Chips Rafferty. It was made by the Australian government to promote British emigration to Australia as part of the "Bring Out a Briton" camp ...

'' (1958) *''Welcome Your Majesty'' (1958) *''The Queen Returns'' (1963) *''The Presidential Tour'' (1966) *''Expo 70 series'' (1970)

Director

*''The G.B.I. Geography of Scotland: Water Power'' (1937) *''Here is the Land'' (1937) *''Man into Monkey'' (1938) *''Speed the Plough'' (1939) *''

The Home Front A home front or homefront is the civilian populace of the nation at war as an active support system for its military. * American Civil War ** Economic history of the American Civil War ** Economy of the Confederate States of America * Home front ...

'' (1940

*''Maple Sugar Time'' (1941) *'' The World in Action: The Invasion of North Africa'' (1942) *''

'' (1946) *''Building for Tomorrow'' (1947) *''

'' (1950) *'' The Queen in Australia'' (1954) *''Children's Theatre'' (1961)

Editor

*''Dry Dock'' (1936)

Notes

References

Moran, Albert (1987) 'Documentary Consensus: The Commonwealth Film Unit: 1954–1964' in O'Regan, T and Shoesmith, B (eds) ''History on/and/in Film'', Perth, History & Film Association of Australia
*Moran, Albert (1991) ''Projecting Australia: government film since 1945'' Sydney, Currency Press

External links

Stanley Hawes at the National Film and Sound ArchiveStanley Hawes at the National Film Board of Canada
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hawes, Stanley 1905 births 1991 deaths Australian documentary film producers British emigrants to Australia British documentary film producers British expatriates in Canada