Martha
Ansara, recipient of the Australian Film Institute’s Byron
Kennedy Award (1987), is a documentary filmmaker whose films on
social issues have won international prizes and been screened in
Australia, the UK, Europe and North America. A full member of the
Australian Cinematographer's Society (ACS), Martha was one of the
first women in Australia to work as a cinematographer.
Martha has been a founding member of a number of cultural, women’s
and industry organisations. She is a recipient of the Women’s
Electoral Lobby’s Edna Ryan Award.
In 1999, she was invited to screen her films in a tribute to Australian
Women's Cinema at the Creteil International Women's Film Festival,
France. She is a graduate of the Australian Film Television &
Radio School (1978) and has an M.A. in Applied History (University
of Technology, Sydney, 1994).
Martha is currently a member of Ozdox
- the Australian Documentary Forum, the Society of Australian
Cinema Pioneers, The Archive Forum and the Film and Broadcast Industries
Oral History Group, of which she was the founding convenor. She is a life member of the Australian Directors Guild.
Martha has worked as a project officer for the Women’s Film
Fund of the Australian Film Commission (AFC), as an assessor for
the AFC and other film organizations, and as a lecturer in film,
including at the Australian Film Television & Radio School and
other tertiary institutions. She is a film valuer for the National
Film and Sound Archive, a pre-selection panel member for the Sydney
Film Festival and a patron of the Film and History Conference. She is the author of The Shadowcatchers: a history of cinematography in Australia published in 2012 by the Australian Cinematographers Society.
Martha’s films as a producer have included Ordinary
People (broadcast on the ABC, 2002) and I
Remember 1948 (2005, producer - broadcast on SBS May,
2008) and as a director a short drama, The Ballad of
Betty & Joe.
Contact Ballad Films • Martha Ansara
•ABN 52 199 403 779
1 Hampden Street Hurlstone Park NSW 2193Australia Tel: +612 9573 1886Contact
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