| Kevin
Brownlow Honored By ASC
Historian/Preservationist Will Be Feted At Annual Outstanding Achievement Awards
For
info on other honorees:
Michael
Chapman, ASC • Miroslav
Ondricek, ASC • Howard
A. Anderson Jr., ASC • Irwin
Winkler
The ASC will present a special
award of recognition to Kevin Brownlow during the 18th Annual ASC Outstanding
Achievement Awards on Feb. 8, at the Century Plaza Hotel. Brownlow
is being honored in recognition of his unique and successful efforts
to preserve irreplaceable silent movies and document the history of
that seminal era in film history.
“Kevin Brownlow has earned our gratitude and respect for his unflinching
dedication to preserving an important part of our culture,” says
Owen Roizman, ASC, who chairs the organization’s awards committee. “He
has made incomparable contributions to illuminating our understanding
of the early history of our art form. If not for his efforts, many
important films and their history would have been lost forever.”
Brownlow is a filmmaker and self-taught historian who has made the
restoration and preservation of silent films his life’s work.
He has overseen the restoration of endangered landmark films and inspired
other preservation efforts. Brownlow has also researched the period
and authored a series of books, beginning with The Parade’s Gone
By in 1968, and documentaries including Abel Gance: The Charm
of Dynamite, Unknown Chaplin, Hollywood: A Celebration of the American
Silent Film,
Buster Keaton: A Hard Act to Follow and D.W. Griffith: Father
of Film.
“
I read The Parade’s Gone By very early in my career,” says
cinematographer John Bailey, ASC. “That’s when I realized
Truffaut and other New Wave filmmakers who influenced me were inspired
by D.W. Griffith, Charlie Chaplin and the other wonderful artists who
invented ways to tell sophisticated and compelling stories with moving
images. Kevin Brownlow found and interviewed many of the early filmmakers,
and told their stories. Whether you are a filmmaker or a fan, you are
in his debt.”
Brownlow was born in 1938 in Crowborough and raised in London, England.
Both of his parents were artists, which might help explain his passion
for film. He began collecting historic films at the age of 11. Brownlow
was only 15 years old when he obtained two reels of Abel Gance’s
1927 epic film Napoleon, which he restored as an adult. In 1952, he
began working on the production of The Capture, an adaptation of a
story written by French author Guy de Maupassant. It took him three
years to complete that project, which he funded by writing articles
for an amateur moviemaking magazine.
Brownlow got his first industry job as an apprentice editor at a documentary
production house when he was 17 years old. He began working on his
first independent film in 1956. Brownlow wrote, produced, directed
and collaborated with Andrew Mollo on It Happened Here, which was based
on the premise that the Nazis invaded England during World War II.
It took him eight years to complete the film, which earned favorable
reviews in 1964. It was finally released in 1966. During that period,
Brownlow also directed and edited various short documentaries. He joined
Tony Richardson’s Woodfall Films Company in 1966, where he edited
The White Bus in 1967 and The Charge of the Light Brigade in 1968.
How It Happened Here, a witty account of how he produced his first
film, and The Parade’s Gone By were both published in 1968. The
latter was based on interviews with many writers, directors, cameramen
(as they were called in those days), producers, performers and other
industry pioneers who told their stories about the art form.
“You can’t overstate the importance of The Parade’s Gone
By or his other magnificent and unparalleled efforts to preserve our
heritage,” says ASC President Richard Crudo, ASC. “There
is no category and little precedent for the tribute that we are presenting
to Kevin Brownlow. We have only presented one other special tribute
in the 18-year history of the ASC Outstanding Achievement Awards (to
Roger Ebert). This is just our way of saying thanks, and hopefully
inspiring others to follow the paths he has blazed.”
Brownlow realized his boyhood dream in 1979, when he completed the
frame-by-frame restoration of Napoleon. The silent film has subsequently
been restored twice, but the full version has never been seen in the
United States.
He authored The War, the West and the Wilderness (1979) and Hollywood:
The Pioneers (1980). Those tomes provided the foundation for Hollywood:
A Celebration of the American Silent Film, a 13-part documentary series
that Brownlow scripted, directed and produced in collaboration with
his long-term partner David Gill. They collaborated on a half a dozen
history-based documentaries before Gill died in 1997.
Brownlow is responsible for restoring various historic films, authoring
books and producing, writing and directing documentaries about the
history of the motion picture industry and the people who created memorable
and important movies. His current projects include a documentary about
the life of Cecil B. De Mille which will air on Turner Classic Movies
in April.
For additional information about the ASC Outstanding Achievement Awards,
visit our Awards page.
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