Composer & Musical Director Dean Stevenson
Musicians (Tasmania): Randal Muir & Ralph Forehead
Musicians (NSW): Dean Gray & Paolo Campanari Brancondi
Films Digitally Restored by National Film & Sound Archive
Originally produced by Ten Days on the Island.
Presented by the National Film and Sound Archive Digital Restoration Program – NFSA Restores – Reviving Australia’s cinema icons.
Tour produced by Emma Corrick, Critical Stages Touring and South East Arts, and supported by the NSW Government through Create NSW.
A rare vision of a former world, drenched in hand-tinted colour and laughter.
In the family of entertainers known as The Marvellous Corricks there were eight talented siblings: seven sisters and their brother, Leonard. He was just 14 years old when he started screening silent films.
It was 1901 and his early projections – a highlight of his family’s travelling shows filled with sketches and singalongs – would light up the world.
In 2022, Leonard’s Beautiful Pictures will return in all their wonder. These 100-year-old films will once again entertain and delight audiences at venues in Bermagui, Jindabyne, Cooma, Picton, Young in NSW, and Launceston and Burnie in Tasmania.
Leonard’s fascinating newsreels and dramatic films once awed our local communities with the latest in cinematography. Now, a selection of Leonard’s films, some black-and-white, some gorgeously hand-tinted – digitally restored by the National Film and Sound Archive of Australia (NFSA) – represent a rare vision of a former world.
Paying homage to The Marvellous Corricks’ musical talents, renowned Tasmanian composer and performer Dean Stevenson and his band will accompany these moving pictures with the world premiere of a playful new musical soundscape.
So, bring your family and, together, we’ll welcome Leonard’s Beautiful Pictures into the 21st century.
Leonard’s Beautiful Pictures was first presented at Ten Days on the Island 2021. The world premiere season was at the Gaiety Theatre in Zeehan; Mechanics Institute in Scottsdale and the Theatre Royal Hobart.
Touring
2022/2023
Artform
Families; Cinema; Music
Audience
General, Families with children 8+
Duration
75 minutes
No interval
Venue Format
Theatre, Civic/Cultural Centre, Cinema
Technical & Touring Details
Please contact us
Previous Seasons
Ten Days on the Island 2021:
Gaiety Theatre Zeehan
Mechanics Institute Scottsdale
Theatre Royal Hobart
2022 Performance Dates
15 April
Four Winds Festival
16 April
Lake Crackenback Resort
17 April
Centennial Park Cooma
20 April
Wollondily Shire Hall
21 April
Southern Cross Cinema Young
27 April
Theatre North Launceston
The Corrick Collection
By Jillian Mackenzie, Curatorial Officer, National Film and Sound Archive
The Corrick Collection of films have lived an extraordinary life for over one hundred years. Leonard Corrick began building the collection in 1901 with 14 films and it grew rapidly, eventually counting 135 titles. Leonard passed his films down to his son, John, who continued the tradition of showing Leonard’s Beautiful Pictures in his backyard shed to the local neighbourhood children. Some of the films were cut up and spliced back together multiple times, so by the time the NFSA started acquiring the films, some of them were no longer complete.
We started receiving the films from the late 1960s all the way through to the 2000s and extensive curatorial research was conducted to piece together the films. Some contained decomposing damage to the nitrate film, and fragments of the films were housed in multiple film cans so the process of putting the puzzle back together was quite complex. The result of this was an exciting look into a more complete collection.
Cont…
The Corrick Collection cont
2007 to 2012 saw the major film to film restoration project resulting in the entire Corrick Collection being preserved onto a more stable 35mm film stock. This milestone meant that the films were able to be seen again on the big screen without any risk to the precious nitrate originals. As the digital age was upon us, and cinemas no longer project film, in 2017 the NFSA began the mammoth process of digitising the collection. In partnership with Haghefilm Digitaal, the films were sent in batches to be scanned resulting in high quality files that were ready for viewing on digital platforms.
It is important to note that digitisation is not a restoration and the two processes are very different. Digitisation is the practice of running the film through a scanner, capturing each individual frame. While some corrective work is done such as grading to improve colour saturation and contrast, the outcome is to achieve the same result as what is seen on the film. Restoration is a more intensive approach where dust marks and scratches are removed, colour is enhanced to improve the image and can even include the recreation of highly decomposed scenes, meaning a new version is created.
Part of the distinctiveness of the Corrick films is that the original nitrates were always used and loved, not hidden away like an artifact of a forgotten time. The abrupt endings, scratches and dissolving images that can be seen in some of the films add to the charm of the content and it is important for us as an archive to pay homage to that history.
Artists
DEAN STEVENSON
Graduating with a Masters of Music from the University of Tasmania, local composer musician Dean Stevenson has performed, recorded and toured across the world. In 2018, he received a Winston Churchill Memorial Trust Fellowship for a composition research project that sent him to eight countries. Other highlights of his career include producing new music by Sting in collaboration with David Walsh and a commission from the Governor of Tasmania to write a new work celebrating Her Majesty the Queen’s 90th birthday.
RANDAL MUIR
Randal has been playing professionally since the early 90’s. Beginning on piano, he diversified to accordion and Hammond Organ, the latter of which has led to many wonderful opportunities, such as playing with the TSO, and touring the US with the Southern Gospel Choir. The music for the Corricks show is built upon a 20 year friendship and seemingly unavoidable musical collaboration with Dean and Ralph.
RALPH FOREHEAD
Ralph Forehead has been playing guitar for over 20 years as a soloist and in a variety of Hobart ensembles including Rektango, Recliner and Les Coqs Incroyables. He has composed and arranged for a wide range of his own eclectic ensembles, be it supporting Chris Isaak in local rockabilly band the Red Hot Roosters or accompanying flamenco dancers.
Artists
PAOLO CAMPANARI BRANCONDI
Paolo Campanari Brancondi is an Italian born musician, composer, teacher and actor. He is a highly accomplished piano accordionist, having begun studies at the age of 8, with his first composition at 11. Able to play a huge variety of musical styles from Klezmer to funk, on both accordian and piano, specialising in French-themed entertainment which has made him a favourite at Bastille Day celebrations nationally. Beside his activity as an on-stage musician, Paolo is also deeply engaged as a teacher, providing tuitions for Piano and Piano Accordion, for kids, teenagers and adults.
DEAN GRAY
Dean Gray is a multi-instrumentalist of the fretted string variety. He is a musical chameleon, constantly creating and searching for new sounds and textures. His interests include jazz guitar, pedal steel, celtic mandolin, classical ukulele and all points in-between. He has been a member of Geoff Powers’ Great Gatsby Orchestra, collaborated with composer/choir legend Sally Whitwell, and was a member of the Sydney Mandolin Orchestra. He currently performs regularly in a number of different groups, including hard folk outfit Whiskey Dram, Mike Martin and the Kameruka Bush Orchestra, as well as with his wife, cellist Anna Martin-Scrase, in their romantic jazz duo Double Standard.
Film List
PRINCE OF WALES VISITS LAUNCESTON
Leonard Corrick, Australia 1920
LA FÉE AUX PIGEONS (THE PIGEON FAIRY)
Pathé, France 1906
TOTO EXPLOITE LA CURIOSITÉ
RALPH BENEFITS BY PEOPLE’S CURIOSITY
Pathé, France 1909
BABYLAS VIENT D’HÉRITER D’UNE PANTHÈRE
BABYLAS INHERITS A PANTHER
Pathé, France 1911
LA RUCHE MERVEILLEUSE
THE WONDERFUL BEE-HIVE
Pathé, France 1905
THE MAGICAL PRESS
Urban, UK 1907
STREET SCENES IN PERTH, WESTERN AUSTRALIA
Leonard Corrick, Australia 1907
A POUDRE ANTINEURASTHÉNIQUE
THE ANTI-IRRITABILITY POWDER
Pathé, France 1909
A WINTER STRAW RIDE
Edison, USA 1906
LA PEINE DU TALION
TIT FOR TAT!
Pathé, France 1906
LA FÉE AUX FLEURS
THE FLOWER FAIRY
Pathé, France 1905