David Perry, who died last week after some
years of illness, and was farewelled yesterday, was a gifted filmmaker across a
variety of genres and styles, and a warm and lovely person. I really only realised the breadth of his art
when I attended his retrospective exhibition at the Mosman Art Gallery in
2009. I’d known him for many years, and
seen all his films, but suddenly there were rooms full of vibrant paintings and
posters, elegant drawings, stunning photographs and some fascinating video work
to take in and enjoy.
While I’d seen David often over the years,
often at a screening or in a film festival crowd, or sometimes at a party, and
we’d always had good conversations given the restrictions those venues imposed,
it was great to see him at his exhibition, surrounded by an amazing range of
friends, and thoroughly enjoying the event.
I
first met David in the early ’60s, at that exciting time when everyone seemed
to be involved in some sort of creative activity, from art to publishing, from
acting to music, and in the very early ventures into filmmaking (with a side
benefit of being called out for crowd scenes or bit parts in many of these
films). David Perry, Albie Thoms, John
Clark, and my old friend Aggy Read were not only making films, but getting Ubu
Films established and with it the beginnings of Sydney’s small but active
underground film movement.
As Albie Thoms says in his bio of David in
the exhibition catalogue, “over the next five years David made a dozen shorts
for Ubu, many quite radical in their form . . . the comedy, The Tribulations of Mr. Dupont Nomore . . . had the censors in a
flap, and the film poem, A Sketch on
Abigayl’s Belly . . . became the centre of a court case when it was
impounded on its return from a festival in Germany.” Those were the days! David also shot films for others, designed
posters and handbills for Ubu, and helped with Albie’s famous lightshows.
He spent four years in London in the 70s, and
then spent a number of years teaching in Queensland, returning to Sydney in
1980. In 1986 he made his docudrama Love and Work, with John Flaus as his
alter ego; and in 1993 his feature film The
Refracting Glasses screened at the Sydney Film Festival and had a season at
the Chauvel. But this is only a fraction
of an amazingly productive life, filled with his painting, video work, and
photography. Only last year he finally
finished and saw published his lovely, very honest, and richly illustrated Memoirs of a Dedicated Amateur, which is
a great read.
After his great friend Albie Thoms died,
there was a wonderful celebration of his life and work, at which David spoke
very movingly about their friendship and shared passions. It would be fitting if a similar occasion
could pay tribute to David Perry.
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