Remembering Colin Bennett - Film-makers Richard Brennan and Brian Kavanagh recall

Richard Brennan writes I had a lot of dealings with Colin in the 1970s, particularly 1973 a year in which I was director of the AFI and Colin a very supportive and hard working member of the Board of Governors. As well as his larger articles and film reviews Colin took great care in preparing obituaries for deceased members of the international film industry.  I have in front of me a joint tribute to Robert Ryan (" his characters ...had an extra quality (combining) physical force with introspective sensibility").and Gregory Kozintsev. He writes of his favourite film by Kozintsev,the 1957 Don Quixote, that "Were someone to revive it today, I fancy it would not so much put 'Man of La Mancha” in the shade as black it out altogether."

Film-maker Brian Kavanagh remembers: I have somewhere among my souveniers an article Colin wrote for The Age about the Roger Miram's children's series, The Terrible Ten, which I worked on. Colin wrote enthusiastically (early 1960's) and from memory, made the point that the series was not only successful internationally, but a source of steady employment for crew and actors, and the only local film production company that was continually producing TV films. I don't recall Colin reviewing my feature film A City's Child (1971) which was the first cab off the rank from the Experimental Film Fund, which was eventually managed by the AFI.