On John C Murray - Ken Berryman adds some further thoughts on the life and contribution of the scholar, critic and cinephile

The young John C Murray (ph: courtesy
Kristen Murray)

Editor's note: This further contribution to the celebration of the life and work of John C Murray (right) was just sent in by the historian, scholar, cinephile and former Manager of the NFSA's Oral History Program, Ken Berryman. Now read on....

I have just read the tributes to John C Murray (click here for the website link)  - very eloquent and very moving, and further proof if needed of the great and supportive film culture Melbourne has cultivated for decades. Talk about ripple effect! Let me add my few cents worth, prompted by a couple of recurrent references in the tributes, albeit I never had the good fortune to actually cross paths with the man himself...

Ten Lessons in Film Appreciation

A modest but oh so timely work. Like so many others, when I started teaching on the back of a common or garden arts degree and a dip ed, your subject choices were invariably English and History. The gradual widening of the curriculum at the time did however provide opportunities for rookie teachers like me to dip their toes in the water and have a crack at including film study as part of senior English courses. Country secondary schools though were not exactly resourced to facilitate such endeavours, so I did two things. 

Ken Berryman

The first was to send a copy of a draft film study course I'd mapped out for comment to the Film Studies Officer associated with the then ATFA (Association of Teachers of Film Appreciation), the precursor of ATOM. The officer in question at the time was Richard Franklin who kindly responded, encouraging me to give it a go, and - unsurprisingly - suggesting I give thought to including some work on genre or auteurs, such as Hitchcock!

The second was to dig out my copy of 'Ten Lessons'. There just weren't to my limited knowledge at the time accessible but still challenging texts on film appreciation written for the local market, aside perhaps from the work of Bill Perkins. But John Murray's little book struck an immediate chord and convinced me that I could extrapolate from it without being laughed out of the classroom. It was a well thumbed tome by the time I'd finished with it and moved on...

The Best Damn Fiddler from Calabogie to Kaladar 

I was delighted to find not one but two references to this 1968 Canadian short feature in the tributes on your site. I couldn't agree more with the sentiments in relation to this film of both Tom Ryan and Geoff Mayer. Tom rightly also acknowledges the work of Ed Schefferle in building up the film study component of the State Film Centre collection over the years. In a comparable position buying for the Vic Education Department's 16 mm Film Library, I was equally determined to do the same - and again the time was propitious in this regard. 

The Department's buying strategy, if that's what it was, had traditionally been to purchase multiple copies of single titles to cope with teacher demand for 'visual aids' for core curriculum subjects. But purchasing for the by now burgeoning media studies courses in the 70s and 80s gave one licence to buy far and wide - and justify it as needed by the use of film appraisal panels to select appropriate titles for addition to the 16mm library. Convening such a panel for media studies purposes was too much fun altogether. Among the many talented teachers who frequented this group over a number of years were John Benson and Imre Hollosy, based at Maribyrnong High at that time. It was that dynamic duo who suggested to me that we should consider viewing The Best Damn Fiddler at one of the appraisal sessions with a view to its purchase, if selected - which it was, quite rightly. I was grateful to John and Imre for bringing this film, which I didn't know, to my attention - and pleased to buy a 16mm print for the Ed Dept library in due course. 

With the advent of video and the downturn in film use in schools, and eventual closure of all but a few of the network of govt film libraries over the next decade, I wondered what became of all those film prints we had so enthusiastically procured for use by teachers. A large number of them ended up with ACMI but without checking I don't know whether that included the print of 'The Best Damn Fiddler'. But what I do know now after reading the tributes to John C. Murray is from where the fan club for this otherwise little known film emanated! The loan stats for this title were always modest during my time with the Ed Dept film library but I would like to think that some of its users were teachers who were similarly inspired by the teachings and writings of John C. Murray.

Margot Kidder, The Best Damn Fiddler from Calabogie to Kaladar