Fraser Film Release and Photographic Company

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Fraser Film Release and Photographic Company was an Australian film company formed in 1912 by two brothers, Archie and Colin Fraser. It operated as a film exchange, importing movies from overseas, and production house, making shorts, features and documentaries. [1] [2] [3]

Contents

Early financial support came from Giuseppe Borsalino, an Italian businessman who invested in Italian films and used Fraser Films as an Australia outlet for his company. [4] Among the filmmakers who worked for them were Franklyn Barrett, Raymond Longford and Alfred Rolfe. [5]

Despite some early successes, the company suffered from pressure exerted by the "combine" of Australasian Films and decline of production from Europe due to World War I where Fraser brought many of their films. The company had a bankruptcy hearing in 1918. [6] [7] [8]

It was wound up in 1922. [9] The company was formally liquidated in 1938. [10]

Select credits

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References

  1. "Advertising". The West Australian . Perth: National Library of Australia. 16 May 1914. p. 2. Retrieved 10 April 2012.
  2. "Fraser Film Exchange". The Referee . Sydney: National Library of Australia. 23 December 1914. p. 15. Retrieved 9 November 2014.
  3. "WHO'S WHO IN THE MOVIES". Table Talk. No. 3179. Victoria, Australia. 11 April 1929. p. 28. Retrieved 1 May 2024 via National Library of Australia.
  4. Graham Shirley and Brian Adams, Australian Cinema: The First Eighty Years, Currency Press 1989 p 34-35
  5. "The Lure of the Movies—A Mammoth Enterprise". The Sunday Times . Sydney: National Library of Australia. 1 March 1914. p. 2 Supplement: SUNDAY TIMES GLOBE PICTORIAL. Retrieved 10 December 2014.
  6. Andrew Pike and Ross Cooper, Australian Film 1900–1977: A Guide to Feature Film Production, Melbourne: Oxford University Press, 1998, p 39
  7. "IN BANKRUPTCY". The Sydney Morning Herald . No. 25, 261. New South Wales, Australia. 21 December 1918. p. 9. Retrieved 1 May 2024 via National Library of Australia.
  8. "TUESDAY, JANUARY 7". The Sydney Morning Herald . No. 25, 273. New South Wales, Australia. 6 January 1919. p. 5. Retrieved 1 May 2024 via National Library of Australia.
  9. "EXTRAORDINARY RESOLUTION". Government Gazette Of The State Of New South Wales . No. 151. New South Wales, Australia. 27 October 1922. p. 5801. Retrieved 1 May 2024 via National Library of Australia.
  10. "COMPANIES ACT, 1936 (SECTION 323 (4))". Government Gazette Of The State Of New South Wales . No. 171. New South Wales, Australia. 25 November 1938. p. 4510. Retrieved 1 May 2024 via National Library of Australia.
  11. "Production Of Moving Pictures--In America And Australia". Australian Town and Country Journal . Vol. XCVIII, no. 2555. New South Wales, Australia. 18 December 1918. p. 20. Retrieved 21 November 2023 via National Library of Australia.