John Walsh and Connor Heaney present a look at Ray Harryhausen and his lost treasures.
When film student John Walsh looked up his cinema film hero in the BT phone book he was amazed to find his name address and phone number on public display. As a first year student at the London Film School he wanted to find a subject for his third term documentary film. That phone call in the late 1980s lead to a twenty-five-year friendship. Today John is a double BAFTA nominated film maker and a Trustee of the Ray Harryhausen Foundation. John will discuss the challenges that lie ahead for this most unique of charities and the plans they have for Ray’s centenary in 2020. Ray’s working practices will be discussed from his experimentation with cinemascope, his unrealised film projects to the controversial colouring of some of his earlier black and white films. John will present some never before seen photos from the 50,000 item strong collection and discuss the challenges of restoration and stainable legacy from the most complete and comprehensive fantasy cinema and animation collections anywhere in the world.
There will also be a special screening of the short 1989 film school documentary Ray Harryhausen: Movement Into Life made by the then 18 year old John Walsh, now remastered in HD and with stereo sound for the first time and narrated by Tom Baker. There will be some fun facts about Ray’s films and their iconic creatures and a Q&A session for the audience to ask questions.