Bob Connolly
Bob Connolly trained as a journalist at the Australian Broadcast Corporation and then spent a decade there as a foreign correspondent, current affairs reporter and documentary filmaker. He made 30 documentaries for the ABC, winning several national awards for production and direction.
In 1978 Connolly left the ABC to work independently with Robin Anderson, producing First Contact (1983), followed by Joe Leahy's Neighbours (1989) and Black Harvest (1992). Set in the PNG Highlands and shot over ten years, these 3 films won 30 national and international awards, including an Academy Award nomination for First Contact. All three won the Grand Prix at France's prestigious Festival Cinema du Reel, and AFI awards for Best Documentary.
In 1996 Connolly and Anderson released Rats in the Ranks. The film ran 5 months in Australian cinemas. Their last film together was Facing the Music (2001) which like all its predecessors was judged Best Documentary by the Australian Film Critics Circle. It too won the AFI Award for Best Documentary, and was voted most popular film at the Sydney and Brisbane Film Festivals.
In March 2002, Bob Connolly's wife and professional colleague Robin Anderson died aged 51. He and the couple's two children (Katherine 18 and Joanna 14) live in the inner Sydney suburb of Glebe.
INDUSTRY AWARDS:
In 1992 the Australian Film Institute awarded Connolly and Anderson the prestigious Byron Kennedy Award, and in 2001 they picked up the Brisbane Film Festival's Chauvel Award for their "Outstanding Contribution to Australian Film Making." Later that year they were presented with the inaugural IF Living Legend Award. In 2005 Connolly's book Making Black Harvest won the Walkley Award for Best Non Fiction Book and was shortlisted for the NSW Premiers Literary Awards in the Non Fiction category.
BOOKS: The Fight for the Franklin, Cassells, Australia 1982 First Contact (with Anderson), Viking, New York 1987, Gallimarde, Paris Making Black Harvest, ABC Books 2005