John Whitefoord Heyer (14 September 1916 – 19 June 2001) was an Australian documentary filmmaker, who is often described as the father of Australian documentary film.
Heyer spent the majority of his career producing and/or directing sponsored documentaries, and was active from the 1930s until his death. His most successful film was The Back of Beyond (1954), but many of his films garnered awards at festivals around the world.
He was committed to the whole process of filmmaking from the initial research phase to distribution and exhibition. While he was grounded in the British documentary tradition, particularly during his years at the Australian National Film Board working under Ralph Foster and Stanley Hawes, he developed his own style noted for its lyrical quality.
Heyer was an active participant in the documentary film movement in Australia in the 1940s and 1950s: he was among the first producers employed by the Australian National Film Board, was head of the Shell Film Unit in Australia, and was President of the Sydney Film Society and on the committee which organised the first Sydney Film Festival.
He moved to England in 1956 where he continued to make films for Shell, and then through his own company. While he died in England, he maintained contact with Australia throughout his life, producing films in both countries.
Heyer was born in Devonport, Tasmania, the son of a doctor. He was educated at Scotch College, Melbourne. In 1942, he married Dorothy Agnes Greenhalgh (1916–1969) who was known, and credited, as Janet Heyer. Mrs Heyer was a regular, and essential, member of his film crew. Around this time they lived at Beecroft, New South Wales.
They had two daughters, Elizabeth and Catherine (more commonly called Anna) and a son called Frederick.
The Heyers moved to England in 1956, and he lived there for the rest of his life, although he regularly returned to Australia and, at times, spent significant times there researching and producing films.
Janet Heyer died in 1969, and John Heyer died in 2001 in London, England.
John Heyer was apprenticed to the scientific instrument makers, Alger & Son but, having learnt sound recording and film projection at night school, he obtained a job with Efftee Studios in 1934 working with sound engineers, editors and cameramen. When Efftee closed in 1935, he joined Cinesound Productions.
In these early years he worked on such feature films as Heritage, Thoroughbred, White Death in which Zane Grey appeared, and Forty Thousand Horsemen. He also made commercials, training films and documentaries, his first documentary being New Pastures (1940) for the Milk Board. During these apprenticeship years, he worked with some of Australia's most experienced directors and cinematographers, including Charles Chauvel, Arthur Higgins and Frank Hurley.
In 1944, he joined Ealing Studios where he worked with Harry Watt on The Overlanders. It was on this film that he started to develop his vision of making the Australian landscape an active ingredient in Australian films. He strongly supported government involvement in film production and, when the Australian National Film Board was established in 1945, he was appointed its first senior producer. During this time he produced Native Earth, Journey of a Nation, The Cane Cutters, Men and Mobs, and This Valley is Ours.
As a young man learning his trade in the 1930s, John Heyer was keen to expand his knowledge of international films. He worked with another young filmmaker of the period, Damien Parer and they became good friends, actively reading contemporary avant-garde cinema journals, which analysed the work and theories of European and Russian filmmakers, and watching such Soviet films as The Battleship Potemkin.
A keen supporter of films and the film industry all his life, he was actively involved in promoting and developing the Australian film society movement in the 1940s and 1950s. He was president of the Australian Council of Film Societies and the Sydney Film Society, and was involved in the establishment of the Sydney and Melbourne Film Festivals.
However, his involvement in the film society movement during the height of the Cold War also brought him to the notice of ASIO, the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation, which suspected him of being a communist.
Heyer left the government film unit to head the Shell Film Unit (Australia) in 1948. He was asked to produce a documentary that would capture the essence of Australia and in so doing associate Shell with Australia. The result was The Back of Beyond (1954) which quickly became a significant film in European and Australian film circles winning awards at several international festivals, including the Grand Prix Assoluto at the 1954 Venice Biennale. The British documentary filmmaker, Edgar Anstey, described the film as being "among the half-dozen best documentaries made anywhere since the war".
In 1956, he was appointed Executive Producer, Films and Television, for Shell International in London. During the 1950s and 60s he produced or directed over 60 films for Shell, including The Forerunner which won awards at Cannes, Venice, London and Turin Film Festivals.
In an article in 1957, he praised Shell for being "the first entry of a major private sponsor into the production and distribution of films in Australia on a solid basis".