Ben Apfelbaum

SIGRID THORNTON RECEIVES ANOTHER WELL DESERVED HONOUR

Randwick Mayor Dylan Parker and Sigrid Thornton
Dylan Parker, Randwick Mayor
Sigrid Thornton
Michael Nikou
Rafaela Pandolfini, Deputy Randwick Mayor
Sigrid Thornton and SLANT Director James Vinson
Sigrid Thornton, James Vinson (director) Michael Nikou (writer), Monique Fisher (producer)

Sigrid Thornton recently attended the Randwick Ritz cinema for two different reasons.

The Deputy Mayor of Randwick Rafaele Pandolfini outlined Thornton’s long list of achievements, both in the theatre and behind the scenes, to secure and protect the cast and creatives who make up the performing arts. This culminated in her receiving  an AO in the Australian List of Honours.

Thornton was equally thrilled to have her Star in front of Randwick Ritz’s footpath area, known as the Walk of Fame.

Randwick’s Mayor, Dylan Parker, assisted Sigrid Thornton by unveiling the plaque whereupon Thornton gave an emotional and heartfelt response to the honour  that has just been bestowed upon her.

Sigrid Thornton’s second  role was to assist in the promotion of her latest movie, SLANT.

Thornton and her team are promoting the movie in a series of Q and A sessions held throughout the country.

SLANT has been written by Michael Nikou, directed by James Vinson, and produced by Monique Fisher.

At the Q and A session Thornton said that she was thrilled to be working with a group of new and emerging creatives. She also marvelled at the Ingenuity they had to conjure up in making the film.

Writer Michael Nikou also acted in the film and used some of his parents furniture as set pieces, an  Monique Fisher had to call a friend to replace a cast member who became very ill.

Those present seemed to blur the lines of their respective roles, such was the degree of collaboration.

Article and photos by Ben Apfelbaum

Published by Ben Apfelbaum

My photography began when my father handed me the proverbial brownie box camera as a child. As cameras developed I went through Fujica and Olympus range finders graduating to my first single lens reflex camera, the Minolta SRT101, the latter being the greatest facilitator to my growth as a photographer. Digital photography has only added to this. I was a regular contributor to Camera Craft magazine (Australian Camera ) for over three years. During Australia’s Bicentennial year (1988) I made it a personal project to document the celebrations. This culminated in the creation of a book of my photos which was published in 1989. The book was called CELEBRATING AUSTRALIA and came with an accompanying calendar. My works have appeared in a number of publications including the coffee book entitled MY AUSTRALIA (1989), publisher Robertsbridge Severn. This book had a preface by the then Australian Prime Minister Bob Hawke. I was a co-photographer on a book entitled SYDNEY- DISCOVER THE CITY with text written by Robert Treborlang. Major Mitchell Press was the publisher. Also for two years I was the photographer for calendars celebrating Sydney’s multicultural communities. The two calendars were entitled MULTICULTURAL SYDNEY. My work appeared in a group exhibition held at Sydney’s Town Hall pertaining to the diversity of life in South America to raise money for orphanages there. I have over one hundred photos stored in the New South Wales State Library archive. I had a solo exhibition held in 2007 entitled Ben’s Lens at the Sydney Jewish Museum which celebrated the vibrancy of the Sydney Jewish community. Some of these photos are on the Museum’s permanent display. I have exhibited internationally firstly at the Spruill Gallery in Atlanta Georgia, United States, and in an exhibition entitled Kosher and Co at the Jewish Museum in Berlin. Currently I am a regular contributor to J-Wire and this esteemed publication. To celebrate the opening of a permanent Photography Gallery, the State Library of New South Wales selected 400 shots from its archive of over 2,000,000 images to display in the new gallery. An image of mine was plucked out of the multi million photo archive to be part of the inaugural exhibition.