Ben Apfelbaum

SYDNEY FILM FESTIVAL OPENING NIGHT

The opening night film of the 66th Sydney Film Festival was literally a family affair with Rachel Ward directing her husband Bryan Brown and daughter Matilda Brown. It was even more familial due to the fact that the ensemble cast were very good friends of the Browns and each other. Sam Neill and Bryan Brown in particular have worked on many projects together over the years.

Due to its injection of a $5,000,000 worth of funds to facilitate the Festival’s penetration into regional New South Wales, both the Minister of the Arts Don Harwin and the Premier Gladys Berejiklian were in attendance. IO can’t recall the last time a Premier has attended the opening night of the Sydney Film Festival. Due to the camaraderie of the cast there was a lot of kidding around and tomfoolery on the red carpet making it extremely difficult to get a decent shot of the participants. Many of their industry friends were in attendance with the newly appointed Governor of New South Wales Margaret Beazley brought a bit of decorum to the rambunctious Palm Beach cast.

Featured image – Sam Neill and Greta Scacchi. All images 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 Treborland. 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.