ANTONY THOMAS, BORN 1940
THE CHILDHOOD OF A DOCUMENTARY FILM MAKER
Born in Calcutta, Thomas was taken to South Africa when he was six years old. At the age of twenty-two, he was commissioned by the government to make his first documentary. His experiences on that film changed the course of his life. In 1966 he was banned from any further filmmaking in South Africa, and the following year, moved to England, where he has written and produced 46 documentaries and dramas. His films have taken the top prizes in numerous documentary festivals, including the US Emmy Award, the British Academy Award, the George Foster Peabody Award (twice) and the Grierson Award for the best British Documentary. Two of his documentaries, Twins; The Divided Self and Man and Animal won fourteen international awards between them. In a review of his work, the Sunday Times wrote : “Antony Thomas's sureness of touch and power of evocation is unparalleled among documentary filmmakers”. Thomas is also author of the acclaimed biography, ‘Rhodes, the Race for Africa’, and the autobiography ‘In the Line of Fire’ which was published by Unicorn in 2022. The account of his childhood, given in the first four chapters, were described in one review as “revelatory of the way his early experiences shaped his humanitarian eye as a documentary filmmaker”, and are reproduced by the kind permission of the author and publisher.