Australian Cinema > cinematographers > Georges Boivin (1859-1940)
Possibly the first person to shoot a cricket match in Australia, 1897.
Members of Sydney’s French Community gathered after a cricket match c.1898. Courtesy: John Nitchell. NFSA title: 1100872. Seated on the ground holding the cricket bat is Georges Boivin.
Frenchman Marius Sestier (1862-1934) may be regarded as the first cinematographer to work in Australia in that he shot, processed, and exhibited the first moving film shot in Australia. When he left Australia "in May 1897 he had sold a minimum of four Lumière Brothers cinématographes including to his friend and French émigré Georges Boivin. Boivin had already toured through New Caledonia and Queensland with his business partners Auguste Plane and Charles Lomet between April and September 1897." (Jackson)
Sally Jackson suggests that Boivin may have been the cinematographer who filmed one or more of the 'four 1897 cricket films of the English team playing at the Association Cricket Ground in Sydney. These films, customarily attributed to the Australian photographer Henry Walter Barnett (1862-1934), are recognised as the earliest series of cricket films produced. Unfortunately only one of them remains, and it is held by the British Film Institute.' (Jackson)
Source of all of the above, including the image—
Sally Jackson, 'Do Frenchmen play cricket? Investigating the first cricket films', NFSA.
Footnote: Georges Boivin was the uncle of Alice Boivin who married Edmond Antoine, who was (though French) the Belgian Consul to Western Australia until his death in 1936. Alice’s father, Eugène Boivin, the brother of Georges, was 3rd Secretary at the French Embassy in Sydney for many years. (Julie Dyson, personal communication)
Bio page on grimh site.
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