Don featherstone movie#
This film is silent despite the availability for over a decade of magstripe along the non-perforated edge of 16mm films providing synchronised sound.Īt the end of the clip, we see Featherstone playing with technique, as he almost appears in his own painting when the footage of his painted landscape dissolves into the filmed landscape.ĭon Featherstone (1902–1984) was a founding member of the Darling Downs Amateur Cine Society, established in 1952 and now known as the Darling Downs Movie Makers. He is arguably the society's most successful and best-known member, with a memorial trophy named after him.įeatherstone became an enthusiastic filmmaker after purchasing a second-hand camera in 1926.īush Critics was screened by the Federation of Australian Amateur Cine Societies at their Second Australian Film Program in 1968. As the artist decides what to paint, the changing perspectives cleverly suggest he is being assessed or surveilled by the local inhabitants (while, in reality, they are the ones being filmed). The shots directly after the credits in Bush Critics establish the location and the protagonist. The watercolours used in the opening titles are credited to Don and stylistically match the watercolours featured through the film. The opening credits of Bush Critics (seen at the start of this clip) boasts a 'D for Don' with a feather through the middle, mimicking established film production studios displaying their logo on commercially released feature films. This is all the more impressive when you consider that he would have needed to craft the story based on what footage he could record of the koalas. Joseph Church in Fitchburg.With Bush Critics (1961), Don Featherstone elevates home movies by combining crowd-pleasing shots of koalas with a genuine story arc. In addition to his wife, Featherstone is survived by two children, four grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.Ī wake is scheduled for Friday with a funeral Mass scheduled for Saturday at St. "They say there are more plastic Featherstone flamingos in the world than real flamingos," he said. He's not sure how many have been sold over the years, but it's in the millions. "We still sell thousands of them a year," said Bruce Zarozny, president of Cado, noting that the company's packaging refers to them as "The original Featherstone pink flamingo. But the company was eventually bought by Cado Products Inc., which to this day proudly manufactures the ornaments in Fitchburg, retailing for about $14.99 a pair. The flamingo almost met its demise in 2006, when Union went out of business. "He decided it would destroy the illusion and pleasure for people who knew him for the flamingo, so he only let those very close to him see his work," he said. Abrahams became good friends with Featherstone after he won the Ig Nobel for art in 1996.įeatherstone kept his real artistic talent under wraps to everyone except those closest to him, Abrahams said. The magazine hands out an annual spoof on the Nobel Prizes known as the Ig Nobels.
"Humble" is how Marc Abrahams, editor the Annals of Improbable Research magazine, remembers Featherstone. "The thing that thrilled him the most was that movie," Nancy Featherstone said.
A pink flamingo, dubbed Featherstone of course, was a major character in the 2011 animated movie "Gnomeo & Juliet." The flamingo even made an appearance on the silver screen. He was forever humble about the flamingo, and in fact, his wife often brought it up in conversations with people they would meet, bringing a sheepish smile from her husband, she said. "People say they're tacky, but all great art began as tacky," Featherstone said in a 1997 interview. (Charles Krupa/AP)įeatherstone, who studied art at the Worcester Art Museum, created the ornamental flamingo in 1957 for plastics company Union Products Inc., of Leominster, modeling it after photos of the birds he saw in National Geographic.įeatherstone worked at Union for 43 years, inventing hundreds of products in that time and rising to the position of president before his retirement in 1999.
He was funny and had a wonderful sense of humor and he made me so happy for 40 years." Artist Don Featherstone, with his wife Nancy, at Harvard University in 2012. "He didn't have a selfish bone in his body. "He was the nicest guy in the world," Nancy Featherstone said. He died at an elder care facility in Fitchburg, Massachusetts, after a long battle with Lewy body dementia, his wife of 40 years, Nancy, told The Associated Press on Tuesday.
(Amy Sancetta/AP)ĭon Featherstone was a classically trained painter, a talented sculptor and artist, who became famous for creating the pink plastic lawn flamingo - the ultimate symbol of American lawn kitsch.įeatherstone, who died Monday at 79, embraced the fame the invention brought him. Facebook Email In this Thursday, Jphoto, Don Featherstone, creator of the original plastic pink flamingo, sits surrounded by many of the plastic creatures at Union Products, Inc.
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