Edith Collier: A Light Among Shadows

This documentary looks at the life of neglected painter Edith Collier. Whanganui-bred Collier left for London in her late 20s to study art; her painting flourished, experimenting with modernism alongside fellow expat Frances Hodgkins. She returned home after World War I to family duty, and ridicule for her art (her disgusted father set fire to her nudes). Interviews with her biographer and family, and shots of her work, make for a poignant biography of a (curtailed) artistic life. Listener reviewer Helene Wong called it “affecting viewing, with a sense of discovery”.

When she died there were trunks full of unused canvases and oils.

– Biographer Joanna Drayton

Key Cast & Crew

Michael Heath

Narrator, Writer, Director

Bhim Singh Chouhan

Producer

Stephen Latty

Cinematographer

Richard Nunns

Composer

Krishna Chouhan

Executive Producer

Arunabha Mukherjee

Editor