Albie Thoms was born in 1941. In his early twenties he directed a number of plays for the Sydney University Drama Society (SUDS), notably a 1962 production of Alfred Jarry’s Ubu Roi. Further exploration of Jarry’s absurdist oeuvre led Thoms to create a film, ... it droppeth as the gentle rain, with Bruce Beresford and Mike Molloy, among others, as part of a SUDS production. Reaction by the laboratory which processed the film led to the first of many run-ins with the official censors. In 1965 Thoms, David Perry, Aggy Read and John Clark formed Ubu Films to produce the James Bond satire Blunderball. Buoyed by the success of that film, which recouped its cost on its premiere and was later broadcast on television by ATN Seven, Ubu Films continued to produce experimental films and, by the time the group’s activities were wound up in 1970, had expanded into happenings, light shows and a monthly newspaper, Ubu News.
Among Albie Thoms’s films with Ubu were Man and his world (1966), Bolero (1967) and David Perry (1968). In 1969 his feature length experimental film, Marinetti, premiered at the Rose Bay Wintergarden. Thoms also worked on other experimental films, including The Film (1966) where the Ubu filmmakers joined up with other film and visual artists, including Garry Shead and John Firth Smith. At the same time Thoms was working for the mainstream television industry and directed episodes of shows like Contrabandits and Skippy: the bush kangaroo.
After a period teaching film in Europe, where he first met his future partner Linda Slutzkin, Thoms returned to Sydney and joined Martin Sharp at the Yellow House in founding the Ginger Meggs Memorial School of Art in 1971.
Thoms continued to direct films, primarily within Sydney’s surf culture, such as Palm Beach (1979). In the early 1980s Thoms worked on the newly launched SBS Network’s pop music program Rock around the World, which showcased both mainstream acts from non-English speaking countries and alternative acts from Australia and New Zealand.
In 1991 Albie Thoms and Linda Slutzkin collaborated on an exhibition which celebrated the late 19th century artists’ camp at Curlew Cove, near their home in the Sydney suburb of Mosman. Bohemians in the Bush comprised both an exhibition of historical artworks at the Art Gallery of New South Wales and a recreation of the Curlew Cove artists’ camp, where artists like Paul Delprat, Peter Wright and Robin Norling gave lessons in landscape painting.
After Linda Slutzkin’s death in 2005, Albie Thoms commemorated her work in the field of art education and gallery public programs by donating artworks to the Art Gallery of New South Wales and Mosman Art Gallery.
Albie Thoms died in November 2012, just days after completing his memoir, My generation. He was survived by his partner Louise Ferrier and his two children with Linda.
- Writers:
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- Date written:
- 2012
- Last updated:
- 2012
