Suzanne Baker

{{Short description|Australian filmmaker, journalist, and academic}}

{{Infobox writer

| name = Suzanne Baker

| honorific-suffix = {{post-nominals|country=AUS|size=100%|AM}}

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| birth_date = {{Birth year and age|1939}}

| birth_place = England

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| occupation = Producer, journalist, writer

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| alma_mater = {{nowrap begin}}University of Sydney (BA (Hons), 2006){{nowrap end}}

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Suzanne Dale Baker {{post-nominals|country=AUS|AM}} (born 1939) is an Australian film producer, print and television journalist, writer, historian, and feminist. In 1977, she became the first Australian woman to win an Academy Award, winning for the animated short film Leisure in the category Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film.

Early life and education

Suzanne Dale Baker{{citation needed|date=March 2025}} was born in England in 1939, while her Australian parents were visiting that country.[http://www.nationalwomenslibrary.org/forms/newsletter_nov06.pdf Suzanne Baker, July Lunch-Hour Talk: "Back-to-Front Career", Jessie Street National Women's Library Newsletter, Vol 17, No. 4, November 2006] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160305055918/http://www.nationalwomenslibrary.org/forms/newsletter_nov06.pdf# |date=5 March 2016 }}. Retrieved 14 March 2014 Her parents were New Zealand-born writer and philologist Sidney J. Baker (best known as the author of The Australian Language, a work that was highly praised by America's H. L. Mencken in The American Language) and his first wife Sally Baker (née Eena Dale Young),[https://archival.sl.nsw.gov.au/Details/archive/110327682 Record Details: Suzanne Baker]. State Library of New South Wales. who separated when Baker was seven and divorced when she was eleven. She has a younger sister, Stephanie.{{cite web |last=Ramson |first=W. S. |title=Sidney John (Sid) Baker |website=Australian Dictionary of Biography |date=1 January 1993 |url=https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/baker-sidney-john-sid-9411 |access-date=19 March 2025 |quote =This article was published: in the Australian Dictionary of Biography, Volume 13 , 1993; online in 2006}} When she was twelve, her mother married Lindsay Clinch, a newspaper editor. Her father also remarried twice.

Baker attended Sydney Girls High School[https://web.archive.org/web/20150227211504/https://www.sghs.nsw.edu.au/About_Us/History.html "History"] Sydney Girls High School. but left school at age 15.

When her stepfather was appointed to run the New York office of John Fairfax and Sons, Baker accompanied him and studied television production at New York University and worked for NBC.

Career

On return to Australia, Baker worked as a journalist for the ABC and was a producer for Bob Sanders' People. Her career then took her to the United Kingdom, where she worked for Thames TV, and then back to Australia in 1971 to work with the Sydney Morning Herald, where she modernised the women's section called Look!

In 1972, Baker was a founding member of the Media Women's Action Group.

In 1973, Baker joined Film Australia as its first female film producer. In this capacity, she was nominated for, and won, the Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film for the animated film Leisure, directed by Bruce Petty,[https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0074787/fullcredits?ref_=tt_ov_st_sm IMdB: Leisure]. Retrieved 14 March 2014 at the 49th Academy Awards, presented in 1977. This made her the first Australian woman to win an Academy Award. She did not attend the ceremony, as Film Australia had a limited budget for overseas travel and she was not expected to win.[http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/03/14/1047583699001.html Richard Jinman, "She's still got it … and memories of a brilliant career", Sydney Morning Herald, 15 March 2003]. Retrieved 14 March 2014 The award was accepted on her behalf by the presenter, Marty Feldman.[http://aaspeechesdb.oscars.org/link/049-17/ Oscars.org]. Retrieved 14 March 2014

In 1978, Baker led a television crew to China to make the five-part documentary series The Human Face of China, which was released worldwide in 1980.[http://sa-staging.com/search-programs/program/?sn=1742 National Film and Sound Archive] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140314043358/http://sa-staging.com/search-programs/program/?sn=1742# |date=14 March 2014 }}. Retrieved 14 March 2014[http://www.csmonitor.com/1980/0707/070702.html Arthur Unger, 'The Human Face of China', Christian Science Monitor, 7 July 1980]. Retrieved 14 March 2014 She also wrote the accompanying book.

Her interest in film making having waned, Baker left Film Australia in 1984 and entered the University of Sydney[http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/03/14/1047583697734.html Richard Jinman, "What Oscar did next", Sydney Morning Herald, 15 March 2003]. Retrieved 14 March 2014 as a mature age student, completing an honours degree in history in 2006. Her thesis, titled "Realising an Absent Presence", sought to recognise the influence of women on Australian literature, an influence that had long been neglected in Australian literature studies, including in her own father's work, The Australian Language (1945).

In 2011, Baker published Beethoven and the Zipper: The Astonishing Story of Musica Viva, which detailed how an Austrian immigrant to Australia, Richard Goldner, invented and patented a zip fastener for the Australian Army, and used the proceeds to establish Musica Viva Australia in 1945, which went on to become the world's largest entrepreneurial chamber music organisation.[http://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/music/author-plays-score-of-life-found-in-music-20110426-1duzs.html Steve Meacham, "Author plays score of life found in music", Sydney Morning Herald, 27 April 2011]. Retrieved 14 March 2014 The book was optioned for a movie by Tree Productions (producer Brian Rosen). The screenplay (working title The Musician) is by Joan Sauers and the movie was slated for release in late 2020, the year of the 75th anniversary of Musica Viva.{{Cite web |url=http://www.screen.nsw.gov.au/project/the-musician|title=Screen NSW|website=www.screen.nsw.gov.au|language=en-AU|access-date=2018-03-05}}

Filmography

1965: On Being a Sheila[http://sgp1.paddington.ninemsn.com.au/sunday/feature_stories/article_1155.asp?s=1 On Being a Sheila, ninemsn, 6 October 2002] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140314043433/http://sgp1.paddington.ninemsn.com.au/sunday/feature_stories/article_1155.asp?s=1 |date=14 March 2014 }}. Retrieved 14 March 2014
1967: A Bird's Eye View[https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1300&dat=19670330&id=sxZVAAAAIBAJ&sjid=XJMDAAAAIBAJ&pg=7036,5206347 "Bird's Eye View of Men", The Age, TV-Radio Guide, 31 March-6 April 1967]. Retrieved 14 March 2014[https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1301&dat=19670326&id=yoJWAAAAIBAJ&sjid=7-QDAAAAIBAJ&pg=2566,7918681 "A Look at the Chaps", Sydney Morning Herald, 26 March 1967]. Retrieved 14 March 2014
1975: Sister, If You Only Knew[https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1817747/fullcredits?ref_=tt_cl_sm#cast IMdB: Sister, If You Only Knew]. Retrieved 14 March 2014
1975: A Say in Your Community with the Australian Assistance plan
1976: Leisure
1976: Seeing Red and Feeling Blue[http://library.sl.nsw.gov.au/search~S2?/cC3063/cc3063/-3%2C-1%2C0%2CE/frameset&FF=cc3072&1%2C1%2C State Library of New South Wales: Seeing Red and Feeling Blue]. Retrieved 14 March 2014
1979: The Human Face of China (five-part documentary series)
1979: Saturday[https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1817247/?ref_=nm_flmg_prd_4 IMdB: Saturday]. Retrieved 14 March 2014
1983: The Weekly's War
1984: After the Flood[https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1816450/?ref_=nm_flmg_prd_2 IMdB: After the Flood]. Retrieved 14 March 2014
1986: Land of Hope (10-part TV series)[https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0156726/?ref_=nm_flmg_prd_1 IMdB: Land of Hope]. Retrieved 14 March 2014