Joan Long

Joan Long
Born	Joan Dorothy Boundy 20 July 1925 Rushworth, Victoria, Australia
Died	2 January 1999 (aged 73) Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
Occupation	Writer, Producer
Spouse(s)	Martin Long
Children	4

Joan Long (born Joan Dorothy Boundy; 20 July 1925 – 2 January 1999) was an Australian producer, writer and director best known for Caddie (1976). She was awarded the A.M. (Member of the Order of Australia) in 1980 for her services to the film industry.

Joan Dorothy Boundy was born in Ruthworth, Victoria and was the daughter of Katherine and Frances Boundy. She was brought up in a Methodist family and shared her childhood with four other siblings. Long went to Geelong High School and graduated from the University of Melbourne with a bachelor's degree in History. In 1948, Long made the decision of moving to Sydney, in order to pursue a career in film.

Joan started working at the Department of Interior (DOI)’s new film division, the Australian National Film Board. She was working as a secretary. Her main role was to assist Producer Stanley Hawse. She eventually started her direction debut in 1952 with a series of short documentaries and, in the process, became the second woman, after Catherine Duncan, to take on this role in the Commonwealth Film Unit, previously known as the Australian National Film Board.

After her marriage with Martin Long, she went on a 10-year break, in order to care for her two stepsons and her own son and daughter. She eventually came back to the Commonwealth Film Unit, and with her family in mind, she opted to work as a freelance scriptwriter rather than a full-time employee. However, as mentioned during her interview with Marie Knuckey, it was a decision that was frowned upon by certain people in her entourage: ¨What they said to my face was only a fraction of what they said to my back – you still get people who criticize the fact [that] you work […] No one questions a man's right to work or that his career should go on. Whereas women have had to justify their right to work.¨

Both The Picture That Moved: Australian Cinema 1896-1920 (1968) and The Passionate Industry: 1920-1930 (1971) were documentaries portraying the evolution of the Australian film industry the movies were a compilation of different excerpts of newsreels, features and photographs of the addressed periods. She also interviewed several actors who played or participated in these pictures. The two films were chosen to be among the Official Selections (Out of Competition category), at the 30th Cannes Film Festival, in 1977.

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