- NATIONAL COLLECTION
- Search the Collection
- Accessing the Collection
- Collection Guides
- Building the Collection
- Managing the Collection
- Collection Spotlights
- PRESERVATION PROJECTS
- Australia's 'Lost' Films: Search & Rescue
- Marius Sestier Collection
- Kodak/Atlab Collection
- Deluxe/Kodak Collection
- National Film Preservation Foundation
- SPECIALISED COLLECTIONS
- NFVLS Collection
- Australian Jazz Archive
- National Registry of Audiovisual Collections
- Oral History Collection
Marius Sestier Project
Patineur Grotesque
Salon Lumière
The
Marius Sestier Collection
Press Clippings
Salon Lumière Event
Special Feature - Screening the Past
'We never dreamed...!'
Family documents can provide an enormous amount of information and those acquired from Marius Sestier’s family as well as those he knew and worked with in Australia are no exception.
The French Connection
In 2006 Film Branch curator, Sally Jackson, appealed via a genealogical website for the whereabouts of descendants of French pharmacist and frères Lumière representative to Australia, Marius Sestier. In late 2008, Sestier’s great granddaughter, Madame Petitbois, replied via email.
Through Sally Jackson’s contacts in Paris, Madame Anne and Monsieur Jacques Canal, a meeting was arranged with the Sestier family. They gathered in Sauzet, Marius Sestier’s birthplace, in December 2008 to meet with the local historian Madame Milon. Family members reconnected sharing information and photographs and Madame Milon passed on information about their ancestors. In the late afternoon the group took a tour through the village and Jacques Canal filmed both the meeting and the tour.
In late 2009 the family agreed to the NFSA’s access to Marius Sestier’s original documents relating to his career as a frères Lumière representative in India and Australia between 1896 and 1897. The collection comprises two scrapbooks of press cuttings from Australia; one exercise book of pressing cuttings from India and his English language lessons; two bank books and one notebook of accounts and daily activities. Other personal and family history items such as photographs, Sestier’s 1902 driver’s license, and his military record were also included. This is the first time these documents have been placed in a collecting institution’s hands.
The Australian Connection
A search for the provenance of original frères Lumière films in the NFSA’s National Collection revealed a link directly back to Marius Sestier through a Franco-Australian family in Perth. The Antoine family held the films until the 1950s when they passed out of their care, resurfacing in 1979 as part of an STW 9 documentary Our French Connection. The Antoine connection was through an uncle, Monsiuer Georges Boivin, who acquired the films directly from Marius Sestier in 1897.
The family have stepped forward and through a daughter Julie Dyson, who lives in Canberra, are kindly making available documents and photographs relating to Sestier’s time in Australia.
|
NFSA Marius Sestier Collection Front cover Scrapbook of Sydney Press Cuttings Courtesy Madame Marie-Dominique Petitbois, Messrs Robert Sestier et Bernard Jeune |
 |
NFSA Marius Sestier Collection Front Cover Adelaide Press Cuttings Scrapbook Courtesy Madame Marie-Dominique Petitbois, Messrs Robert Sestier et Bernard Jeune |
|
In Bombay the Sestiers advertised for a local intrepreter and someone who could teach them English. The first half of this book is their English lessons and it shows how they struggled with the differences in French and English. The second part of the book is full of press cuttings of their shows in Bombay. NFSA Marius Sestier Collection Publicité Scrapbook and English language lessons Sample page of lessons Courtesy Madame Marie-Dominique Petitbois, Messrs Robert Sestier et Bernard Jeune |
 |
In Adelaide the Lumiére Cinématographe was the headline act at the Theatre Royal over all the other acts including their one time competitor Carl Hertz. Hertz was the first person to show films in Australia, in Melbourne on 17 August 1896. NFSA Marius Sestier Collection Front Cover Adelaide Press Cuttings Scrapbook Courtesy Madame Marie-Dominique Petitbois, Messrs Robert Sestier et Bernard Jeune |
|
The Sestiers kept scrapbooks of all their tours. In this one of their Sydney season they also kept tabs on their competitor, Harry Rickards at the Tivoli. NFSA Marius Sestier Collection NFSA Marius Sestier Collection Scrapbook of Sydney Press Cuttings Courtesy Madame Marie-Dominique Petitbois, Messrs Robert Sestier et Bernard Jeune |
|
(L-R) 1. NFSA Marius Sestier Collection Marius Sestier’s bank book 1896-1897 Bank of New South Wales Courtesy Madame Marie-Dominique Petitbois, Messrs Robert Sestier et Bernard Jeune 2. NFSA Marius Sestier Collection Front Cover Publicité Scrapbook and English language lessons Courtesy Madame Marie-Dominique Petitbois, Messrs Robert Sestier et Bernard Jeune |
