Circa 1970
_____ . _____
Ray Garner – Producer/Director/Cinematographer/Writer
Born in Brooklyn in 1913, Ray Garner began his photographic career in 1935,
filming a Boy Scout climbing expedition in the Grand Tetons. This 8mm
effort has been lost. In 1937, he was appointed to the position of staff photographer to the
New York University Rainbow Bridge-Monument
Valley expedition sponsored by the American Exploration Society. His
first major film undertaking was an extended project in the Belgian Congo in 1938
where, with his wife and collaborator Virginia Garner, he made a series
of ten films for the Harmon
Foundation, founded by real estate developer and former governor of Alaska William E. Harmon
(1862-1928). Active from 1922 to 1967, the foundation was established in
New York City to recognize African American achievements, in the fine arts,
business, education, farming, literature, music, race relations, religious
service and science. Its director was Mary Beattie Brady, who was the
governess of Harmon's children, and later became well-known for her support of
nurses' rights. Brady financed the
African films, as well as other Garner films, through 1956. The
Garners were not under formal contract, and never received a set yearly amount
of financial support. Virginia Garner reminisced recently that "the Harmon support was wonderful, but it wasn't always there on
schedule. The way it worked was we'd write a letter when we ran out of
money, and sooner or later it would arrive." The Garners would
occasionally have to pawn their films to bide time, waiting for the check.
From 1955
through 1958, Ray Garner traveled as a lecturer, illustrating his talks with his
films. He began making films for NBC
News in the early 1960s, and directed various segments in John Secondari's 'Saga
of Western Man' series for ABC News in the early 1970s.
Garner was an intellectual and an adventurer. He learned to pilot an aircraft so he could better understand the technology
for his 1941 training film 'How to Fly a Light Airplane', which featured
the African-American Tuskeegee airmen. Later, he flew in WWII as an
Army pilot in the Air Transport Command. He was a
member of the American Alpine Club, leading climbs in North America, Europe, and
Africa. He was the first mountaineer to successfully climb Brussels Peak,
in the Canadian Rockies. A free-thinker, he made several films for religious institutions,
purely for financial reasons.
The were two signature elements to Garner's filmmaking technique: long takes
of ruins, encompassing changes in light, and editing to the rhythm of the
musical soundtrack. Of particular notice in his Egyptian and Greek
films, his static shots of ruins alternate light and dark as clouds pass,
resplendent in the Technicolor prints he insisted upon for distribution.
Garner used orchestral soundtracks in nearly all his released films, and his
editing to soundtrack is seen to its greatest extent in his 'Portraits in Music'
films, and his work on Egypt, Greece, and Israel.
Ray Garner passed away in
1989. He was a true auteur, whose greatest contribution to acadmic film
was in his breathtaking cinematography, honed to a fine point in his films on
Egypt and Greece. The AFA hosted an evening dedicated to the work of
Garner on March 27, 2003.
Filmography (Garner made a number of
films to accompany his lectures. These films were never released commercially,
and are indicated below by an asterisk * )
Rainbow Bridge-Monument Valey Expedition (1937) NYU
Africa Film Project (10 films) Harmon Foundation. Titles include:
* Hills and the Sea (1940) Harmon Foundation, filmed in Martha's
Vineyard
On the Farm (1940) Harmon Foundation
* Smokies (1940) Harmon Foundation
Education for Life (1941) Filmed at Hampton Institute, premiered in the
White House by Eleanor Roosevelt; Harmon Foundation
How to Fly a Light Airplane (1942) Made at Tuskeegee Institute, with
Tuskeegee Airmen; Harmon Foundation
* Land of the Sky (1941) Great Smoky Mountains, Tennessee; Harmon Foundation
Pine Mountain Coorperative (1941); Harmon Foundation
Pine Montain Settlement School (1941); Harmon Foundation
Desert Shore: a Portrait in Music (1946) filmed in Guaymas, Mexico; Harmon Foundation
Los Niños (1946) study of a Mexican primary school; Harmon Foundation
* Pointed Mountains (1946) Grand Tetons; Harmon Foundation
* Canyon Depths (1947) Grand Canyon; Harmon Foundation
Coastline (1947) Pacific Cost from Canada to Mexico; Harmon Foundation
* Mountain (1947) an ascent of Grand Teton, Wyoming; Harmon Foundation
Ramparts: a Portrait in Music (1947) Harmon Foundation
Shining Mountains (1947) Glacier National Park; Harmon Foundation
* Mesa Verde (1948) Harmon Foundation
Mountaineering in the Desert (1948) senior Boy Scout climbing activities in
southern Arizona; Harmon Foundation
Point of Pines (1948) University of Arizona excavations at Point of Pines
Apache reservation; Harmon Foundation
Be-ta-ta-kin (House Under the Rim) (1949) Harmon Foundation
* Desert (1949) exploration in northern Arizona and southern Utah,
in what is now Canyonlands National Park; Harmon Foundation
* Sierra Madre (1950) pack mule journey into mountains of Sonora and
Chihuahua, Mexico; Harmon Foundation
Ancient World: Egypt (1951) Harmon Foundation; release sponsored by Archaeological Institute of America
Ancient World: Greece (1954) Harmon Foundation; release sponsored by Archaeological Institute of America
Antioch Abroad (1958) Shot in Finland, Russian refugees; prod.
Antioch College
Way of the Cross (1960) NBC News
Japan: East is West (1961) NBC News
Vincent Van Gogh, a Self-Portrait (1961) NBC News
Greece: the Golden Age (1962) NBC News
Highway One (1962) NBC News (?)
River Nile (1962) NBC News
Lord's Prayer (1963) filmed in Sequoia National Park, soliloquy by Dr.
Ralph Sockman, prod. by Presbyterian Church
Land of the Book (1964) a focus on Israel, prod. Ray and Virginia Garner
Ode To Joy (1968) Mesa, AZ Public Schools
Kibbutz Dafna (1964) prod. Ray and Virginia Garner
Touches of Sweet Harmony (1965) Idylwild Arts Foundation
Healing the Whole Man (1973) Dr. Evarts Loomis (doctor holistic
medicine, in Hemet, CA)
