Fairweather Man (ATOM Study Guide)

In April 1952, reclusive artist Ian Fairweather set out from Darwin on a homemade raft in an attempt to cross the Timor Sea. A search party was sent out to find him but was unable to locate the raft. He was reported lost at sea and his obituary appeared in newspapers around the world. After sixteen days adrift, most of them spent lying face down in a hallucinogenic state he miraculously washed up on the small Indonesian island of Roti. He had travelled some four hundred kilometres and come dangerously close to disappearing in the Indian Ocean.

So begins Fairweather Man, a film that could best be described as a visual symphony a highly crafted, intimate, portrait of the life and work of one of Australias greatest painters. Fairweathers was a restless, questing life, in which he crossed the globe many times over, immersing himself in diverse cultural experiences. He was a truly unique individual and his long life was rich with dramatic incident, providing enough material for a dozen gripping films.

In Fairweather, writer and director Aviva Ziegler and producer Veronica Fury have focused on a fascinating and enthralling subject, a complex and dark character, an inspired seer, committed to his own vision of the truth. His art is lovingly, exhaustively presented in image after image until the spectator is brought undone by the monumental scale of this strange mans artistic achievement. Fairweather Man must easily rank among the most brilliant arts documentaries made in this country. It deserves to be widely seen.

In May 1974, Ian Fairweather died. He was eighty-two years old. His friend Dale Marsh was painting Fairweathers portrait at the time, and comments, I felt as though some light had gone out of the world. The beauty of this film is that it lets us glimpse the profundity of this one mans life, his artistic legacy and his fearless, unwavering pursuit of creative integrity.