BY KAREN BOSSICK
Documentary filmmaker Anthony Geffen, who has entertained Sun Valley audiences with his cutting-technology film clips for years, is back.
This time he will screen “The Coronation,” which marks the 65th anniversary of the crowning of Queen Elizabeth II, who has served the longest reign of any British monarch.
The free screening will take place at 6 p.m. Wednesday, Dec. 26, at Ketchum’s Community Library.
The television documentary features an unprecedented, unscripted conversation with Her Majesty the Queen, who had never before been interviewed on camera.
The film provides insights on the centuries-old coronation ceremony, which dates back more than a thousand years. And it uses high-resolution footage provided by HD cameras and special 4K lenses to reveal the incredible secrets and forensic details of the Crown Jewels.
Queen Elizabeth recounts that day in June 1953 in which she--the 27-year-old daughter of King George VI—was crowned. Viewers will learn the story of the maid of honor, who nearly fainted, and the 12-year-old choirboy, who ended up singing solo when his overwhelmed colleagues lost their voices.
The London Times called it an “astounding film.” The Sun, “a fascinating documentary.” And the Daily Mail, a “BBC scoop.”
Geffen, is an award-winning filmmaker who has been spending the Christmas holidays with his family in Sun Valley for 25-plus years.
In that time he has taken library audiences behind the scenes of such tales as Cleopatra’s death and George Mallory’s attempt at climbing Everest
He’s shown how he’s brought flying monsters from the past to life with cutting edge three-dimensional technology. He showed how his camera men used a brand new camera that resembled a periscope that they could drop inside a plant to shoot “Kingdom of Plants 3D.”
He showed how it took four people and an hour to get cameras in place and aligned with each other to film the penguin show “Bachelor King 3D.” And he showed how he filmed naturalist David Attenborough in a hang glider as a winged pterosaur flew around him. It was a hair-raising momet, Geffen said, as a helicopter flew within feet of the naturalist, who was 85 at the time.
Geffen’s groundbreaking stereoscopic 3D “Flying Monsters 3D” won a British Academy Award (BAFTA award) for Best TV documentary, along with an IBC Special Award for its innovative use of 3D.
His “First Life with David Attenborough,” in which photo-realistic CGI technology recreated early animals and their environments through the help of fossils, won an Emmy hat trick--three Emmy awards --at the News & Documentary Emmy Awards.
“We did what no one else had done before. No one won three individual Emmys ever,” said Geffen, who also chalked up a Best Imax of the Year.
Of course, some could argue that his latest coup—getting Queen Elizabeth to open up on camera, casting aside her public persona temporarily—may even eclipse all his augmented and virtual reality coups.
In addition to “The Coronation,” he will share glimpses of two other recent works—“Judi Dench: My Passion for Trees” and “Galapagos with Liz Bonnin.”
“I love being a part of this community,” he said. “And I love that maybe I spark an interest in something like the life of a penguin.”