Filmmaker Roger Scholes is best known for the film The Tale of Ruby Rose (1987), a gorgeous-yet-gritty love letter to the Tasmanian landscape and the personal histories that lie within its mountainous folds. Writer and director Scholes overcame the challenges of remote wilderness, a fierce winter, and a very low budget to champion his masterpiece and bring it to the screen. The film won four critics’ prizes at the 1987 Venice Film Festival.
His other films include the award-winning docudrama The Coolbaroo Club (1996), the award-winning documentary The Human Journey (1999), and The Franklin River Blockade (1983), co-written with his wife, the novelist Katherine Scholes. His television documentaries, including Stories from the Stone Age (2003), Last Port of Call (2003), and Future Shack (2003), drew large audiences.
Scholes’ films tackled themes including social injustice and inequality, environmentalism and Aboriginal history in Tasmania. He was described by the Canberra International Film Festival as a staunch critic of social injustice and inequality, and as a ‘highly accomplished filmmaker who made significant contributions to the Australian film industry’.
