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Tony
Morrison
is a writer specialising in topics from South America. When he met
Margaret Mee in 1987 he was actively involved with television production
and following a career he began as an independent producer for the
BBC [London].
Margaret's life story had been just one of several Amazonian ideas
that had fascinated him since visiting Rio de Janeiro in 1970. A
close friend of Margaret's told him about the opposition to Amazonian
development being voiced quietly by her and her artist companion
the internationally recognisd Brasilian landscape architect Roberto
Burle Marx. Tony felt that together they could have been the subject
for a television documentary. At that time the future of Amazonia
was a growing concern worldwide and with his wife Marion, Tony had
just completed a film about the earliest days of of the Manú
National Park in the Amazon forests of Peru. The film, the first
to be made in Manú was shown on BBC TV and screened in London
at the Second International Congress of the World Wildlife Fund
[WWF]. The Manú Park is now one of the world's greatest reserved
areas and holds an unrivalled biodiversity.
Rio
Manú,Peru, 1969.Photo Marion
Morrison
A
meeting in Rio Although their paths almost touched
on many occasions it was not until early March 1987 that Tony finally
met Margaret at her home in Rio de Janeiro when she showed him some
finished paintings, folios, notes and diaries of her Amazon journeys.
He was astounded that someone who was so highly acclaimed had not
been able to have a book of her journeys published or that other
film-makers had failed to get a production off the ground. In Brasil
Margaret had been honoured with the Freedom of Rio de Janeiro and
the Cruzeiro do Sul, the highest merit for foreigners. From her
home country Great Britain she had been awarded the MBE [Member
of the British Empire], she was a Fellow of the Linnean Society
in London and had been awarded a silver Grenfell Medal for her art.
Tony and Margaret and corresponded frequently during 1987. A
plan with two aims developed quickly. The first was for a book of
her paintings and travels and the second was for a televison film
to coincide with the publication.
The plan had the working title Margaret Mee's Amazon
and the finale was to be a search for an elusive cactus, or the
Moonflower of the flooded Amazonian forests. The challenge was to
find the flower that blooms just once a year in the middle of the
night and dies with the dawn.
The
original idea was presented in 1987 in a spiral- bound folder with
the painting of Gustavia pulchra on the cover and an inset picture
of Margaret Mee by Sally Webster
Journey
15 The Moonflower The story of the successful search
was first told as Journey 15, 1988, The Moonflower
in the book In Search Of Flowers of the Amazon Forests and
was written by Tony. The film plan was changed at the last minute
to become a 'pilot' [test run] for a larger production. With
support from friends in Brasil the flowering and successful painting
were recorded in television qualty video. Before Margaret died
in a car crash in December 1988 the intention had been to use the
pilot to find international producers and support from Brasilian
television. Tony
making notes by the Moonflower, Rio Negro, 1989 [Photo:Brian Sewell]
Readers
of the published transcript of her interview on the MacNeil-Lehrer
Hour in the USA may have spotted how when asked by Robert MacNeil
if she intended to return to to the Amazon forests she answered "Yes.
Definitely" and even named the month. She was less certain
about her goal as she was simply taking care not to reveal plans
already being made for a television backed repeat of her last journey.
She had promised Tony that she would not divulge the dates or too
much about the Moonflower cactus destined to be core of the plot.
The
Margaret Mee Amazon Trust The Margaret Mee's Amazon
folder was the starting point for fund raising ventures for the
embryonic Margaret Mee Amazon Trust created in 1988 to purchase
her collection of paintings for safekeeping and to provide scholarships
for Brasilian students. The title was used for exhibitions including
one staged by the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew [London] just before
her death. Another was sponsored by Christies the fine art auction
house at the stately Harewood House, Yorkshire [England] in 1990.
Fifteen years later in 2004 the RBG Kew co-published a collection
of paintings, sketches and her diaries with the same title. The
new book does not include the final journey written by Tony as it
was not one of her original diaries. So to fill the gap her last
Journey will appear on this site.
| The
film, sound recordings of Margaret and detailed notes from the
original search will be available as the site is developed |
| The
story of the search and the team who helped with the 'pilot'
film are on this site |
| More
about Tony and Marion Morrison can be found under Resume on
South American Pictures. |
| The
Trust was closed in 1995 and the work passed to a committee
based at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew [London] from where
the scholarship fund now operates as the Margaret Mee Fellowship
Programme |
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Every
care has been taken to check the information on this page. If you
feel there are inaccuracies or that you have details to add please
send an e-mail to the editor. This © material may be used free
of charge by scholars and for other personal non-commercial purposes.
Please credit Nonesuchinfo. .For
any other use please turn to
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'I
know my death will not be the end of my work. Wherever I go I will
try to influence those who are destroying our planet, so the earth
will have a chance to survive' Margaret
Mee in Brazil, 1988
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