| James Ricketson | |
| Birth Name: | James Staniforth Ricketson[1] |
| Nationality: | Australian |
| Alma Mater: | Australian Film and Television School |
| Occupation: | Film director |
| Credits: | , which produces label "Notable credit(s)"; or by |
| Works: | , which produces label "Works"; or by |
| Label Name: | , which produces label "Label(s)" --> |
| Office: | may be used as an alternative when the label is better rendered as "Office" (e.g. public office or appointments) --> |
| Opponents: | Cambodian Children's Fund |
| Criminal Penalty: | Six years in custody |
| Criminal Status: | Pardoned |
| Relatives: | Staniforth Ricketson (grandfather)[2] |
James Staniforth Ricketson is an Australian film director, known for the feature film Blackfellas. He became more widely known when he was charged with espionage for flying a drone in Cambodia in 2017.
Ricketson studied at the Australian Film and Television School and has made a number of features and documentaries.[3]
In 1973 Ricketson filmed and helped to organise Philippe Petit's high-wire walk between the two north pylons of Sydney Harbour Bridge. A short film of the walk was released on DVD with Man On Wire, the Academy Award-winning documentary on Petit's World Trade Center Twin Towers walk.[4]
Ricketson directed the feature films Third Person Plural (1978), Candy Regentag (1989), Blackfellas (1994). His documentaries include Reflections (1973), Roslyn and Blagica Everyone Needs a Friend (1979), Born in Soweto (1994), Sleeping with Cambodia (1997), Backpacking Australia (2001), and Viva (2004).
In 1981 he became one of the founding members of the Australian Directors Guild.[5] In the same year he directed one of the four episodes of the award-winning Australian miniseries Women of the Sun. In July 2012 it was announced he was suing Screen Australia.[6]
In 2014 Ricketson was fined six-million Cambodian riel (A$1,500) and given a suspended two-year prison sentence by a Phnom Penh court for threatening to broadcast accusations that a local branch of the Brisbane-based Citipointe Church sold children.[7] [8]
In June 2017, he was arrested while flying a drone at a Cambodia National Rescue Party rally in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, and charged with espionage, a charge he denies.[9] He was held in Prey Sar prison and his trial began in a Phnom Penh court on 16 August 2018, with character testimony from Australian film director Peter Weir.[10] [11] On 31 August he was found guilty and sentenced to six years in prison.[12] It was announced on 21 September 2018 that Cambodian authorities had pardoned Ricketson for the offence.[13]
Ricketson is the grandson of stockbroker Staniforth Ricketson.[2] He has a son, Jesse, and is a surrogate father to Roxanne Holmes, whom he met "while researching a film project about street kids" in the 1980s.[14]