Draft:Julia Knowlton

Julia Knowlton (1904-2007) was a pioneering American film editor, whose career highlight was working on the 1957 Academy Award-winning documentary Albert Schweitzer as assistant editor.

Julia Rosalind Bransby was born in 1904 in Los Angeles. At Imperial Valley High School, she was active in drama and the school newspaper. She met and married her husband, Murray Knowlton, while both were performing with a theater group in 1926. Julia studied the performing arts at the Comnock School of Expression in Los Angeles and the University of Southern California and performed in and directed theater productions in Los Angeles, San Diego and Wilton, Connecticut.

They later moved to New England with their two sons during the Second World War. While the family lived in Connecticut, Knowlton served as head of the editing department at her brother John Bransby's film and television production firm in New York City. That firm made over 100 sales training, public relations, and technical films for Esso Standard Oil Co. Murray Knowlton directed films for the firm as well, including New Jersey Journey.

Later she worked closely with filmmaker Jerome Hill as a director and film editor. As well as helping the company film his activities as a medical missionary in Africa, she also traveled to Europe to cover Dr. Schweitzer’s roots and his activities as a leading interpreter of the organ music of Bach.

Filmography

 * Albert Schweitzer
 * The Sand Castle"The Sand Castle," represented Jungian themes through the allegory of a boy who builds a sand castle at the beach. The sand castle, which draws the attention of a varied collection of eccentric beachgoers, also serves as the setting for an elaborate stop-motion animation dream sequence near the end of the film.