In 2024, the revelatory documentary Limelight – Salvation and the Silver Screen received its world premiere in Melbourne. The documentary, capturing the staggering tale of the birth of cinema and the Salvos’ role as midwives, started streaming online in November 2025. It is now available as a limited-edition DVD.
We take it for granted, watching things happen on film. But if it weren’t for Salvation Army innovators in the 19th century, ‘movies’ wouldn’t have started and developed in Australia, influencing filmmakers worldwide.
Limelight documentary co-producer Eddie Beyrouthy’s passion for the project began with a visit to the Limelight Studio at 69 Bourke Street, Melbourne, where he encountered the seemingly forgotten stories of Salvation Army showmen touring Australasia and showing films to a public hungry for the experience.
“I don’t think that Salvation Army officer Joseph Perry and The Salvation Army knew they were birthing an art form and revolutionising an industry,” Eddie says.
“They were in large part giving birth to cinema and cinematography. One hundred years later we can see they did so, and that changed their history, and Australian and world history.
“Technology equals innovation, and innovation equals influence.”
“Perry was always pushing himself and his crew,” Phil notes, “and trying to find a better, more compelling way to tell a story. If something sparks your love of life, it changes you, and it changes those who see your work.”
For the Limelight Department members and the 20 Biorama touring companies, Eddie says, “it wasn’t a job – it was a mission, driven by passion and imagination, with the backing of The Salvation Army.”
While those halcyon days came to an end in 1909 and 1910, Eddie suggests it’s important for Salvationists “to embrace their influence on the innovation of the moving image – they have a genuine legacy”.
“Regardless of the feelings at the time, and the closure of the department, they played a world-shaping role,” he adds.
“They can be proud of the reality that if it wasn’t for Perry and Herbert Booth, and their comrades, the film industry wouldn’t have been nurtured and developed in Australia. There was a by-product to their work; an accidental role in giving life to dreams.”
“The Salvation Army captured and recorded vital moments in this country’s history,” says co-producer Phil Lambert. “It’s surreal that the innovation was matched with vision; they took this new technology and put it together with such effective people.”
More information and how to stream the documentary
Courtesy of Salvos online