“I think it’s important in cinema that when you sit down to watch a film the opening shot needs to say to an audience where they are and what is going on.”

“It took me a long time to write it because I think, I don’t write. I’ll think about a film until it’s completed in my head and then I’ll just spit it out over a week and do 10 or 15 pages a day. It took a long time to get there but it wasn’t that difficult. Making the film was kind of painless. We finished shooting the film early, which is pretty much unheard of in the cinema. We were two days early and had two days spare. Post production was scary, the actually editing was scary. This is where you can reinvent the wheel and you ask yourself ‘do we actually have a film?“

“To write something and make something you just have to truly believe. The fire inside you. That’s the beginning of it all.”

Born and raised in Alice Springs, at the age of thirteen he was sent to the monastic settlement of New Norcia in WA.  His mother, Freda Glynn was a pioneer in Aboriginal media, being a co-founder and director of the Central Australia Aboriginal Media Association (CAAMA) and the director of Imparja Television.  Thornton’s sister Erica Glynn is also a well-known writer and director, and his brother Scott is an actor - taking the role of Gonzo in Samson and Delilah.

He began making short films whilst working as a DJ at CAAMA and took himself to the Australian Film, Television and Radio School, where he graduated in cinematography.  He has worked as a cinematographer on many notable productions including the award winning First Australians series for SBS TV.  Samson and Delilah is his first feature film.