Cirrus@Austlit

'One of the first of the ‘Documentary Film Cultures’ series coming out from Peter Lang, Jennifer Debenham’s new study of documentary about Aboriginal people argues for the benefits of the media ecology approach, which the series as a whole explores. Documentary makers have visited Aboriginal communities for over a century, using technologies that have changed radically during that time; the presumptions and values of successive expeditions altered, as did the nature of the encounters. The films they took away with them and shaped into narratives were some of the most influential lenses through which urban Australians perceived Indigenous Australians. As racial politics shifted, anthropological curiosity gave way to activism on behalf of, then in collaboration with, marginalised communities. By the beginning of the twenty-first century the camera – safer, lighter, more adaptable and cheaper to use – was more often in Indigenous hands and so was the story. Distribution, too, shifted and changed: from cinemas, television, schools and universities, to the current dominance of online streaming and management through government repositories. The media ecology approach seeks to chart how these elements of making, distributing and watching film interact with each other, and with the subjects of the films and their audiences.' (Introduction)