Texts

form y separately published work icon The Home Song Stories Tony Ayres , ( dir. Tony Ayres ) Australia : Big and Little Films Porchlight Films , 2007 Z1390692 2007 single work film/TV (taught in 4 units)

'This is the true story of Rose, a glamorous Shanghai nightclub singer, who struggles to survive in '70s Australia with two young children. Based on writer/director Tony Ayres' own life, The Home Song Stories is an epic tale of mothers and sons, mothers and daughters, unrequited love, secrets and betrayal.'

Source: Australian Film Commission. (Sighted: 8/10/2014)

y separately published work icon Don's Party David Williamson , 1971 1971 (Manuscript version)x402002 Z1505961 1971 single work drama satire (taught in 17 units)
form y separately published work icon Mad Max James McCausland , George Miller , ( dir. George Miller ) Australia : Kennedy Miller Entertainment , 1979 Z1040124 1979 single work film/TV science fiction (taught in 5 units)

In a post-apocalyptic Australia, law and order has begun to break down due to energy shortages, despite the efforts of Main Force Patrol (MFP) officers like Max Rockatansky. After Rockatansky encounters Toecutter's motorcycle gang, who are running runshod over isolated communities, he grows disillusioned with his role in the MFP. At first convinced by his superior officer not to resign, he is driven into a state of cold-blooded revenge when Toecutter's gang murder his wife and young son.

form y separately published work icon Ten Canoes Rolf De Heer , ( dir. Rolf De Heer ) Australia : Fandango Australia Vertigo Productions , 2006 Z1262398 2006 single work film/TV (taught in 11 units)

A story within a story and overlaid with narration, Ten Canoes takes place in two periods in the past. The first story, filmed in black-and-white as a reference to the 1930s ethnographic photography of Donald Thompson, concerns a young man called Dayindi who takes part in his first hunt for goose eggs. During the course of several trips to hunt, gather and build a bark canoe, his older brother Minygululu tells him a story about their ancestors and the old laws. The story is also about a young man who had no wife but who coveted one of his brother's wives, and also of the stranger who disrupted the harmony of their lives. It is cautionary tale because Minygululu is aware that Dayinidi desires his young and pretty third wife.

The second story (shot in colour) is set much further back in time. Yeeralparil is a young man who desires the third wife of his older brother Ridjimiraril. When Ridjimiraril's second wife disappears, he suspects a man from another tribe has been seen near the camp. After he spears the stranger he discovers that he was wrong. Knowing that he must face the man's relatives he chooses Yeeralparil to accompany him during the ritual payback. When Ridjimiraril dies from his wounds the tribe's traditions decree that Yeeralparil must inherit his brother's wives. The burden of these responsibilities, however, is more than the young man expects.

Description

Through the close analysis of selected Australian films, filmed plays and television productions, this subject examines the way that the various elements of medium, genre, structure and content are assembled to give such productions impact and meaning. The subject considers each of the works as national, cultural statements and surveys changes and similarities in popular perspectives up until the present.

Supplementary Texts

Reading 1: Turner, Graeme. ‘National fictions: film, fiction and national culture’ in National Fictions: Literature, film and the construction of Australian narrative. Second Edition. St Leonards: Allen and Unwin, 1993. pp. 13-23.

Reading 2: Brisbane, Katharine. ‘The Battler, The Larrikin and the Ocker’ Commonwealth 11.1 1988. pp 13-21.

Reading 3: Gibson, Ross. ‘Camera Nutura: Landscape in Australian Feature Films’ in Australian Cultural Studies: A Reader. Frow, John and Meaghan Morris (eds). St. Leonards: Allen and Unwin, 1993. pp. 209-221.

Reading 4: O’Regan, Tom. ‘The Importance of Ugliness and Ordinariness in Australian Cinema’ in Australian National Cinema. New York and London: Routledge, 1996. pp. 243-250.

Reading 5: Williamson, David. ‘A nation united in its unique disparity’. The Age, January 25 2003. http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2003/01/24/1042911546241.html

Reading 6: Davis, Therese. ‘Working Together: Two Cultures, One Film, Many Canoes’. Senses of Cinema issue 41. 2006.

http://archive.sensesofcinema.com/contents/06/41/ten-canoes.html

Reading 7: Tuccio, Silvana. ‘Whose Story is Reclaimed in The Home Song Stories?’ Studies in Australasian Cinema 2.1, 2008. pp. 15-20.

Other Details

Levels: Undergraduate
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