This module gives you an overview of feature film-making in Australia, from its advent and success in the silent era to global mega-products of recent years. One film is screened before discussion and in the interest of giving intensive insight into Australian cinema, additional films are regularly recommended for viewing out of class. These will be made readily available to youmany you may have already viewedand they are included to provide a cinematic context for discussing the focus film.
Discussion will regularly centre on the representation of Australian Aboriginality in Australian cinema; the module also charts a chronological development from films made by white personnel about Indigenous peoples to films by Indigenous directors, or by non-Indigenous directors working in close collaboration with Indigenous film-makers, actors, and communities, addressing questions of Indigeneity and Australian-ness in a newly complex and politically astute manner.
The module will equip you to identify and analyse the themes that have preoccupied film-makers in Australia and to research the economic, social, political and cultural contexts that conditioned the production of Australian film throughout the 20th and into the present century.
Learning outcomes
At the end of the course you will:
* be familiarised with a range of films produced in Australia from the silent period to the present
* be equipped with skills to recognise and analyse issues arising from the conflict of Indigenous and non-Indigenous cultures in Australia
* have entered into discussion about the different production arrangements for films in Australia during the 20th century
* be enabled to conduct research on Australian film
You will be expected to
* show an ability to introduce and debate complex issues in small group discussion
* synthesise material
* assess the merits of contrasting interpretations
* communicate ideas with clarity and coherence
* develop a reasoned argument
* prepare written work to a prescribed style sheet and to a deadline
* work autonomously and with others
* reflect on personal learning and respond productively to constructive feedback
Raymond Longford, Dir., On Our Selection (1920);
Peter Weir, Dir., Picnic at Hanging Rock (1975);
Gillian Armstrong, Dir., My Brilliant Career (1979);
Charles Chauvel, Dir., Uncivilised (1936);
Nicholas Roeg, Dir., Walkabout (1971);
Phillip Noyce, Dir., Rabbit Proof Fence (2002);
Molly Reynolds, Tania Nehme, and Rolf de Heer, Dirs, Balanda and the Bark Canoes (2006);
Ivan Sen, Dir., Beneath Clouds (2002);
Rachel Perkins, Dir., Radiance (1998);
Stephan Elliott, Dir., The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert (1993);
P. J. Hogan, Dir., Muriels Wedding (1994);
George Miller, Dir., Mad Max (1979);
David Twohy, Dir., Pitch Black (2000);
Larry Wachowski, Dir., The Matrix (1999);
Baz Luhrmann, Dir., Strictly Ballroom (1992);
Baz Luhrmann, Dir., Moulin Rouge (2001)
