Cirrus@Austlit

'For those of us born in the 20th and 21st centuries, movies are inherent to daily life. We automatically suspend our disbelief, buying into the premise of the plot so as to be transported without delay into other realms. For more serious viewing with documentaries and educational filmmaking, we can quickly choose to engage in the filmmakers’ efforts, accepting or rejecting their premise without any great cognitive efforts. We are accustomed to film. Be it on the big screen, on YouTube, TVs, laptops or phones. For generations, film as a visual medium has been there to tell our tales, relate our news and frame out ‘truths’. Yet it has not always been thus.' (Introduction)

'Catharine Lumby was a friend and beneficiary of Moorhouse’s mentoring and advice, and before his death, was approached by him to write a warts-and-all uncensored biography. In Frank Moorhouse: A Life, Lumby explores the life of this man of letters in all of its colour and contradiction.' (Introduction)

'Kate Holden’s The Winter Road is a ranging meditation on a 2014 execution-style murder committed on a dirt track in Croppa Creek, in northwest NSW. Barry Gittins speaks to Kate Holden about her prize-winning account of the crime, reminding readers of the uneasy history of predation in this country and the damage it does to the land and to the people on it.' (Introduction)

'In these times of heated social media diatribes, political Greco-Roman wrasslin’ and semi-permanent lockdowns (cue the mandatory beating of my Melburnian breast), I have decided to observe October as a month to observe other people observing things. For me, there was a sense of self crumbling under the weight of being house arrested for the good of all. Gravitas, like gravity, can be crushing; I knew I needed a break from howling at the Moon (16 October is the ‘international observe the Moon night’). So to the calendar I turned.' (Introduction)

'Earlier this year I did a very post-COVIDY thing; I caught up with some old mates to have a drink and a bite and shoot some pool. We started at our shallow end conversationally, as we always do, one-upping the next bloke and BS-ing away. But we ended up with some deep dives into verities.' (Introduction)

'A few nights every week I grab my beverage (hot or cold, depending on the season) and wander outside to stare at the Moon. Suburban light pollution aside, it never fails to move me.'  (Introduction)

'Would I lie to you? Would I lie to you honey? Now would I say something that wasn't true?' The Eurythmics' hit from 1985 has been played repeatedly in my head of late as I negotiate life as a Dad.' (Introduction)