Cirrus@Austlit

'Sustaining a life long career in any part of the film industry anywhere in the world is hard, but sustaining one in the ever shifting realm of creative, independent, socially engaged, intellectually inspired, formally innovative practice in Australia is especially tough.

'John Cumming's superb book is not only about the prodigious, exploratory, challenging films, videos and TV programs made by John Hughes - an underrated, canny maverick of our national scene; it is also about what it takes to keep moving and changing with the times, how to negotiate with institutions and collaborate with sympathetic minds from other art forms, how to research and teach and theorise on t he spot. Only after that concerted effort can a big picture - involving, in Hughes' case, a multi-media aesthetic of collage design, and a long view of generations, conflicts and transmissions in social history - be discerned.

'John Cumming elegantly gives us both this collective history and a fine appreciation by one artist of another - both of them forever struggling in and with the conditions, limits and possibilities of their culture.' (Publication summary)

'Comedy has been a perpetual part of Australian film, in which humour reflects Australia's adaptation in times of crisis, social change and technological advances. This was never more so than in the 1930s, when Australia produced more comedy feature films than in any other decade before 1970.

'These films of the 1930s embraced the new technology of sound, made local vaudeville performers into movie stars, offered escape from the Depression and revealed a diverse and international Australia. In these films, Australia moves further from Empire and the bush, forges the Digger legend, responds to cultural diversity and views itself as a modern, urban nation.

'Influenced by Hollywood, Australian comedies of the 1930s adapted international styles to local points of view. Based on research at the National Film and Sound Archive, Lesley Speed's book provides new insight into Australian comedy films of the 1930s and the extraordinary period of social change in which they were produced.' (Publication summary)

'A new book, Shining a Light: 50 Years of the Australian Film Institute, traces the progress of the film and television industries in Australia - as well as screen culture within Australia over the past half century - through the lens of one key organisation, the Australian Film Institute (AFI).

Since its establishment in 1958, the AFI has played a central role in nurturing and supporting both screen culture and production, from the Australian film industry's small beginnings to its development into an internationally recognised billion dollar industry. Shining a Light maps out the history of the AFI and the wider industry over the past fifty years and explores the relationship of screen culture to a successful production industry.

The book is a timely and significant contribution to scholarship on Australian cinema, being published at a critical time in Australian film history. The authors have interviewed key players on the local scene, and sifted through volumes of documentary evidence in chronicling the history of the AFI, its successes and role in Australian screen culture past, present and future.

The writers' collective experience spans filmmaking, academic research and teaching, film journalism, employment and service in key screen culture organisations as well as an abiding passion for Australian cinema - bringing to the book both the filmmaker or industry perspective, and academic schlorship.' (Publisher's blurb)

'Australian Screen Education (formerly Metro Education) is the companion magazine to Metro. It is also a joint venture between the Australian Teachers of Media and the Australian Film Commission.'