Tom O'Regan examines the two types of Australian filmmaking which dominated the local cinema experience during the 1970s. The 'ocker' film, represented by Don's Party (1976), The Adventures of Barrie McKenzie (1972), Stork (1971) and Alvin Purple (1973) celebrated the contemporary Australian. The second type of production, the 'quality' film - those such as Picnic at Hanging Rock (1975), Caddie (1976) and My Brilliant Career (1979) are positioned between art-cinema and classic Hollywood filmmaking.
The essay argues that the ocker films were central to public definitions of Australian cinema in the first half of the decade; while quality films were central in the second half of the decade. 'These films, the filmmaking milieu that produced them and the all too public debates surrounding them,' writes O'Regan, 'provided a particular experience of the cinema.'
