'This Master of Arts thesis analyses the effect of the personal history of Arthur and Corinne Cantrill, two Australian independent filmmakers, on their style of filmmaking. It analyses their representation of film-form experimentation within national Australian art in a range of independent film works and reflects on their cultural relation to the general history of independent filmmaking in Australia, America and Europe. It studies the circumstances that resulted in the appearance of the Cantrills' experimental film and their relation to international art theories and film experimentation.
This thesis also examines how the Cantrills' works, which were often critical of conventional filmmaking styles, and their critical writing, statements and promotion of their independent and experimental film work contributed significantly to theoretical discussion and argument about the physical nature of film within Australia. This examination is explored through asking and answering the central question: The work of Arthur and Corinne Cantrell is theoretically drawn from a tradition of European arts and visually drawn from Australian landscape and urban culture; can their work be identified and undertood as Australian art?'
Author's abstract
