107-087 Contemporary Australian Cinema: Narrative and Identity

Availability

Credit Points

Coordinator

Prerequisites

Usually 12.5 points of first year Cinema Studies see Prerequisites

Semester

Contact

Subject Description

This subject explores the relationship between national identity and international film culture and specifically questions how filmic structures (narrative, audience, characterisation) operate in Australian cinema to produce identities which have both local and international resonance. The success of films such as 'Crocodile Dundee' and 'Mad Max' with mainstream international audiences will be analysed within the context of mass culture; the emergence of a popular alternative cinema with films such as 'The Adventures of Priscilla Queen of the Desert', 'Dallas Doll', 'The Sum of Us' will be considered in the context of Queer theory; teen films such as 'Romper Stomper' form an area of study and films which juxtapose the interests of Anglo-Celtic Australians with those of different ethnicities, such as 'Strictly Ballroom', will be examined. The representation of race issues will form an additional focus of study with 'Night Cries' and a range of other films made by Aboriginal film makers centrally placed within the subject. The films of Australian directors working in Hollywood such as Gillian Armstrong and Bruce Beresford will form a major area of study.

Assessment

Written work comprising class papers, essays or take home examinations totalling 4000 words.

Prescribed Texts

A course reader will be available

• S Dermody & E Jakka (eds), The Imaginary Industry, Australian Film in the Late 80s. AFTRS Publications 1990.