AustLit

Hollywood, local filmmakers and regional Australia intersect in the story of Franklyn Barrett’s touring of a live prologue to Cecil B DeMille’s The Ten Commandments in Far North Queensland, 1925.

'Lauded by many as one of the most powerful Australian films made in the past 20 years, Rowan Woods' stunning debut feature The Boys touched off a storm of media controversy upon its release in 1998.

'The film evoked vivid memories of the 1986 rape and murder of a young Sydney woman named Anita Cobby. Although Woods' film was fictional, The Boys remains inextricably connected to its real-life counterpart in the minds of many viewers.

'But that connection is only part of the story behind the making of The Boys. In this thoughtful and thought-provoking essay, Andrew Frost contextualises the major thematic concerns of the film into the broader context of social anxieties about violence, crime and morality.

'Frost chronicles his own personal journey with the film and its makers from art school to the underground Super 8 filmmaking scene of Sydney in the mid-1980s, from the early short films of director Woods to the multiple award-winning The Boys. Frost discovers new aspects of The Boys even today and wonders if its stinging moral message has been heard among the clamour of everyday suburban life.' (From the publisher's website.)

'Set in central-western New South Wales in the 1890s, Fred Schepisi’s film of Thomas Keneally’s award-winning novel is a powerful and confronting story of a black man’s revenge against an unjust and intolerant society.

'Raised by missionaries, Jimmie Blacksmith, a young half-caste Aboriginal man, is poignantly caught between the ways of his black forefathers and those of the white society to which he aspires. Exploited by his boss and betrayed by his [white] wife, he declares war on his white employers and goes on a violent killing spree.

'The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith was one of the most significant films of the 1970s ‘renaissance’. It was the first Australian feature in which the whole story is told from an Aboriginal perspective and it broke new ground in dealing with one of the most tragic aspects of Australian history: the racist treatment of the Aboriginal population. The spectre of the violent and vengeful black had barely been touched upon and the depth of rage that the film put on screen was unprecedented in Australian film at the time.' (Publication summary)

'The picture is an exceedingly interesting one right from the opening scene, where Constable Fitzpatrick arrives with a warrant for the arrest of Dan Kelly, then to the police camp, which is captured by the Kellys, the sticking-up of Younghusband's station, robbing the bank at Euroa, destroying the railway line, and finally to the capture of Ned Kelly in his suit of armour.'

[Source: 'The Story of the Kelly Gang', The Register, 29 December 1906, p.4.]

'In addition to preserving Australia’s filmmaking past and present, the NFSA also recognises the importance of learning from filmmakers themselves.

'In this series of interviews, some of Australia’s most influential film directors, producers and writers speak about their filmmaking journeys, discuss the importance of film preservation and share their advice for the next generation of Australian filmmakers.'

Source: Filmmaker Interviews (Sighted: 30/11/2016)

Dorothy Winchester returns from boarding school in Sydney to her family's Queensland cattle station, Runnibede. There she finds two equally likeable men eager for her hand in marriage: Tom Linton, the gauche station manager, and the more sophisticated Sub-Inspector Dale of the Queensland Mounted Police. When Dorothy is kidnapped by some local Indigenous Australians, who believe that she is their 'Great White Queen' returned from the dead, the two suitors attempt a rescue. The rivalry for Dorothy's affection is resolved when one of them gives his life to save her.

Source: Pike and Cooper, 1980

The National Film and Sound Archive of Australia (NFSA) is the nation’s living archive, collecting, preserving and sharing its rich audiovisual heritage. Its website provides information on the collection, its preservation, current and forthcoming exhibitions and events, the NFSA Library, and research opportunities (including fellowships and internships). The site also publishes occasional articles on some of its holdings. These comprise historical overviews of the original works, insights in the preservation and restoration of holdings and other pertinent aspects relating to the NFSA's activities.

A guide to ScreenSound Australia's radio collection.

'Australia’s radio series play an important role in Australia’s cultural heritage, and are a rich and valuable resource for future generations. These radio series filled the air waves for some 40 years and included adventure, comedy, drama, children’s shows, chat shows, variety, quiz shows and soap operas of all types.

The National Film and Sound Archive’s collection includes substantial holdings of the radio series and serials broadcast in Australia from the 1930s through to the 1970s. Numerous sources were used to compile this listing of the Archive’s holdings, including auditioning of the radio transcription discs, scripts, label information, publicity material, and books published on the subject, trade periodicals and catalogues' (p.6).

Based on the poems of John O'Brien (the nom de plume of Catholic priest Father Patrick Joseph Hartigan), the narrative is a sentimental retelling of the early life of a priest, presumably Hartigan (who in the film is seen reading from a book of poems). The story elements include the priest's early life in the country during the 1870s, his first school (a shaky old slab hut), a tender childhood romance, and his latter years as part of the 'modern' world of the mid-1920s.

Set in Sydney during the early post-war years and with a working-class theme, A Hard God explores the trials and tribulations of three brothers, forced off the land and into the city during a drought. The screenplay is one of the first in Australia to present a homosexual relationship.

Based on Marcus Clarke's classic novel, originally published in 1870 as His Natural Life, the story tells of convict Rufus Dawes, who has been wrongfully accused of a crime and sent to the penal colony of Van Diemen's Land for the term of his natural life. In his attempts to escape the colony, Dawes falls in love with Sylvia (a warden's daughter) and confronts his sinister lookalike John Rex and the evil convict Gabbett.

American director/screenwriter Norman Dawn's adaptation strays from the original book considerably. For example, the ending sees the fate of Rufus and Sylvia, adrift on a raft in the ocean, left in the balance, whereas Clarke's original story has the pair drown. However, the film retains a strong, visual style, especially in climactic crowd scenes.