AustLit

This article approaches Giorgio Mangiamele's work is a rare example of Culturally and Linguistically Diverse [CALD] involvement in the early development of Australian cinema in the post-war period. His feature film Clay (1965) was the first Australian film to be invited to enter the competition at the Cannes Film Festival.

It outlines his significant yet largely ignored contribution to the emerging Australian cinematic culture, particularly to the development of 'art' cinema. Over a thirty-year period Mangiamele made fourteen films as director or director/producer that present themes related to the Italian migration experience in Australia in the 1950s.

Rando suggests that Mangiamele's focus on dislocation, alienation, loneliness, and nostalgia for the home country constitutes the experience of his emblematic characters struggling to make sense of a society that is in many ways unaccepting. This article proposes to apply the concepts of liminality and temporality elaborated by Hamid Nacify (2001) to the analysis of the themes related to the Italian-Australian diaspora in the films of Giorgio Mangiamele.

Source: Author's abstract