AustLit
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AbstractHistoryArchive Description
'This book provides coverage of the diversity of Australian film and television production between 2000 and 2015. In this period, Australian film and television have been transformed by new international engagements, the emergence of major new talents and a movement away with earlier films’ preoccupation with what it means to be Australian. With original contributions from leading scholars in the field, the collection contains chapters on particular genres (horror, blockbusters and comedy), Indigenous Australian film and television, women’s filmmaking, queer cinema, representations of history, Australian characters in non-Australian films and films about Australians in Asia, as well as chapters on sound in Australian cinema and the distribution of screen content. The book is both scholarly and accessible to the general reader. It will be of particular relevance to students and scholars of Anglophone film and television, as well as to anyone with an interest in Australian culture and creativity.'
Source: Publisher's blurb.
Contents
- Australian Screen in the 2000s : An Introduction, single work criticism (p. 1-21)
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Picking Up the Pieces : Contemporary Australian Cinema and the Representation of Australian Film History,
single work
criticism
Examines a series of documentaries that seek to explore and address the lack of visibility of Australian film history.
-
Australian Blockbuster Movies,
single work
criticism
Develops a multidimensional definition of 'Australian blockbuster' and argues for their distinct status as a specific genre.
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UnAustralians : Australian Characters in Non-Australian Films,
single work
criticism
Examines a set of films that are made outside Australia by non-Australian film-makers, with a focus on their dismissal as inauthentic; Goldmith argues that their prominence warrants closer examination.
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Abroad : Production Tracks and Narrative Trajectories in Films About Australians in Asia,
single work
criticism
Examines two modern 'Asian-Australian' films that represent Australians abroad in Asia (including India and Cambodia), and compares them to earlier films of Australians overseas.
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Haunted Art House : The Babadook and International Art Cinema Horror,
single work
criticism
Uses The Babadook as an example to explore the tensions between 'genre' (horror) film and 'arthouse' film in terms of conception and critical reception.
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Gender Matters : Gender Policy and the Rewriting of the Mother–Daughter Narrative in Contemporary Australian Women’s Filmmaking,
single work
criticism
Examines three recent Australian films by women film-makers, arguing that they reimagine or reinvent Australian cinema 'through the ways in which they rethink linear time and generational succession' (p.144).
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The Laughter and the Tears : Comedy, Melodrama and the Shift Towards Empathy for Mental Illness on Screen,
single work
criticism
Analyses five Australian films (both textual analysis and production history) with a focus on their empathetic presentation of mental illness and their deployment of melodrama and comedy.
- 'It Was the Summer When Everything Changed …' : Coming of Age Queer in Australian Cinema, single work criticism (p. 191-206)
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Administering Sonic Shock in Samson and Delilah,
single work
criticism
Examines Samson and Delilah from the perspective of its soundscape and the way in which this both differs from other Australian films and grounds its audience in country.
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Australian Indigenous Screen in the 2000s : Crossing into the Mainstream,
single work
criticism
Examines Indigenous film-making with a particular focus on two strategies: cross-cultural 'cross-over' features and Indigenous-produced and themed television.
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Carving Out an Australian Sensory Cinema,
single work
criticism
Examines a set of films that ground narrative-based stories in tactile experiences.
- White Male History : The Genre and Gender of The Proposition, single work criticism (p. 285-299)
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Rake : Australianising HBO-Style Television?,
single work
criticism
Examines Rake within the context of the rise of American prestige television, particularly HBO dramas.
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Eulogies for the Video Store : Remembering the Practices and Objects of the Rental Era,
single work
criticism
Examines the functioning of the home video rental market as an influence on Australian film production and reception.
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Feature Film Diversity on Australian Cinema Screens : Implications for Cultural Diversity Studies Using Big Data,
single work
criticism
Examines the increase in the number of Australian film released annually, and considers what this means in terms of diversity (as opposed to variety).