AustLit

'In the half-light, a black man’s hand strokes Ruth’s neck. She flicks him away like an insect, oblivious to the sensual energy she radiates. This is how filmmaker Jane Campion introduces Ruth (Kate Winslet), the central character of her 1999 film, Holy Smoke! This opening scene, of Ruth on a bus amidst the colour and vigour of a busy Indian city can be read not only as representing an experience common to Western women abroad in Southeast Asia but also as emphasising that Ruth is a luminous and irresistible beauty. This chapter begins by outlining the role India plays in Holy Smoke! (the film and the novel), then gives an overview of what makes this an Australian film (despite being made with international stars and money), followed by a discussion of how Campion uses the luminousness of her film’s central character to explore Western female experience,and finally, examines how the film explores ideas of how men and women might exist together in the world—or, what it is to be human.' (Introduction)

'A new book, Shining a Light: 50 Years of the Australian Film Institute, traces the progress of the film and television industries in Australia - as well as screen culture within Australia over the past half century - through the lens of one key organisation, the Australian Film Institute (AFI).

Since its establishment in 1958, the AFI has played a central role in nurturing and supporting both screen culture and production, from the Australian film industry's small beginnings to its development into an internationally recognised billion dollar industry. Shining a Light maps out the history of the AFI and the wider industry over the past fifty years and explores the relationship of screen culture to a successful production industry.

The book is a timely and significant contribution to scholarship on Australian cinema, being published at a critical time in Australian film history. The authors have interviewed key players on the local scene, and sifted through volumes of documentary evidence in chronicling the history of the AFI, its successes and role in Australian screen culture past, present and future.

The writers' collective experience spans filmmaking, academic research and teaching, film journalism, employment and service in key screen culture organisations as well as an abiding passion for Australian cinema - bringing to the book both the filmmaker or industry perspective, and academic schlorship.' (Publisher's blurb)

Contextualises women’s moving-image production in Australia in recent times, especially in film production.