AustLit

'While the issue of cultural diversity, or lack thereof in the creative arts and screen media in Australia gets mainstream attention from time to time, we have little in-depth understanding of the historical policy context, barriers to better representation, as well as case studies of best or breakthrough practice. What Cecilia Cmielewski’s account provides in this eminently readable book is a detailed and comprehensive analysis of the Australia Council for the Arts’ commitment to multicultural arts over the last 3 decades. Beginning with an overview of the genealogies of policy and practice in ‘multicultural arts’, the subsequent chapters tackle leadership of various kinds. This includes the agency of artists (creative leadership), the challenges of producing change through institutional leadership, and the more constructive initiatives undertaken by pioneers in smaller multicultural arts companies (organisational leadership).' (Introduction)

'An anthology film usually makes us think of romantic comedies released over Christmas that showcase a global city through interconnected plot lines, or a series of vignette-like character studies by critically-acclaimed directors.' (Introduction)

'This article presents findings from interviews conducted with first and second-generation Asian Australian audience members as part of a project on the histories of television and migration in Australia. The data presented here is (a) testament to the agency of migrants in choosing what to watch beyond what might be expected on the basis of primordial markers such as ethnicity, and shows that factors such as generation of migration and education status play a significant role; and (b) differences in patterns, as well as influences between generations within a family unit. This means that the influence of cultural elements from parents or grandparents’ generations, as well as the impact of technology on younger viewers appears to be more marked. Additionally, in the case of the first generation, there is a noticeable desire to watch mainstream Australian content (such as Home and Away), where this usually changes to a longing to be ‘represented’ for subsequent generations. These trends, while not based on a representative sample, give us an indicative glimpse into shifts in migrant media cultures, and reinforce the need for an intersectional approach to audience studies. What this analysis contributes is the importance of foregrounding the relationality of viewing practices, especially in a migrant family setting.' (Publication abstract)

'The lack of cultural diversity in many realms of Australian society, such as politics, the media and creative arts, is both a low hum in the background for many of us associated with these sectors, and an issue of cyclical mainstream relevance.' (Introduction)

'When Behrouz Boochani declared via a Skype call at the launch of his ‘prison memoir’ at the University of New South Wales in August this year that he wanted the work to be read/evaluated as a piece of art, I was internally nodding away. In my academic work for the past five years, I have examined a series of refugee-themed documentaries, and audience responses to them to argue that we need to move beyond the expression of transient empathy to take responsibility for systemic change. A crucial part of this process is recognising the agency of asylum seekers, whether in detention, or on temporary visas in our community, and partnering with them in lobbying for policy overhauls.' (Introduction)

'Cinematic products in the twenty-first century increasingly emerge from, engage with, and are consumed in cross-cultural settings. While there have been a number of terms used to describe cinematic forms that do not bear allegiance to a single nation in terms of conceptualization, content, finance and/​or viewership, this volume contends that "crossover cinema" is the most apt contemporary description for those aspects of contemporary cinema on which it focuses. This contention is provoked by an appreciation of the cross-cultural reality of our post-globalization twenty-first century world. This volume both outlines the history of usage of the term and grounds it theoretically in ways that emphasize the personal/​poetic in addition to the political. Each of the three sections of the volume then considers crossover film from one of three perspectives: production, the texts themselves, and distribution and consumption.' – Trove