AustLit

'The Irishman (Crombie 1978) has long been regarded as typical of the Australian period film genre of the late 1970s, which is said to collectively exhibit the Australian Film Commission's influences on national culture. In this article, The Irishman is seen as a 'heritage' film for the way locations and authentic sets and decor are featured, and for the nostalgic performances of gender and race. Regional influences on the genesis and production of The Irishman in North Queensland are also considered, and its adaptation from the novel, The Irishman : A Novel of Northern Australia (Elizabeth O'Conner 1960). Heritage, it is argued, can be seen as a cinematic mode in which regional and national elements of production are synthesized. Heritage also offers a framework through which to view other Australian period films, including Australia (Luhrmann 2008), which was also shot partly in North Queensland locations.' (Author's abstract)

'In the late 1960s, the Australian film industry was in crisis: audiences were turning to television programmes, in part because they offered more Australian content, and the commercially successful screen comedies of the so-called Ocker were perceived to be damaging the image of Australia abroad. In the 1970s, realizing the potential of cinema as a cultural flagship, the government invested heavily in the film industry through the establishment of the Australian Film Commission (AFC) for the purpose of promoting of high-quality productions. This article examines the main polices of the AFC, and argues that its role in transforming the film industry from a 'cottage industry into a business' (Murray 1990: 14) has been overestimated by Australian cinema scholars such as Dermody and Jacka, David Stratton and Tom O'Regan. The AFC's role as a government body meant that the Commission was more accountable to the government than to film industry professionals, such as producers and filmmakers. The final section of this article examines the producers' reactions to the AFC's policies, and argues that their role within the revival of the Australian film industry has been overlooked and, possibly, underestimated.' (Author's abstract)

'This article positions Stephen Wallace's adaptation (1986) of Christina Stead's novel, For Love Alone (1944), as a conservative revision of a literary text whose radical engagement with queer desires challenged heteronormative values and institutions. Drawing upon production files, personal correspondence with the film-maker, literary and film criticism and textual analysis, the article quantifies the ideological work of the adaptation. It identifies Stead's treatment of non-monogamous heterosexual relationships, fantasies rooted alternative sexual practices and homoerotic triangulations as the basis for the novel's queer space. It then shows how the film imposed a heteronormative sensibility upon the narrative by eliminating references to any form of same-sex desire, framing the heroine's journey as a marriage quest that ignored other aspects of personal and professional development and confirming her abandonment of free love in favour of wedded bliss. The article traces this eradication of queer space to factors in the adaptation process, logistical issues that arose during production and promotional discourses that encouraged it to be received as a love story. By reflecting on the significance of the film's failure to register the novel's queer resonances, its active promotion of monogamous marriage and the circumstances that produced those creative decisions, the article sheds light on the ideological dynamics of both the film and the creative process as a whole.' (Author's abstract)

'This article examines the current cinematic attention to Tasmania and its stories, with particular attention paid to the Gothic mode. 'Tasmanian Gothic' has become a by-word for the unsettling combination of Tasmania's colonial histories and its harsh landscapes in literature, but its cinematic counterpart has virtually been ignored. It is suggested that Tasmania is experiencing a renaissance on the big screen and it is the Gothic that appears to be the most dominant mode through which it is pictured. The article then charts a history of local Tasmanian Gothic cinematic production, a hybrid vision that tends towards a combination of stylistic, thematic, historical and geographic elements. Tasmanian Gothic cinema refers not simply to productions by Tasmanian film-makers, but to the broader on-screen representation of the island, its culture and histories by a range of local, interstate and international crews. As this article suggests, Gothic cinematic representations of Tasmania are yoked by a number of persistent concerns that act in dialogue with the unique cultural and geographic positioning of Australia's only island state.' (Author's abstract)

'This issue's Vaultage feature is an interview with David Donaldson, the first-ever director of the 'Sydney Film Festival' (SFF), about his search for the original print of the 1953 Australian film Captain Thunderbolt. In this illuminating interview, Donaldson discusses the ups and downs of the search, how it became a search project with connections to the festival and the National Film and Sound Archive (NFSA). He reflects on his time at the festival's helm, the Film Users Association (FUA), the films of Cecil Holmes and his own recollections of Holmes - the director and the man.' (Editor's abstract)