Syllabus
SCHEDULE
Week 1 Introduction
Week 2 Celluloid Heroes 1
Week 3 Celluloid Heroes 2
Week 4 Indigenous Issues: Yothu Yindi
Week 5 Preserving culture: Aeroplane Dance
Week 6 Genocide: Black Man's Houses
Week 7 Rabbit-Proof Fence
Week 8 Renaissance: Chant of Jimmy Blacksmith
Week 9 Colonialism: Breaker Morant
Week 10 Gender: My Brilliant Career
Week 11 War: Gallipoli
Week 12 Satire: Barry McKenzie
Week 13 Politics: The Dismissal
Week 14 Conclusion
Annotation
OBJECTIVES
This topic will focus on depictions of Australia and Australian issues in film and scriptwriting. Film material will include documentary, current affairs, short and feature length films. Discussion will focus on the way in which Australian film media is defined within Australia and elsewhere in the world, including the way in which Australian media is politicised in the evolving context of social history and the arts. Issues addressed will include the British and American cultural hegemony, indigenous cultures, cultural cringe, media ownership and regulation, cultural criticism and arts funding, the director as author, the impact of Australian films overseas, the influence of international media upon domestic film and other forms of production, and so on. Film footage will include a documentary history of Australian film from the 1880s to the present, representative works from the film Renaissance, Current Affairs and documentary, Department of Immigration programmes, and various other materials to be decided upon. A complete list of films and screening times will be posted early in the semester.
MATERIAL
Primary:
Gough Whitlam, The Truth of the Matter (Harmondworth: Penguin, 1979)
Christobel Mattingley, ed. Survival in our own Land: Aboriginal Experience in South Australia since 1836 (Adelaide:
Wakefield, 1988).
ASSESSMENT for this course will be in the form of a short seminar paper (2000-2500 words), as well as participation in class discussions.