Here are 100 books that Australian Cinema After Mabo fans have personally recommended if you like
Australian Cinema After Mabo.
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I am passionate about education, cinema, and Australian History. I have been lucky enough to teach university courses on History and Film and I have researched and written on the history of Australian education on film. The books I have chosen are five out of many important books in Australian film history. They were important for my own work, and because in historical research, old books can still be good books, I hope that you will enjoy reading them too!
This is an old but indispensable book that gives a panoramic overview of the history of Australian cinema, ending with the important cinema of the 1970s Film Revival.
I read this coffee table edition all the way through and loved the cinema stills and fabulous information on every page. One for the history of Australian cinema enthusiasts.
Magical realism meets the magic of Christmas in this mix of Jewish, New Testament, and Santa stories–all reenacted in an urban psychiatric hospital!
On locked ward 5C4, Josh, a patient with many similarities to Jesus, is hospitalized concurrently with Nick, a patient with many similarities to Santa. The two argue…
I am passionate about education, cinema, and Australian History. I have been lucky enough to teach university courses on History and Film and I have researched and written on the history of Australian education on film. The books I have chosen are five out of many important books in Australian film history. They were important for my own work, and because in historical research, old books can still be good books, I hope that you will enjoy reading them too!
I really enjoyed reading this book on the development of Australian film culture and history from the silent cinema to the talkies. Diane Collins looks at unexamined areas of this history, including audiences, marketing, and distribution, and even has a chapter about how picture palaces used to have live music at every screening.
This is an engagingly written account that provides important context for any consideration of Australian cinema history.
I am passionate about education, cinema, and Australian History. I have been lucky enough to teach university courses on History and Film and I have researched and written on the history of Australian education on film. The books I have chosen are five out of many important books in Australian film history. They were important for my own work, and because in historical research, old books can still be good books, I hope that you will enjoy reading them too!
Two experts in the field provide a great account of Australian film that, at the time, uniquely took a genre approach. There are chapters on comedy, adventure, teen, horror, and art films, to name a few.
In discussing genres, this excellent account foregrounds the films themselves, rather than the history of the Australian film industry. To which genre does your favorite Australian film belong?
Film in Australia is a groundbreaking book that systematically addresses the wide-ranging output of Australian feature films. Adopting a genre approach, it gives a different take on Australian films made since 1970, bypassing the standard run of historical texts and actor- or character-driven studies of Australian film. Comedy, adventure, horror, science fiction, crime, art films and other types are analysed with clarity and insight so the reader can recognize and understand all kinds of Australian films, whether they are contemporary or older features, obscure gems or classic blockbusters. Film in Australia explains how particular types of films work, identifies sub-types,…
Crossing is a vividly human re-imagining of the love, sacrifices, and accomplishments that two Chinese brothers - American Immigrants - experience as they travel to California to build the Transcontinental Railroad.
I am passionate about education, cinema, and Australian History. I have been lucky enough to teach university courses on History and Film and I have researched and written on the history of Australian education on film. The books I have chosen are five out of many important books in Australian film history. They were important for my own work, and because in historical research, old books can still be good books, I hope that you will enjoy reading them too!
Australian women have been involved in the creation of cinema from the beginning.
I loved this book because it was one of the few books around at the time that seriously examined this aspect of women in cinema from a range of different perspectives, including from the filmmakers themselves. Can you name the film referenced on the cover? (A: Looking for Alibrandi–a great school film and so much more!)
Drawing upon their experience, success, contributions, and problems, this contemporary study not only focuses on female Australian filmmakers, but also traces the influence of women in television, new media, and computer games. Examining the representation of female, queer, and ethnic ideologies in the moving image, this book provides perspectives from both the artist and the subject. Articles written by women directors, academics, and designers focus on various genres such as short narrative, animation, documentary, comedy, and experimental video. Comment on the work of such filmmakers as Jane Campion (The Piano, Portrait of a Lady) is also featured.
A genuine Aussie bookish girl, I’ve been an editor in the Australian publishing industry for 25 years, and I’ve been writing Australian novels for 15 of them. When I’m not reading or writing, I’m reviewing Australian books – can’t get enough of them! I’ve dedicated my heart and mind to exploring and seeking to understand the contradictions and quirks of the country I am privileged to call home, from its bright, boundless skies to the deepest sorrows of bigotry and injustice. Acknowledging the brilliance of those women writers who’ve come before me and shining a light ahead for all those to come is the most wonderful privilege of all.
Every Australian bookish girl knows Sybylla from My Brilliant Career. She is the original feisty heroine, the unashamed young feminist who rejects the isolation and low expectations of the bush and marriage at the turn of the twentieth century, wanting to strike out on her own as a writer. That her yearnings are so irrelevant to those around her and her ambitions unfulfilled act as a dare to all of us, and to me – to have that brilliant career, to tell your truths and have your independence, whether anyone else likes it or not. Equally as vivid, witty, and socially acute as Twain, if you read only one old and dusty novel about Australia, read this one.
First published in 1901, this Australian classic recounts the live of 16-year-old Sybylla Melvyn. Trapped on her parents' outback farm, she simultaneously loves bush life and hates the physical burdens it imposes. For Sybylla longs for a more refined, aesthetic lifestyle -- to read, to think, to sing -- but most of all to do great things.
Suddenly her life is transformed. Whisked away to live on her grandmother's gracious property, she falls under the eye of the rich and handsome Harry Beecham. And soon she finds herself choosing between everything a conventional life offers and her own plans for…
It all goes back to growing up in the 1970s, when PBS would show the same handful of classic foreign movies over and over—Bergman, Truffaut, Fellini. And there was the rest of TV, too, where I discovered John Ford, Orson Welles, Hitchcock, Billy Wilder, and much more. On the late late show, you could usually find Casablanca. I saw Kubrick’s 2001 a few years after it came out and was knocked out by the first mainstream movie that asked its viewers to wonder—to actively speculate in awestruck fashion about what was happening on screen. The movies have always been a passion for me. The movie screen is where we dream and float away and sink within ourselves all at once. As the critic David Thomson put it, “Not even heroin or the supernatural ever went this far.”
If I had to pick the two most basic, and most enthralling, essays for understanding American movies, they would be Warshow’s "The Westerner" and "The Gangster," both included in this book. Warshow, who died tragically young, also gives us the two finest pieces ever written about Chaplin, in which he argues that the flaws and stresses in Chaplin’s film art somehow make it more, not less, impressive. Add Warshow’s properly skeptical account of Soviet cinema—he is appreciative, but also aware of how Communist ideology distorted Soviet film—and you have the very best from a star among the New York intellectuals.
This collection of essays, which originally appeared as a book in 1962, is virtually the complete works of an editor of Commentary magazine who died, at age 37, in 1955. Long before the rise of Cultural Studies as an academic pursuit, in the pages of the best literary magazines of the day, Robert Warshow wrote analyses of the folklore of modern life that were as sensitive and penetrating as the writings of James Agee, George Orwell, and Walter Benjamin. Some of these essays--notably "The Westerner," "The Gangster as Tragic Hero," and the pieces on the New Yorker, Mad Magazine, Arthur…
Almost Home is a fictional retelling of the last great tragedy of the Civil War.
In late April 1865, almost 2,000 newly freed Union prisoners of war are packed onto the steamer Sultana, in poor repair and with a listed capacity of 376 passengers. Among them are four Indiana soldiers…
I’m a longtime writer and author, who basically learned the craft of writing from over 17 years with the Portland Police Bureau. Some of the best writers are working and retired police officers because, when you write those daily reports or detailed investigativereports, you learn how to write. I've written six books, two of which have been published by Oregon Greystone Press, the Indie Publishing company operated by my wife, Theresa. I graduated from Portland State University in 2017 and was listed in the commencement program as “the oldest PSU graduate” of that year. I was 80. I live in Portland with my wife, Theresa, also a writer and author.
This is a book that shares intimate glimpses into the lives of a handful of Native Americans living on an Indian Reservation in the late 20th century. The book is full of humor, irony, and wit and was later made into a popular film. There are moments that are amusing and funny, but loneliness and a sense of apathy make their way into the storyline as well, as Victor, the lead character, tries to navigate the unpredictable family life he finds himself in. As a small boy he witnesses the damaging effects of alcoholism and what it does to his father and other family members, much like Sherman Alexie did himself. Victor is deeply resentful of his father’s abandonment when he was a child, and resents his friend Thomas for admiring his father for things like eating 15 pieces of fry bread in one sitting.
I’ve been interested in classic Hollywood movies for as long as I can remember, starting especially with the MGM musicals, the comedies of Abbott and Costello, and anything by Alfred Hitchcock. When I became a musicologist, I started to understand more about how the music of these films contributed to my interest in them, so it seemed like a natural research project for me to explore the music in more depth. I slowly realized that what made the films of the 1950s unique was the combination of new styles of acting with new styles of music. The films continued to suck me in and now my interest has resulted in this book.
Chion’s book is seminal in the study of film sound (not just music). He challenges the orthodoxy of favoring the visual aspects of film when we talk about it, arguing that we need to consider the sound of a film as well as its images.
He says that we don’t just watch films; we “audio-view” them. Chion draws his examples from an extraordinarily wide range of films. On the same page he might go from Godard to Indiana Jones to Singin’ in the Rain.
He doesn’t judge: if a popular action film is the best example for a point about sound-image relationships, he uses it. Chion introduces a lot of new terminology, but it is all carefully explained and illustrated with examples.
In Audio-Vision: Sound on Screen, French critic and composer Michel Chion reassesses audiovisual media since the revolutionary 1927 debut of recorded sound in cinema, shedding crucial light on the mutual relationship between sound and image in audiovisual perception. Chion argues that sound film qualitatively produces a new form of perception: we don't see images and hear sounds as separate channels, we audio-view a trans-sensory whole. Expanding on arguments made in his influential books The Voice in Cinema and Sound in Cinema, Chion provides lapidary insight into the functions and aesthetics of sound in film and television. He considers the effects…
I have been a fan of the horror genre since I was a kid. Even though sometimes I was so scared, I had to sleep with the light on or not sleep at all. Something about the darkness and the unknown has always seemed so alluring. I can't even count the number of horror movies I've watched or books I've read. That feel of the hair standing up on your arms or the back of your neck is a thrill like no other.
This collection of short stories are designed to be reminiscent of the old Twilight Zone TV series. As a huge fan of the show, I was interested to see how the interpretation to short story would work. It works very well. If you enjoyed the show (and/or the movie) you'll enjoy this book. Rod Serling would be proud.
There is a fifth dimension beyond that which is known to man. This is a dimension of imagination. In the case of these stories, it is where author Tom Sawyer’s imagination takes flight. Mr. Sawyer, as a popular Michigan horror fiction author of many delights ( From Paradise to Hell, Dark Harbors), pays an ultimate tribute to Rod Serling’s own imagination, which influenced viewers around the world since its inception decades ago with The Twilight Zone TV series. Here, Sawyer continues the tradition seamlessly on these pages. So sit back, relax, and cross over into the sight and sound and…
Creativity, Teaching, and Natural Inspiration
by
Mark Doherty,
I have woven numerous delightful and descriptive true life stories, many from my adventures as an outdoorsman and singer songwriter, into my life as a high school English teacher. I think you'll find this work both entertaining as well as informative, and I hope you enjoy the often lighthearted repartee…
I was raised to be a Roman Catholic. I was not raised to think very deeply, but I did anyway. Eventually. When I was around fifteen, I started asking questions that irritated my parents. They referred me to our priest. Who basically patted me on the head and showed me the door. When the Pope said 'no contraception,' the shit really hit the fan. I haven't looked back. And I'm quite vocal about it because, damn it, religious beliefs and religions do damage, not the least of which involves hurting and killing people. (As for being funny, that's just icing on the cake.)
Many people will be familiar with Monty Python’s The Life of Brian – the movie. But the screenplay has actually been published as a book! Available online for less than twenty bucks! So you can have a permanent reference for all your favourite lines! And if by chance you haven’t heard of it, The Life of Brian has to be on any list about poking fun at religion and gods. To this day, whenever I think of "Always look on the bright side...," I burst into giggles.
When The Life of Brian was first released in 1979 it was hailed by most as Monty Python's finest parody and denounced by a few as the most blasphemous film of all time. With its unforgettable song, 'Always Look on the Bright Side of Life', and its infinitely quotable script The Life of Brian has since gone on to become an enduring cult classic.
