Finding Queensland in Australian Cinema

Allison Craven

Description

This book presents an extended, depth perspective on Australian cinema from the New Wave to the present.

‘Finding Queensland in Australian Cinema’ explores aspects of gender, race and region in films and television produced in the northern Australian state of Queensland. Drawing on a range of scholarly sources and an extensive filmography, the essays in the book investigate poetics and production histories from the 'period' films of the Australian cinema revival of the 1970s to contemporary 'Queensland-genre' films, highlighting the resonances of regional locations amid the energetic growth of the film industry, and promotion of Queensland as a production destination.

‘Finding Queensland in Australian Cinema’ comprises eight essays, an introduction and conclusion, and the analysis of poetics and cultural geographies is focused on landmark films and television. The first section of the book, ‘Backtracks: Landscape and Identity’, refers to films from and before the revival, beginning with the 1978 film 'The Irishman' as an example of heritage cinema in which performances of gender and race, like the setting, suggest a romanticised and uncritical image of colonial Australia. It is compared to Baz Luhrmann’s 'Australia' (2008) and several other films. In the second chapter, ‘Heritage Enigmatic’, 'The Irishman' is also drawn into comparison with Charles Chauvel’s ‘Jedda’ (1955), as films that incorporate Indigenous performances in this heritage discourse through the role of voice and sound. In Part 2, ‘Silences in Paradise’, the first essay, ‘Tropical Gothic’, focuses on Rachel Perkins’s 'Radiance' (1998) as a landmark post-colonial film that questions the connotations of icons of paradise in Queensland. The discussion leads to films, in the next chapter, ‘Island Girls Friday’, that figure women on Queensland islands, spanning the pre-revival and contemporary era: ‘Age of Consent’ (1969), ‘Nim’s Island’ (2008) and ‘Uninhabited’ (2010). Part 3, ‘Masculine Dramas of the Coast’ moves to the Gold Coast, in films dating from before and since the current spike in transnational production at the Warner Roadshow film studios there, namely, 'The Coolangatta Gold' (1984), 'Peter Pan' (2003), and 'Sanctum' (2011). The final section, ‘Regional Backtracks’, turns, first, to two television series, ‘Remote Area Nurse’ (2006), and ‘The Straits’ (2012), that share unique provenance of production in the Torres Strait and far north regions of Queensland, while, in the final chapter, the iconic outback districts of western Queensland figure the convergence of land, landscape and location in films with potent perspectives on Indigenous histories in ‘The Proposition’ (2005) and ‘Mystery Road’ (2013). ‘Finding Queensland in Australian Cinema’ presents the various regions as syncretic spaces subject to transitions of social and industry practices over time.

List of Figures; Acknowledgements; Introduction: Regional Features; Part 1 Backtracks: Landscape and Identity; Chaper 1. Period Features, Heritage Cinema: Region, Gender and Race in The Irishman; Chaper 2. Heritage Enigmatic: The Silence of the Dubbed in Jedda and The Irishman; Part 2 Silences in Paradise; Chaper 3. Tropical Gothic and the Music of the Cane Fields in Radiance; Chaper 4. Island Girls Friday: Women, Adventure and the Tropics; Part 3 Masculine Dramas of the Coast; Chaper 5. The Sunshine Boys: Peter Pan and the Iron Man in the Coastal Cinema of Queensland; Chaper 6. A Pacific Parable: Cave and Coastal Masculinities in Sanctum; Part 4 Regional Backtracks; Chaper 7. Unknown Queensland in Torres Strait Television: RAN and The Straits; Chaper 8. Back to the Back: Genre Queensland and Westerns in Winton; Conclusion: On Location in Queensland; Notes; Filmography; Works Cited; Index.

Sujets

• HISTORY
• Arts
• Cinema
• Film

Informations

• Publié par: Anthem Press
• Date de parution: 09 juillet 2016
• Nombre de lectures: 1
• EAN13: 9781783085514
• Langue: English

Extrait

Finding Queensland in Australian Cinema
Anthem Studies in Australian Literature and Culture
Anthem Studies in Australian Literature and Culture specialises in quality, innovative research in Australian literary studies. The series publishes work that advances contemporary scholarship on Australian literature conceived historically, thematically and/or conceptually. We welcome well-researched and incisive analyses on a broad range of topics: from individual authors or texts to considerations of the field as a whole, including in comparative or transnational frames.
Series Editors
Katherine Bode - Australian National University, Australia
Nicole Moore - University of New South Wales, Australia
Editorial Board
Tanya Dalziell - University of Western Australia, Australia
Delia Falconer - University of Technology, Sydney, Australia
John Frow - University of Sydney, Australia
Wang Guanglin - Shanghai University of International Business and Economics, China
Ian Henderson - King s College London, United Kingdom
Tony Hughes-D Aeth - University of Western Australia, Australia
Ivor Indyk - University of Western Sydney, Australia
Nicholas Jose - University of Adelaide, Australia
James Ley - Sydney Review of Books , Australia
Susan Martin - La Trobe University, Australia
Andrew McCann - Dartmouth College, United States
Elizabeth McMahon - University of New South Wales, Australia
Susan Martin - La Trobe University, Australia
Brigitta Olubus - University of New South Wales, Australia
Anne Pender - University of New England, Australia
Fiona Polack - Memorial University of Newfoundland, Canada
Sue Sheridan - University of Adelaide, Australia
Ann Vickery - Deakin University, Australia
Russell West-Pavlov - Eberhard-Karls-Universit t T bingen, Germany
Lydia Wevers - Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand
Gillian Whitlock - University of Queensland, Australia
Finding Queensland in Australian Cinema
Poetics and Screen Geographies
Allison Craven
Anthem Press
An imprint of Wimbledon Publishing Company
www.anthempress.com
This edition first published in UK and USA 2016
by ANTHEM PRESS
75-76 Blackfriars Road, London SE18HA, UK
or PO Box 9779, London SW197ZG, UK
and
244 Madison Ave #116, New York, NY 10016, USA
Copyright Allison Craven 2016
The author asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work.
All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise), without the prior written permission of both the copyright owner and the above publisher of this book.
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Craven, Allison.
Title: Finding Queensland in Australian cinema : poetics and screen geographies / Allison Craven.
Description: London; New York, NY: Anthem Press, 2016. |
Series: Anthem studies in Australian literature and culture |
Includes bibliographical references and index. | Includes filmography.
Identifiers: LCCN 2016011793 | ISBN 9781783085491 (hardback : alk. paper)
Subjects: LCSH: Queensland - In motion pictures. |
Motion pictures - Australia - Queensland. - History and criticism.
Classification: LCC PN1995.9.Q36 C73 2016 | DDC 791.43/658943-dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2016011793
ISBN-13: 978 1 78308 549 1 (Hbk)
ISBN-10: 1 78308 549 5 (Hbk)
This title is also available as an e-book.
In loving memory of Ruth and Vince Craven
CONTENTS
List of Figures
Acknowledgements Introduction: Regional Features Part 1 Backtracks: Landscape and Identity Chaper 1. Period Features, Heritage Cinema: Region, Gender and Race in The Irishman Chaper 2. Heritage Enigmatic: The Silence of the Dubbed in Jedda and The Irishman Part 2 Silences in Paradise Chaper 3. Tropical Gothic and the Music of the Cane Fields in Radiance Chaper 4. Island Girls Friday: Women, Adventure and the Tropics Part 3 Masculine Dramas of the Coast Chaper 5. The Sunshine Boys: Peter Pan and the Iron Man in the Coastal Cinema of Queensland Chaper 6. A Pacific Parable: Cave and Coastal Masculinities in Sanctum Part 4 Regional Backtracks Chaper 7. Unknown Queensland in Torres Strait Television: RAN and The Straits Chaper 8. Back to the Back: Genre Queensland and Westerns in Winton Conclusion: On Location in Queensland
Notes
Filmography
Works Cited
Index
FIGURES 5.1 The day of the race: Surfers Paradise and the cast of thousands in The Coolangatta Gold (1984) 5.2 Steve (Joss McWilliam) takes counsel with his mother (Robyn Nevin) outside the family home in The Coolangatta Gold (1984) 7.1 Helen (Susie Porter, foreground) attends church on the Island with Paul Gaibui (Luke Carroll, with child in arms) in RAN: Remote Area Nurse (2006) 7.2 The bikie goes into the swimming pool with the stingers as Noel (Aaron Fa aoso, centre) and Harry Montebello (Brian Cox, right) look on in The Straits (2012)
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Several earlier sole or co-authored publications, or parts thereof, are reproduced within the chapters of this book. Permission to republish this material is gratefully acknowledged as follows.
Period Features, Heritage Cinema: Region, Gender and Race in The Irishman was first published in Studies in Australasian Cinema , 5, no. 1 (2011): 31-42; Heritage Enigmatic: The Silence of the Dubbed in Jedda and The Irishman was first published in Studies in Australasian Cinema , 7, no. 1 (2013): 23-34. Studies in Australasian Cinema is fully acknowledged as the original source of publication of these works, and I am grateful to the editor-in-chief, Dr Anthony Lambert, and the journal s publishers, Taylor & Francis, for kind permission to republish these essays.
Paradise Post-national: Landscape, Location and Senses of Place in Films Set in Queensland was first published in Metro , no. 166 (2010): 108-13, www.metromagazine.com.au/magazine . The publishers, the editorial board and the Australian Teachers of Media (ATOM) are gratefully acknowledged for permission to republish this essay. I warmly thank Associate Professor Jane Stadler, the guest editor of the landscape feature in Metro , in which the essay appeared.
Tropical Gothic: Radiance Revisited was first published in etropic: electronic journal of studies in the tropics 7 (2008); The Girl with the Bush Knife: Women, Adventure and the Tropics in Age of Consent and Nim s Island was co-authored by Allison Craven and Chris Mann and first published in etropic: electronic journal of studies in the tropics , 9 (2010); Parables of Pacific Shores: Caves and Coastal Masculinities in Cast Away and Sanctum was first published in etropic: electronic journal of studies in the tropics , 10 (2011): 158-65, www.jcu.edu.au/etropic . etropic: electronic journal of studies in the tropics is fully acknowledged and I am grateful to the editor, Professor Stephen Torre, and to James Cook University for kind permission to republish these essays.
Fence Lines and Horizon Lines: Queensland in the Imaginary Geographies of Cinema was first published in Lectures in Queensland History 2009-2012 , edited by Annette Burns, 61-73. Townsville, Queensland, Australia: Townsville City Council. 2013. Permission from CityLibraries, Townsville City Council, to republish parts of this essay is gratefully acknowledged.
With warm thanks, the following permissions for use of film and television stills are fully acknowledged. Images from The Coolangatta Gold (Auzin 1984) in Chapter 5 are reproduced courtesy of kind permission from John Weiley and Heliograph Pty Ltd. Image from RAN: Remote Area Nurse in Chapter 7 is reproduced courtesy of kind permission from Penny Chapman and Matchbox Pictures Pty Ltd ( www.matchboxpictures.com ). Image from The Straits in Chapter 7 is reproduced courtesy of kind permission from The Straits, Matchbox Pictures Pty Ltd ( www.matchboxpictures.com ), and Andrew Watson Photography.
I acknowledge the traditional owners of the land on which the work in this book was developed and written, the Bindal Wulgurukaba people, and pay respects to their elders, past, present and future. Warm thanks are also extended to the following people for their support: Cheryl Taylor, Stephen Torre, Michael Ackland and, especially, Chris Mann. Chris co-authored The Girl with the Bush Knife: Women, Adventure and the Tropics in Age of Consent and Nim s Island , which forms the basis of Chapter 4 in this book, and his support to republish material from the earlier essay is much appreciated. Thanks to the staff of CityLibraries Townsville, Judith Jensen and Trish Fielding for convening the Queensland Cinema film series in 2007, and again to Judith and Trish, and Annette Burns at CityLibraries Townsville, for the Lectures in Queensland History Series. Sebastian Hernage at Matchbox Pictures went to much trouble to assist with obtaining images and permissions. In addition to the acknowledgements that appear in the book, thanks to Sebastian for his generous assistance. Thanks and acknowledgements, too, to my colleagues at Eddie Koiki Mabo Library of James Cook University, Townsville, for their support and assistance; to the many students who have engaged in lively conversations about Australian cinema in my subjects Studies in Film and Place and Regional Features ; to Don and Mary Gallagher for their support and friendship; to