Macquarie University

Australian Film and Television - CUL221

What do we mean by 'being Australian'? In Australia, film and television are used by the creative industries and viewing public to create, share, critique and sustain ideas of identity and space, and to mediate associated cultural concerns. This unit focuses on constructions of 'Australianness' drawn from these Australian contexts, using cultural-critical frameworks to explore the production and consumption of Australian film and television locally and globally. In addition, by canvassing themes or representation, genre, style, policy, history and industrial practice, this unit explores the trajectories and texts of Australian film and television as well as the contemporary preoccupations of both. The production of identity, Indigeneity, gender, sexuality, race, religion and politics from an Australian perspective is explored through a number of Australian feature films, documentaries and television programs. These are filtered through critical perspectives from across the broad range of Cultural Studies to interrogate how 'being Australian' is performed as a complex phenomenon.