Cinema Papers no. 87 March-April 1992 (2025)

OCR

Film Victoria

ON ITS

1OTI-I ANNIVERSARY

FILM VICTORIA
HAS BEEN INVOLV[...]

E D I T 0 R
Scott Murray

ADMINISTRATIVE MANAGER
Debrasharp

TECHNICAL EDITOR
FredHarden

D E s I G N
Ian Robertson

EDITORIAL ASSISTANT
Raffaele C[...]ay, Philippe Mora

DISK PROCESSING
0nTheBalI

P R I N T I N G
Jenkin Buxton

DISTRIBUTION
Network Distribution

Vi“

I-’IInMt1au

CINEMA PAPERS IS PUBLISHED

WITH FINANCIAL ASSISTANCE FROM THE
AUSTRALIAN FILM COMMISSION

AND FILM VICTORIA

CO[...]TV PUBLISHING LIMITED.

Signed articles represent the views of the authors
and not necessarily that of the editor and publisher.
While every care is taken with manuscripts and
materials supplied to the magazine. neither the editor
nor the publisher can accept liability for any loss or
da[...]ne may not be
reproduced in whole or part without the express
permission of the copyright owners. Cinema Papers is
published (app[...]PORATING FILMVIEWS

CONTENTS

2 BRIEFLY

4 ACROSS THE RED UNKNOWN WITH GEORGE NEGUS
INTERVIEW BY SCOTT[...]EPSTEIN

MULTI-CULTURAL CINEMA: A SUPPLEMENT

34 THE ASIAN SCREEN TEST
SYLVIE SHAW

42 CANNONS IN THE CAMERA
JOHN HARDING

44 FILMS IN COLOUR: ABORIGIN[...]IONS
ARCHIE WELLER

46 JAMES R|CKETSON’S DAY OF THE DOG

PICTURE PREVIEW

48 BLACK SCREENS: ABORIGINA[...]G KERR
SPOTSWOOD KARL QUINN

67 BOOK REVIEWS
FILM AT WlT'S END: EIGHT AVANT-GARDE F/LMMAKERS
JORGE DAV[...]eelance writer and film historian; JAN EPSTEIN is the film
reviewer for The Melbourne Report: EVA FRIEDMAN is a freelance journalist who often writes for The Age's EG;
JOHN HARDING is a playwright and performance poet, as well as administrator of the Ilbijerri Aboriginal-Torres
Strait Islander Theat[...]; GREG KERR is a freelance writer specializing in the entertainment
industry; ROSE LUCAS is a senior tutor in Literature and Cinema Studies at Monash University; ADRIAN MARTIN
is the film critic of Business Review Weekly; KARL QUIN[...]MY is
based in Georgia, U.S., and has contributed to such magazines as Living Blues, Art Papers and The Georgia
RevI'eIIv, JIM SCHEMBRI, despite his new year's promise in The Age, has still to make his bed; SYLVIE SHAW is
the film consultant to Asialink; ARCHIE WELLER is an author, whose novel Day of the Dog has just been filmed;
RAYMOND YOUNIS is a lecturer at the University of Sydney.

The Comfort of Strangers (Paul Schrader)
Le Mari de la Coiffeuse (The Hairdresser's
Husband, Patrice Leconte)

Porte Ap[...]melio)
Mr and Mrs Bridge (James Ivory)
RUNNERS-UP
The Sheltering Sky (Bernardo Bertolucci)
La Double Vie de Veronique (The Double
Life of Weronika, Krzysztof Kieslowski)
Aux Yeux du Monde (The Eyes of the
World, Eric Rochant)

BEST PERFORMANCES (FEMALE)[...]exasville
BEST PHOTOGRAPHY
Vittorio Storaro's for The Sheltering Sky
BEST PHOTOGRAPHY (AUSTRALIAN)
Davi[...]nt with Aux Yeux du Monde
MOST ENCOURAGING RETURN
TO (NEAR) FORM
Claude Chabrol with Madame Bovary
MOS[...]ks (Peter Greenaway)
MOST UNDER-RATED
Texasville, The Sheltering Sky
MOST OVER-RATED
Ju Dou (Zhang Yi—Mou)

Thelma & Louise (Ridley Scott)

The Grlffers (Stephen Frears)

Cape Fear (Martin Scorsese)
Bonfire of the Vanities (Brian de Palma)

COFIRIGENDA

In the production report on The Nostradamus Kid,
there were two unfortunate errors. First, speed was
incorrectly transcribed from the interviewwith Bob
Ellis as methadone instead of methadrine.

The second error (the editor's) had Miranda
Otto starring in The Place at the Coast. The actress
concerned was Tushka Bergen.

Le Mari de la Coiffeuse was misspelt in the

“Tenebricose Ten”, p.80.

CONTENTS

Due to the space demands of the Multi-cultural
Cinema Supplement, the proposed Part II of the
“Australian Feature Production Overview" is being
spread over the next few issues.

Film Censorship Listings have not been pub-
Iished in the past few issues due to the Common-
wealth Film Censor no Ionger publishing i[...]se are available only through a user-pay
computer-phone service. Cinema Papers is pres-
ently evaluating the situation to see if it can con-
tinue publishing the listings.

2 - CINEMA PAPERS 87

*

SECOND AUSTRALIAN
DOCUMENTARY FILM CONFERENCE
29 November to 2 December 1991

PHILLIP DUTCHAK REPORTS

The Australian National University in Canberra
was the place where more than 400 people came
to be part of the Second Australian Documentary
Film Conference. Held over the weekend through
late November to December, the conference’s
heavy schedule kept delegates on the move to
keep up with the various lectures, screenings and
meetings.

A late rush of applicants had Film Australia
organizers trying to cope with the sudden influx.
That everyone was taken care of, and that the
conference proceeded smoothly, is a credit to all
those working behind the scenes.

The conference gave each of its three days of
sessions a broad theme. They were "The Market-
place of Ideas", “Cultural Representation" and
"Brave New World” respectively. On any of the
three days, delegates had a choice of lectures and
film or video screenings to choose from. For in-
stance, on Day One a panel consisting of the
ABC’s Peter Manning, television personality and[...]t projects ‘up’. Day

BQDE

FEW

One also saw the screening of Dennis O’Rourke’s
The Good Woman of Bangkok.

Film Australia was very particular in advising
that the showing of The Good Woman ofBangkok
was "a non-critical press sc[...]nately for O'Rourke, this condition applied only to
the press and not to the delegates. This was
unfortunate as O'Rourke found himself under at-
tack the next day by some members of the audi-
ence for having made a “cultural" film in Thailand
and not Australia, among other things.

Some of the other films screened during the
conference were Light Years by Kathryn Millard,
Daryl Dellora’s Mr. Neal ls Entitled To Be An
Agitator and the well-received Sacred Sex by
Cynthia Connop. Video productions were also on
show, with some delegates taking the opportunity
to screen productions they had broughtwith them.
The Australian Film Commission provided a spe-
cial i[...]ey of sales
contacts.

Other printed matter given to those who at-
tended were a discussion paper from Arts Action
Australia Inc. on Australian culture, and the exten-
sive Conference Papers, which is strongly rec-
ommended reading to those unable to attend.

The sessions, while varied and numerous,
had at times an academic tone which left some of
the audience a bit cool. Still, on a very practical
level, the event allowed a good deal of networking
to happen. Representatives from and heads ofthe

CON[...]rs and maga-
zines, let itthen be just noted here the sad deaths
ofAustra|ians Dame Judith Anderson, Gr[...]All three, in vastly differing
ways, contributed to the world film culture.

Dame Judith was an exception[...]n such films as
Kings Flow(1 942), Laura (1 944), The
Strange Love ofMartha lvers (1946)
and Cat on a Hot Tin Fioof(1958), to
almost randomly select a few. Her
sole Australian[...]amned
(1975).

Greg Tepper worked for a long
time at the Victorian Film Commis-
sion (later Film Victoria)[...]was
greatly loved by his fellow workers,

RIGHT: THE LATE DAME JUDITH ANDERSON

(WITH ALEX CORD) IN TERRY BOURKE‘S INN OF
THE DAMNED.

as he was by many filmmakers he helped. He was
also a producer in his own right (We of the Never
Never, 1982).

Brian Robinson was a filmmak[...]assionate film lover who inspired
many filmmakers at the Swinburne Film and Tel-
evision School. That Swin[...]from Sydney's Film Television
& Radio School is, to many, atribute to Robinson.
His legacy will thus live on in the work of the many
filmmakers who came under his nurturing wing.

DOOUMENTARIES

MEN AND WOMEN - THE DIFFERENCE (4 X 60 mins)
Robin Hughes & Associate[...]er: Robin Hughes. This television series
examines the difference between men and women,
using the latest scientific knowledge to explode
myths about gender and to discover what lies at the
heart of the battle of the sexes.

BLOOD BROTHERS (4 x 60 mins) City Picture[...]lives are interwo-
ven with significant events in the history of the
Aboriginal struggle. The stories of Darby
Jampiniimpa Ross, Rupert Max Stu[...]n,who was an adopted
child, uses her own quest as the core of this film
about the personal search by adopted children for
their natural parents.

WHEN MRS HEGARTY COMES TO JAPAN (55-59 mins)
Tenchijin Productions. Produce[...]cuses .on Mrs Hegarty’s first en-
counters with the people and culture of Japan,
which she once held as alien, and with the parents
of her adopted “Japanese daughter", who belong to
a generation she once regarded as enemies. The
filmmaker is the “Japanese daughter” portrayed in
the film.

19 DECEMBER

F E A T U R E S

DECAYS OF OU[...]hris
Kennedy. This stylized.docu—drama unravels the
bizarre events which |ed;Australian dentist Gordon
Fairweather to defraud~the British health system

and become an internationa[...]eth and pursued by a
love-struck dental nurse.

M I N I - S E R I E s

ON THE BEACH (2 x 90 mins) Southern Starsullivan.
Produc[...]iters: Bill Kerby, David
Williamson. Australia is the last remaining place on
Earth as yet unaffected by the nuclear fallout of
World War III. As Melbourne awaits the deadly
radiation cloud, the remnants of the American navy
straggle into port. While time runs out, the survivors
find despair, tragedy and love in this[...]on Nevil Shute‘s classic book.

DOOUMENTARIES

THE TENTH DANCER (60 mins) Singing Nomad Pro-
duction[...]oducer: Sally lngleton. Director: Sally lngleton. At
the end of Pol Pot’s reign of terror, only one in t[...]of Cambodia’s Royal Court had
survived. This is the story of two of the survivors and
of their efforts to rebuild a destroyed culture.
LIVING IN THE NEVER NEVER (60 mins) Sorena.
Producers: John Mabey. Rhonda Mabey. Director:
John Mabey. Cook is one of the last remaining
railway settlements built in the Nullarbor Plain to
service the transcontinental line. This documentary
shows how the people of Cook (population 69) thrive
in this har[...]er: Malcolm McDonald. This documentary ex-
plores the bizarre world of private detectives.

23 JANUARY[...]Megan
Simpson. Scriptwriter: Ken Catran. Based on the
novel by Tessa Duder. Winning has always been
easy for Alex, a 15-year-old champion swimmer
from the wrong side of the tracks. Then comes love
and tragedy and the loss of innocence. In 1959, she
faces her toughest challenge: qualifying for the
Rome Olympics.

COPS AND ROBBERS (90 mins) Total[...]omedy involving murder, may-
hem and marriage.

M I N I — S E R I E 5

THE MIRACULOUS MELLOPS - THE SEQUEL (20 X 30
mins) Millenium Pictures. Executi[...]Maureen Ann Moran, Sharyn
Rosenberg, AlisterWebb.The sequelto the popular
fantasy—comedy series for children continues the
adventures of the Mellop family. Using Pan Galactic
windows-of-opportunity (a secret mode of space
travel) the Mellop children battle to save civilization
on earth.

THE NEW ADVENTURES OF BLACK BEAUTY 2 (26 X
30 mins) P[...]on. This period chil-
dren's drama series follows the adventures of Is-
abella Barrett, a 13-year-old o[...]eauty, lsabella and her new friends
band together to untangle the mysteries surround-
ing her arrival in an Australian country town and the
discovery of a lost gold shipment.

DOOUMENTARIES

THE BETTER LIVING SERIES (3 x 50 mins) David
Flatman[...]ucer: David
Flatman. Scriptwriter: David Flatman. The series of
three documentary specials examines the quality of
life in the developed world and looks at some of the
pressures and inequalities created by the push for
higher living standards. How can we improve our
lives and make better use of the health systems
designed to care for us? The programmes will focus
on nutrition, injury and ageing.

PRESERVING FOR THE TASTE OF IT (13 x 30 mins)
CM Film Productions. E[...]ctor:
Carmelo Musca. Scriptwriter: Carmelo Musca. The
series shows how Australia’s multi-cultural groups
approach the art of preserving food. The programmes
are also about the handing on of culture and tradi-
tions from one generation to the next and their
integration into the Australian way of life.

CRYING FOR THE DREAM (60 mins) Kennedy White.
Executive producer[...]e Haynes
was separated from her Aboriginal mother at the
age of two and placed in a foster home. She wants
to understand more of a world denied to her and
embarks on a journey to the heartland of her moth-
er’s people, the Kukutu tribe, travelling along the
trail of the Eagle Dreaming, from the southern coast
of Australia to Uluru.

THE 1992 FILM FUND

The FFC anounced late January the shortlist of six
projects for the Film Fund. This list will be cut down
to up to four films. No budget is to exceed $2.5
million.

MADONNA Producers: R[...]

While at 60 Minutes, George Negus became one
of Australia'[...]s co-host of
Today, Negus left network television to set up
with partner Kirsty cockburn their own produc-
tion company. The first project was G’day com-
rade (1989), a three-hour look at the effects of
perestroika on Soviet citizens. This was followed
by the hour-long Kids First (1990), which cel-
ebrates the first-ever UNICEF World Summit for
children held at the United Nations in New York.

Negus’ latest venture is Across the Red Un-
known: A Wilderness Journey in Russia, a[...]of a journey from Nahodka, south of
Vladivostok, to Moscow. Undertaken in August
and September last year, the six-week adven-
ture covered 13,000 km of some of the world’s
least-travelled roads.

While in the depths of Siberia, filming where
no one had before, dramatic events overtook the
Soviet Union with the failed coup to topple
Gorbachev. Negus’ journey thus became one of
filming ordinary Soviets reacting to the extraor-
dinary changes in their country as news slowly
filtered through. By the time Negus reached
Moscow, the Soviet Union existed only in name,
the fragmentation well begun.

The following interview, conducted by Scott
Murray in[...]cusses first that
dramatic journey, then moves on to a discussion
on the coverage of socio-political journalism on

television, including the role of the presenter.

4 - CINEMA PAPERS 87

UNKNOVVN
rney in Russ

Why did you undertake to cross the Red Unknown?

Because the Russians asked me whether I would be interested in
trying to drive across the Soviet Union. I found the idea an
irresistible challenge, especially since[...]efore.
In fact, very few people had actually done the journey, fullstop.

My automatic inclination is to analyze whats going on in a
place through ordinar[...]through official channels. So
this idea appealed to me. If I couldn’t drive across the Soviet
Union and, by talking to ordinary people, find outwhatperestroika
and glasnostwere all about, then I couldn ’ tdo anything. I literally

just had to stay on my feet and keep breathing to get something
worth watching.

Whatl didn’texpectwas that, ten days into the trip, the Soviet
Union would come to a screaming halt and the whole tenor ofthe

journeywould be different. I started in the outer limits, as far away
from Moscow as I could get, to find outwhat the Gorbachev factor
had been and what the Yeltsin factor was; instead, I found myself
in the middle ofa tumult which set the country off on another
amazing tangent.

So, while the film started out to be a political odyssey, it
finished up being a pi[...]tching a
country change before one’s very eyes. The scriptline summary is
that “'We started the journey in the Soviet Union and finished it
in Russia”, or “VVe started it in the Red Unknown and finished it
in a Pink Uncertaint[...]n pink. But that is a
very simplistic view.

LEFT TO RIGHT: ON THE BOAT FROM JAPAN TO NAHODKA, SOUTH OF VLADIVOSTOK.

PACKING THE VEHICLES AT THE BEGINNING OF THE LAND JOURNEY AT NAHODKA. GEORGE
NEGUS, FEODOR KONIUKHOV (RUSSIAN[...]DAVYDOV
(RUSSIAN ADVISER AND INTERPRETERI HEAD UP THE BILKIN RIVER TOWARDS THE UDEGAI
ABORIGINAL PEOPLE OF EASTERN SIBERIA. A BOY HOLDS A SALMON WITH A BELLY FULL OF RED
CAVIAR IN THE PRIMORSKY REGION, WHICH WAS PREVIOUSLY OFF-LIMITS TO WESTERNERS,
COURTESY OF THE KGB. ACROSS THE RED UNKNOWN.

Most of that country is still operating, if it’s operating at all,
under the auspices of the old communist structure. They don’t
want it, but they have no choice except to keep using it. You can’t
change from a centrally-controlled totalitarian system to a free-
market economy overnight. But that’swhat we ratbags in the West
have asked them to do.

Why did the Soviets approach you in particular?

Because of G[...]their coun try who
takes it seriously. They think I understand whats going on there.
They may or may not be right.

Do the Soviets feel there are few Westerners with a real[...]heir
critics, yes’ they do. They also know that I have none of the
conventional prejudices and predeterminations about Russia,
the Soviet Union, communism, etc. They would regard my pol-
itics as being as critical of the West as they are of totalitarianism.

Because I am occasionally verbally violent about whatl see as
being wrong in the West, in the old days they probably saw that as
my being pro-Communist. I’m not, but I’m certainly not anti-
Soviet or anti-Russian. I have always regarded them as a huge
group of people stumbling around like the rest of us, trying to
find away oforganizing their society. They happened to getitvery
wrong in the first instance, but they’v&had the guts to recognize
that. The difference between them and us is that we haven‘t had
the guts to recognize that ours doesn’twork either. I/Ve still rush
around with blinkers on, pretending that all the ills of Western
capitalism have nothing to do with capitalism, but that they have
something to do with people.

It has always amused that when the Communist Bloc started
to fall apart it was because “the people were wonderful and the
system was dreadful”. When Western capitalism i[...]it’s not because there’s anything wrong with the system, its
because “people are fucked”.

V/Vhatwe will find is that the people who overthrew the Eastern
Bloc system will have just as much difli[...]stem up as we have. We’re hearing already about the crime, the
corruption, the inefficiency and the shortcomings. V/Ve rushed to
tell them all that was wrong with their system, encouraging them
to knock it over, and now we sit back watching them flounder in
this awful never—land.

The Russians are caught between a system that didn’[...]y want.
They’re caughtbetween a rock and arock, the poor bastards. And
all the West does is gloat and say, “Isn’t it wonderf[...]than communism." Bullshit; neither of
them works. The only reason capitalism has survived longer than
c[...]alism would have fallen on its face decades ago.

The reason communism didn’t succeed is because they stuck
pigheadedly to a system instead of adapting it. Had they let
Gor[...]ably have had far less chaos than they’re going to have. But
no, we had to see the end of communism.

It is simplistic and superficial to say you can solve people’s
problems after 75 ye[...]killing
that system stone dead. l’ve travelled the world too much to
imagine that kind of nonsense would ever be effec[...]t we’re doing, andjust about all that’s going to be wrong in
the Soviet Union and the Eastern Bloc countries over the next

decade is our fault. We encouraged them to take that path when
we knew damn well the trouble they were going to get into.

I have a sneaking suspicion that there might be a l[...]on. It makes
it much easier for VVestem countries to justify their enormous
defence bills. There are a lot people in the world who still need
the world tense. Now that the communist bogeyman has disap-
peared, the only two things that will keep things tense for the
militarists of this world are an unstable Soviet[...]thout those
things there are nojustifications for the extent ofmilitaiy spend-
ing and activity in the world. There are a lot ofpeople who stand
to lose a lot ifthe world is too peaceful.

How big[...]-second cameraman, plus a
stills photographer for the book of thejourney [to be published
by VVeldon Publishing (International[...]sians: an interpreter [Grigori Davydov], a guide [the famous
Russian adventurer, Feodor Koniukhov], and a mechanic.

So, the television operation was four, with three other people
as interested observers. The stills photographer made iteight and

the mechanic nine. That was more people than I've ever had to
work and deal with before, so it was an education in itself. I
probably could have done it with five: four ofus[...]r. Vile couldn’t have done itwith less. VVe had to carry enough
film stock and equipment for what amounted to twenty hours of
film. That in itselfwas enough ofa load, but we also had to take
fuel and water in case we couldn’t find any. Then there was the
camping equipment and some extra food.

It would be difficult enough for anyone to drive across that
countrywith those roadsxsithout[...]ncing act between travel and filming. We managed to pull it
off because of the huge amount ofjournalistic research done
beforehand on what I thought we could get along the way and
dovetailing that with what we didn’t expect to get. They came
together fairly well.

Were you given freedom to travel wherever you liked?

The only place we were told we couldn’t film was a[...]rea and is still KGB controlled. They told us not
to film there, but we tried them on when we came across some of
the 40,000 KGB agents who have been turned into an anti-
corniption squad. We ran across them at aroadblock, where they
were looking for drugs and[...]We
started filming, and eventually they got into the spirit of things.
VVe got a very funny piece out[...]MA PAPERS 87

LEFT: KONIUKHOV DANCES WITH A GUEST AT A WEDDING THE cnsw CAME ACROSS ALONGSIDE A
WAR MEMORIAL (A common OCCURRENCE IN RUSSIA) NEAR BIROBIDZHAN. ACROSS THE RED
ummoww. snow: A "PIG our" IN cHnA: NED DAWSON[...]ofwhatl have done in my work, apart from tilting at the
odd windmill, has been to hopefully break down mythology. And
let me tell you it has never been as difficult to film in the Soviet
Union as people would like you to believe. It’s part of the
romance of the old Cold-VVar mentality that everywhere there is[...]filmed in Russia three times and
you really have to go looking for trouble. Also, l’ve never met
obstruction from Soviet intelligence and the military outside the
Soxiet Union, whereas l’\'e had obstructions from the Americans
just about everywhere. Basically, the Russians don’t stop you
filming anything that the A_mericans would1i’t stop you filming.

What other myths about the Russian people do you want to break
down?

That they're dour, that they’ve been brainwashed. They are, in
fact, the most good-humoured, innovative, politically-sophi[...]hey are anything
but brainwashed. Anybody who has the impression that under
the so—called yoke of communism they stopped thinki[...]freedom than we really do. X/Ve don’t recognize the
economic constrictions that our own system places upon people.

The Soviets are ingenious because they had to be. They
remained good-humoured under the most dire of circumstances;
they are politically[...]become even more
of all of those things, because the opportunity is there for them
to express themselves. Before itwas so constipated and constricted.

They are the nation — the nations — of the future. Ijust hope
they don’t hurtle themselves towards the West. I don‘t think they
will. Maybe the Baltic states will, but Russians are very cagey.

There are lots of aspects of their sys[...]d a blending process now. They are
ideally placed to create a whole new way of organizing power,
money and people. To merely superimpose a defective Western
system on theirs would be asking for trouble. I'd like to think that
they’re too bright for that. I also hope they don’t get influenced
by every oil-can Harry from the bloodyWestwho tells them he has
the answer to their consumer dreams. If we don’ttry to force them
to go down our path without question, they could create a new
society.

Gorbachev was on the right track when he talked about a
regulated socialist market economy at one stage. I think it is one
of the mostfascinating and original politico-economic phrases to
have emerged. It suggests a combination of systems which also
suggests an acknowledgement that both are open to serious
question. I don’tknow what a socialist market economy is, but, by
Christ, I’d like to be around when they try to make one work. It

would be amazing.

What do you think will be the main response of television
audiences to your film?

That they feel they have found out things about that part of the
world they didn’t know before; that a lot of th[...]halfreports on television,
will become humanized. The whole business of what’s going on
in the Soviet Union will hopefullybe seen as an enormous[...]stinct from a political shambles.

LEFT: NEGUS IN THE BURYAT CAPITAL OF ULAN-UDE IN FRONT OF THE LAST STILL-STANDING
LENIN STATUE SEEN ON THE JOURNEY. BELOW: ON OLKI-ION ISLAND IN LAKE BAIKAL, THE
WORLD'S LARGEST RESERVE OF FRESH WATER. ACROSS THE RED UNKNOWN.

So, you are basically an old-fashioned, romantic humanist.

[Laughs] Yes, I am, and I think there’s a place for them.

Having said that, I’m also a very political and ideological
animal. I don’tjust waltz into the situation saying, “All we have to
be concerned about here is the human factor.” I see humanity in
political and ideological terms. Or, if you like the other way
around, I see politics and ideology in human terms, which is the
only way to see it.

In this bloody country, all we ever see[...]ic matters. This doesn’t exist anywhere else
in the world. No other country has the same level of self-
interested preoccupation with[...]they regard economics as being
something you have to cop depending on whom you elect to
govern you.

In Australia, there is an ideological desert with no political
values at all. Politics is purelya battle by politicians who hope they
can appeal to the self—interest of the voter. We all just stumble
through life, voting every few years and wondering why the hell
were disappointed. Our politics are vacuous.

Politics in the rest of the world is search for meaning. If a
politician said[...]he’d be laughed out of town.

So, are you going to do a film on Australia?

Strangely enough, we have one on our books. I never thought we
would, because I’m an internationalist. Butl think its possible to
take an internationalist view of Australia. Iwant to make a series
on Australia which appeals to an overseas audience as well as an
Australian.

That intemationalist perspective is not that common to the
feature film industry, especially if one t[...]

Yes. And what a wonderful idea it would be to have an Australian
director and a foreign director work together on something. The
Australian director could tell the foreign director what he ob\i—
ously doesn’t know aboutAustralia, and the foreign director can
tell the Australian director what he thinks he knows about[...]got wrong.

There is a kind of parallel situation to thatwith yourself and Vitali
Vitaliev: you on Russia, he on Australia.

Yes, though I disagree entirely with V itali’s view of Russia. And I
think he has to get his rose-coloured glasses oifas far as Australia
is concerned. But I’ve read some of his pieces aboutArmco and
the demos at the armament factory. He reveals there a picture of
a different Australia, so I think he’s waking up.

TELEVISION AND THE REPORTER

This is your third documentary. Why did you branch out into what
is for you a new field of reportage?

I don’t consider them documentaries, rather tele\isionjournal-
ism. To me, the word “documentaiy” immediately connotes a
cer[...]h a certain
sort offiexsing audience. That's not the sort oftelexision I’ve ever
been involved in. \\"hat I’ve done, and am still doing, is pri1ne-
timejournalism. I have taken from whathas always been regarded
as a[...]d [L11Tl€(‘l it into a lengthier
fonnat.

Has the increased length meant you are able to go into greater
depth and cover different sorts of subjects?

I’d be dishonest ifl said that foryears and years I wasn’tfrustrated
by the constrictions of the current—affairs format. At 60 Minutes,
we had progressively turned the whole encapsulation process
in to an artform. But there are some things thatyou can[...]ture and time length. Whatl do now is give
things the length and approach they dCS€I'\’€.

Do you intend to make programmes of a particular style, or are
they going to be fairly eclectic?

No, I am not eclectic. I am very socio-political. Hafing said that,
I’d like to think the treatment we give things is notjust straight
socio-political analysis. They’re not treatises at all, but socio-
politjcs seen through the daily lives of the inhabitants of the
particular area of the world. If you like, its socio—politics with a
human face, for the want ofa better cliché.

Which raises the role of personality of the presenter. To what
degree is your being presenter a factor in what you’re intending
to do?

In Australia its probably a plus. Internationally, at this stage, it’s
more likely a minus.

I’ve always been quite unapologetic about presenter-led tel-
evision journalism. The usual accusation about the presenter and

10 - CINEMA PAPERS 87

the reporter becoming more important than the story is just a
heap of spurious shit. It’s usually uttered by people who have
never really sat down to think about the philosophy behind what
is called “personality c[...]ewsreaders, soap stars or journalists. That being
the case, a presenter-led style of programme-making is a huge
advantage. The audience can identify with the subject matter
through another human being. If it[...]ity, then thats an enormous advantage.

So, while I understand the accusation about reporters becom-
ing more important than the story, I’d like to think that its never
been true in my case. People know that I am there for a reason,
to be, ifyou like, the audience ’s emissary in a situation. That’swhy
I’ve always intruded into my own stories quite co[...]em from becoming a lot ofpictures vaguely related to a subject
matter, with a disembodied voice floating around the top that
doesn’t really relate to an audience.

Having said that, were making products for the international
marketand we have to be careful of howwe introduce a journalistic
character to an uninitiated audience.

Given that you’re less known overseas, are audiences going to
wonder who is this person they see wandering around?

The same could have been said of David Attenborough at some
stage of his life. But now he’s become a c[...]tch his material today if
he weren’t involved.

I’m not so precocious as to suggest that I am absolutely
essential to my stories, butl do think that I add to them. If the sort
ofjournalistjc character I've become — in the nicest sense of the
word character—is transportable, then I think that’s a marvellous

LEFT TO mom: FILMING ms BLACK DIRT or me STEPPE OUTSIDE O[...]"A

HALF-STAR HOTEL”. ARRIVAL IN MOSCOW: MEDIA I -' .

AND FRIENDS. ACROSS THE RED UNKNOWN.

The usual accusation about the presenter and the reporter becoming more important
than the story is just a heap of spurious shit. It's usually uttered by people who have
never really sat down to think about the philosophy behind what is called

‘personality[...]nent culture, do you think there’s a resistance to
a presenter coming from Australia? World audiences may well
query why they should listen to what an Australian thinks about
Russia?

My reaction to that is: Why should we only listen to what a Brit or
an American says about Russia? We do because we’ve become
used to it, but, has our cultural cringe also become an intellectual,
journalist and professional cringe to the point where we really
believe that the Poms and the Yanks are better equipped to tell us
aboutwhat’s going on in the world than we are ourselves? We are
as qualified to speak to the rest of the world as they are to us.

I don’t think the transporting of Australian talent at the
popular level should be restricted to Paul Hogan,_]ohn Cornell
and Cr0codz'leDundee.

But there is still the reality of marketing your product overseas.

So we have to bite that bullet and be prepared to say to people in
New York and London, “We understand your prejudice; it
happens to be wrong. The people at the top end of our market
are as good as anyone you have. ” I’m not necessarily talking about
myself; I’m talking about the cameramen, sound recordists,
producers, researchers, writers. I’ve been floating around the
world now for twenty years and we have absolutely nothing to be
ashamed of at that level.

We don’t have to go cap-in-hand to the international market
saying, “Sorry, sir, that[...]ere an American or Englishman.” Its a tough nut
to crack. It requires clever, persistent, courageous[...]le of pulling this off.

In KidsFi7st, you shared the presenter role with Sir Peter Ustinov.
Was that b[...]ence. Having Peter involved, we hoped,
would make the product more marketable internationally. But it
was also the case that Peter was the UNICEF Ambassador for
Children, so having him in there was a totally legitimate exercise
joumalistically.

To put the two of us together was a way of easing into the
international market, rather than beating them around the head
in the first instance. But that was a particular sort of[...]nse rather than a journalistic effort.

In Across the Red Unknown, was it difficult finding the correct
balance of how much George Negus to put in?

My approach to everythingl do is, quite deliberately, naturalist[...]nd and what you do when there
isn’t. That being the case, I guess I set out to let my presence find
its own level, and I think it has.

How naturalistic can one get when, seeing some Russians drink-
ing vodka in the middle of the Siberian wilderness, you stop your
caravan of vehicles, turn on the cameras and film yourself getting
drunk with them?

Let me assure you, drinking vodka anywhere in the Soviet Union,
whether you’re Australian or not, is very natural!

The other people on the trip were there to make thejoumey;
I was there to make a television programme. It was never meant
to be a boys’ own adventure across the Soviet Union; itwas meant
to be a geographic and political expedition.[...]

a runningjoke: Steven Spielberg wants to do a contem-

porary Peter Fan. Of course, like n[...]his generation, Spielberg seems enthralled

by the possibilities of eternal youth, by the cosmic
‘ es not only of childhood in general b[...]in particular. It would
fitting that he would be the one to transport these visions - so cleverly
ed by the Disney animators in its late-1950s Peter Pan — to live action.

years passed and Spielberg's most obvious project never seemed to come
ion. And as he explains in this interview, that has more to do with personal
ranzgical reasons than with the usual Hollywood pitfalls of complicated

ytiens,[...]terviewed by Ana Maria Bahiana

cnuna OAP!l$ 57 - I1

\/Vritten by Jim Hart (with additional ma[...]erPan leftNeverland
and grew up?”), Hook proved to be a more arduous task than
anyone envisioned. “We didn’treally realize the size of the project
until we were smack in the middle of it”, says Hart, who is also the
film’s producer.

Building Neverland according to stage designerjohn (Cats,
Miss Saigon) Napier’s[...]a gi-
gantic task in itself. But then there were the matters of making
grown—ups fly in a convincin[...]dozen utterly
uncontrollable pre-teens (who play the new, rnulti-ethnic, Lost
Boys) and, last but by no means least, handle the tangled
overexposure of Julia Roberts (who plays[...]-
mentous unmarriage and sudden illness, right in the middle of
the shoot.

Was it worth it? On the opening week in Los Angeles,
Spielberg shows up f[...]is signature pilot

jacket and baseball cap, with the relaxed and glowing attitude of

14 - CINEMA PAPERS 87

a content man. He brought Hook in at a whopping cost of $75
million (and counting) but the film, in spite of lukewarrn reviews,
is a hit in the rich holiday market: almost $100 million in tickets
over a mere 6-week period. It is enough to make anyone fly.

What are your earliest memories of Peter Pan?

My mom read Pe£erPan to me when Iwas, I guess, three—years-old.
When I was eleven-years-old, I, along with other kids, directed a
shortened vers[...]e’s Peter Pan in my elementary
school, with all the parents watching in the audience. I actually
staged it and did it as a kid, just like in the opening scene from
Hook. I put that scene in almost only for that reason.

P[...]throughoutyour career. There are many
references to it in E. T.: T71eExtra-terrestrial, for instance.[...]t you didn’t do this movie earlier.

Iwas going to do itas early as 1985. I had been pursuing the rights
and in 1985 I finally acquired them from the London Children’s
Hospital. I was going to make a Peter Pan movie based on the
novel, a live-action version like the 1924 Peter Pan silent movie.

But then something happened: my son (Max) was born and I lost
my appetite for the project.

VVhy?

Because suddenlyl couldn’t be Peter Pan any more. I had to be
his father. That’s literally the reason I didn’t do the movie back

then. And I had everything ready and Elliott Scott hired to do the
sets in London.

But, as I was raising my kids, the appetite for Peter Pan came
back, and stayed with me.

Iflhat kind of childhood did you have that you seem to celebrate
it so much?

I don’t know that any of our childhoods were comp[...]ood.
Itwas chaotic; itwas noisy; itwas real loud. I have a big family, with
three younger sisters. People yelled and screamed at each other.

Now that I’m a dad and have four kids — the fifth is on its way,
actually- they scream and yell at each other all the time. I guess
now I can appreciate even more whom my parents were.

What is, foryou, the most enduring quality of the Peter Pan myth?
Eternal youth, perhaps?

It’s actually flying. To me, anytime anything flies, whether it’s
Superman, Batman or E.T., it’s got to be a tip of the hat to Peter
Pan. PeterPanwas the first time I ever saw anybody fly. Before I saw
Supmnan, before I saw Batman, and of course before I saw any
superheroes, my first memory of anybody flying is in Peter Pan.

What does flight mean to you? There is a tremendous amount of
flying in your films.

I am absolutely fascinated and terrified by flyin[...]s. All my movies have airplanes in them. You name the

FACING PAGE: ROBIN WILLIAMS AS PETER BANNING, A ”TYPE A” PERSON WHO RETURNS
TO NEVERLAND. ABOVE: CAPTAIN HOOK (DUSTIN HOFFMAN),[...]VEN $P|EI.BERG'5 HOOK.

movie — they all fly.

To me, flying is synonymous with freedom and unlimited
imagination but, interestingly enough, I’m afraid to fly.

I have two hundred hours in flight simulators, I love them, and
once I even landed a two-engine Cessna based on my experience
in the flight simulator. But itwas more out of fear, abject fear, and
the need to control that fear thatl did it.

I’m only not afraid to fly in my dreams and in my movies, but,
in real life, I’m terrified of flying. just like the Peter Banning
character in the beginning of Hank. That scene in the airplane?
That was me; that’s how I fly. I get white knuckles.

Have you ever analyzed your relationship with flying?

You mean psychoanalyzed? No, I haven’t. I’m aware of the
psychoanalytic implications of flight but, no, I have never been
analyzed. I think we all need it, though. I think I need it, but I’m
always afraid that if I get psychoanalyzed my movies will suffer
because I’ll become more intellectual about them. I’ll all of a
sudden figure out what it is I do and then I would probably screw
it up.

What made you pick u[...]k, after all these
years not tackling Peter Pan?

I decided to do it when I read theI5

TOP: PETER AND CAPTAIN HOOK FIGHT IT OUT IN THE BATTLE TO SAVE PETER’S CHILDREN. HOOK.
AND, JULIA ROBERTS, WHO PLAYS TINKERBELL, WITH DIRECTOR SPIELBERG.

I want to do, but this is a great idea for a movie.” But then I took
the idea and I rewrote the script with Jim and another writer
[Malia Scotch Marmo] and, based on the rewrite, I went ahead
and made the movie.

What was it about it that attracted you so much?

I guess I related to the main character, Peter Banning, the wayjim
wrote him — a “type A” personality.

I think a lot of people today are losing their imag[...]elf—involved with work
and success and arriving at the next plateau that children and
family almost become incidental. I have seen this happen to
friends of mine. I have even experienced it myself when I have
been on a very tough shoot and I’ve not seen my kids except on
weekends. They ask for my time and I can’tgive it to them because
I‘m working. And I’ve been both guilty and wanting to do
something about it.

So, when jim Hart wrote t[...]rote a “type A”
personality in Peter Banning, I related to it. I said, “Gee, that’s
quite a character arc for[...]it also be that you were interested in returning to youth-
oriented pictures after a couple of adult projects?

‘I6 - CINEMA PAPERS 87

It’s not conscious. I don’t sit down and say, “NowI have to look
for a movie that is just for families”, because I had made three
films for adults. And we only got adult audiences, actually, for the
last three films, except that I didn’t think of them that way.

When Hook came bylwas actually planning to direct Schindlerk
Ark, which is very much an adult film, and which I’m finally going
to direct early in ’92.

Hookwas also an extremely expensive movie to make. Was that a
concern of yours at any point during the shoot?

I’m real apprehensive about finances on every movie no matter
what it costs. E. T. cost $10 million, and I was saying, “Gee, why
can’twe make it for $8 million?” But basically once a movie starts,
the last thing you want to be aware of is the responsibility to the
financiers because that would completely interrupt the idea that
we’re making a movie, thatwe’re telling a story together. Itwould
get in the way every day, so I don’t think that was in my mind at
all in the making of this movie.

When the movie is done the studio reminds me how much
I’ve spent making the movie, and then, of course, I start to worry.
I worry at the end but not during the making of the movie.

VVhat was so expensive about it?

Well, creating a world is always expensive. And this is what I was
trying to do: create a world. When George Lucas created awo[...]y had ever seen anything like that before. It
was the same thing here. We all have expectations for Neverland
so we needed to putour heads together to create aNeverland that
you would believe in, that[...]project. Would thatbe
before Jurassic Park?

Yes. I bought the book eight years ago, butl haven’t been able to
get a writer to do a script.

It’s a drama about the Holocaust, about the real-life story of
Oscar Schindler, who was a Ger[...]fascinating story.

It’s also interesting that I would pick, of all the Holocaust
stories I could tell, the one that has one glimmer of hope.

Schindleris Ar[...]tatistic: there are six
thousand descendants from the twelve hundred Jews that
Schindler delivered to safety, and that out-numbers the surviving

jews in Poland. That’s an idea worth making a movie about, I

thought. We’re shooting in Poland and Czechoslovakia, in black-
and-white.

Why black-and-white?

Because I don’t see the Holocaust in colour. I’ve been indoctri-
nated with documentaries and they’re all black-and-white. Every
time I see anything in colour about World War II, it looks too
glarnourized, too antiseptic. I think black-and-white is almost the
synonymous form for World War II and the Holocaust.

A last and maybe obvious question: Are you Peter Pan?

No, no. I think my mom is the quintessential Peter Pan. She even
looks like him[...]it. She's 72 years old and she moves faster
than I ever could. .

charges.

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for advice or a copy of our free booklet to see how banking smarter can mean smaller b[...]

I8 - CINEMA PAPERS B7

RIGHY: ANGIE (FIONA RUTTILLI[...]ichard Lowenstein has always been a wunderkind of the

Australian film industry. Since he won the Erwin Rado
Award at the 1980 Melbourne Film Festival for his half-hour,
d[...]en some-
thing of a golden boy. His recreation of the evictions that took
place during the Great Depression, when tenants could not pay
thei[...]stein could combine historical
verisimilitude and the art of storytelling to create powerful
cinema.

In 1984, Lowenstein burr[...]first
ever sit-in strike in Wonthaggi, Victoria. The film went to the
New York Film Festival and was nominated for an astounding
nine Australian Film Awards at home. He has also made innu-

merable rock[...]

Since then there have been endless murmurs in the press that
Lowenstein was set to direct the big-budget “Crimes of Patriots”
— about the Nugan Hand Bank scandal and its alleged links wit[...]ollywood producer Ed Pressman. But
funding proved to be a problem. In the meantime, Lowenstein
received offers to direct teen films in Hollywood.

However, Lowenstein did not get sucked into Hollywood’s
maw by either directing[...]s latest home-grown venture, Say a Little Prayer. The $3
million film, based on Robin K1ein’s award—winning children’s
book, Came Back to Show You I Could Fly, is being funded by the
1991 Australian Film Finance Corporation’s Film[...]tlePrayermarks Lowenstein ’s directorial return to features
after five years. Moreover, the film signals a departure for the
directorwho has always anchored hiswork, in one wayor another,
in history. Lowenstein, who adapted the screenplay, acknowl-
edges that the project represents new turf for him:

20 « CINEM[...]is quite a challenge for me.
It is an exercise in the direction of action and the direction of
character. It’svery rare to get a film where there are basically two
leads and a[...]pace
was an ensemble piece, whereas in this film I am telling a story

about two people. I have concentrated on getting a performance
out of them and developing the characters.

Say aLittlePrayerisastoryaboutan introverted I 1-year-old boy,
Seymour (Sudi De Winter), and his[...]e) . Angie is a 20-year-
old drug addict learning to cope without her boyfriend while she
endures the miseries oflife on amethadone programme. Seymour[...]ronment, flees his home by day
and meets up with the effervescent Angie. Together they escape
into a f[...]she is “sick”. Seymour takes it upon himself to nurse Angie
through her ‘sickness’, and their[...]s Angie’s heroin addiction,
Lowenstein is quick to fend ofi suggestions that the film mines
similar terrain as Dogs in Space.

With Dogs in Space the drugs were very literally handled. In Say a
Little Prayer, the drugs are seen from Seymour’s point of view and
it isn’t the focus at all. This isn’t a social issue: it is part of the plot
development which relates to the pivotal question of whether
Angie should lie to the boy, and threaten their friendship, or
explain that she is sick, because she’s taking heroin. The film is
about what is important in a frie[...]

and that is where the conflict comes from.

The film charts the growth of a friendship between the classic
‘odd couple’ : Angie, the tireless extrovert, and Seymour, the boy
crippled by a debilitating inwardness. The film charts Seymour’s
journey towards growth.

at the things in life that are worth idealizing and wondering
about.

Lowenstein was attracted to the story primarily on account of
its sharply-delinea[...]rs. While he has
added scenes and changed some of the original novel, he believes
that he has been faithful to the essence of the characters:

The best way to describe Seymour is that he is very much like a
spirit waiting to break free. The winged idea, the idea offlight, is
very important in the film. The flying horse is an important
thematic thread tha[...]represents
Seymour’s unleashed spirit. Angie is the one who gives Seymour
the wings so that he can fly.

The characters are not archetypes. They are very idiosyncratic.
They are not like the girl or boy next door. Seymour is not even
able to go into a shop and ask for what he wants because he’s too
scared. Angie is the opposite. She almost accosts people in the
street with her extroversion. The contrast between them is
wonderful. VVhat they do share is that, with their intense charac-
teristics, the world doesn’t have much time for either of them.

Much of the film’s potency is to be derived from the fact that
the audience sees the world from the mind’s eye of a little boy.

The film is not over-the-top fantasy, but it is from the boy’s point
of view, and that is interesting. I have gone for touches of fantasy,
playing with the light and shade and sparkles.

Also, it is always his perspective of the drug-taking, which is
something he doesn’t really understand.

Casting the pair proved to be a difficult task. Lowenstein
interviewed more than 1500 boys for the part of Seymour and saw
countless female actors for the part of Angie. Says Lowenstein:

Casting took ages. It didn’tjust need a good actress; it needed the
right person. There might have been only two or three people in
Australiawhowould have been rightfor the role, andbecause our
population is so small it’s very hard for people to play these

The film explores the way children distort the world in
sometimes unpredictable ways. It is something, according to
Lowenstein, that adults lose:

Seymour is always trying to make something fantastical out of the
mundane, which is avery idealistic and naive thing, and which we
tend to lose when we grow up. When Angie first meets Seym[...]ween them is fun. Together they have this ability to
make the ordinary somehow extraordinary. Kids have a sense of
wonder about the world. I think the film really takes a good look

idiosyncratic characters. We tend to get homogenized actors and
we tend to see the same good faces playing this type or that. We
don’t have the selection of character actors as they do in America
and England.

In the end, Lowenstein chose Fiona Ruttelle for the role of

Angie because he recognized trace[...]

Lowenstein is aware that he has tak[...]er, he has made choices on ‘visual appeal’ in
the past, casting Michael Hutchence as the lead in Dogs in Space.
Lowenstein knows he has his work cut out for him. VVhat’s more,
he seems to have transgressed one of Hollywood’s oldestmaxims:
never work with children. Lowenstein admits that the nine-week
shoot has been difficult:

We have been[...]welfare. We rarely go over
time because Sudi has to go home right on eight hours or child
welfare wil[...]u don’t just
say what you want. You can say all the technical stuff up front, but
you have to play little logistical games. With little Sudi, you do
have to play little psychological games. It really is important to
keep the characters in the mood that they’ re playing the scene in.
I have my work cut out for me keeping them on set in the mood
that they’re supposed to be in that shot. Fiona is a natural

22 - CINEMA[...]TOR RICHARD LOWENSTEIN, SECOND FROM LEFT, DURING

THE FILMING OF SAYA LITTLE PRAYER. WITH TOBY PEASE (I[...]OCUS FULLER).
BELOW: ANGIE HELPS TEACH SEYMOUR ‘TO FLY’. SAYA LITTLE PRAYER..

performer, but it’s still work getting the right thing
out of her.

The film also boasts Ben Mendelsohn in the
role of a nursery attendant and Rebecca Smart
as[...]a Little Prayer. He explains:

In Dogs in Space, I tended to use a lot of moving
cameras but, because there is a lot more intense
acting in this, I tend to let the characters pull that
off in a lot more static frames than I normally use.
I’m tending to use a lot more tripods in this film.
But when Seymour escapes from his little world, I
have tried to go for some height and use lots of
cranes. We start to soar and use more exciting angles and moving
came[...]dy has gone for a naturalistic look, highlighting the subur-
ban setting. Notes Lowenstein,

We have pu[...]ffort into Angie’s bungalow, which was built
in the studio. We’ve tried to create a magic wonderland, trans-
forming somethi[...]y a LittlePrayerhas a simple,
linear storyline in the final account, the film’s strength is derived
from its quirky cha[...]eing placed on characterization which
is fuelling the ‘new wave’ of quality films coming out of Australia.

In the past, I thinkwe were so excited thatwe’d made awonderfu[...]stralia. We suddenly realize that not everyone is the girl on

Neighbours. The archetypal Australians just aren’t there any mo[...]ng them be weird on screen.
That’s a change for the better. I

A change in the air.

Before taking to the air, the butterfly will

spend some four to six weeks as a caterpillar
before making its colo[...]many things that take time, it’s
usually worth the wait.

Here, at Open Channel video resource
facility, it was also time for a change.

In the past six months we’ve been updating
our video p[...]s and amateurs.

A change that’s bringing us up to date.
And like the butterfly, it’s also been worth

the wait.

Video Production, Post Production and Trai[...]065
TEL 03/419 5111 FAX 03/4191404

E U R 0. P I\
The true story of a Jewish boy's struggle
to survive Nazi Germany.

Open Channel Co—ope[...]ides a
range of products, facilities and services to the
independent film and video industry and the
general community in Victoria.

a film by AGNIESZ[...]e.

Confidential applications should be

directed to the Chairperson, Open
a ‘I Channel, 13 Victoria Street, Fitzroy,
\/[...]

JAN EPSTEIN REVIEWS THE TWO RECENT JEWISH FILM FESTIVAI

interested in Je[...]h
experience, past and present.

In October 1991, the Festival ofjewish Cinema, presented by
thejewish[...]revealing
but hardly surprising. Eleven were from the U.S. and eight from
Israel, the two post-Holocaust epicentres ofjewish culture wh[...]PAPERS 87

2 xi

»
AV -. ,

have come to dominate thejewish world. Four were made in the
UK, three in France, two each in Canada, Austria[...]lland, Belgium, Poland,
Czechoslovakia, Italy and the USSR. Two films were pre-war CO-
productions between the U.S. and Poland, two were co-produc-
tions betwee[...]was ahistoric USSR-
Israel-France collaboration.

I/Vhat is disappointing is the realization thatAustralian-Jewish
culture has not[...]films which character-
ize and celebrate either the unique features ofAustra1ianJewish
life or the coming of Jews to this counuy, a notable exception
being Ben Lewin’s mini-series, The Dunera Boys.

Stimulated by the AF l’s successful screening in 1990 of the

COMMENTING AS WELL ON THE HISTORY OF JEWISH CINEMA

Yiddish classic, Dybbuk (The Dybbuk, Michael Waszynski, Poland,
1938) , 1991 saw the screening of four pre-Holocaust films, all of
them painstakingly restored by the National Centre forjewish
Film at Brandeis University, Massachusetts, which was founded in
1976 following the acquisition of a private collection of Yiddish
feature films.

The Second Australian Jewish Film Festival (IFF) scre[...]’nFidl ( Yiddle with hLsFz'ddle,
U.S., 1936) , the classic Yiddish musical which became an intema-
tional hit, starring the famous Yiddish actress-comedian Molly
Picon as a young woman, forced to take to the road with her
father, who cross-dresses to join a band of wandering musicians
(klezmerim) and falls in love with one of them; and DerPun'mspieler

(The jester, Poland-U.S., 1937) , a whimsical romantic[...]shoemaker’s daughter during Purim.

Green went to the U.S. in 1923 as a member ofthe renowned
Vilna Tro[...]f such European and
Yiddish classics as Ibsen’s The Ghosts, and S. Anski’s Dybbuk. After
working in[...]ork and

ABOVE: SOLLY PEREL (MARCO HOFSCHNEIDER), THE POLISHJEWISH 30‘! WHO BECAME A GERMAN
WA[...]

Warsaw, and returned to Poland in the mid-19305 with a small
troupe of NewYorkYiddish a[...]s fourth was A Brivele der Mamen (A Little Letter To
Mother, 1939) , one of the lastfilms made in Poland before the war.

The firstJewish films made withJewish actors were produced
in Warsaw at the beginning of the century. Invariably these were

Without question,[...]lm versions of Yiddish plays and novels. In 1910, the Jewish
producer Aleksander Hertz, considered the father of Polish
cinema, founded Sfinks, Poland’s first film production house.
Few of the thousand features and shorts produced by Sfinks had

from the full horror of genocide by suggesting genocid
the mind of a deranged individual, rather than confront”
function it is ordinary people who have to be persuade:

Jewish themes. Nonetheless, Yiddish films continued to be made
in Poland during the 1920s, many of them finding their way to
America where they were considered superior to the cheap
melodramatic Yiddish films being made in the U.S., and then
subsequently distributed in Poland.

QualityJewish films continued to be made in Poland up to the
moment when war erupted in 1939, and it is this persistence of
Jewish filmmakers to continue to make Jewish films on Jewish
themes in the face of mounting, virulent anti-semitism through-[...]Yidl Mit’n Fidl and Der Purimspieler reflect the illusion of self-
containment. Both were shot in small peasant towns in the Polish
countryside and, in the case of Yidl, in nearby Yiddish-speaking
Warsaw.[...]these films with a prescience born
of hindsight, the innocence of the surroundings, the other-
worldly quality of the restored prints and the simplicity and
quaint humour of the stories take on the quality of denial. They
remind the audience that what we are watching are the last
moments of a doomed civilization caught in celluloid, like insects
trapped in amber.

One of the most interesting films screened at the Festival of

Jewish Cinema (FJC) was Eleanor Anti[...]outA World (U.S. , 1991), a post-Holocaust homage
to the East European Yiddish silentfilms of the 1920s. It is a black-
and-white melodrama about a[...]see him
as forsaking his roots. Not only are all the traditional themes of
Yiddish theatre and film present in the story — the humour and
colour of shtetl life, weddings, funerals, seduction, a dybl7uk— but
so too are included the realities: racial hatred, poverty and
repression.[...]er from University of California, San
Diego, uses the traditional silent film genre, complete with int[...]tic techniques and exaggerated facial
expressions to recapitulate and reconstructherJewish past through
avehicle which for her is the most potent expression of that past
She causes the doomedJewish Eastern Europe to live again and,
by doing so, grafts onto it a vir[...]is sense of a vanished culture is also present
in the two American Yiddish films screened at the FJC: His People

(U.S., 1925), a silent melodrama on the theme of the Prodigal
Son, set in New York’s Lower East tene[...]s workers
from his old shtetl in Poland, starring the famous Yiddish actor
Maurice Schwartz in a[...]

9 is an aberration. It locates the culpability for evil in

‘mg’ the realization that for terrible regimes to
to do horrible things.

Over three hundred films we[...]this ‘ golden
age’ 0fY1ddish cinema from 1927 to 1940, the majority in the U.S.
It is interesting to note, however, that although many of the key
figures in the emerging Hollywood film industry were European
Jews, their names rarely appear on the credits of these Yiddish
films. Nonetheless, these films are reminders of the connection
between America and East-Europeanjewry, which from the great
influx of the 1880s onwards saw not only the burgeoning in the
U.S. of a newjewish culture, but also the establishment of a film
industry in whichjewish[...]creenwriters
played a vital role as architects of the celluloid version of the
American Dream.

The other non-Israeli features screened at the two festivals
were based on true stories about the Holocaust and related
events, or dealtwith problems ofjewish identity or the resurgence
of anti-semitism. Of the Israeli films, more later.

DocteurPetiot (F_]C, Christian de Chalonge, France, 1990) was
the most stylish of the Holocaust films, a real-life horror story
about a Parisian doctor, Marcel Petiot (Michel Serrault, in the
performance of his life) , guillotined in 1946 for the mass murder
ofjews and others on the run from the Gestapo. It is brilliantly
conceived in the genre style of such early German horror classics[...]’s Doktor Marbuse, Der Spieler (Doctor Marlmse, The
Gambler, 1922).

LEFT TO RIGHT: JOSEPH GREEN'5 CLASSIC YIDDISH MUSICAL, YI[...]FIDL
(YIDDLE WITH HIS FIDDLE). MICHEL SERRAULT AS THE SINISTER DOCTOR IN
CHRISTIAN DE CHALONGE’S DOCT[...]’ MEMOIR OF
GROWING UP IN CZECHOSLOVAKIA BEFORE THE WAR, MARTHA AND I.

During the German Occupation, ‘Dr Eugene’ lured 27 des-
peratejews and members of the Resistance to a deserted house
on the Champs Elysees on the pretext that he could arrange their
safe passage to Argentina. For a handful of money and the
contents of their suitcases, he killed them with[...]partially
dissolved in acid, in a furnace. It was the clogging of the chimney
and the belching of foul smoke that finally alerted the authorities
to his crimes, which bore an uncanny parallel to those of the
Third Reich. De Chalonge’s master stroke is to use this parallel as
a metaphor to illustrate the criminality and moral bankruptcy of
both the Nazi genocide machine, and those in France who
collaborated with it.

The impact of Petiot as a Nosferatu, preying on hisvictims and
spreading the contagion of Nazism, is heightened by the deca-
dent, expressionist poetry of the visuals, drained of colour and
tinted. Natural colour impinges only at the end ofthe film, where
in a chilling reminder of the mountains of shoes, spectacles and
shorn hair at Auschwitz, the families of Petiot’s victims file past
tables crowded with the clothing taken from 53 suitcases, search-
ing for the belongings of their loved ones.

Without question[...]ressive work of art,
yet, strangely, it distances the audience from the full horror of
genocide by suggesting genocide is an aberration. It locates the
culpability for evil in the mind of a deranged individual, rather
than confronting the realization that for terrible regimes to
function it is ordinary people who have to be persuaded to do
horrible things.

The actions of ordinary people who manage to be decent in
terrible times is the focus of Martha and I OFF, Germany-France,
1990), a witty, acutely obse[...]fectionate memoir of
growing up immediately prior to the war, by Czechoslovakia’s
leading filmmaker of the 19505 and ’60s,jiri Weiss.

Emil (Vaclav Chalupa) is sent by his abandoned mother to
stay with his sophisticated, urbane Uncle Ernst ([...]e Sagebrecht) , who is a Gentile. A nice touch is the cleft

CINEMA PAPERS 87 ~ 27

Martha and I, though conventionally structured, has memo-
rable perforinances by first—class actors who are the vehicles for
the director’s deeply-liberal humanist observations[...]’sEur0paEur0pa (France-Germany, 1990),
screened at both festivals, is the story of how a Polish-Jewish boy
born in Gerinany survived the war by becoming first a member of
a Communist youth organization, then a German war hero,
which led to him being sent to an elite Hitler Youth school. This
extraordinary[...]etails than a Steven
Spielberg story, is based on the life of Salomon (Solly) Perel, who
now lives in I[...]s killed during Kristallnacht, his
family decides to relocate in Lodz, a fatal move which sees Solly
s[...]nei-
der), Solly has several opportunities during the war to abjure his

jewishness, but the reasons he does not do so, the film suggests,
lie as much with his tell-tale circumcision as with his loyalty to his
fonner upbringing.

Holland, as she demonstrated in Angry Harvest, sees contra-
diction as the essence of human nature. She handles the com-
plexities of Solly’s youthful situation sy[...]t she is also clear-sighted. When Solly
weeps for the death of his friend, a German soldier, and asks
h[...]ds? How can they be

28 CINEMA PAPERS 87

so kind to him and so horrible to others?”, he is asking fundamen-
tal moral ques[...]understands his conflict and with-
out labouring the point, as Solly’s story unfolds with mounting
s[...]rough his encounters with all
those who are drawn to him: the female Komosol leader, Horvath
the German, the Gennan captain who adopts him, his Nazi
girlfrien[...]r) his loneliness and
his ambivalence, his desire to belong and his need to live.

In his foreword to Annette Insdorf s book on Holocaust films,
Elie Wiesel says of such films as Das Boot ist Voll (The Boat is Full,
Markus Imhoof, Switzerland, 1981) and Obehod ad ua Kane (The
Shop On Main Street, Jan Kadar, Czechoslovakia, 1965): “They
reveal to us, like a secret imprint, human beings undergoing the
curse of the gods, and that’s all.”‘ Without doubt, this applies to
Couturier (]FF, Leonid Gorovets, USSR, 1990), the most moving
feature at the two festivals, which captures, in the great tradition
of Russian cinema, 24 hours in the life of ajewish tailor and his
family prior to their certain death at Babi Yar.

Couturier, taken fromAlexander Borshagovsky’s play and with
the screenplay written by the playwright, makes no attempt to
portray the massacre, which resulted in the murder, in 1941, of
more than 33,000 Kievjews. Rather, from the outset, the film is
stamped with poetry and dream. In a seri[...]is seen praying, then packing his
bag. He stands at the door and hears the sound of marching
soldiers. A little girl steals the old]ew’s cart. “If you need it badly,
take it”, he tells her. Leaves flutter to the ground. It is autumn.
There are fires in the street, and people are picking over piles of
debris. Birds sing. The old]ew’s hat blows off in the wind, and he
retrieves it from under a soldier’s foot. Across the road some
soldiers pull down an old man’s trousers, and shoot him. Thejew
is shocked. Through the doorway of a house, a woman, the_]ew’s
married daughter, is kneading bread.

These are dream fragments which cloak the nightmare to
come, which the audience never sees. Two homeless Russian
women and a child are skulking in the shadows outside the house

at night, waiting for theJews to leave. They have been promised
theJews’ house, and Isak (Innokenty Smoktunovsky), the ladies’
tailor, invites them in. This encounter between the two families
provides most of the substance of the film, and allows for its most
poignant moment: Isak measures the older Russian woman for a
winter coat that he wil[...]loth.
He will never see it made, but in measuring the arms and bust of
this handsome woman, Isak, for the last time, gives expression of
his former selfas[...]or.

Michel Piccoli’s performance in Mcmfha and I is masterly, but
it is one thing to portray an urbane, cosmopolitanJew, and quite
another to capture a shtetl or traditional Jew, without resort to
caricature. Smoktunovsky accords Isak both his dignity and his
Jewishness.

The film has a powerful final sequence: Isak and his family are
joined on the road to Babi Yar, firstby a trickle of Kiev’ sJews, then
by a torrent which becomes a sea. As they advance upon the
camera, our gaze is distracted by the sight of modern sedan cars
waiting for them to pass, and the road suddenly becomes modern
as they walk into history. Gorovets was prompted to direct
Couturier out of a concern for rising anti-semitism in the Soviet
Union and, once his debut feature was made, he left the USSR to
live in Israel.

The most fascinating feature screened, because it confronts
head-on the problems of Jewish identity in the Diaspora, was
David Mamet’s Homicide (JFF, U.S.[...]y his job. When he is drawn off an important
case to investigate the murder of an oldJewish lady who owns a
pawnshop i[...]bourhood, Gold suddenly feels very
uncomfortable. The old woman ’ s family, wealthy and influential,[...]ing an anti-semitic conspiracy,
they pull strings to get him assigned to the case. Gold is annoyed
and protests. He wants to be where the real action is, back where
he really belongs, wit[...]Sullivan
busting a black murderer.

Mamet admits to seeing himselfas aJewish Spike Lee. He has
recently rediscovered hisJewishness, and, with the veil lifted, he
is brutally honest about what he sees. Gold doesn’t want to be a
Jew. He’s insulted, frightened at the thought of being tarred with
the same brush as weak and inferior people who speak[...]nny, and have a shameful past. As he retorts over the phone in
the house of the dead woman, “They’re not my people, baby.
Fuck ’em! ”

However, Gold’s hostility changes to interestwhen he finds an
empty tommy-gun case in the old lady’s cellar, and learns that in
her youth the dead woman was a member of the Irgun, ajewish
underground organization in Palestine that fought for the crea-
tion of theJewish state. Evidence increases for the existence of a
secret neo-Nazi organization in the black ghetto, and by the time
Gold’s investigations lead him to a deserted building where a

The most fascinating feature screened,
because it confronts head-on the problems of
Jewish identity in the Diaspora, was David
Mamet’s ‘Homicide’ (JFF[...]BOVE: JOE MANTEGNA AS BOBBY GOLD, A COP
WHO TRIES TO DEFINE HIS JEWISHNESS IN DAVID MAMET’5 HOMICIDE.

Jewish Defence League meets at night, complete with machine
guns and yamulkas, G[...]ori’.

Dramatically, Gold’s instantconversion to militan tjewishness
is clumsily handled, but psyc[...]aljewishness is
under siege. He wants desperately to belong, but he rejects his
Jewish past because it brings him trouble and he believes it to be
shameful. He is not on the run like Sollyis, facing extennination.
Gold can realistically attempt to lose his Jewishness by burying
himself in the police force as one of a team comprising blacks,[...]nd Asians — or so he deludes himself.

Early in the film, a black member of the FBI, senior to Gold,
calls him “a kyke”. What Mamet is doing here and elsewhere in
the film is bringing to the surface the growing tension between
blacks andjews, and exposing the unfairness of the black identi-
fication of the Jew as being responsible for their oppression.

For Gold, the opportunity to rid himself of self-doubt, and
exchange the stereotype of the passive Jew, the pawnbroker
feeding parasitically off the poor, for that of the virile Jewish
patriot, machine gun in hand, is irresistible. He jumps at the
chance, but by doing so he becomes more firmly i[...]ddy sense of
belonging, of having ‘come home’ at last. Butitis soon made clear
to him that beingjewish involves more than planting[...]e.

Gold may have rediscovered hisJewishness, but the result of
his actions leads to disillusionment: the militantJews reject him
because he refuses to betray his loyalty to the police force; and he
is rejected by his police ‘family’ because his involvementwith the
‘Yids’ results in the death of his partner Sullivan, for which Gold
is[...]tracized.

CINEMA PAPERS 87 - 29

. .'_, ‘T’
I r _ 3 " '

~ 1

At first he is shocked. How is he to explain this? Everything is
at stake: his marriage to his rich wife, his job which he manages
to maintain through juggling and appeasement, his self-esteem.
After the panic comes the accommodation, the adjustment. Guilt

30 - CINEMA PAPERS 87 ~

assails him and atonementbeckons: what better time than now to

become the man he always could be. Once the danger passes,
however, and theJew can be put in her place, Tachezy reverts to
being the man he always was: ‘With the necessityfor changing his
life gone, the superiority he had lost that morning came back to
him.” This is a masterly interpretation of Werfel’s cynical story
which illuminates the Austrian soul.
Two films from Canada were among the most entertaining
films: True Confections (JFF,[...]about growing upJewish and female
in Winnipeg in the 1950s; and Falling O-oerBackwards (JFF, Mort
Rans[...]about a thirty-somethingJewish man who yearns for
the security of living with his parents again.
The Jewish element colours both of these Canadian films,
which revolve around personal growth and the struggle for
independence from family, towards whom the central characters
in both films — one female and the other male — have strong
attachments. The key issues touched upon — class, sexism, abor-[...]and safe sex in Falling OverBackwards— are not the preoccupations
ofJews alone, but issues of genera[...]oth
these films, theJewish content adds flavour to the stories, aJewish
lens through which aspects of co[...]ewishness.
Unlike Bobby Gold (Homicide), they are at home in the world.
They exhibit none of Gold’s paranoia or angst about being
Jewish. This prompted me to wonderwhether CanadianJews, like
their Australian counterparts, feel more at ease about being
Jewish and, if so, why? Asking this question led me to feel the lack
of Australian films that capture the unique flavour of Australian
Jewish experience:[...]aulfield and Bondi. Literature has
made a start. Why has the feature film not become a medium for
Jewi[...]

A-uanti Popolo (F] C, Rafi Bukaee, 1986) , Israel’s entry for Best
Foreign Film at the 1986 Academy Awards, was criticized at the
time in the Knesset by cabinet minister Ariel Sharon, who called
it self-destructive. Set in the Sinai Desert in 1967 at the end of the
Six-DayWar, the film’s central figures are two Egyptians, the lone
survivors of a routed company of soldiers whose only desire is to
reach the Suez Canal and home. There are two powerful meta-
phors in the film: the desert, which represents thethe Egyptians, an actor
who once played Shylock in aproduction in Cairo of TheMerchanz
ofVem'ce (“ajew sent to fightjews”) , who becomes a potentsymbol
of the futility and absurdity of war, humanity at war with itself.

Despite technical roughness, Av[...]delivery of Shylock’s most famous speech — “I am a_]ew. Hath
not ajew eyes ...?” — is at once mocking, ironic and profoundly
disturbing.

G’mar Gaviya (Cup Final, FIC, Eran Riklis, Israel, 1991), the
most popular film at thejerusalem Film Festival in 1991 , though
not a[...]A1/anti Popolo, is similarly powerful. Set
during the Israeli invasion of Lebanon in 1982, it tells the story of
Cohen (Moshe Ivgi) , an Israeli soldier[...]with them
as ahostage as they pick theirway north to Beirut, through terrain
patrofled regularly by Christian and Israeli troops. The film’s

LEFT TO RIGHT: MEL (SAUL RUBINEK) AND HIS DAD, HARVEY (PA[...]ABOUT A THIRTY—SOMETHING JEWISH MAN WHO YEARNS TO LIVE WITH HIS PARENTS AGAIN,
FALLING OVER BACKWAR[...]D REFUGE IN SHANGHAI,

SURVIVIIE A SHANGHAHESCAPE TO THE RISING SUN).

focus is the seven days Cohen spends with the Palestinians, and
the friendship that grows between him and his eight c[...]first on a shared love of soccer and support for the same
World Cup teain, Italy, and, later, on a rec[...]vanti Popolo, Cup Final’ s sympathy is directed at the
vanquished and dispossessed. The Palestinians are shown as
dignified, decent men: Ziad, the tall, light-skinned leader of the
unit, lives abroad in Italy, and was trained as a[...]young and vulnerable,
is a diabetic. Only one of the group is needlessly violent, and he
is restrained by the others. Stereotyping has been rigorously
avoided.[...]their deaths, and, like Cohen who weeps for them at
the end, we find it difficult to emotionally adjust to their being
picked off, one by one, by bullets an[...]uff
out their lives in an instant, without regard to personality.

Echad Mishelanu (One of Us,jFF, Uri Babash, Israel 1990) , set
in the Occupied Territories during the Intifada, offers a complex,
sometimes confused, perspective on the impact of the Arab-
lsraeli conflict on young people. When Rafa (Dan Toren), a
young military police officer, is sent to a paratrooper base to
investigate the death in custody of a Palestinian prisoner, he is
unaware that the Palestinian, said to have been shot while trying
to escape, was responsible for the horrifying death of his close
friend. Rafa is expected by his friends at the base to be loyal to the
memory of his dead friend and his old unit, and o[...], however, feels morally bound as an
investigator to discover the truth, even if it means implicating his
friends a[...]past.

Babash handles several themes in One cf Us the primacy of
male friendship in group solidarity, sexism in the army, peer-
group pressure and the abusive behaviour of oflicers. As a
consequence, the film loses focus at times, and the story becomes
muddled. The ending is ambivalent: Does Rafa bow to the
demands of group loyalty and burn the tell-tale tape implicating
his friends, or does he follow the dictates of his conscience and
become an outcast[...]s, however, One of Ushas energy, and a finger on
the pulse of what is happening in Israel today[...]

notions of principle against the reality of how military culture
operates, and exposes the pressure on individuals within the
group. Young Israelis, in order to survive physically and psycho-
logically, turn to each other and form strong bonds, a tradition
developed in the Zionist youth movements in Europe and very
much alive in civilian society, aswell as in the army. Faced with the
choice of obeying a distant command, or betraying a friend,
primary allegiance is to the group. This makes the ambivalence
expressed at the end of the film understandable.

Other notable Israeli featu[...]a
Narrow Bridge,JFF, Nissim Dayan, 1985), set on the West Bank,
which explores the intractability of Arab-Jewish hostility through
a[...]entrepreneur (Moshe Ivgi of Avanti Popolo) trying to come to
terms with sexual dysfunction and loneliness in Tel Aviv.

The most interesting documentaries screened at the two
festivals were odysseys in search of new information and fresh
insights.

Diane Perelsztejn’s attempt to come to terms with her own
response to the Holocaustled to the making of Survivrea Shanghai‘
(Escape to the Rising Sun, FJC, Belgium 1991), a documentary
about 20,000Jews who found refuge during the war in Shanghai,
one of the few places in the world that could be entered without
a visa. Perelsztejn tells the story of the Shanghai Jews through
interviews with 15 elderly survivors, and retraces with them on
film the circuitous route they took to Shanghai via Vilna, Russia
and Japan. Some extraordinary facts emerge that may forever
reshape the way we viewjapanese behaviour during the war. To
reach Shanghai itwas necessary to travelvia the Soviet Union and
Japan. To enterJapan avisa was needed, and unless one had avisa
forJapan itwas notpossible to enter Russia fromVilna. Thousands
ofJews owe their lives to theJapanese Consul inVilna, who against
express orders from Tokyo continued to issue visas to desperate
Jews up to the moment of his recall to Berlin. A forest has been
dedicated to the memory of this ‘righteous gentile’ outside Yad
Vashem in Israel.

Equally remarkable is the hospitality received by the refugees
during their stay in 1938 on theJapanese island of Kobe, and in
Shanghai, where even under the Japanese occupation, despite
being ordered to the ghetto at Honghew, they fared better than
theJews of Europe[...]GUESE COMMUNITY WITH JEWISH
PRACTICES DATING BACK TO THE ISTH CENTURY, LES DERNIERS MARRANE5 (THE LAST MARRANO5].

32 0 CINEMA PAPERS 87

Pierre[...]pons ofthe Spirit (JFF, U.S., 1986) , seen
first at the Melbourne Film Festival in 1988, is one of the most
inspirational documentaries ever made about the Holocaust.
Sauvage returned to Le Chambon-sur-Lignon in 1985, to under-
stand better his own history and to pay tribute to this small French
Huguenot village which during the war saved the lives of 5,000
children, Sauvage included. Following their Pastor in the simple
belief that itwas the right thing to do becauseJesus was aJew, each
family in the village harboured aJewish child, participating in[...]al act of resistance which could not have escaped the
cognizance of the Gestapo located a small distance away in Vichy.
Sauvage doesn’t try to explain goodness, or the Gestapo’s inac-
tion. He simply shows that sometimes goodness has the power to
paralyze evil, and makes the point that 75,000Jews were handed
over to the Germans by French collaborators.

Les Demiers Marranes (The Last Marranos, JFF, Frederic Bren-
ner and Stan N[...]bued with respect for its subject, sheds light on the secret
religion of a contemporary Marrano communi[...]isbon. Its rituals, orally transmitted, date back to the
time when the Spanish and PortugueseJews of the 15th Century
publicly converted to Catholicism during the Spanish Inquisi-
tion, and practised theirJudaism[...]Interviews with
gentiles and Marranos alike from the village of Belmonte give a
fascinating picture of aworld not so removedfrom the dangerous
past: a painting behind glass doors in[...]; a local priest
describes Jews as “fat, obese. Anyone who is used to Jews can
recognize them by their physical appearance [...] their sibilant
pronunciation, their noses, the way they curse and swear”; a
Marrano, Emilia, a[...]for a christening
or wedding and say silently, “I enter this house but I worship
neither wood and stone. Iworship only the '73 names of the Lord
who rules over us.”

Cut off from their culture for hundreds of years, the crypto-
Judaic religion practised by the Marranos is female-centred and
eclectic, an amalg[...]ies and prayers,
tailored by their experience. As the women prepare the unleavened
bread for Passover, their most importa[...]ivered from “evil, torture and death”. During the
baking of the bread they cover their eyes and sing, “Harm no[...]they are
respectable people who brought you into the world.” An old
woman with a lined face gives aJewish perspective on history:
“The Lord gave theJewsJesus, but he betrayed us.”

These Belmonte Jews are the last Marranos in Portugal. For
centuries they hav[...]hings have changed. Ashke-
nazic Judaism has come to the village, dispelling mystery and
shame at the same time. The Marranos of Belmonte are now
prepared to circumcise their sons, observe the ‘new’ festivals,
wear hats and yamulkas in the home, and jettison the ‘goy’
calendar to follow the Hebrew. “This is good”, says Elias, Emilia’s
son—in—law who has been to America and Israel. “The men were
estranged from religion before. Now men are in charge.” Emilia
thinks it is right for the young to move on to the new rites, but she
will continue to practise her parents’ religion. “It’s all the same,”
she says, “but the prayers are not ours.”

CONTINUED ON PAGE 69

Shaw). When will Australian film and television learn to represent our Asian neighbours in an

intelligent[...]ian

neighbourhood? Finally, Craig Brown examines the use of stereotypes on Australian
television. Also[...]t of filming
in Russia and Jan Epstein ’s look at Jewish cinema. Thus, this Supplement is not only a partial

attempt at commenting of some multi-cultural issues, but also a catalyst to new ideas, new

forms of coverage.

CINKHA DAPIIS I7 -

J3

As the federal

government moves closer

to Asia economically,

will this new policy shift
Australia closer to Asia
culturally as well?

What will be the response
of the film industry?

Can it pass the

Asian Screen Test?

Sylvie Shaw, an independent
filmmaker and film consultant

to Asialink, investigates.

ABOVE, LEFT TO RIGHT: Aus‘rRALIANs ABROAD: MORGAN KEEFE

(BRYAN aRowN) IN HIS FILIPINO BAR, wrrH WALKER (BILL HUNTER) TO HIS RIGHT.
JOHN DUlGAN’5 FAR EAST. "NATIVE As s[...]PARADISE.

. CINEMA PAPERS 87

industry has begun to open up links towards Asia. Suddenly

it seems pr[...]films and television programmes
that are helping to raise the profile of Asia in Australia.
Already some sectors of the industry are looking to Asia,
especiallyjapan, as the new fairy godmother of film finance.
The changes come in the wake of the federal govern-
ments commitment to strengthen our ties with the Asian
region. Our destiny lies with Asia and there is a real need,
based on economic imperative, to move Australia’s focus from
Europe closer to home. But economic imperative (and gov-

ernment rhetoric) alone will not bring about a change in
attitude.

I n the past 12 months, the Australian film and television

Asialink, a small Melbourne organization committed to
raising the profile of Asia through film and television, wants to
speed up the process and believes the media, particularly
popular-culture media, is one means to this end. But it won’t
be easy as the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade, Senator
G[...]o you instil that
feeling of ‘belonging’ into the hearts of ,17 million people?
How do you make an[...]le with
its neighbours?”

Perhaps Neighbours is the appropriate word. Asialink asks if
and when the popular shows on television will begin not only

to have an Asian perspective, but also a face which represents
the broad community in this country.

If the Australia Council can introduce such a progressive
policy change, what about the film industry? There is cause for
optimism, with[...]for an unequal power rela-
tionship —Australia to Asia, rather than a real East-West fusion.

KANGAROOS AND SCENIC VIEWS

The federal government’s Garnaut Report, Australia and the
Nm'th—east Asian Ascendancy, commissioned research on Asian
attitudes about Australia. The report concluded that Australia
was better known[...]s and

beaches than its intellect.3
But in trying to improve our image in Asia, how do we move

away from yet another documentary of the great outback, or
our curious koalas? How can we encourage Asian filmmakers
and broadcast networks to programme something different
about Australia, es[...]ralian drama?

WARS, WHORES, SECTS AND SEX

While the Garnaut Report states that our perceptions ofNorth—
east.Asia are increasingly better informed, the image ofAsians
in the media is largely still based on the traditional stereotype:
the enemy, the gaoler, the thug, the prostitute or the victim.

ProfessorAnnette Hamilton ofMacquarie University is one
of the very few academics to look at the image ofAsians in our
films. In her paper “Fear and Desire: Aborigines, Asians and
the National Imaginary”, she makes the point that, “right back
to the original Tarzan films, it is apparent that any A[...]r”.“

This is also confirmed by our attitude to shooting films in
Asia and we have been guilty o[...]oducer, Mike
Fuller, describes as “steamrolling the host culture”. While it is
not solely the domain of the Australian film industry, we have
a track-record[...]sposing one culture for another
(no one will know the difference). The local population and
landscape serve only as an e[...]storical and ethnic diversity
has been annexed by the Australian film industry for conven-
ience. But while we continue to paint all Asians with one brush,
we should[...]

The mystery ofAsia tugs at our primitive heart strings. Tropical
beaches, ma[...]rom our everyday lives. But in many of our
films the exotic also becomes the erotic. As Freda Freiberg
suggests, the heroes go troppo and awaken the “hidden native
in themselves”.5

Sometimes like in The Year 0fLivz'ngDangerausly (Peter Weir,
1982) or FarEast (]ohn Duigan, 1982) , the lead characters fall
in love with each other, but generally they suffer what Freiberg
calls the “native as stud” mentality (cf Echoes of Paradise, Phil
Noyce, 1988). They unleash the repressed sexuality of the
suburbs and, after a whirlwind holiday romance, or flirtation
with spirituality, they return to their families and their mun-
dane existence.

On[...]r own
right. Films like Aya (Solrun Hoaas, 1990), the short Tigers Eyes
(Teck Tan), or the far-sighted mini-series In Between (Chris
Warner, Maureen McCarthy and Kim Dalton) are leading the
way. But beware the token Asian, particularly the stereotyped
version.

MORE BAD GUYS?

There is no[...]e of films will emerge
depicting Asians again as the bad guys. The Triads and Yakuza
might become popular images on[...]evelopment. Already proposals are being
submitted to film-funding bodies about shadyjapanese busi-
ne[...]drug dealers. Perhaps there is a lesson here from
the American film Year afthe Dragon (Michael Cimino, 1985),
where the Chinese characters are both goodies andbacldies, and
where the intrepid, female Chinese-American investigative
reporter tracks down the inscrutable drug barons.

The way we represent Asians in our media comes in for
scrutiny from our near neighbours. The Malaysian govern-
ment has already expressed considerable concern about thethe federal gov-
ernment to openly dissociate itself from the production.

Ian Bradley of Grundy’s Television[...]sy, but not from
Malaysia. It stemmed from one of the early episodes where
“there was the reference to threatening to shoot the boat
people”:

V/Vhat we didn’t realise was [...] that the person who supposedly
made that threat in the 70's, had subsequently become the
Prime Minister of Malaysia, and that really is the basis of all the
problems. To this day — and I’m being honest — I don’t know
whether he ever made the threat or not [...]

I have no doubt that Dr Mahathir is sincere in being upset
about that reference to that one incident. And had we been
advised of it,[...]wouldn’t have used it.5

36 - CINEMA PAPERS B7

The Asian Screen Test

More recently there has been disquiet again from Malaysia
about the feature Turtle Beach (Stephen Wallace, 1992). The
film, based on the novel by Blanche D’Alpuget, focuses on an
Australianjournalist who covered the race riots in Malaysia in
1969 and ten years later returns to cover the plight of the boat
people. The film shows a massacre of the Vietnamese refugees
by Malaysian villagers, altho[...]s historical fact or dramatic licence. Last year, the then
Prime Minister, Bob Hawke, indicated to Dr Mahathir that the
government would make a public statement also distancing
itselffrom this production. Aswell, the Australian Film Finance-
Corporation (FFC), which was an investor in the film, has
withdrawn its logo from the film’s credits. According to the
FFC’s chief executive,]ohn Morris,

The FFC took this step beacuse it might be hard for the
Malaysians to comprehend that a government agency, such as
the FFC, is a stricdy ‘hands off’ investor and maintains a
completely independent position on the contents of films and
programmes in which it inv[...]ety is transparent. How do we
improve that?

Both the Australian Film Commission (AFC) and the De-
partment of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT)[...]lm festivals and visits of Australian filmmakers to the

Asian region. In 1991, DFAT sponsored Cascade Films (Nadia
Tass and David Parker) to travel to India, while Curtis Levy and
Chris Olsen organize[...]kshops injakarta with Indonesia filmmakers.

But the involvement of these two government bodies in
such ventures has been criticized on the grounds that the left
hand does not know what the right is doing. The AFC promotes
the Australian film industry, while DFAT develops cultural
relations. If we want to improve our image in Asia via showing
Aust[...]

nuances that make each country special.

Films travelling to Asia have to be chosen with care, taking
into account the political, moral and religious sensitivities of
the countries involved. The same considerations need to be
followed when Australian crews are working in[...]Bangkok Hilton provides a good example. Part of the series
was shot in India where the crew could not disclose they were
making a film about “drug-running — the Indian connection".
So while they were shooting, the crew wore T—shirts printed
with the words “East meets West and they fall in love. A l2—part
documentary.”

At the moment, there is sparse knowledge about the best
ways of working in various Asian countries.[...]Where do you go for precise information?
What are the pitfalls to watch out for? Should one offer
‘financial incentives’ and how much? What about our attitude
to cheap labour in Asia? How do you avoid exploitati[...]l, cultural and politicalfauxpas
and so on? Is it the role of DFAT, Austrade or the AFC to
provide such information?

Action-movie producers favour Asia because of the low
labour costs, though working in Asia can also have huge
disadvantages, the most obvious being that Australia is seen in
a negative light. Filipino filmmaker Nick Deocampo from the
Mowel Film Institute points out that, in his coun[...]Americans or as ugly tourists only
interested in the sex trade?‘

In a sense, this negativity has been reinforced by the legacy
of films like The Year ofLivingDangerously (set in Indonesia but
made in The Philippines) and the mini-series on CoryAquino’s
rise to power, A Dangerous Life. By shooting in a different
country from the setting, the film loses its credibility. For
political reasons, A Dangerous Life finished production in Sri
Lanka, but the local Filipino audience could not take the film
seriously when a crowd of Sri Lankan extras shouted “Cory!
Cory! Cory!”

To avoid such problems, The Philippines government is
now considering setting[...]’ for all foreign
films made there. It is easy to see why. What is our response
when we see Australia wrongly or narrowly interpreted by
overseas media? Can we blame the various countries in Asia for
being disinterested[...]ifwe do not represent them
correctly?

By raising the profile of Asians and Asian themes, there can
be a tendency to overlook the ‘cultural specificity’ of the
different Asian nations and ethnic groups within[...]es dealing with a non-specific Asian country
runs the risk of ignoring the nuances that make each country
special. And while we continue to set films and mini-series like
FarEa5t, Bangkok Hilton, Vietnam and Turtle Beach in Asia, they
tend to be more about our search for identity and say mor[...]sia.

NEW TREATIES

In an exciting development by the AFC, Charles Hannah from
Pacific Link Communications has been employed as a consult-
ant for the next two years to open up markets in japan and
Korea, and lift the profile of Australian film and television
there. Already, through the newly-opened Pacific Link Com-
munications Office in Tokyo, he is negotiating the sale of
Yoram Gross’ Blinky Bill ( 1992) , as w[...]of computer smart kids
in different countries out to save the world from environmental
and other destruction.

The AFC is also pursuing the area of co-productions with
Japan. This was one of the major recommendations to come
out of Asialink’s No Koalas Please Conference in 1990.

Becausejapan has no equivalent organization to the AFC,
there were some teething problems, but now l[...]ed with both thejapanese broadcaster NHK and with the
government itself. Peter Sainsbury (AFC) comments[...]been encouraging enoiigfiiiféwarrant
a request to the federal Minister for the Arts, Thurism and
Territories to enter into formal negotiations with thejapanese
M[...]ofthe
Dragon, a television co-production between the ABC, BBC and
Xanadu Productions. This mini-series[...]s
novel Avenues of Eternal Peace, revolves around the fate of an
Australian doctor who gets caught up in the democracy
movement in Beijing in 1989. Tiananmen Square was recon-
structed in a disused airfield on the outskirts of Sydney and one
of the most rewarding aspects of the production was uncover-
ing the wealth of talent in Australia.

FACING PAGE: CHIN[...]N COP
STANLEY WHITE [MICKEY ROURKE) WORK TOGETHER TO FIGHT THE BAD FORCES OF CHINATOWN.
MICHAEL CIMlNO’S YEAR OF THE DRAGON.

LEFT: AUSTRALIANS KATRIONA (NICOLE KIDMAN) AND MANDY [JOY SMITHERS) AT THE MERCY OF
FOREIGN JUSTICE IN THE LUM JAU GAOL. KEN CAMERON’S BANGKOK HILT[...]

Two thousand extras were needed to re-create the scene in
Tiananmen Square and they were gathered[...]tions and student associations. On one occasion, the casting
agents took over a disco and hired the 400 patrons as extras.

The producers employed Melbourne director Wang Ziyin
(New GoldMountain) to actas a liaison between the crew and the
cast, especially with the huge number of extras. Megaphone in
hand, she translated the directions to the enormous cast. It was
an exhausting process. Line producer Wayne Barry, who coin-
cidentally was in Beijing the day after the massacre, and Wang
Ziyin were able to evoke a strong feeling among the extras,
many of whom were also in Tiananmen Square that night. As
the fires and the explosions started, the cast began to re-live
their experiences and acted out their roles with extraordinary
passion.

Wang Ziyin tells the story of one of the extras, who, knowing
he was to re-create the scene in Tianamen Square, wore exactly
the same t-shirt he had worn on the night of the massacre. He
found it hard to understand that wardrobe wanted him to wear
something else. He thought the drama was supposed to be real.
And while the title Children of the Dragon has been criticized as
yet another stereotyped vision ofChina, it is in fact the name of
the song the students were singing in Tiananmen Square.

One of the recommendations of the Asialink No Koalas
Please Conference, which brought together filmmakers from
Asia and Australia, stressed the importance of hiring a consult-
ant to avoid social, cultural or religious misunderstandings
when working in Asia. The smooth production on Children ofthe
Dragon showed[...]al gaps as well. Wang Ziyin also mentioned having to raise
awareness with the crew that “not all Chinese are the same.”

People from Mainland China, from Taiwan[...]ifferences should be respected. Congratula-
tions to the producers for their foresight in employing a
sens[...]angs are taking over their
territory.

In casting the Vietnamese actors, the production company,
Seon Films, said they had “[...]experienced
actors from Vietnam. She took ads in the local Vietnamese
newspaper and spoke to leaders of the Vietnamese community
who put up flyers around the area. A mixture of good research
and community support and networking.

And next year there will be more. The ABC has also
commissioned Sydney writers Nicolasjose and William Yang to
research and write a six-hour drama series about the Chinese
in Australia called The China Story. The series, set in Darwin,
focuses on one Chinese family and spans several generations
from 1910 to the present. Production is still twelve months

away .

38 - CINEMA PAPERS 87

WARRING FACTIONS NO LONGER

The recent films Blood Oath (Stephen Wallace, 1990) and Aya
still have their roots in the turmoil ofW or1dWar II, butAyatackles
something different: the experiences of ajapanese war bride in
Australia during the 19505. Director Solrun Hoaas believes:

Our media are obsessed with the war, neglecting the occupa-
tion and the treatment of thejapanese war brides, who were the
firstjapanese allowed to enter Australia after the war.”

Butwhile Ayawas selected for screening at many prestigious
film festivals around the world, the Department of Foreign
Affairs and Trade would not sponsor Solrun Hoaas to partici-
pate in the Singapore Film Festival because, it is suggested, the
film does not depict Australians in a sufficiently positive light,
despite the fact that the film won a specialjury prize for art and
innovation at the 1990 Torino Film Festival. Hoaas feels that
perhaps her representation of the leading Australian male
characters — one violent, but sensitively portrayed, the other
gay — is perhaps the reason.

Hoaas speaks fluentjapanese and this ea[...]ms and language misunderstandings in working with
the leadingjapanese actress, Eri Ishida. Although Hoa[...]ting process switching back and forth constantly,
the rewards are shown in Tshida’s sensitive portray[...]an in an alien culture.

japan is being viewed as the film finance bank of the world
and we are having some success in gaining access to their
coffers. Aya and the mini-series RoseAgaz'nst the Odds— the story
ofLionel Rose ’s boxing fame — were partly funded byjapanese
sources. Blood Oath was able to corner a slice of the Japanese
market, grossing $250,000 within six weeks of opening in
Tokyo thanks to the amazing efforts of publicist Toshi Shioya,
who Ch[...]ys, “almost single-handedly cajoled and
bullied the film’s distributors, and thejapanese media, to share
his belief in it”.“

‘gut feeling’ of the executive producer?

The feature film Greenkeeping (David Caesar, 1992) i[...]bowls”. It also has an Asian
focus. Caesar says the inspiration for the film came from a radio
broadcast of the Commonwealth Games lawn bowls final be-
tween a[...]Kong and an older
Italian-Australian. He believes the film is “a metaphor for the
way Australia is changing”?

The 1991 Melbourne Film Festival further expanded
Australia’s Asian links with the screening of several films of the
Hong Kong genre of martial-arts films. But the highlight of the
Festival was the session for the film ju Dou by renowned Chinese
“5th Generatio[...]hang Yi-Mou. F estival-goers turned
up in droves. The organizers could not control the crowd and
the police were called in. Demand for Chinese cinema is very
strong in Melbourne and this rush to see a banned Chinese
film, incidentally bankrolled by the Japanese, flies in the face
of cinema chains which believe there is no m[...]ARKET PLACE REALITY

But ifcinema chains are slow to change, television networks are
even slower. Despite pressure on them to produce stories
which reflect both the multi-cultural and Aboriginal mix of the
Australian community, the changes have been minimal. There
seems to be a suggestion that ‘middle Australia’ will[...]any real market research
been done or is it just the ‘gut feeling’ of the executive
producer? How often have we heard that[...]d
story lines”, “no actors available” or “the image isn’t good for
our overseas markets”.

Ian Bradley from the Grundy Organization believes that
television exec[...]“fear of not
getting ratings, fear ofoffending the advertisers, and in the end
fear oflosing theirjobs”.‘3 In other word[...]different.

Other producers argue it is important to see beyond the
rhetoric and concentrate on the dramatic and passionate
elements of a story, regardless of its authenticity or worthiness.
But do we have to wait until network executives understand
that pro[...]c and
passionate, ratings-positive, not offensive to advertisers and
keep them in their jobs. Do we have to wait until the decision-
makers themselves are Asia-literate?

6[...]News and current-affairs programmes are supposed to present
accuracy and truth. But the image of Asia we see is limited to
natural disasters, riots, drug hauls, plane crashes and wars. And
this occurs only ifthere is a news crew to shoot it. Similar images
of streetfighting in South Korea, mud-slides in The Philippines
and poverty in Bangladesh inure us to the real problems. The
viewer becomes bored and desensitized to events in that country.

“PLEASE CONSIDER”

A[...]sh words;
Singapore Airlines advertisements refer to its “girls” as a “great
way to fly”; and Fuji Films present a bow-tied, smiling, cutesy
image to make us choose its product.

Where do you draw the line between what is gently funny
and what is rac[...]parodies ofjapanese national characteristics,
but the ads are also made forjapanese companies. When will

LEFT TO RIGHT: NEO-NAZI SKINHEADS PREPARE TO DEFEND THEIR ’FORT'RESS’ AGAINST AN AT[...]

the advertising industry see the real person behind the big
smile?

IT'S ALL IN THE GAME

If advertising presents a skewed view of As[...]ng Tribunal survey found that game shows are near
the bottom of viewer preferences, there is no obvious reason
why Asian or Australian—Asian contestants can’t b[...]stralian-Chinese student did very well on Sale
of the Century this year, but examples are few and far b[...]teresting change has been taking place in some of the
soaps and let’s hope that it is a taste of things to come.
Congratulations to A Country Practice for recently including a
story[...]ian acupuncturist who per-
formed an operation on the matron ofi/Vandin Valley hospital
and had a love affaire with one of the nurses. While Dr. Yip left
the show after only a couple of episodes, executive p[...]g
stories about scripts they’ve written and how the programme
producers have reacted with the same old response. I/Vhere do
we get the actors from?

This was one of the issues raised at meetings ofwriters and
actors in Melbourne and Sy[...]actors by ethnic group, so one more excuse bites the
dust.

Several writers mentioned that, although theywould like to
write about Asian themes, they are not familiar with the com-
munity involved. They recommended that residencies in Asian
countries be provided by the AFC, along the lines of the
Australia Council, and that special ethnic consultants be em-
ployed to give back-up research and expertise at storyline
meetings. Another possibility would be to have writers working
in tandem: collaboration bet[...]iter
from a particular ethnic group.

Most people at the meetings believe that the decision-
makers, the executive producers and the network owners,
need to be made aware just how damaging discriminatory or
stereotyped views ofAsians are, especially when it comes to the
image we present in those countries considered so important
to trade relations. As Melbourne writer Yu Ouyang po[...]nother level there have been disappointmenm, too. The
educational series Asiawise has been one of the victims of the
ABC’s cutbacks and the current-affairs programme Asia Report
has been dr[...]epared afilmography, Visions
of/lsia, which lists the availability ofabout 1000 films and videos
throug[...]opelessly out
of date.

As Australia moves closer to Asia both economically and
culturally, it is essential that the Australian community has a
solid understanding of[...]children open

40 - CINEMA PAPERS 87

their eyes to Asia and assist them to become Asia-literate.
Teachers are looking for updated and accessible information,
in a language that the children themselves use and understand.

So how do children view Asia? When one teacher asked her
students to draw pictures of Asians, most drew Ninja Turtles
and Ninjas, the horrors of war or old-fashioned images of
Chinese[...]raw hats and pigtails.

There is a desperate need to develop an awareness ofwho
Asians really are and to break down the old stereotypes.

MISSION IMPOSSIBLE

In December 1991, the Screen Production Association of
Australia (SPAA) looked at the developing Asian television
market. It’s no coincidence that the South—East Asian market is
still looking for Am[...]o it’s a two-way process. VVhile we are looking to enhance
the image of Asia in Australia, we can’t overlook the image of
Australia in Asia. It seems that all too often the tourist image is
the only one represented abroad.

This image will not advance until the perception ofAustra-
lia as a people changes. Man[...]growing together in this huge southern continent.
The easy cliched image that we are westerners is both literally
and metaphorically wrong. I/Ve are notWesterners. Ifanything,
we are “South[...]. There is no doubt that
things will change. Even the television executives say so. The
opportunities are there now. Can the Australian film and
television industry take them up and pass the Asian screen test
with flying colours?

NOTES

1. Gareth Evans launching the Australia Council Policy, “Asia Pacific
Connections”, October 1991.

2. Carrillo Gantner, quoted in the Australia Council Press Release “A
Vision for the Future — .\'o\v”, 42/91, September 1991.

3. Ross Garnaut, Australia and the North-east Asian Ascendant}, Com-
monwealth ofAus[...]se Queries on Embassy’s Future"
in Green Guide, The Age, 14 November 1991.

7. In letter from Judith Rich, Public Relations Manger at the FFC, in
response to a faxed query from the Editor.

8. Sylvie Shaw, “Reportfrom the first Filmlinks Conference”, in Shaw, N0[...]

KING OF THE CASCADE BRUMBIES

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WE COULDN'T HAVE DONE IT[...]VICTORIA

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ETERNAL PROMOTIO[...]

performance poet John Harding queries the

definition of “Black Films”

There’s a que[...]in here

Through a camera it would blur,

or sink to the bottom of obscurity with its leadweighted
ironies.

A spotlight would not assist, as the pain reflects fight back
into your narrow vacant eyes, more help tha.n needed will
Paralyse

To stand motionless is to be shot, wrapped cut and sold, yet
our cloud of fluidity will not be housed.

When the question is in the eyes that can tell the story, the
story will speak, and the question will begin to be answered,
and the camera merges and blurs with sudden forward
motion.

— UNTITLED, JOHN HARDING

the simple path be sacrificed for the long and conflict-ridden
road. Maybe it is becaus[...]there are simple
truths, and life wasn’t meant to be peaceful or over that quickly.

Having said that, to look at Kooris* and film a necessary step
is to see how this country reflects itself and the international
arena. Is the cultural cringe alive and well and commuting
between Sydney and Melbourne? Will we forever rate the per-
fection of imitation higher than the development of local crea-
tivity and fund it accordingly? The optimist in me says that the
current upswing in the support of Australian content may be
something more than temporary.

The Melbourne film industry is thriving on producing stories
that reflect the societal idiosyncrasies, the sexual tensions and the
cultural contradictions that this great city was built on, and
winning awards in the process. It is also encouraging to see that
the gap between the general public and the Australian film
industry is continuing to slowly close. I remember not so long ago,
when attendinga cinema[...]look straight past
known Australian film titles to see what Hollywood had flung
across the seas for our cultural gratification. Yet here I am in 1992
knowing that, out of the four films I want to see at the present
moment, two of them are local product.

Now if this a genuine plateau we have reached, and the local
and international production partners are starting to believe that
the general public can tolerate Australian content, then does this
mean, dare I say it, that Koori issues could even be on the

| am consmntly amazed at how often in my life I have watched

* Read Aborigines/Torres Strait Isl[...]list when new ideas are being bought and sold in the
marketplace for feature films?

Even ifthis were so, it presents one ofthe many problems that
exist in the processes of depicting Koori issues and images. I
always have great difficulty making it clear to non-Kooris the
inappropriateness of them writing Koori character[...]ry. There is often disbelief thatl have any right to impinge or
stem their creative juices, whether th[...]e a different situation ifthey made it clear that the
images they conjure are their perceptions, their reality, but this
is rarely the case.

Instead, white values and perspectives are put on black
characters and issues. This serves to reinforce the one—dimen—
sional view that white Australia has of Kooris, when the physical
aspect of being one is put up there on the screen alone.

The film industry should not be singled out here, as it
encompasses the wider community, and is reflective of the fact
that a very different perspective and psyche exists between the
black and white communities in this country in 19[...]re.

One ofthe strongest elements ofKoori life is the totality ofour
world xiew. Everything is interconnected and affects everything
else. The arts in general for White Australia seem to be a very
separate entity to the mainstream community. Elements of ac-
countability and responsibility do not bind the two together.
Thus, acommunity sees no link between the arts bodyits taxes pay
for — spending the majority of its funding supporting activities
that a minuscule percentage of the population participate in —
and the fact that they should be irate about it.

Koori a[...]which our
culture was based. It was as important to the social cohesion of a
family as a steady supply of food; and elevated to the status of
ceremonies.

As we have adapted into the 19905, the one thing we cannot
afford to lose is our artists, and their place in the scheme of the
struggle we face. I place Koori filmmakers firmly in this group.

O[...]n these liberated times, it sounds almost fascist to
say that black artists should be accountable to their community.
If a Koori filmmaker’s work is adored by the wider community,
what possible weight would the black community’s disapproval
carry? Itwould seem the potential for retribution is minimal. The
Koori filmmakers have the ball in their court in regards to this
aspect. Only they can know to what extent their work reflects the
Kooriness in themselves. This sense of accountability is something

Canons in the C

Here Iwould like to touch on the politics of the film industry,
in reference to Kooris and films, as I see this as flowing on from
the previous point. I feel the time has come where we have to
begin to define what a “black film” or a “Koori fi[...]d when
does itbecome one. Is it a black film due to the material it presents
or the origins of the filmmaker, or both?

The reason I have decided not to turn this article into an
historic look at “Aboriginal films” is because the distinction must
be made loud and clear by Koori[...]by non—Kooris (albeit with Koori consultants),
the agenda must be written by us. I feel enough has been written
about them. When the[...]Kooris, but simply
films in which Kooris appear, why is the Koori community always
made to feel so grateful? So grateful, in fact, that some of these
film s are given black money, so the black actors can be paid, while
less acclaimed black filmmakers are denied. The continuance of
this helps create the dangerous illusion that a lot of time and
effort and money has gone into the areas of “blacks ’n’ films”,
when in fact it has not.

Books on “Aborigines in Film” add to the distorted view, albeit
unintentionally. Let’s s[...]non-Kooris
about Kooris”l There, now we can all get some sleep.

At the other end of the spectrum, there is the equally confus-
ing issue of Kooris who make fil[...]may classify themselves as filmmakers who happen
to be Kooris. Perhaps it is to the Koori filmmakers and the
funding bodies that we will leave the problems of definition, as it
may be through the development of this relationship that the
Koori community may find its niche.

The importance of the Koori filmmaker maintaining credible
links with his/ her community is evident in the self-development
of the artist, but also in providing a medium whereby stories that
have to be told are told accurately, and interpreted from a Koori
perspective. The third benefit is the opportunity to train other
Kooris, thereby building up our resou[...]oori making one film.

Another stepping stone in the river of Koori filmmaking is
whom do you make the film for? As a playwright, Iwas often asked
whom do I pitch my play at? My reply was that I write for Kooris,
as I can write no otherwaywhen I arnwritingfor myself. Ifthe non-
Kooris don’t g[...]as Aljolson.

Ifa Koori filmmaker has it in mind to accurately reflect and
interpret a community iss[...]er it be through
drama, documentary or animation, the logical yardstick is the
community itself.

A real black film is a politi[...]or criticism, means we are still here,
reclaiming the images of our identity, and still at war for land
rights and compensation. A thought-provoking reminder of this
is the fact that the federal government has recently established
the Reconciliation Council, made up of black and whit[...]ltural society. Their mission, should they
decide to accept it, is to come up with a list of policies/ recom-
mendations on how we can reconcile the past, in time for the
centenary celebration of federation. Although it[...]get, how could it affect Koori artists?

Although the Reconciliation Council may prove to be a
toothless tiger, an enterprising Koori filmmaker could suggest
for reasons of equity that the AFI allocate a percentage of its
annual budget to Koori communities, in line with the population
ratio (i.e. 2.5%) . This principle could be applied to all government
funded arts bodies across the country. The logistics of distribu-
tion could well be along and complex one, but it at least would
be our problem.

It will only be when economic justice of this kind is achieved
that the stories will unfold that have been kept for so long in the
heart of the country, and in her caretakers, the oldest race in the
world. And they will be able to be told at the qualitative level that
they should be, because th[...]rched adequately, and
Koori filmmakers will have the resources needed to enable them
to achieve their full potential.

To achieve this, the pooling of resources will eventually
become essential to the development of Koori film. The Koori
concept of “caring and sharing” must extend into the arts arena,
where it has been replaced by competition. Koori artists are
adapting and hopefully recognizing the difference between
getting caught up in the politics of the arts, and utilizing the arts
for the politics of survival. Arts for art’s sake? We haven’t the time!

P.S. What are we going to be reconciled to accept? There’s scope
there for a sci-fiz one million people mysteriously disappear off the
face of Australia in 1770 headed for the planet Terra Nullius

CINEMA PAPERS 87 0 43

television and in cinema, I have an added interest in
studying the images used by white Australia for black Australia.
The white manipulation of the European-controlled media,
television and cinema[...]an, Arabic
and other non—white races. But it is the Aboriginal race that is
most affected.

It was interesting to learn that the Zulu people (who are the
ones most portrayed on television) have their own television
station, where Zulu is the official language and Zulus are the
principal characters. But despite this — and despite the fact that
blacks outnumber whites some 20 to 1 — they are still portrayed as
foolish people. There is something more to be desiredin the plots
written about and for them.

This situation[...]e, despite apartheid being
dismantled bit by bit, the administrative positions in all Walks of
life are[...]s are in a
minority, there are powerful voices in the newspapers, political
parties and the unions to speak up for the black majority.

In Australia, there is a greater discrepancy of power, where the
Aboriginal population is outnumbered some 100 to 1. There is
Verylittle chance of the Aboriginal nation getting a clear, fair and
objec[...]ell known prison populations are heavily based on the
Aboriginal people. Yet there was only ever one Aborigine in the
whole show, a type of token black, if you like, reminiscent of the
American television shows of the 19605 and early ’70s before Afro-
American Civi[...]of conduct for
television and film — as in In the Heat of the Night. Also, in Bellbird
there was only ever one Aboriginal actor, who played the town
drunk.

There have been many essays and talks about these specific
problems over the years, ranging from outright racism in the
early days (as in the argument thatAborigines cannot act as they
don’t have the will-power to do the strenuous work) up to the
paternalistic journals and comments of today. So, I will not dwell
too long on this subject. But, even today, we still get white people
portraying Aborigines and editors cutting out a scene of one of
the main white actors kissing an Aboriginal woman because it is
believed ratings would fall. It really is time to look at ourselves as
creators and realize that for Australia’s indigenous population
there is a lot to be desired on the cinema front. For, as I have said
elsewhere, film is the white man’s dreamtime - and more often

44 - CINEMA PAPERS 87

than not it turns out to be the Aborigines’ nightmare. The time
has come to portray a true picture of Aboriginal life. This is
especially so on television, which reaches outwards to a greater
variety of people.

It is not to say that this is not happening now. There are several
good programmes on SBS and the ABC, and there is, of course,
the CentralAustralian Aboriginal MediaAssociation, al[...]ck, Ricky Shields and
Lorraine Mafi-Williams — to name a mere few — who are busily
making small-budget films and winning awards with them.

However, it is the big-budget films that are going to be seen by
the majority of the world, films like The Last Wave, (Peter Weir,
1977) The Chant of jimmie Blacksmith (Fred Schepisi, 1978), A
Faithful Narrative of the Capture, Sufleangs and Miraculous Escape of
ElizaFraser (Tim Burstall, l976) and so on. We see the same old
stereotypes again and again, with Aborigines relegated to second
fiddle. Where is the interest in making big-budget Aboriginal
films, such as Kevin Costner’sDances_wz'th Wolves (1990) about the
Sioux, which most Hollywood producers said would never work?
And yet, there are at least four big-budget native American films
in production right now.

The native Americans have the same problems as the Aborigi-
nal people with no real conferenc[...]

_i1_s u in E 1 0 ‘w 11_A,1.' spy ~ALA“1%l A 1) l[...], Antony Ginnane, Gillian Armstrong,
Ken G. Hall, The Cars that Ate Paris.

NUMBER 2 [APRIL 1974):

Cen[...]Roeg, Sandy Harbutt, Film under Allende,
Between The Wars, Alvin Purple

NUMBER 3 (JULY 1974):

Richar[...]Papadopolous,
Willis O’Brien, William Friedkin, The True
Story Oflishimo Nell.

NUMBER 10 (SEPT/OCT 1[...]Samuel Z.
Arkofl’, Roman Polanski, Saul Bass, The
Picture Show Man.

NUMBER 12 (APRIL 1977)

Ken Lo[...]Tosi, John
Dankworth, John Scott, Davs Ofl-Iopc,
The Getting Of Wisdom.

NUMBER 13 ( JULY 1977)

Louis[...]ohmer,
Terry Jackman, John Huston, Lubes
Kingdom, The Last Wave, Blue Fire Lady.

NUMBER 15 (JANUARY 19[...]ncois Trufiraut, John
Faulkner, Stephen Wallace, the Taviani
brothers, Sri Lankan cinema, The
Irishman, The Chant Of jinimie
Blaclesnzith.

NUMBER 16 ( APRIL[...]blom, John Duigan, Steven
Spielberg, Tom Jeffrey, The Africa Project,
Swedish cinema, Dawnl, Patrick.[...]le Huppert, Brian May,
Polish cinema, Neivsfront, The Night The
Prowler.

NUMBER 18 (OCT/NOV 1978)
John Lamond, S[...]nalism,
Japanese cinema, Peter Weir, Water Under

The Bridge.

NUMBER 27 (JUNE-JULY 1980)
Randal Kle[...]ka, Stephen Wallace, Philippine
cinema, Cruising, The Last Outlaw.

NUMBER 35 (FEBRUARY 1982)
Kevin Dob[...]hael Rubbo, Blow Out,
Brealzer Morant, Body Heat, The Man
From Snowy River.

NUMBER 37 (APRIL 1982)

St[...]r,
Norwegian cinema, National Film
Archive, We Of The Never Never.

NUMBER 40 (OCTOBER 1982)

Henri Saf[...]Wendy Hughes, Ray Barrett, My
Dinner With Andre, The Return Of
Captain Invincible.

NUMBER 41 [DECEMBE[...]er, Peter

Tammer, Liliana Cayani, Colin Higgins,
The Year Of Living Dangerously.

NUMBER 42 (MARCH 198[...]an Pringle,
Agnes Varda, copyright, Stri/zehound, The
Man From Snowy River.

NUMBER 43 (MAY/JUNE 1933)

Sydney Pollack, Denny Lawrence, Graeme
Clifiord, The Dismissal, Careful He Might
Hear Tau.

NUMBER 44-[...]uvall, Jeremy Irons, Eureka
Stockade, Waterfront, The Boy In The
Bush,/1 Woman Suffers, Street Hero.

NUMBER 47[...]hael Pattinson, Jan
Sardi, Yoram Gross, Bodyline, The Slim
Dusty Movie.

NUMBER 49 (DECEMBER 1984)

Ala[...]Borowczyk, Peter Schreck, Bill Conti,
Brian May, The Last Bastion, Bliss.

NUMBER 51 (MAY 1985)

Lino[...]zlehurst, Dusan l\/lakavejey, Ernoh Ruo,
Winners, The Naked Country, Mad Max.-
Beyond Thmzderrlorne, Ro[...]turica,
New Zealand film and television, Return

To Eden.

NUMBER 54 (NOVEMBER 1985)
Graeme Clifibrd[...]an, Menahem Golan, rock videos,
Wills And Burlzc, The Great Bookie

Robbery, The Lancaster Miller Affair.

NUMBER 55 (JANUARY 1986[...]Paul Verhoeven, Derek
Meddings, tie-in marketing, The Right-
Hand Man, Birdsville.

NUMBER 56 (MARCH 19[...]ard~Smith, John Hargreaves, Dead-
End Drive—In, The More Things Change,
Kangaroo, Tracy.

NUMBER 58 (JULY 1986)

Woody Allen, Reinhard Hauff, Orson
Welles, the Cinématheque Francaise, The
Fringe Dwellers, Great Expectations: The
Untold Story, The Last Frontier.

NUMBER 59 (SEPTEMBER 1986)
Robert Altman, Paul Cox, Lino Brocka,

Agnes Varda, The AFI Awards, The
Movers.

i\¢. .C,...-

3-,, .‘.«-..-..;»-
~ ,-.:«.‘9[...]conference, production
barometer, film finance, The Story Of
The Kelly Gang.

NUMBER 63 (MAY 1987)

Gillian Armstr[...]ris
Haywood, Elmore Leonard, Troy
Kennedy Martin, The Sacrifice, Landslides,
Pec Wee’s Big Adventure[...], James Claydcn,
Video, De Laurentiis, New World, The
Navigator, Who ’s That Girl.

NUMBER 67 (JANUAR[...]in film, shooting in 70mm, filmmaking
in Ghana, The Tear My Voice Brolze,
Send A Gorilla.

NUMBER 63[...]ven, John Waters,
A] Clark, Shame Screenplay Part I.

NUMBER 71 (JANUARY 1989)

Yahoo Serious, David Cronenberg, The
Year in Retrospect, Film Sound , Young
Einstein, Shout, The Last Temptation of
Christ, Salt Saliva Spe[...]

NUMBER 123 AUTUMN I985
I984 Women’s Film Unit, Solrun Hoaas,
Louise Webb[...],
Daniel Petrie, Larry Meltzer

NUMBER 125 SPRING I985
Rod Webb, Marleen Gorris, Ivan Gaal,
Red Matil[...]ho’s Cigar, Jerzy
Domaradzki, Hong Kong Cinema, The
Films of Chris Marker, David Noakes, The
Devil in the Flesh, How the West Was Lost

NUMBER 135 AUTUMN 1988

Alfred Hit[...]ision Mini Series, Korean
Cinema, Sammy and Rosie Get Laid I

NUMBER 72 (MARCH 1989)

Charles Dickens’ Littl[...]Calm,
Franco Nero, Jane Campion, Ian Pringle’s
The Prisoner of St. Petersburg, Frank
Pierson — Scriptwriter, Australian films

at Cannes, Pay TV.

NUMBER 74 (JULY 1989)

The Delinquents, Australians in Holly-
wood, Chinese[...]play.

NUMBER 75 (SEPTEMBER 1989)

Sally Bongers, TheI990)

George Ogilvie’s The Crossing, Ray
Argall’s Return Home, Peter Greenaway
and The Coolz...etc, Michel Ciment,
Bangkok Hilton and Barlow and Chambers

NUMBER 80 (AUGUST I990)

Cannes report, Fred Schepisi career
intervie[...]Pringle Isabelle Eberhardt, Jane
Campion An Angel At My Table,
Martin Scorsese Goodfellas,

Alan J. Pa[...]ent

NUMBER 82 (MARCH 1991)

Francis Ford Coppola The Godfather Part
III, Barbet Schroeder Reversal ofl[...]rbucci obituary.

NUMBER 83 (MAY 1991)

Australia at Cannes, Gillian Armstrong:
The Last Days at Chez Nous, Joathan
Demme: The Silence ofthe Lambs, Flynn,
Dead To The World, Marke JoFfe’s
Spots-wood, Anthony Hopkin[...]on: Terminator 2:]udgment
Day, Dennis O’Rourke: The Good Woman
ofBangIzolz, Susan Dermody: Breathing
Under Water, Cannes report, FFC.

NUMBER 85 [NOVEMBER I991]

Jocelyn Moorhouse: Proof, Blake Edwards:

Sw[...]92)
Overview of Australian film: Romper
Stamper, The Nostradamus Kid,
Greenlzeeping, Eightball; plus Kathryn
Bigelow, HDTV and Super I6. I

ALSO AVAILABLE

BACK OF BEYOND
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designed catalogues especially prepared for

the 1988 season of Australian film and

television at the UCLA film and television
archive in the U.S. are now available for sale in
Australia. Edi[...]film and television, such as Kate
Sands, Women of the Wave; Ross Gibson, Formative
Landscapes; Debi Enk[...]Curiouser and Curiouser;
Adrian Martin, Nurturing the Next Wave.
The Back of Beyond Catalogue is lavishly illus[...]

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of black Australians and a recent attempt to change

the stereotyping with Day of the Dog.

BELOW, LEFT TO RIGHT: DAVID NGOOMBUJARRA, KELTON PELL, TREVOR PARFITT
AND JOHN MOORE. JAMES R|CKETSON’S DAY OF THE DOG, FROM ARCHIE WELLER’S NOVEL .

films about them. Indeed, for many years the ‘bad Indians‘ in
those Westerns we all loved to watch as kids were really Italians
and Mexicans because it was thought the real Indians were too
demoralized and drunk to ride horses. And no wonder since they
always got the sharp end of the stick with any encounters they had
with_]ohn Wayn[...]rtrayal of Indian life. It can only be
hoped that the other films follow the same path. After all, the
more feet that go down a path, the sooner it becomes a highway.
It will be great see[...]of life, of how they cope with
modern life. It is to be hoped they make it out into the big world
of Super Movies to be seen the world over.

This is what has just happened with Day of the Dog. Although
it is still not strictly speaking an Aboriginal film, it is close enough
to be held proud in any Aborigine’s eyes as our film. The
producer (David Rapsey) and the director (james Ricketson) are
necessarily white, but it has a huge amount of Aboriginal input
into the film.

To begin with, it is from an Aboriginal book and also the
author (myself) worked very hard with the writer-director to

.;~J- 0.:
.'-'.

.

develop the script. We worked for about three years, although the
actual beginning of the process was even earlier. In fact, there was
interest ten years ago in making the film. Many times the script
changed either abruptly or subtly, and the[...]lating together into aworkable film. Even though
the final draft had many people’s ideas in it, it[...]t a story of ordinary city
people who just happen to be Aboriginal (or Nyoongahs, if you
like).

This is the second big breakthrough, for Day of theDog is the
first commercially-made film that shows there a[...]o-
rigines living a different type of life within the greater confines of
the city, with their own laws, rules and language kep[...]when Aborigines were a nomadic peoples living in the
bush. In this respect, we resemble the Gypsy people of Europe
and, more especially, England who face the same problems of
police harassment, trouble from[...]t from their
neighbours as do Aboriginal people.

The other aspect that will help the Aboriginal cause is that
behind the scenes there was quite a bit of Aboriginal input into
the sound, lighting and camera: indeed, every aspect of thethe daywe reach the third
stage (Aboriginal producers using Aboriginal money) we can
truly make our own films for the wider market.

This film is also a breakthrough[...]a Detective Sergeant, and thatwill
only add spice to an already enjoyably bubbling stew. Of the five
main Aboriginal roles, only three are professional actors and this
adds a fresh new look to a fresh new concept.

I personally arn glad itwas made in my home city of Perth and
so, I think, was the rest of the Nyoongah cast. However, I’m sure
everyone will agree that there were no b[...]tors in
this film, that they all did their best. The film was made by our
people aboutour people for our people, and that really is the crux
of the matter.

Much thanks should be given to Barron Films for stepping
into this production, b[...]sion executive told our
director, “No one wants to see a film aboutAborigines.” I believe
we will be the first to prove him wrong.

CINEMA PAPERS 87 - 45

Day of the Dog‘

Archie Weller’s novel, Day of the Dog, has been recently filmed by
writer-director[...]of a
young Aboriginal ex-con who is torn between the bad influence of old

friends, the love of a young woman and the threat of gaol if he returns
to his old ways.

Produced by David Rapsey, for Barron Films, Day of the Dog

was financed by the Australian Film Commission and the Film

Finance co,-po.«a1;ion_ PHOTOGRAPHS BY SKI[...]R (ATTILA
OZSDOLAY), POLLY AND DOUG.

BELOW, LEFT TO RIGHT: VALERIE YARRUP
(LISA KINCHELA), PRETTY BOY[...]AND
PRETTY BOY FLOYD. JAMES RICKETSON’S
DAY OF THE DOG.

There was a uibal matter that needed the elders from one
community to talk with the elders of another community some
distance away. At the time, we had a test transmission set-up
between these two places. So instead of travelling to a meeting,
the parties decided to try the set-up. The two elders where I was
came in, sat on the floor in front of the video camera and started
talking to the elders of the other communityvia the monitor. They
weren’t camera conscious or intim[...]gic
moment.

— IAN PICK, SENIOR TECHNICIAN WITH THE TANAMI NETWORK

computer-enhancement technology, a number of Abo-

riginal communities in the centre of Australia are moving
to link up their transmissions. This networking promises vast
cultural and social benefits to those in the system, including
medical diagnosis by video came[...]monitor and allowingbroadcasts from one community to another.
On a broader level, it is part of, and one solution to, the entirety
of Aboriginal film and video.

In the film Satellite Dreaming, Philip Batty from the Central
Australian Aboriginal Media Association (CAAMA) goes further
when he makes the point that the mostpowerful tool ever putinto
Aboriginal hands has been the video camera. That Aborigines
want to be working in the medium comes from cultural and
contemporary motivations: cultural, in that Aborigines can lay
claim to avisual and oral tradition which surpasses any Eu[...]; contemporary, as a way of telling
their stories to otherAborigines and anyone
else.

How Aborigines are gaining the equip-
ment and training necessary to work in this
medium, or the projects they are undertak-
ing, cannot be neatly[...]two. Aborigines in film and video
are operating at many dilferent levels. In the
bush and city, in groups, associations and
indivi[...]ines are involved in a
vast media footprint.

For the momentlet the unfamiliar terms
glide by. There are places such asYuendumu,
Bidyadanga and Batchelor. There are the
organizations with initials like CAAMA,
TAIMA, DE[...]SOCIATION (CAAMA).

and overseas film festivals. The range of what is happening goes
from isolated Aboriginal communities using a video camera to
record an event of cultural importance for themselves to an
individual filmmaker of Aboriginal birth dire[...],
independent and dependent, big and small —all at the same time.

Part of the reason for this situation is thatAboriginal film[...]tside its control. ll/Vhile this arguably
applies to anyone working in the field, the Aboriginal media has
to keep one footin its own world (with its own aims, problems and
solutions), and one foot in the commercial and technological
world of the white media (for the technology, money and
training). More and more, A[...]e making inroads into
these areas but when, as in the case of the Tanarni Network, the
technology used is extremely sophisticated, the gap becomes
obvious. Add in the involvement of government bodies like
AUSSAT, for the satellite hook-up, or business for the hardware,

and the Aboriginal screen starts splitting up into a number of
screens.

At Ernabella Video Television (EV l V) in South Aust[...]is no technological gap. As Neal Turner notes for the
Pitjantjatj ara Yankunytj atjara Media Associatio[...]chased from a 10 cent surcharge
on cool drinks in the store).

What was at issue was the need for locally—made videos and
transmissions to strengthen the commu-
nity’s culture, language and history. At
present, EVTV, apart from producing 125
hours of[...]da). It is
very unlikely that these cassettes and the
many others are to be found at your local
video store. Yet, they are importantand sell
in the Aboriginal market, and commercial
video never could or would make them,
given the small returns.

EVTV’ s videos are an Aboriginal answer
to an Aboriginal need. As Marcia Langton,
Aboriginal[...]quarie Uni-
versity, pointed out in a paper given at the
Second Australian Documentary Film

The Ernabella, Bidyadanga, Kintore and eighty other com-
munities are part of the Broadcast for Remote Aboriginal Com-
munities Scheme (BRACS) . In 1984, the now defunctDepartment
forAboriginal Affairs published Out of the Sz'lentLand, the findings
of its Task Force on Aboriginal and Islanders Broadcasting and
Communications. It has been the blueprint which has guided
government policy on Aboriginal communications.

BRACS is one of the fifty recommendations to come out of the
report. Simply, it allows isolated communities to receive the
television signal off the satellite. It has the further facility of
allowing each community to interrupt the satellite transmission
and insert material of its own, should it find the incoming
transmission culturally inappropriate. In some instances, this
may mean the community playing a videotape.

Emabella’s maki[...]for
broadcast is in some ways a particular case. The Aborigines of

FAMILY VIEWING IMPARJA TELEVISION AT YUENDUMU.

Ernabella quickly realized the opportunities and dangers of
television, and created a media association to take charge of the
situation.

Another community that is involved in making its own videos
is the Warlpiri Media Association (WMA) in Yuendumu. A letter
from the WMA states the association usually “broadcasts a couple
of hours a day”, and they make “the children’s television pro-
gramme in [their] la[...]unities
create their own videos or programmes due to reasons of training
or money. Still, BRACS has allowed some Aboriginal settlements
to become involved in video and programming production, if
only on a VHS scale.

At the other end of the spectrum is the Central Australian
Aboriginal Media Association and Imparja TV Pty Ltd. CAAMA
is one of the five Aboriginal media resource centres created for

the outlying BRACS stations. Quoting from a 1989 CAAMA
information brochure:

In 1980 the Central Australian Aboriginal MediaAssocia[...]

Located in Alice Springs, CAAMA is the Aboriginal face that
the general public is most likely to recognize. The previously
noted Satellite Dreaming came from CAAMA Productions with
assistance from the Australian Film Commission. A separate unit
withi[...]mparja Television.
SBS currently airs a series of the programme as well.

CAAMA has further expanded ac[...]uction by moxing into corporate video production. The
recentlycompleted discussion paper, Aboriginal an[...]ious” and
“opportunities” existed for it in the production of commercial
videos, but “a lack of[...]ed resources” were
hindering CAAMA’s efforts. The shortage in funds has been
partly caused by theto its guide—lines.

Here again is the situation of the Aboriginal media, in this
case CAAMA, having to be in two places at once. CAAMA has an
obligation to train and employ Aborigines. To do this it needs
government support. “Then that funding is reduced, it must try
to find the monies from its own limited budget. As things are[...]ion times, cutbacks in personnel and an
inability to take on an “opportunity” have resulted.

The whole matter comes into sharp focuswhen talking about
the CAAMA-owned Imparja Television. Imparja “commen[...]ed and controlled private company incorporated
in the Northern Territory”. Its broadcast area covers most of
Central Australia, from north of Darwin to south of Adelaide
(excluding those centre covered[...]Out of a potential viewing audience of 120,000, the station

estimates that approximately 30 per cent are of Aboriginal
descent. It is one of the three Remote Transmission Commercial

System licensees (the other two being the Golden V/Vest Network
in Western Australia and Qu[...]ilemma. As a commercial broadcaster,

it must try to service all of its viewers, but its Aboriginal ownership

gives it the added responsibility of providing Aboriginal pro-

grarnming while trying to be commerciallyviable. It is a high—wire

act m[...]ing regulated into

satellite transponder usage.

At present, according to station manager Mr Dion Weston:

Imparja presently broadcasts two first-release Aboriginal pro-
grammes. The primary Aboriginal programme telecast at 8.00
pm each Thursday and re-screened on Sunday a[...]Pitjantjatjara] /Our Way of Culture
[Arrente] ).

The other aboriginal programme currently on air is ca[...]a (]uslf0rFun [colloquial Warlpiri]) and is aimed at
pre-school and early primary school children. This award-win-
ning programme is produced by the Warlpiri Media Association
at Yuendumu.

Imparja has only recently completed sc[...]ideo, either made by
Aboriginal people or, by far the bulk, aboutAborigines by others.
This series titl[...]ast over a seven-month
period each Saturday night at 9.00 pm.

V/Vhile Imparja does not produce any pr[...]eceived news programme, it does provide money for
the production of Nganampa. The station, with the Department
of Education, Employment and Training,[...]ense”.

This one per cent is roughly equivalent to the amount of
telecast time given Aboriginal programmes by the other two
Remote Transmission Commercial Service licensees. The Golden
West Network, operating throughout Western[...]an hour ofAboriginal programmes
a week. It makes the half-hour Aboriginal programme Milbindi.
Having an Aboriginal presenter and some crew, the programme
is concerned with important Aboriginal[...]Aborigines which appears twice
aweek. It screens the Canberra-made Aboriginal Australia, and an
Aborig[...]ce a month.

Queensland Satellite Television used to make the Aboriginal
programme My Place, My Land, My People[...]orced its closure. In 1989-90,
QST was showing up to about two-and-a-half hours of Aboriginal
p[...]

involved in a vast media footprint.

created the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Program
Committee, an all-Aboriginal advisory panel to help in the
making and screening of Aboriginal material.

Apa[...]e are four other regional media
centres funded by the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island Com-
mission (ATSIC) . Of these four, only the Townsville Aboriginal
and Islander Media Associat[...]in
video production. TAIMA “was incorporated on the 8th ofjune,
1982, and then had three [radio] broa[...]rt series made for Australia
Post, and Dancing in the Moonlight, which was sold to the ABC.
TAIMAruns training schemesin conjunction with the Australian
Film Television 8c Radio School in Syd[...]e in Northern Territory and helps in
training for the communities involved with BRACS in Northern
Queensland.

The remaining centres have varying degrees of involvement
with Video. The Broome Aboriginal Media Association acts as a
centre for BRACS in Kimberley and the Pilbara, Western AUS-
tralia. F oratime, the training and making of videoswas done with
the Broome Musicians Aboriginal Corporation. The Torres
Strait Islander Media Association, based o[...]supplies via its media co-ordinator training for the seventeen
communities involved in BRACS. According to Aven Noah, seven
of these seventeen are making their own videos. Finally, the
Western Australian Aboriginal Media Association i[...]ble for
showing a collection of Aboriginal films at the Australian Film
Institute Cinema in Sydney called[...]lso been involved in making a series ofvideos for the NSW
Health Department called Koories Have a Say and Have You Got

What it Takes ?.

The ABC is the other television service which beams its signal
in to BRACS communities and across Australia. The ABC, through
itsAboriginal Film Unit, makes the Aboriginal series Blackout. With
a staff of six A[...]searcher and a
production assistant, it is one of the few places where Aboriginal
work is part of the mainstream media. As well, the ABC runs the
series First Australians as part of the Aboriginal programming.
The ABC and SBS both regularly screen films and videos by and
aboutAborigines. And both are committed to training and equal
employment opportunities for Aborigines. SBS was responsible
for making the Aboriginal series First in Line. At present, its Abo-
riginal Unit of three full-time staff is in pre-production on the
four-part drama-documentary series Blood Brothers[...]Abo-
rigines and Torres Strait Islanders entitled The GreaterPerspective.

In film, all state film bodies have the stated policy of consider-
ing submissions solely on their merits. At a quick glance, the
Western Australia Film Council co-funded with the Australian
Film Finance Corporation Day of the Dog, with an attachment
scheme for six Aborigines. The NSW Film and Television Ofiice
gave initial fund[...]was in-
volved with Koori Culture, Koori Control. The Northern Territory,
via the Office of Aboriginal Communications, used to regularly
produce a magazine formatvideo on Aboriginal news and issues.

The AFC has been involved on a number of levels with
Aboriginal film and video. It provides funds toAt present, the AFC is
working through an Aboriginal consultant to develop guide-lines
and policies for Aborigines in relation to film and video.

While the FFC receives any number of submissions that for
c[...]ts guide-lines it
becomes involved in projects on the strength of the fmancial
package offered. Still, it has been invo[...]ding Tight with CAAMA, Deadly, Blood Brothers and the mini-
series on the life of Lionel Rose, Rose/lgainst the Odds.

There are a number of Aborigines working i[...]e Barker in
Broome continues his involvement with the Aboriginal media as

FACING PAGE: CLARA INKAMALA AND MICHAEL LIDDLE WORKING ON THE
IMPARJA SERIES NGANAMPA. BELOW: THE IMPARJA SATELITE FOOTPRINT.

CINEMA PAPERS 87 - 51

\/Vith a large body of ethnographic films[...]as far
back as Baldwin Spencer’s 1901 trip into the desert of Central
Australia, and the growing body of Aboriginal-made film and
video, the preserving and cataloguing of Aboriginal work also
needs to be considered. At present, the Australian Institute of
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies is the official
archivist for some material. But, as Abo[...]different places, there is a danger that some of the
more valuable or creative work may become “lost[...]-
lected and organized as soon as they are made.

At present, no one body exists which can tie all the different
threads of the Aboriginal screen together. There is the Aborigi-
nal and Torres Strait Islander Commission, which is the govern-
ment’s primaryadministxative and fundin[...]ATSIC
falls short of having a sweep large enough to encompass all of
Aboriginal activity in film and video. The best option for the
moment is the National Indigenous Media Association. NIMA
has already expressed the need to develop a system of representa-
tives on a state level to act as a coordinating body for Aborigines
working in the Various media.

Some of the Aboriginal centres like CAAMA, TAIMA and
TSIMA ha[...]es in conjunction with other
bodies such as DEET, the AFTRS or state educational depart-
ments. The only institution offering a course expressly for Abo-

rigines in media is the above-mentioned Batchelor College. The
three-year course offers varying levels of accred[...]S.james Cook University
in Townsville is planning to offer a similar course in the near
future.

Finally, the Second Australian Documentary Film Confer-
ence,[...]sking
an Aboriginal representative for permission to hold the confer-
ence at the Australia National University. It ended with a Na[...]ers as consultants or trainees on related
films. The conference also held sessions byAboriginal filmmakers
and representatives. The high profile ofAboriginals and Aborigi-
nal film and video at the conference, while encouraging, is still a
few ste[...]rigines about Aboriginal people.
While notmeaning to suggest that this material does not form part ofthe
whole Aboriginal film and video picture, for the purpose of this article
it was necessary to put some limits on what was to be included in this
survey.

As well, Aboriginal[...]film, video and television are very much part of the Aboriginal
screen. This article, then, is not a comprehensive overview, but a look at
the prominent elements and players. To all those deserving mention,
and there are many who have not been so accredited, my apologies.

The author also wishes to express his appreciation to the many
parties, organizations and individuals who provided information and
advice in the writing of this article.

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Ethnic Stereotjj

The potential for the television industry to portray the

Craig Brown reports.

nly SBS, partially designed to cater for a “new” Australia,
0 has any sort of active participation in the concept of
multi—culturalisIn. For the most part, the more main-
stream networks— including the ABC — are still languishing in the
misguided belief thatAustralia is populated almost solely by white
Anglo-Saxon-Celts. According to these networks, there are not
enough members of ethnic groups in Australia to bother repre-
senting them on television.

The proofis in the viewing. Turn on the television and try to
find evidence of a multi-cultural Australia. Most dramas are
under the impression that no ethnic groups would live in th[...]few members of
any ethnic group lolling about on the beaches of Summer Bay
currently, which is quite i[...]y'sBen Luciano,

54 - CINEMA PAPERS 87

played by the veryAustra1ian]ulian MacMahon. To make matters
worse, there were few examples of et[...]ation before
Ben, and fewer since.

Consequently, the Vl€W of Australia that television presents is
s[...]rted. Occasionally ethnics and their contribution to
society might be referred to in a glib, accidental manner: for
instance, an in[...]uld eat Chinese or Italian that night. This seems to sum
up the ethnic content on most programmes; minority repre[...]larly in their
human form. Ethnics — as opposed to ethnic ideals or culture —
may sometimes bob up in a crowd scene, but even then you would
be doing well to spot them.

Not only do we rarely see ethnic groups offoreign descent, but
itwould be even rarer to see significantAborigina1 representation
on our[...]that one successful Austra-
lian drama is set in the outback. That is not to say that all
Aborigines live in the outback but, one would suggest, if a series
is trying to present a realistic view oflife in the outback, it might
think to include an Aboriginal input on a regular basis.

Not so TheFlyingDoct0'rs. Although an episode late in the 1991
season did feature Ernie Dingo in a guest ro[...]ence in this series is still weak. Quite possibly the producers
have mistaken the area in which they shoot the series (rural
Victoria) for where the series is set. Or maybe they are trying to
suggest that the white invasion ofAustralia is so complete that the
Aboriginal nation has been wiped out from the very heart of the
country? If not, why don’tAborigines feature more prominently
in the series? Surely no one is suggesting that central[...]significantAboriginal population; ifso, this is the most
misguided of representations — it ceases to become careless as it
borders so closely on racism in its dismissiveness. The question
arises: Who initiates this lack of representation: we, the viewers,
who won ’twatch anything that isn’ tpredominantlyAnglo-Saxon,
or is it the industry, reluctant to try anything new for fear of
offending their sponsors?

It is my belief that the television industry has been most
reluctant to present ethnic cultures, characters or beliefs on our
television screens. On the odd occasion that this has actually
happened, the representations are almost claustrophobic in the

FACING PAGE: THE CAST OF KINGSWOOD COUNTRY: LAUREL M<GOWAN, LEX MA[...]BOVE: MIMO (GEORGE KAPINIARISI IN ACROFOLIS NOW, "THE ONLY CURRENT AUSTRALIAN SERIES
TO PLACE ETHNIC CHARACTERS AND CULTURE AT THE FOREFRONT OF POPULAR TELEVISION".

JOHN BLUTHAL A[...]s is merely a “bridging”
process on behalf of the networks, as they test to see whether
audiences will respond to, and accept, ethnic minorities during
prime time.[...]nning long
enough — and successfully enough — to have acted as that bridge
for multi-cultural programming in its truest form.

So far we have been stuck with the most appallingly obvious
stereotypes: Aboriginal[...]representation out
ofthe norm is synonymous with the lack ofinnovation Australian
television is suffering from on the whole. The position ofethnics

on television appears to be this: obscure or stereotyped.
Unfortunately, when it comes to analyzing ethnic stereotypes

pes in Tele vision[...]l

on Australian telexision, one is forced — by the lack of examples
— to look closely and critically at Acropolis Now, which is the only
currentAustralian series to place ethnic characters and culture at
the forefront of popular telexdsion. Although as like[...]typical grouping:
he is portrayed as a product of the “Monaro sect”, which is
perceived to be common among Greeks and Italians. This is toto feel that his culture centred on superficial values.
The same criticism can be levelled at Effie, although she is more
concerned with hair g[...]" could be considered dangerous ifit
were not for the fact that Acropolis Nowis comedic — its main pur-
poses are to make people laugh, and to possibly bridge that gap

CINEMA PAPERS 87 - 55

That is, of course, a general view of the characterizations on
Acropolis Now, on closer inspection, there needs to be a recogni-
tion that this programme has given Australian television one
ethnic character that has broken the stereotype significantly. The
character of Rick (Simon Palmores) is a more well-rounded and
believable character due mainly to the fact that his function
within the series is to play the straight man tojim and company.
Rick is a sensibl[...]university-educated character who
generally keeps the cafe from going broke. This character outline
is one television would normally grant to an Anglo-Saxon charac-
ter, not an ethnic one. In this light, Rick is one of the most
important ethnic representations that Austra[...]given human traits first, rather than
forced into the limited mould of the ethnic stereotype.

Attitudes towards women by et[...]sex
objects and potential conquests — just look at the attitudes ofjim
and Mimo, as well as of V/Vayne,[...]actually has some
sensitivity towards members of the opposite sex. Still, the bulk of
male ethnic stereotypes on television cou[...]his characteristic, but, without
many examples of the opposite, we have a distorted View of male
ethnic[...]esented on telexision
that it would be ridiculous to attempt an overview on their
perceived attitudes with only the comedic Effie as an example.

One of the main problems with ethnic representation on
telev[...]gins), included an
ethnic character (Lex Marinos) to bring forth Ted’s — and
possibly Australians’ — xenophobic attitude. It seems strange to

Ethnic Stereotypes in Television

say that, for[...]Countvy was a brave series, which
may have paved the way for such shows as Acropolis Now— strange
be[...]as first run barely a decade ago. Aside
from it, the only ethnic offering before Acropolis Now was the
rigidly stereotypical Home Sweet Home, which attempted to show
the clash between “old country” parentage and chi[...]msily
written and exaggerated, Home Sweet Homewas the f1rstAustralian
series to place ethnic issues in such a prominent position.[...]s a comedy, which is by its nature overplayed for the sake of
making people laugh, or to simply poke fun at popular percep-
tions about stereotypes.

Austral[...]soapies, and
itwould be very rare for that genre to include a realistic represen-
tation of an ethnic[...]top. One could possibly expect a drama series, on the
other hand, to include an ethnic group in anything but a
stereotypical form. Although The Flying Doctors has neglected
Aborigines as a grou[...]Australian society; most are more
concerned with the portrayal of the medical profession than with
ethnic minorities. W[...]t seems more likely that a drania series is going to be able to
break the ethnic stereotype, balancing the concepts of tradition
and “Australianism” to give a true account of the ethnic experi-
ence in Australia. Comedysitcoms s[...]acting
as successful bridging programmes, getting the networks, the
public and sponsors used to the idea of ethnic culture on popular
television. How[...]s or
occupational nature. Without an accurate, or at least a balanced,
portrayal on television most likely via a dramatic vehicle — the
television audience may still exclusively link the sounding of a
Monaro’s horn with ethnic contributions to Australian television.

optieal&gra}:rgyi,3ic

6 Chuter Street, McMahon's Point NSW 21160 _
Phone; [02] 522-3144] Fax: [02] 957 5001] Modem: [02] S22 7542

Title Specialists

56 - CINEMA PAPERS 87

u-I
-I

Jfimn L lbmm NEGATIVE CLTTING

AUSTRALAS[...]

ADFHAN MARTIN

t could be argued that the filmmaking team
of Joel and Ethan Coen‘ alterna[...]d MilIer’s Crossing (1990) are films
steeped in the history and conventions of par-
ticular story-telling genres (both cinematic and
literary), respectively the ‘pulp’ thriller and
gangster fiction. Raising[...]re a different proposition;
they do not trace out the lines of a single genre,
nor are they cut-and-pas[...]Calling Barton Fink a “film with no genre"
(in the way that Raymond Durgnat described
Robert Altman[...]oes
not mean that it is a film without references to
previous movies, their genres, plots, auteurs,
iconographies and oft-told tales. Indeed, like all

the Coens' work, it is stuffed with such refer-
ences almost to the point of being wholly
constituted from them. It is as if the Coens see
their essential artistic vocation as on[...]sting books and films. Thus,
Barton Fink would be the residue of a dream-
work that brings together the novels of
Nathanael West, Stanley Kubrick’s The Shin-
ing (1980), biographical stories about famo[...]btless much else. But, in
essence, it is faithful to no particular model or
genre.

Barton Fink is a f[...]natory fiction-spinning is a higher
principle for the Coens here than genre. The
film has an anything—might—happen—next air and
afaith in strange associative leaps that take the
plot in unforeseen directions, qualities w[...]

The critical discussions of the Coen oeuvre
which have so far appeared are rarely interest-
ing or persuasive. This is because, on the one
hand, when reduced to bare (and painfully
familiar) thematic propositions. the films can
seem astonishingly banal. Blood Simpleis about
the ‘return of the repressed‘. Raising Arizona
shows simple folk dreaming of a better life.
Miller's Crossing dramatizes the paradoxes of
trust, loyalty, friendship and love. Barton Fink
invites one of the great non-questions of art
cinema: How much really happens and how
much is Barton's fantasy? On the other hand,
the post-literary invocation of the mannerist,
hyper—kinetic Coen-Raimi ‘house st[...]nce
and a mode of filmmaking (viz. Sonnenfeld’s
The Addams Family, 1991).

What is so difficult to pin down and ade-
quately account for in the Coens’ work is the
strange form that their films take — a form that
might be described as the simultaneous combi-
nation of an apparent meaning[...]r, 1967, like
Barton Fink, makes airy nonsense of the ques-
tion “What’s really happening?"), and a[...]i's least assimilable films,
like l_una(1978) and The Sheltering Sky(1 990).
Indeed, Robert Phillip Kolker’s typical critical
slur on the former—that in it “the recurrence of
the image of the moon [..,j raises it to the point
of symbol with nothing to symbolize“ — should
be taken as the triumphant motto of this almost
subterranean filmmaking tradition.

Thus, one must approach the matter of
what Barton Fink is ‘about with cauti[...]itherjust a joke on those critics out hunting
for the same old ‘big themes’, nor exactly (as
Tom Ryan has argued) a sly, modernist expose
of the cinema medium as “thethe freest, most creative and poetic sense.

For perhaps the first hour, Barton Fink
seems to be about not very much at all. We
observe the life of the ‘serious’ writer Barton
(John Turturro) amid the gaudy realities of
1940s Hollywood, including a g[...]gar studio boss, Lipnick (Michael Lerner), a
gone-to-seed novelist, Mayhew (John
Mahoney), and his long suffering partner,
Audrey (Judy Davis). The ‘real people’ beyond

58 - CINEMA PAPERS 87[...]vellously physical performance). For a
long time. the film plays out a fairly elementary
diagram of mainly comic contrasts: Barton's
hypersensitivity against the system's callous-
ness; then, from another angle,[...]bable artistic delusion
against Charlie's salt-of-the—earth naturalness,
and Audrey’s down-to-earth pragmatism.

All this turns out to be an elaborate set—up
foramuch more interestin[...]Suddenly, it
becomes nightmarishly clear that all the ele-
ments of the story exist as various sorts of
projections of Ba[...]is not a narra-
tive cinema”, since any attempt at synopsis
inevitably and artificially lineates wha[...]ll under litigation” and
“reduce that meaning to meaningful intent”?

Barton Finkis very aliveto[...]backward and forward, paradoxical
hyper-logic of the unconscious. In one brilliant
associative chain of sequences, the trauma of
Audrey’s death unexpectedly breaks Ba[...]r's block; yet (as Richard Jameson has
observed), the film maintains a perfect deli-
cate ambiguity ove[...]outpoured script is ‘really’ genius or junk. The
Coens knowthat, sinceeitherjudgementwould
be purely subjective (the script is bound to be
genius to Barton and junk to Lipnick no matter
what’s actually in it), neith[...]narrative ‘truth’. And this strategy
takes us to the very heart of the film.

Barton Fink is about an individual subjec-[...]it believes it
comprehends, contains and creates the entire
world — in short, egomania, or, as the film calls
it, the monstrous “life of the mind". Barton as
writer, richly comparable to Jack Torrance (Jack
Nicholson) in The Shining and Clive Langham
(John Gielgud) in Alain[...]sts who share in what
has often been construed as the fundamentally
‘evil’ impulse ofart—to steal from the world and
make it the mere material of an egocentric
design. The Coens simultaneously follow the
path of Barton's mad ego as it hauls in the
world, and prepare for the terrible moment
when this world, in all its overlooked and
seething reality, will takes its revenge on the
artist’s folly of creation.

Thus, against the ‘‘life of the mind" — too
much head — the film arrays the signs of a
reality which is all body: peeling wal[...]ocean of blood. In
Barton’s phantasm (which is the film itself),
troublesome heads get chopped off by Charlie
as he obligingly metamorph[...]ile sex and death swill and growl
around together at the bottom of a hideous
drainpipe down which the camera travels. As
Barton struggles ever more fiercely to hold his
ego or his ‘self’ together, the world around him
fills up with mock—horrific images and revela-
tions of a ‘truth’ according to which no self is
whole or secure or singular: Audrey confesses
to being Mayhew‘s ghostwriter; the rushes of a
random ‘wrestling picture’ obsessively replay
the same brute signifiers of obscene shouting
and bodies crashing to the canvas.

Egomania forgets the real world — at its
peril, as we discover in Barton's case. lttravels
to the extremes narcissism, self-delusion and
paranoid p[...]l another fact of this dream-logic when it
admits the possibility that, at the height of his
individual delirium, disintegration[...]s, Barton might in fact receive privileged
access to a true vision of the madness and
horrorofHistoryitself. Thisisthe extraordinary
insight that the film grasps at in its climactic
apocalypse, no doubtinspired bya[...]vision in both novel and film of Nathanael
West's The Day of the Locust (John Schlesin-
ger, 1975): we could call it a kind of social or
political psychoanalysis, aiming to express the
profound interconnection (so hard to convinc-
ingly locate) of the large—scale forces of history
and theI am trying to awaken.”

Much of the latter half of Barton Fink re-
volves around a certain mysterious box. I will
be neither the first nor the last critic to invoke
psychoanalyst Jacques Lacan’s theoretical
concept of the petit objet a (small object a) to
discuss this pesky prop. The petitobjeta is like
the famous MacGuffin of Alfred Hitchcock’s
films; i[...]ms so empty and banal, but
by which, nonetheless, the whole story and all
the ambivalent desires of the characters are
driven. For Lacan, it is a symbol[...]omic) for that which eludes
our feverish attempts to comprehend it, that
which forever gratingly escapes our clumsy
and doomed attempts to map and confine our
‘selves’.

I don’t expectthe Coens are avid readers of
Lacan, but they certainly have their own poetic
understanding of the petit objet a. The box in
Barton Fink not only remains a damn mystery
as it moves from hand to hand and place to
place, it also never really ‘belongs’ to anyone
who gives or receives it. Charlies ominous
remark (“By the way, it isn’t mine”) and the off-
hand query of the girl on the beach to Barton in
the final scene (‘‘Is it yours?”) mockthe attempts
of the protagonist or ourselves to definitively
attach any ‘identifications’ to this impossible

This is not the first petitobjeta in the Coen
oeuvre. Mark Horowitz recounts in Film Com-[...]s Crossing, Joel Coen merely,
drolly, replied, “The hat is very significant""> —
which returns us to the essential meaningful
meaninglessness of the Coens’ work. The petit
objet a is not just a recurring device in their
films. It is the very emblem of the cinematic
form which they practise, this form which artfully
raises all to the point of symbol with nothing to
symbolize. In the last, unforgettable moments
of Barton Fink, there suddenly materializes
before the hero’s eyes a tableau he has often
stared at on his wall: a woman on the sand, with
her back turned, looking out into the ocean.

Still, mysterious and disquieting, this appa-
rition is like a perfectly abstract diagram of the
drama of identity we have so far witnessed,
distilled down to the bare bones of a witness, a
scene and an elusive signification. Left abruptly
at the calm centre of Barton's storm we may,
however, detect the faint echo of a larger and
no less calamitous reality. For, to again adopt
Jean—André Fieschi on Bunuel, “This fictitious
setting in which the unremitting prosecution of
ignorance is played ou[...]e other forces clash with other
arms.“

1. Ed.: The films discussed as being by the Coens
have been directed by Joel Coen, produced b[...]ritten by both.

2. Raymond Durgnat, “Foreward: The Man With No
Genre", in Norman Kagan, American Ske[...]ondon, 1985.

4. Tom Ryan, review of Barton Fink, The SundayAge,
19 January 1992.

5. Jean—André Fie[...]n, 1980.

6. Mark Horowitz, “Coen Brothers A-Z: The Big Two-
Headed Picture", Film Comment, September[...]g, bloody
Band relentless film that engrosses one to
the point of believing there can be no other
world. Set in Quebec in 1634, ittells the story of
a Jesuit priest, Father Laforgue (Lothaire
Bluteau), who travels into the wilds of North
America to convert Indians.

The film is the culmination of Australian
Bruce Beresford‘s tal[...]created an outstanding period
piece which recalls the potent eloquence of his
1979 film, ‘Breaker’[...]trinsically, Black Robe reworks a familiar
theme: the conflict of Christian ethics versus
the pragmatic concerns of mortal life. The film
does not break much new ground on this well-
worn topic; its strength lies more in the manner
it weaves the journey of its protagonist into the
frontier it recreates.

In the opening, two senior Jesuits discuss
plans to send one oftheir own 2500 km up river
by canoe to spread the word of God. “Death is
almost certain", one says.

The young Father Laforgue is chosen, with
a group of[...]ch carpenter and translator, Daniel (Aden
Young), to accompany him.

The journey into New France commences
with a masterly establishing scene of canoes
heading into the si|ver—grey of the unknown.
The fluidity of the paddle strokes and the sym-
metry of the canoes suggests a resolute desire
to accomplish; yet a powerful scent of appre-
hension hangs in the air, promising danger for
all involved.

Black Robe is a work of economy and ac-
curacy due largely to a thorough production
team, and a taut screenplay[...](LOTHAIRE BLUTEAU) AND
DANIEL (ADEN YOUNG) AMONG THE ALGONQUIN INDIANS.
BRUCE BERESFORD’S BLACK ROBE.

whose novel of the same name is based on
17th-Century accounts of Jesuit missionaries.
The huts, costumes and canoes are authentic;
even the campfires are real. While the French
spoken by the Jesuits in New France has been
replaced by Englis[...]k-
ing characters.

Shot in Quebec, Black Robe is the first
feature film co-production by an Australian-
Canadian crew. The locales afforded director
of photography Peter James the opportunity to
capture wilderness footage which is integral to
the story rather than a brochuristic distraction.
Each jagged mountain backdrop, icy river and
forest reinforces the unquestioning power of
nature over humans. In thi[...]and Mikhail
Kalatozov‘s Neotpravlennoye Pismo (The Let-
ter That Was Never Sent, 1962) about four
geologists searching for diamonds in Siberia.

The Montreal-born actor Bluteau was cho-
sen for the key role after Beresford saw his
portrayal of a tormented homosexual in the
London stage play, Being atHome with Claude.
In B[...]ted hero
whoseill-fated missiontoshowthelndians“the
way to paradise” dramatically alters the destiny
of those around him.

By degrees, the black-robed Jesuit learns
his mission is failing; he, too, is doubting his
own faith and his ability to fend off earthly
desires, such as the sin of “intent” over an
Indian girl, Annuka (Sandrine Holt), who has
fallen in love with the French translator.

In Black Robe, there is not one cathartic
moment to rival that of Roland Joffe’s The
Mission (1986), when a novitiate (Robert De
Niro), liberated from the burden of sin, coll-

CINEMA PAPERS 87 - 59

Beresford demands that one go the dis-
tance with Father Laforgue, and be sustained
by his ability to endure. This is made somewhat
easier by the tensions Laforgue arouses with
his accompanying expedition party. The
paganistic Algonquins live onlyforthe moment
and their next meal; in their afterlife, the souls
of men can see in the dark and hunt animal
souls. The sceptical lndians frown and mutter
when Father Laforgue tells them of a paradise
where the love of God prevails. The negative
karma surrounding the Jesuit graduates to
outright suspicion among the lndians when a
sorcerer pronounces him a “demon[...]a test of faith. Death
strikes fast and brutally; the survivors are left to
rely on their base instincts and an element of
good fortune. As the drama escalates, so to do
the themes: betrayal, honour and sacrifice.
among them.

Father Laforgueisachrist-likefigurewhose
mission to preach and convert seems no less
extraordinary than Bluteau‘s portrayal of the
20th—Century Messiah in Denys Arcand‘s Jesus
de Montreal (1988). Certainly, the biblical al-
legories abound. Jesus‘ journey to Calvary is
evoked by a torture scene in which Fat[...]nt of
interpretation, there are veiled references to
the scourging at the pillar and the crucifixion.

A highlight of Black Ftobeis the strength of
its acting. The brooding Lothaire Bluteau is the
perfect incarnation of the Jesuit martyr, Father
Laforgue. Two notable secon[...]hat of a dying priest played by Frank Wilson,
and the dwarf sorcerer played with menacing
edge by Yvan Labelle. Overall, the roles are
drawn to believable conclusions, although the
unknown but seemingly gloomy fate of the
story's lovers may leave some viewers cold.

Technically, the film cannot be faulted.
Beresford does not deviat[...]quences included ~ are pulled off convinc-
ingly. The power of his work is amply
demonstrated by a flash-forward depicting the
dream of an Indian chief. White—washed im-
ages[...]y a subliminally disturbing picture.

In charting the early colonial experience in
North America, one might have expected a
predictable indictment of the Jesuits and their
well-meaning but destructive harvest of coloni-
zation. Thankfully, the story develops free of
such emotional leanings. I[...]obeis a serious film which does not
offer much in the way of comic relief. In one
scene a trio of young[...]nes
depicting human cannibalism were omitted from
the final cut. For one, the film could not have
withstood the weight of this grim subject on its

already bleak[...]of its |O0—minute duration could
have rendered the film a little long for many.

BLACK ROBE Directed[...]Denis
Heroux. Scriptwriter: Brian Moore. Based on the novel
by Brian Moore. Director of photography: Pe[...]a. 1992.

DINGO

RAYMOND YOUNlS

reams, according to Freud, are the sym-
D bolic expressions of a person's innermost[...]t must be said that filmmakers
have not been slow to grasp this point. Indeed,
the relations between subconscious and con-
scious de[...]wish-fulfilment are salient aspects of Dingo. and
the extent to which the film succeeds depends
on whetherornotthefilmmaker[...]ed themes and cliched
structures. Marc Rosenberg, the scriptwriter,
has said that the “masterpiece” took eight years
to complete, and the extended effort is evident
in the final product.

The initial setting is Poona Flats, 1969.
John Anders[...]ls), who will be known
later as Dingo, is talking to his friends, Peter
(Joe Petruzzi) and his future[...]strange sound is heard. Signifi-
cantly, John is the first to hear it. Even at this
early stage, thethree children are clear|ydiffer—
entiated: John is more sensitive to sound, a
point that is worth remembering; Jane is[...]ally, it seems, by
Peter); Peter, though he seems to like kissing,
insists that he is not a kissing ma[...]erms of his life as an
adult). What John and then the others hear is
the sound of a jet approaching and landing on
the runway at Poona Flats.

Billy Cross (Miles Davis), acclaime[...]ps offthe plane and performs a number
in front of the motley but not unduly perturbed
pubgoers and the children. Significantly, once
again, it is John w[...]e. it is an
experience that will shape his life.

The entire scene is one of the highlights of
the film: the townspeople who gather and dis-
perse as if nothing unique has happened are
quite amusing, and the arrival and departure
has the force almost of an epiphany, a vision of
culture and creation in the desert (wilderness).
What is offered to John is the opportunity to
transcend the banality of life as a "dogger“ — in
short, an incentive to pursue his most fanciful
dream, a gig with Cross in Paris.

But the film, thankfully, is not just about a
dream that is realized. it makes some interest-
ing points about the effects of such things on
the life of a family, and about the effects of
learning and the ways in which pain and adver-
sity can lead to a greater capacity to endure.
The latter point is made quite forcefully in
relation to a dingo which has had a leg injured
in one ofJohn’s traps. It is never clearwhether
the title of the film refers to Dingo the aspiring
musician or to the injured animal, but this am-

The film, though, is not the perfectly pro-
portioned edifice that it is sometimes made out
to be. The firstprob|em—though, to befair, this
may be unavoidable in a film of this[...]acertain elementofcontrivance,
especially towards the end, when the transfor-
mations seem to occur with bewildering speed
(to say more would be tantamount to giving
away the ending). Moreover, the contrasts be-
tween the naive outback boy and Peter, the
cynical city dweller, seem to be too neat and
familiar. And, though it is a source of some pain
to say this, Miles Davis’ career as an actor was
n[...]ssful.

But Dingo stimulates on a numberoflevels.
The central performances by Colin Friels, Helen
Buday and Joe Petruzzi are carefully crafted.
The drama is enriched by a streak of larrikin
humour and by the employment of irony (too
many films about dreams and the pursuit of
fulfilment are weakened by the absence of
this). The film also raises some tantalizing
possibilities inasmuch as it includes the ten-
sion between fate or determinism, individual[...]is no
such thing as accident whereas Dingo likes to
consider other possibilities — the paths not
chosen or traversed. And it is striking that the
film tends to reinforce Cross’ view. For exam-
ple, the car crash in Paris occurs in front of the
nightclub where Cross made his debut as a
jazz trumpeter. Events which seem to be acci-
dental become, in fact, parts of an over[...]heme which is quietly but
unambiguously affirmed, at least by Cross.
Finally, of course, there is Miles Davis the
performer and his music. The soundtrack, for
which he and Michel Legrand were respon-
sible, is a vivid and vividly functional part of the
films drama. Though it does not really recap-
ture the glory of Davis’ performances with
Charlie Parker, Coltrane and Cannonball
Adderley, the music does provide some mo-
ments of illumination: “The Dream”, used as a
Ieitmotif, evokes the insistence of memory,
desire and the song of the siren in Dingo‘s life;
the “Jam Session" provides a dazzling and
concentrated summation of the unfolding
drama; and so on. Indeed, the film gains extra
poignance from the fact that the lives of Billy
Cross and Davis intersect atvariou[...]have thought of himself as a
“museum piece" in the early 1960s when he
was playing the same old material; like Cross,
he suffered from il|—health and the fear that his
creative powers were in decline. But, of course,
the film is affirmative: what it suggests is that
Din[...]e transformed by theirfateful
relationship and by the inscrutable workman-
ship that rejuvenates one and fulfils the other.

DINGO Directed by Rolf de Heer. Producers[...]S

arry Marshall‘s Frankie & Johnny opened
G in the US. just a few weeks after the nat-
ionally televised senate hearing for Clarence
Thomas‘ nomination tothe Supreme Court and
the allegations of sexual harassment brought
there by Anita Hill. The irony is marked and
tragic in its ramifications, for, while Frankie &
Johnny may serve the purpose of providing an
evening'slightweightentertainment, its covert
ideology actually reinforces some of the more
insidious aspects of sexual harassment, espe-
cially in the workplace, which the Thomas-Hill
debacle brought briefly and dramatically to
national attention, before being swept away
again under the political carpet.

On one level there is nothing[...]r a
few insignificant hiccups, all is relatively (at
least in this fallen, urban world) happy ever aft[...]even some quite sensitive and witty
portrayals of the labours of love the second
time round, perhaps epitomized in the rather

CROSS (MILES DAVIS), FAR LEFI, JAZZE5 IT[...]a potato
rose, dipped in beetroot, as an offering to his
lady love (Michelle Pfeiffer). However, despite
the depiction of these characters as somewhat
older than the romantic norm, despite their
struggling working-class lives and their cheq-
uered pasts, and the details of urban
verisimilitude — such as run-d[...]ar—window”
views into other peoples lives — the rosy glow
of idealized Hollywood love actually remains
untarnished in all its false and deceptive glory.

The iilm’s narrative never leaves us in real
doubt[...]indication of this ideologi-
cal impulse towards the disguised bourgeois,
heterosexual, fantasy conclusion. The firstfive
minutes consist ofparallel alternations between
the two main characters: although they haven't
met ye[...]; both are travelling, searching for a way
out of the mire of old patterns. As the alterna-
tions continue, the likelihood of intersection
andthe integration oft[...]re blatant, and expected.
In addition, these down-at-heel characters also
happen to be recognizable to audiences as
Michelle Pfeiffer and Al Pacino, who signify as
potent sexual symbols within the Hollywood
star system, despite the film’s portrayal ofthem
as a greasy—haired, d[...]desperately lonely ex-crim.

However, by evoking the popular song about
famous star-crossed lovers, the films title
perhaps contains the only possible narrative
barb or obligatory uncertainty: that is, although
in the Hollywood honoured tradition of romantic
love, lo[...]ay not always translate
into an easy—going, day-to-day relationship.
Ostentatiously carrying a copy[...]reinforces this one
potential narrative hitch in the progress of true
love — in melodramatic terms,[...]ood inspired romantic melodra-
mas, it reeks with the dangerous ideology of
romanticlove itself—thatfantasy system which
appears to promise that all sexual dreams will
suddenly come[...]nce that “right” person is found, love
occurs at first sight and all miraculously falls
into place. In addition to clogging the lives and
relationships of real women and men wit[...]fusion regarding
gender roles, and expression and the extent to
which this is romantically and sexually ex-
ploited in social interactions, particularly within
the workplace.

CINEMA PAPERS 87 ~ 61

Thus, Johnny’s ‘courtship’ of Frankie may
be seen to consist of a series of intrusions upon
her privac[...]dress on private work records,
turns up uninvited at her apartment, arrives at
her bowling evening when expressly asked not
to (this is a particularly insidious example as we
are asked to see it as perfectly reasonable
because he has had a hard day), pursues her
into the ladies room, and stops only at the
cubicle door while yet hammering her verbally
and[...], and
demands for marriage and children.

Even in the film's final scenes where, in
sudden desperation for him to leave, Frankie
throws something across the room, breaking
one of the “good luck” elephants whose aedipal
trunks are raised in homage to her absent
father, Johnny insists on “just one phone call”,
and drives her, literally and metaphorically,

62 - CINEMA PAPERS 87

back into the toilet while he rings the late-night
radio to romantically request a song for lovers.
The film's prevailing ideology of romantic love
and its attendant, pervasive gender roles asks
us to see these intrusions as acceptable be-
cause they are ostensibly done in the name of
true love, and because the narrative outcome —
Frankie’s final capitulation to Johnny’s roman-
tic demands — would seem to validate them.

interestingly, Johnny’s style of ‘desirable’
courtship is at several points contrasted to
what can be easily identified as the “unaccept-
able" style of physical coercion and[...]loyed by Frankie’s ex-boyfriend who
hits her on the head with a belt buckle, and the
man in the opposite apartment who beats his
female partner. Although this comparison is no
doubt consciously designed to boost Johnny's
character as more caring and concerned, thus
qualifying him as the trustworthy “Mr Right” for
Frankie (when she finally allows herself to
“recognize" it), there is, nevertheless, seepin[...]n, an uncom-
fortable residual similarity between the two
modes of male-to—female wooing. After all, both
Johnny and the “uncaring" earlier boyfriend
harangue Frankie and battle over her body and
her mind in an attempt to impose their desires
and perceptions upon her.

in the final analysis, we must ask ifthere is
such a significant ethical difference between
the imposition of emotional harassment and
the physical battering of a body? There is
certainly no difference in the attitudes towards
power and domination which constitute the
actual motivations of both behaviours and which,
although perhaps cloaked in the garb of intimacy
and relationship, in fact have n[...]ed and determined,
as a prior/‘truth that needs to
be brought to the attention of
the suspecting—or otherwise
— recipient of that l[...]dentfact, and
not as something which
emerges from the dialectic of
relationship. His attitude to-
wards Frankie also assumes
a conventional gender posi-
tion where the male has the
active role, and where the
expression of such active
desire is not seen as a[...]s Frankie tenta-
tively identifies, but rather as
the culturally desired stere-
otype of a virile and romantic
masculinity. However, at least
in the 20th Century, in order
forthe unrequited Romeo fig-
ure, who serenaded underthe beloved‘s window
at all hours, to be seen as lover rather than
harasser, he needs to have some positive re-
sponsefrom the cloistered, passive lady in her
urban tower.

This is where Frankie & Johnny is most
revealing about why both sexes seem to be
utterly and dangerously confused about what
co[...]if we read this
film as almost entirely taking up the narrative of
courtship from the perspectives of a distorting
romanticiove and an[...]rtly
love tradition which positively thrives upon the
apparent unavailability of the lady, and if we
recognize the primary point—of-view or gaze in
the film as belonging to Johnny — especially as
evidenced in his voyeuristic fifteen—second
"viewing” of the spectacle of Frankie’s recalci-
trant body, and in his original identification of
the “true love” of which he must convince his
wou[...]o"s not register seriously on Johnny's scale,
but the narrative reveals these apparent refus-
als to be part of the elaborate ritual of romance
which actually had a[...], in instances of sexual harassment,
as indeed in the classic rape defence, saying
“No” is not heard to mean "No”; at most, it may
suggest that the male take another, perhaps an
even more aggressive, line of approach. For
women to occupy the active position of actually
saying “No", and meaning it, would be to radi-
cally challenge and divest the stereotyped
gender role of a femininity which req[...]nven-
tional gender relationship is compounded by
the power dynamic of superiority in the
workplace, as was the case with Thomas and
Hill.

FRANKIE & JOHNN[...]McNa||y. Based on his
play, Frankie and Johnny in the Claire de Lune. Di-
rector of photography: Dante[...]118 mins.U.S.1991.

PURE LUCK

JIM SCHEMBFH

kay, I give up. What’s the big secret?

What did Nadia Tass and David Parker
get in return for making Pure Luck’? Whatever
it was I hope it was fabulous.

Presumably this film was supposed to have
the word “comedy" written all over it. Instead,
what it seems to have written all over it is the
word "dea|”, foritbearsthatone unmistakeable
tr[...]what helped distinguish Malcolm
(1986) as one of the best comedies ever made
in Australia and The Big Stea/(1990) as one of
the best comedies ever made in Melbourne.
With Malcolm they proved their ability to be
ingeniously funny, and in The Big Steal they
showed a mastery of observational,[...]couldn’t be found with an electron microscope.
I know; I tried.

Life does deal out some nasty blows. Afte[...]ssful, Lethal Weapon
films’, Mel Gibson went on to do Hamlet(1991)
with Franco Zeffirelli. Danny Glover got to co-
star in Pure Luck as second banana to Martin
Short.

The film's premise, written by Herschel
Weingrod and Timothy Harris (two members of
the committee that wrote Ivan Fteitman’s Kin-
derga[...]up a typically broad
screwball comedy framework. The accident-
prone daughter of a rich man has an acc[...]ile holidaying in Mexico and she gets amne-
sia.2 To try and find her a detective, Ray
Campanella (Danny Glover), is made to team
up with a similarly accident-prone accountant,
Eugene (Martin Short), the idea being that this
will somehow lead them to her.

Thus the scene is set for a lot of slapstick
shtick, like[...]in comedy
will always have appeal? Trouble is you can't
just do it. it's not like changing a fuse. You have
to have style, you have to have someone who
is great at physical comedy. Obviously some-
one thinks Martin Short is the new Buster
Keaton. News flash

Another big probl[...]oo much space on this expen-
sive glossy paper on why thethe face. This,
presumably, is the way to make friends and
influence people.

But the comedic electricity between them
couldn’t jump start a loaded mousetrap. Note,
as evidence, the heated exchange when their
car gets bogged in the sand. Like the numerous
other similar wanna-be-funny scenes between
them, it seems to be predicated on the theory
that good screen comedy is basically any d[...]n a loud voice in
high-key lighting. Fortunately, the scene is cut
short when some guys drive by and start
shooting at them, presumably to shutthem up.

The film reeks of desperation. Some of
shorts pratfal[...]redictable
and often extensively telegraphed just to make
sure everyone knows something funny is about
to happen. Its like that line from Martin
Scorsese’s The King of Comedy (1983): "You
dont say ‘Hey folks, heres the punchline‘, you

just do the punchline." That idea was certainly
respected in Malcolm and The Big Steal, but not
here.

In the restaurant scene, for example, Ray
tests Eugene's[...]ably ends up with salt all over his dinner
plate. The bee-sting allergy sequence is simi-
larly laboured, resulting in Eugene being
bloated by the prosthetics team. There is also
some old “God, what did we do to deserve
this?" castration comedy when a snake ap-
pears between Ray's legs and Eugene aims a
gun to shoot it. Guess which snake Ray clutches
with both hands while yelling “Noooool”?

Worst, though, is the scene late in the film
when theirjeep breaks down on a clifftop. Th[...]highly unlikely argumentthatmakes
nonsense out of the relationship that was
supposed to be developing between them and
which merely serves as an excuse for Short to
practise some martial arts and crunch his groin
into a tree.

The film suffers from a haphazard tone
borne of its o[...]apstick, action
— and is clearly illustrated by the jarring use of
violence. in one scene in a Mexican prison, Flay
is repeatedly taken out of his cell by the guards
to be either bashed or raped and is returned
each time without much fuss. In another he
puts a gun into the mouth of a villain and
threatens to blow his brains out. You’d think
that somewhere along the line in the making of
a film like this that someone would act[...]“Hey, this just doesn’t belong."