THE CINEMA OF AUSTRALIA & NEW ZEALAND

From The Story of the Kelly Gang in 1906 to the Lord of the Rings trilogy more recently, Australia and New Zealand have made a unique impact on international cinema. This book celebrates the commercially successful narrative feature films produced by these film cultures as well as key documentaries, shorts and independent films. This coverage also invokes issues involving national identity, race, history and the ability of two small film cultures to survive the economic and cultural threat from Hollywood. Chapters on well-known films, and directors, such as The Year of Living Dangerously (Peter Weir, 1982), The Piano (Jane Campion, 1993), Fellowship of the Ring (Peter Jackson, 2001) and Rabbit Proof Fence (Philip Noyce, 2002) are included along with less celebrated, but equally important, films and filmmakers such as Jedda (Charles Chauvel, 1955), They’re a Weird Mob (Michael Powell, 1966), Vigil (Vincent Ward, 1984) and The Goddess of 1967 (Clara Law, 2000).

March 2007
288 pages

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Geoff Mayer is Reader and Associate Professor in Cinema Studies at La Trobe University, Melbourne, Australia. Publications include The Oxford Companion to Australian Film (1999) and The New Australian Cinema (1992).

Keith Beattie teaches within the Faculty of Arts at Deakin University, Melbourne. He is author of Documentary Display: Re-viewing Nonfiction Film and Video (2008), The Scar that Binds (1998) and Documentary Screens (2003).

'These two small film cultures have produced both creatively rich and commerically successful fare – from The Story of the Kelly Gang to Lord of the Rings. The 24 well-chosen films provide illuminating discussion as to the region’s impressive output.' ****
Empire 

‘One can have little but praise for the range the editors have encompassed within the parameters of the series … Mayer and Beattie, in this case, have ensured that expertise and eclecticism jostle productively, offering new insights into films both, in industry terms, marginal and mainstream.'
Brian McFarlane, Australian Book Review

‘With The Cinema of Australia and New Zealand, a team of essayists provide a series of lucid pieces on such antipodean fare as The Piano, Once Were Warriors and Chopper.’
Howard Maxford, Film Review