The Australian cinema; from The Kelly Gang to Crocodile Dundee

THE early decades of the twentieth century saw a flourishing period of feature film production in Australia. Film-makers had begun making documentaries of dally life, combined film and slide shows, and background films for stage plays as early as 1896. The highlight of this period was The Story of the Kelly Gang (1906), believed to be the first feature-length film made in the world.

During the "Silent Era" (c. 19071928) well over 150 Australian feature films were produced, but by 1929 a combination of forces-the introduction of sound films from overseas, an increasing stranglehold on the local market by American and British distributors and the devastation of the Depression-signalled a downturn in Australian film production from which it would take decades to recover.

The transition to sound in the early 1930s was costly and difficult, though a few directors adapted to the new technology and made commercially success ful films dealing with Australian subjects, often located in the bush.

During the Second World War, feature film output dropped as film-makers were involved in newsreels and documentaries. While production was down, however, cinema attendances reached an all-time peak in 1944-1945, with 151 million admissions per year.

The post-war period brought an influx of British and American film companies attracted to Australia by its exotic locations. Few indigenous films were produced. (A notable exception was Charles Chauvel's Jedda of 1953, the first Australian colour feature film which dealt with relations between Aboriginals and whites.)

By the late 1960s and early 1970s, a period marked by social change, political protest and cultural re-examination, there was a burgeoning underground film culture, based primarily in Melbourne and Sydney, This period of questioning and change created an environment conducive to lobbying the government to stimulate a national film industry and provide the necessary financial support. The government accepted the cultural arguments and, with its assistance, a "renaissance" began.

The first films to emerge, such as Tim Burstall's Stork and Alvin Purple and Bruce Beresford's The Adventures of Barry McKenzie, explored a strand of Australian humour. They were all financially successful in Australia and overseas. There was a familiarity about the uncultivated characters portrayed which endeared these films to audiences, but some people found the rawness embarrassing and sought for a more refined and sophisticated view of Australia to be reflected in its cinema.

Films such as Sunday Too Far Away and Picnic at Hanging Rock satisfied this need for quality cinema rooted in the Australian experience and/or the literary tradition. A combination of Australian landscape, good production standards and a certain narrative simplicity became the symbols of the Australian cinema, capturing the imagination of international audiences and generating national pride.

Funding for short drama, documentaries and experimental works also made it possible for new directors to explore ideas and techniques and to acquire film-making skills. Many of these films were adventurous and inventive. Some of today's well-known Australian directors, such as Peter Weir and Gillian Armstrong, made documentaries and short dramas during this period.

Documentary film-making attracted attention in the late 1970s as filmmakers expanded their subject matter and dealt with such themes as Asian and Latin American politics, communism, the environment and Aboriginal society.

Partly as a result of escalating costs and a desire to consolidate the economic base for film production, in June 1981 the Federal Government introduced a tax incentive scheme to attract more private investment to feature films, documentaries, telemovies and television mini-series.

The films produced in the first few years of the tax incentive scheme included work by some of Australia's best-known film-makers such as Bruce Beresford (Puberty Blues), Gillian Armstrong (Starstruck), George Miller (Mad Max) and Peter Weir (The Year of Living Dangerously). Some of them, including Breaker Morant, Mad Max 2 (also known as The Road Warrior), Gallipoli, The Man from Snowy River, Puberty Blues, Careful, He Might Hear You and Phar Lap, were popular and commercially successful.

Around this time film-makers were also becoming interested in television mini-series. The national and international success of A Town Like Alice in 1980 stimulated demand and, in the next two years, ten mini-series were produced. Historical subjects predominated, ranging from the penal colonies (For the Term of His Natural Life, Sara Dane and Under Capricorn), bushranging (The Last Outlaw), the pioneer spirit (All tbe Rivers Run), the rise of nationalism (Eureka Stockade), Aboriginals (Women of tbe Sun), to industrial unres tin the 1920s (Waterfront). Three mini-series were on contemporary themes-Return to Eden, a dramatic love story; Silent Reach, about big business in Queensland; and Tbe Dismissal, about the demise of the Whitlam government.

Despite the generous tax incentives, however, it became evident in 1983 that, after a boost of activity, the Australian film industry was facing some serious problems, and substantial cost increases were undermining the economics of film production.

The Australian Government, responsive to these problems and concerned with the influx of speculative promoters and the overall quality of production, introduced a package which, on the one hand, reduced the tax concessions and, on the other, allocated a special fund of $5 million to encourage the production of high quality film and television with commercial potential. The fund was to be administered by the government's statutory film authority, the Australian Film Commission, which had been established in 1975.

The industry was changing as heavy reliance on direct government investment was being replaced by privateinvestment. Producers were obliged to guarantee investors some revenue and, in order to do that, they had to sell distribution rights before the film or television project was made. To attract the sort of backing required, they had to look to distribution in the United States and Europe. With such a dependence on the international market, there was an inherent tension between the objectives of developing an Australian cinema and the needs of distributors.

Many producers responded to the challenge of how to make films which are Australian in spirit but have an international appeal. Audiences have responded to such films as Crocodile Dundee (1986), which is the most successful film ever released in Australia, the largest grossing foreign film released in the United States, and which broke the all-time box office record in the United Kingdom.

In addition, television mini-series such as Return to Eden, The Anzacs, Fields of Fire and Tbe Last Frontier enjoyed success in the United States, the United Kingdom and Europe. The twopart Fields of Fire came fifth and sixth in the National Top 10 ratings in the United Kingdom, Tbe Last Frontier topped the mini-series ratings in the United States with an estimated audience of 65 million viewers, and All tbe Rivers Run was seen by 75 million viewers in the Soviet Union.

In November 1985 a co-production programme was introduced to assist Australian producers in collaborating with foreign partners on approved coventures and still receive the benefits of the tax incentive scheme. Arrangements are now in place with the Centre National de la Cinematographie (France), the British Broadcasting Corporation and Channel Four (United Kingdom), the New Zealand Film Commission and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (United States), and are currently being negotiated with Canada and Italy.

By mid-1985 it had again become clear that the tax incentive scheme was pushing producers to obtain extremely high pre-sales, that the costs of attracting investment were rising significantly and that there was uncertainty about the level of finance available as the marginal tax rate dropped. The industry's financial base was shaky.

The Australian Film Commission then proposed the creation of an independent Australian Film Finance Corporation to replace the film tax concessions. The corporation would operate like a bank, securing its loans against the rights in the programme, or against sales agreements. On 1 July 1988, the Federal Government established the Film Finance Corporation with first-year funding of $70 million. There is now a new financial climate for film production in Australia, and while there is some uncertainty as to how the new system will operate, there is renewed optimism and energy in the film and television industry.

KIM WILLIAMS was until recently Chief Executive of the Australian Film Commission. A member of the arts and entertainment committee of the Australian lBicentennial Authority, he is a former Director of the Confederation of Australian Professional Performing Arts.

COPYRIGHT 1988 UNESCO
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