"The Other Australian Cinema, 1980s to Now"

Australian cinema is much richer and more diverse than most people in the film world realise. The official picture of Australian film history tends to rely upon a handful of classics made since the 1970s revival in national production, ranging from Picnic at Hanging Rock (1975) and the Mad Max series (starting 1979) through to Crocodile Dundee (1986) and The Piano (1993, shot in New Zealand). But there has also been, since the 1960s, a deep vein of independent and experimental production, documentary cinema, and work by women and indigenous filmmakers. Much of this work has appeared in short rather than feature length, and reaches beyond the 35mm film medium to embrace Super-8, video and finally digital formats. My selection for Jeonju mixes three features with short films. It aims to give a sense of the experimental and fictional work by women (Margot Nash and the recently deceased Corinne Cantrill), and the independent path taken by someone (Bill Mousoulis) who has existed largely outside the mainstream, industrial system. These films I have chosen do not exist in a vacuum; they are in vital dialogue with the changing history of social issues, theoretical ideas and aesthetic debates in Australian and beyond. (Guest Cinephile Adrian Martin)