Filmmakers have honed their skills and many have achieved critical and popular success at home and abroad, as have actors and other crew. American filmmakers and companies have found it cheaper to make films in Australia because wages and salaries are lower, tax rebates have been attractive and the expertise in most areas of filmmaking is comparable to that of anywhere in the world. At the same time, Australian audiences still enjoy watching Australian films, making some of them profitable...

Whether it was Jane Campion's The Piano, Mel Gibson in Mad Max, Paul Hogan in Crocodile Dundee, or The Lord of the Rings saga, we have all experienced the cinema of Australia and New Zealand. This book is an introduction and guide to the film of Australia and New Zealand.With entries on many exceptional producers, directors, writers and actors, as well as the films indicated above and many others, this reference also presents the early pioneers, ...

The revealing and candid memoir of Australia's legendary playwright and screenwriterThe definitive memoir of David Williamson, author of iconic dramas such as The Removalists, The Club, Don's Party, Emerald City and Travelling North, as well as more than fifty other plays, explores the life of the writer and the true stories and real lives that inspired his works. A powerful force in theatre since the 1970s, Williamson's plays have uniquely explor...

A cultural history of Australia told through our fiction.Australia's novels lie at the heart of the country. Capturing everyday lives and exceptional dreams, they have held up a mirror to the nation, reflecting the good and the bad. In this companion book to the ABC TV series, Carl Reinecke looks at the history of Australian culture through the books we have read and the stories we have told.Touching on colonial invasion, the bush myth, world wars, mass mig...

What are the classic works of Australian literature? And what can they tell us about ourselves and the land we live in? Providing a selected overview of Australia's greatest literature, Australian Classics is an accessible companion to our literature and a story of writing in Australia from the nineteenth century to the present.Australian Classics celebrates many of the country's beloved novels, poems, short stories, children's books and seminal works of non-ficti...

We are what we eat, watch, buy, read, love, play.It's been a long step in a short time from meat pies, football, kangaroos and Holden cars to iPods, lattes, iPods, climate change and MasterChef.David Dale chronicles how it happened in this definitive reference book about the carefree country. Instead of boasting about what makes Australia great, The Little Book of Australia explains what makes us unique - for better and for worse.Here is everything...

Based on Kenneth Cook's classic novel, this film about bored schoolteacher John Grant getting caught in an outback nightmare of booze, racism, misogyny and bloodlust was made in 1971 and lost until 2004. In this insightful monograph, Tina Kaufman discusses what lies behind Wake in Fright: the genesis of the film, how it was made, how it was allowed to get lost, and the long path of its rediscovery; how it was restored and received on its re-release. Tina Kaufman recounts how this film that...

From the iconic poems of Bonjo Paterson to todays international bestsellers by Peter Carey and Bryce Courtenay, Australian literature has reflected the changes in Australias national development until today it stands proudly on the world stage. At the same time, indigenous writing has come into its own, with authors such as Oodgeroo Noonuccol giving a powerful voice to the Aboriginal experience. AUSTRALIAS WRITERS AND POETS looks at the men and women who have created this rich literary tra...

Australian and New Zealand crime and thriller writing is booming globally, with antipodean authors regularly featuring on awards and bestseller lists across Europe and North America, and readers and publishers looking more and more to tales from lands Down Under. Hailing from two sparsely populated nations on the far edge of the former Empire—neighbors that are siblings in spirit, vastly different in landscape—Australian and New Zealand crime writers offer readers a blend of exotic and fam...

The memoir of the creator of Doctor Who and a legend in British and Canadian TV and filmA major influence on the BBC and independent television in Britain in the 1960s, as well as on CBC and the National Film Board in Canada, Sydney Newman acted as head of drama at a key period in the history of television. For the first time, his comprehensive memoirs — written in the years before his death in 1997 — are being made public.Born to a poor Jewish fam...

A wickedly funny account of celebrity, Hollywood and everything in between ... now in paperback.What's it like to be a veteran director up against the machinations of modern-day Hollywood, with its self-absorbed stars, studio executives who think 'Singapore' is a made-up country, destitute producers posing as lords of finance - the mad, the bad and the downright notorious? Award-winning film-maker Bruce Beresford takes us through the highs and lows of the screen trade - from high-po...

The first substantial overview of the British film industry with emphasis on its genres, stars, and socioeconomic context, British National Cinema by Sarah Street is an important title in Routledge's new National Cinemas series. British National Cinema synthesizes years of scholarship on British film while incorporating the author' fresh perspective and research. Street divides the study of British cinema into four sections: the relation between the film industry...