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Carolina Caliaba's List: Australia & Contemporary Australia AUST1000 links
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SNAPSHOTS of Australia's multiplex national persona are found in the reels of film that comprise its cinematic canon.
The celebration of the underdog comes in human and equine form (Muriel's Wedding, Strictly Ballroom, Phar Lap: Heart of a Nation); there's the affection and admiration for the battler and the larrikin (The Castle, Kenny); the anger at imperial injustice (Breaker Morant); and the veneration of the bush and outback (The Man from Snowy River and Crocodile Dundee). Celluloid cliches to some, perhaps, cultural touchstones to others.
Peter Weir's Gallipoli not only sanctified mateship and the Anzac spirit but helped recall and embellish those themes for new generations of Australians, thus playing a part, inadvertent or not, in the Anzac revival of the Howard years. Even if the Australian industry cannot necessarily boast a Mike Leigh or a Spike Lee, recent filmmakers have explored grittier and more socially realistic themes: the indigenous experience (Rabbit-Proof Fence, Ten Canoes), the immigrant experience (Little Fish, Romulus, My Father), the refugee or "trafficked" experience (Lucky Miles, Unfinished Sky) and a range of Anglo-Australian responses, whether it be middle-class white guilt (Jindabyne) or lower-class white nativism (Romper Stomper).
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Victorians read more books, newspapers and magazines than any other state; in 2003-04, 43% of total Australian book sales were from Victorian-based publishers; and the state boasts one bookshop for every 307 Victorians. It is worth re-emphasising that the award is, in itself, of genuine worth and quite unlike other hollow, self-proclaimed, delusionary distinctions, such as "Australia's cultural capital". As The Age said in January, "if 'Melbourne: City of Literature' can fit on to Victorian number plates, it will be a proud moment for this city and this state". If this city can emulate the success of Edinburgh, which receives an annual revenue from events, visitors and book sales of £2.2 million ($A4.7 million), it will do well.
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