Modern cinematic encounters: border crossing and environmental transformation in some recent Australian films

Anthony Lambert*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalConference paperpeer-review

2 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

In Australia (and globally), refugees and ‘the environment’ are major sources of anxiety that define the experience of living in modern times. Contemporary social policy is then a representational technology that speaks to environmental and crosscultural transactions within ‘modern’ Australian cinematic texts. This article tracks the conversational contours between policy on climate change and border control in Australia and representations of self–other and self–environment relations in Australian film produced in the latter period of the Howard era (1996–2007). Films have frequently sought to mobilize a range of visions and understandings of both security and sustainability, and of the associated productions of policy, identity and space. Such exchanges necessitate critical scrutiny of the politicized cultural contexts that produce them – and an awareness of the normative reassertions that accompany these cinematic mediations of modern Australian experience.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)185-192
Number of pages8
JournalStudies in Australasian Cinema
Volume5
Issue number2
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2011
Eventthe XV BiennialConference of the Film and History - Sydney
Duration: 30 Nov 20103 Dec 2010

Keywords

  • Australian
  • Environment
  • Howard government
  • National identity
  • Policy
  • Refugee
  • Representation

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