Summary

More recently, Indian-origin writer-director Anita Brar, who has been living in Australia since 1989, has made a documentary called ‘Crossing the Line’, which is being screened at various film festivals around the world. In this, the interviews of the victims of Partition of India have been recorded.

 

History of Australian Film Industry

A film director comes to India, he watches a Hindi film of Bollywood and is shocked. He goes to his home country and makes a film inspired by the dance and songs of the Indian film and wins an Oscar for this film. The name of the film is ‘Moulin Rouge’ and the director is Baz Luhrmann. Baz Luhrmann comes from Australia. Today we are talking about the cinema history of Australia.

 

The film began to be shown in Australia at the very beginning of cinema. In the last decade of the nineteenth century, films were being shown there with the help of the Edison Kinetoscope. In 1894, James McMahon opened the first Kinetoscope parlor in Sydney. It was created by converting a shop. Customers could watch the film on the machine for a shilling. Only one person was allowed to watch movies at a time. But the enthusiasm of the audience was worth watching.

 

According to a source 22,000 people watched the film in the first five weeks, another source said it attracted 25,000 people in the first month. After Sydney, Kinetoscope roamed Australia for a year and showed the film to the public. When he returned to Sydney in 1896, he did not have any new films, and in the meantime the film was being shown on projectors, so the market for the kinetoscope collapsed.

 

It is believed that on 22 August 1896, the magician Carl Hertz did a film project in Australia for money. He did this at the Harry Records Melbourne Opera House. Today this place is known as Tivoli Theater. That day the film was shown under a variety show.

 

The first feature film in Australia, The Story of the Kelly Gang, was made in 1906. In 1913, the government there appointed Burt Ivy to capture Australia’s life, landscape, industry, etc. on camera. In 1954, the film division there made a feature length film called ‘The Queen in Australia’ which was the first color film produced by the fund there. The Women’s Film Unit was established in Australia in 1984. Under this, Jane Campion created ‘After Hours’ in the same year.

 

‘The Melbourne Cup’ and ‘Queen Victoria’s Jubilee’ were the first short films made in Australia for exhibition. From 1898, the Limelight Department of the Salvation Army (a Christian religious organization) also started making short films. These films, equipped with songs, instrument singles and discourses, were shown to the public for their religious propaganda and were used for religious propaganda. Along with this, donations were raised by them, which were helpful in the social work of the Salvation Army.

Australian film industry

By 1900, the film industry had already been established in Australia. At that time Australia was a part of the British Empire. Most producers in Europe set up production facilities in Australia. Movies soon became a part of Australian life, a necessity and a necessity for low-cost entertainment. Today Australian cinema is known for its representation of race, tribal status, sexuality, diaspora.

 

More recently, Indian-origin writer-director Anita Brar, who has been living in Australia since 1989, has made a documentary called ‘Crossing the Line’, which is being screened at various film festivals around the world. In this the interviews of the victims of Partition of India have been recorded. These are senior citizens of India, Pakistan, Bangladesh living in Australia, who ran for their lives at the time of partition and survived.

 

A well-known film ‘Crocodile Dundee’ was made in Australia in 1986. In this 97-minute adventure-comedy film, an American reporter travels to Australia to visit an eccentric crocodile hunter and then invites him to New York. Directed by Peter Feiman, the film starred Paul Hogan, Linda Kozlowski, etc., but made a splash in the Australian film world with the 1993 film The Piano, directed by Jane Campion. This 121-minute film is analyzed and studied in institutions around the world.

 

The film, starring Holly Hunter, Harvey Keitel, Sam Neill and Anna Paquin, gave feminism a point of discussion. It won three Oscar awards.

 

There has been a lot of experimentation in films in Australia, especially with regard to style and technique. Above we have come to see the talk of ‘Moulin Rouge’. Another experiment was done in 2006 by George Miller. He made the computer-animated jukebox musical comedy film Happy Feet. The Emperor Penguin finds his companion singing. But a penguin is born in this world, which cannot sing, but has a special feature that it can tap dance with pleasure. Don’t confuse it with the ‘March of the Penguins’ made in 2005. Both are very different films.

 

Amitabh Bachchan, best known for his voice as the narrator in the Indian version of ‘March of the Penguins’, has given vocals. But we are talking about the film ‘Happy Feet’ made in Australia. Nicole Kidman has also lent her voice to it along with many others.

 

Before this, in 2002, a film was made in Australia, seeing which the audience is forced to contemplate. The film is a biopic of less than an hour duration. The film is based on the subject of Australia of 1931 and the inhuman law applicable there. Where in the name of goodness the Lord keeps the tribal children of this country away from their families and works to make them slaves / servants in the name of education. Children or rather these girls are not completely tribal, they have mixed white blood, but since their white father does not take responsibility for them, they live with their mother, so they are still attached to their civilization-culture .

 

In this film by director Philip Noyes, the administration does the work of destroying this civilization-culture and childhood in a planned manner. In this, non-professional people have acted and acted amazingly.

 

After the end of the film, facts and figures related to this lost generation emerge on the screen. If you haven’t seen it yet, then definitely watch the movie ‘Rabbit-Proof Fence’. ‘Chopper’, ‘Shine’, ‘Lion’, ‘I’m a Mother’, ‘Red Dog’, ‘Careful, He Might Here You’ are some other notable films from Australia that should be watched. The film making process continues in Australia.

 

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