HUMN 3065 Postcolonial Australian Cinema

This is an archived copy of the 2021-2022 catalog. To access the most recent version of the catalog, please visit https://hbook.westernsydney.edu.au.

Credit Points 10

Legacy Code 101987

Coordinator Anne Rutherford Opens in new window

Description This unit will examine the role of cinema in forming images of national and cultural identity. The unit will explore the development of Indigenous and postcolonial cinema in Australia. The unit will discuss political debates and issues in postcolonial Australian cinema, and will raise questions about the nature of memory as it is mediated by cinematic experience, the representation of history, and the history of representation of indigenous cultures and peoples. The unit will examine these questions through a study of postcolonial Australian cinema produced by both Indigenous and non-Indigenous filmmakers.

School Humanities & Comm Arts

Discipline Sociology

Student Contribution Band HECS Band 4 10cp

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Level Undergraduate Level 3 subject

Equivalent Subjects HUMN 3021 - Cinema Culture Memory

Restrictions Successful completion of 60 credit points of study in currently enrolled program.

Learning Outcomes

On successful completion of this subject, students should be able to:
  1. identify key debates in cinema studies
  2. demonstrate an understanding of a range of national and postcolonial/indigenous cinema
  3. analyse the relationships between cinema, culture and memory
  4. engage with issues of Indigenous representation
  5. utilise bibliographic research for writing on cinema
  6. demonstrate skills in film analysis

Subject Content

- debates and Issues in indigenous and postcolonial cinemas
- cinema as cultural construct: cultural studies of particular historical contexts, Issues of genre, reception and cultural mediation
- institutional contexts for production of national and postcolonial cinemas
- key concepts of story-telling, Memory and history in cinema
- Visual cultures and colonial contexts: may include photography, travelogues, Advertising, ethnography, Documentary
- Critical literature and debates which analyse representation of race, history, land and indigenous Issues
- A case Study of postcolonial Australian cinema

Prescribed Texts

  • Subject Reader

Teaching Periods

Structures that include subject