Senses of Cinema – an important era of Australian screen history

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This was a time when mainstream cinema had generally overlooked the impact of the civil rights movements that were beginning to transform the status quo worldwide. Filmmaker Phil Noyce (Rabbit-Proof Fence) tells us, “It was the early 1970’s – the end of 23 years of Liberal/Country Party government – of Australia being one of the most censored and in some ways closed societies in the western world. There’s a changing of the guard” and the filmmakers within these Australian film cooperatives largely echoed this sentiment. Feminist, LGBT+, indigenous and non-mainstream viewpoints took centre stage at the Sydney Filmmakers Co-op, Ubu Films, the Melbourne Co-op, the Sydney Women’s Film Group and the One in Seven Collective which served as incubators for cinematic experimentation and rebellion from mainstream Australian cinema of the time. Celebrated Australian documentary co-directors John Hughes (Indonesia Calling, The Archive Project, After Mabo) and Tom Zubrycki (Ablaze, Molly and Mobarak, Waterloo, Kemira) juxtapose co-op film clips alongside remarkable archival documentary footage, press clippings and an extraordinary range of filmmaker interviews artfully woven together against a vibrant jazz score. Hughes and Zubrycki invite viewers to journey vicariously back in time through eyewitness accounts of how the co-ops emerged and how vital they have been in shaping the landscape of Australian cinema. The myriad of in-depth interviews included offer a rare glimpse into how the co-ops fostered and even broke important Australian cinema careers such as Russell Crowe, or Bryan Brown who was interviewed at the Sydney co-op for his first major screen role in The Love Letters from Teralba Road (1977) by writer/director Stephen Wallace. And in the collaborative spirit of the co-op days, Hughes and Zubycki’s collaboration itself synthesises their decades of experience in leading us back to this noteworthy era of Australian cinema history. Their new film, Senses of Cinema, instils a profound appreciation of the various drivers of independent Australian film culture as it has evolved to the present day. The film includes a range of revealing interviews with cop-op filmmakers whose contributions helped to shape independent Australian screen culture including Phillip Noyce, Albie Thoms, Jan Chapman, Gillian Armstrong, Pat Fiske, Martha Ansara, Jeni Thornley, Gillian Leahy, Margot Nash, Madeline McGrady, Stephen Wallace, Essie Coffey, Digby Duncan, Kit Guyatt, Susan Lambert, Ivan Gaal, Alessandro Cavadini, Carolyn Strachan, Sue Ford, Jane Oehr, and Tom Zubrycki. While the co-ops nurtured the Australian film renaissance creatively, they also played a vital role in bringing the movement full-circle by attracting audiences in to see these films. The co-ops were not only spaces where creativity, experimentation, activism and collaboration were cultivated but they also served as an important platform for providing a voice, a vision and a narrative for a rebellious and transformative moment in Australian cultural history. The documentary points out that while distribution, access challenges and the widespread cultural apathy of hardcore Aussie cinemagoers may have suggested that people didn’t want to see these films, the success of the co-ops proved that there was indeed an audience and that people did want to see them. They played an essential role in shaping Australian screen culture by connecting independent filmmakers not only with each other but with an eager and appreciative audience which helped to forge a new way forward for the renaissance of Australian film. And while the full co-op film catalogues are not yet accessible as an entire digital collection, Beamafilm is proud to feature Kemira: Diary of a Strike along with a number of other notable Zubrycki documentaries from this time such as Waterloo, Jeni Thornley's documentary trilogy and Gil Scrine's political doc Home on the Range alongside a host of other great films by noteworthy Australian co-op film pioneers such as Pat Fiske, Gillian Leahy and Gillian Armstrong. Beamafilm celebrates local voices and independent film and, with the support of participating libraries throughout Australasia and beyond, we are showcasing the award-winning work of pioneering independent filmmakers alongside other noteworthy local and international cinema. Senses of Cinema, a decade in the making, had its world premiere in 2022 at MIFF the Melbourne International Film Festival with the support of the MIFF Premiere Fund. It was also screened at BIFF, the Brisbane International Film Festival. We attended the lively Sydney OzDox screening with a directors’ Q&A hosted by Documentary Australia’s Mitzi Goldman on Nov 15th and the film will next screen at Cinema Nova in Melbourne this coming Sunday, Nov 20th. Watch out for this excellent Australian film history educational resource as it tours the country and beyond - more information is available via Antidote Films.