Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Australian documentary'
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1
Smaill, Belinda 1972. "Amidst a nation's cultures : documentary and Australia's Special Broadcasting Service Television." Monash University, Centre for Comparative Literature and Cultural Studies, 2001. http://arrow.monash.edu.au/hdl/1959.1/8644.
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Hegedus, Peter. "Towards a Model for Autobiographical and Socially Conscious Cinematic Documentary in Australia." Thesis, Griffith University, 2008. http://hdl.handle.net/10072/365761.
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The Australian film and television industry is currently undergoing a major transformation, which ultimately will have significant impact on its practitioners. As an Australian filmmaker whose interest and ambition lie in more idiosyncratic and autobiographical films for cinema, I believe a close examination of these filmmaking aspirations in relation to the current codes and practices of the Australian film industry is necessary.
Apart from some festivals and media interviews, for filmmakers there is little room for self-reflection. Having the opportunity to conduct a critical and in-depth examination of my work is vital for my professional development, as it signals a necessary shift from emerging filmmaker to the platform of a more mature and established filmmaking practice.
The objective of this research work is to investigate whether socially conscious autobiographical cinematic documentary can be a viable filmmaking practice in Australia. This process of investigation is driven by a self-reflexive analysis of my studio projects, challenged, shaped and developed by the work and experience of other film practitioners and documentary theorists whose ideas relate closely to the problem at hand...Thesis (Professional Doctorate)
Doctor of Visual Arts (DVA)
Queensland College of Art
Queensland College of Art
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Rogers, Wendy Kaye. "Xavier Herbert." Thesis, Queensland University of Technology, 2010. https://eprints.qut.edu.au/41241/1/Wendy_Rogers_Exegesis.pdf.
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As a biographical documentary concept develops, its intention and its form are impacted and may be transformed by market demands. The documentary idea about the life of Xavier Herbert has been in development through a number of iterations within the shifting landscape of the Australian documentary industry from the mid- 1990s to 2009. This study is, on the one hand, an endeavour to find a workable way to express and practise the multi-layered complexity of creative work, a long-form documentary script on Herbert, an Australian literary icon. On the other hand, this thesis represents a cumulative research exercise, whereby my own experiences in the documentary industry in Queensland, Australia and overseas are analysed in an effort to enlighten the broader documentary community about such a complex, even labyrinthine, process.
4
Laughren, Pat. "Picturing Politics: Some Issues in the Documentary Representation of Australian Political and Social History." Thesis, Griffith University, 2007. http://hdl.handle.net/10072/366409.
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This submission groups together four 'TV Hour' documentaries - Red Ted and the Great depression 1994, The Legend of Fred Paterson 1996, The Fair Go: Winning the 1967 Referendum 1999, and Stories from the Split: the Struggle for the Souls of Australian Workers 2005 - researched, developed and produced between1990 and 2005. Each of the submitted documentary films treats an event or individual that made a decisive and lasting contribution to Australian political and social history in the course of the 20th Century. The projects also had the good fortune to win support from institutions such as the Australian Film Commission, the Australian Research Council, the Film Finance Corporation, the Australian Foundation for Culture and the Humanities and the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. The selected films may be viewed as representing a sustained exploration of the relations between documentary modes and production practices, the uses of oral history, the institution of television, and certain understandings of Australian Politics. Taken together, the works exemplify some significant issues in the documentary representation of Australia political and social history. All the films take their content from the field of Australian political and social history; all work within the limits of the 'Television Hour' - from 51 to 60 minutes for public broadcasters; and all emply a mix of interview and archival materials in their construction. Crucially, the films emphasise the experience, opinions and testimaony of participants and witnesses rather than experts. Each film also employs elements of an approach to compilation filmmaking which can be traced to the montage strategy pioneered by the Soviet filmmaker Esther Shub; celebrated by Jay Leyda in his groundbreaking study 'Films Beget Films' (1964).Thesis (PhD Doctorate)
Doctor of Philosophy by Publication (PhD)
Griffith Film School
Arts, Education and Law
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Davies, Llewellyn Willis. "‘LOOK’ AND LOOK BACK: Using an auto/biographical lens to study the Australian documentary film industry, 1970 - 2010." Phd thesis, Canberra, ACT : The Australian National University, 2018. http://hdl.handle.net/1885/154339.
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While much has been written on the Australian film and television
industry, little has been presented by actual producers,
filmmakers and technicians of their time and experiences within
that same industry. Similarly, with historical documentaries, it
has been academics rather than filmmakers who have led the
debate. This thesis addresses this shortcoming and bridges the
gap between practitioner experience and intellectual discussion,
synthesising the debate and providing an important contribution
from a filmmaker-academic, in its own way unique and insightful.
The thesis is presented in two voices. First, my voice, the
voice of memoir and recollected experience of my screen
adventures over 38 years within the Australian industry, mainly
producing historical documentaries for the ABC and the SBS. This
is represented in italics. The second half and the alternate
chapters provide the industry framework in which I worked with
particular emphasis on documentaries and how this evolved and
developed over a 40-year period, from 1970 to 2010.
Within these two voices are three layers against which this
history is reviewed and presented. Forming the base of the
pyramid is the broad Australian film industry made up of feature
films, documentary, television drama, animation and other types
and styles of production. Above this is the genre documentary
within this broad industry, and making up the small top tip of
the pyramid, the sub-genre of historical documentary. These form
the vertical structure within which industry issues are
discussed. Threading through it are the duel determinants of
production: ‘the market’ and ‘funding’.
Underpinning the industry is the involvement of government, both
state and federal, forming the three dimensional matrix for the
thesis. For over 100 years the Australian film industry has
depended on government support through subsidy, funding
mechanisms, development assistance, broadcast policy and
legislative provisions.
This thesis aims to weave together these industry layers, binding
them with the determinants of the market and funding, and
immersing them beneath layers of government legislation and
policy to present a new view of the Australian film industry.
6
Lang, Ian William, and n/a. "Conditional Truths: Remapping Paths To Documentary 'Independence'." Griffith University. Queensland College of Art, 2003. http://www4.gu.edu.au:8080/adt-root/public/adt-QGU20031112.105737.
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(Synopsis to introductory statement): An introductory statement to five documentary films made by Ian Lang in Australia between 1981 and 1997 exemplifying a 'democratising' model of sustainable and ethical documentary film production. This document critically reflects on the production process of these films to accompany their submission for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy by Publication at Griffith University. It finds that a contemporary tendency towards 'post-industrial' conditions allows an observational film-maker to negotiate a critical inter-dependence rather than a romantically conceived 'independence' traditional to the genre. [Full thesis consists of introductory statement plus six DVD videodiscs.]
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Lang, Ian William. "Conditional Truths: Remapping Paths To Documentary 'Independence'." Thesis, Griffith University, 2003. http://hdl.handle.net/10072/367923.
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(Synopsis to introductory statement): An introductory statement to five documentary films made by Ian Lang in Australia between 1981 and 1997 exemplifying a 'democratising' model of sustainable and ethical documentary film production. This document critically reflects on the production process of these films to accompany their submission for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy by Publication at Griffith University. It finds that a contemporary tendency towards 'post-industrial' conditions allows an observational film-maker to negotiate a critical inter-dependence rather than a romantically conceived 'independence' traditional to the genre. [Full thesis consists of introductory statement plus six DVD videodiscs.]Thesis (PhD Doctorate)
Doctor of Philosophy by Publication (PhD)
Queensland College of Art
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Hoehne, Craig John. "Forged under the Hammer and Sickle: The Case of Geoffrey Powell, 1945–1960." Thesis, Griffith University, 2016. http://hdl.handle.net/10072/366519.
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Forged under the Hammer and Sickle, The Case of Geoffrey Powell 1945–1960 is a multimodal exhibition and exegesis that concerns the post-war production of photographer-turned-documentary-filmmaker Geoffrey Powell (1918–1989). It re-evaluates Powell's production through the prism of his socio-political evolution from reactionary to Marxist. Within the photo-historical literature, he is defined as a participant in the mainstream Post-War Documentary Movement in photography. However, my research has revealed that Powell belonged to a cross-disciplinary nexus of creative thought. He was a member of the Australian Communist Party and his photographic production was all but confined to Socialist Realist journals. This Marxist affiliation imposed strictures on the way in which he engaged with subjects as well as the aesthetics of his work. He was also an active participant on the progressive ‘Arts Front’. An interest in expository film by the progressive Left tweaked a curiosity in Powell, which ultimately encouraged his move into documentary filmmaking. Through the patronage of progressive film producer John Heyer, Powell became employed at the Department of Information (DOI) Film Unit as a cinematographer from March 1946. At the DOI, he was a member of the Heyer documentary group that embraced the notion of "dramatising within the realm of reality". In keeping with the Leftist cultural element that operated within the film unit—that engaged with outside radical film production for militant labour unions—Powell assisted the Miners' Federation in the production of photography for their Amenities Campaign in 1947.Thesis (Masters)
Master of Visual Arts (MVA)
Queensland College of Art
Arts, Education and Law
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Vickery, Edward Louis, and annaeddy@cyberone com au. "Telling Australia's story to the world: The Department of Information 1939-1950." The Australian National University. Faculty of Arts, 2003. http://thesis.anu.edu.au./public/adt-ANU20040721.123626.
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This study focuses on the organisation and operation of the Australian Governments Department of Information that operated from 1939 to 1950. Equal weighting is given to
the wartime and peacetime halves of the Departments existence, allowing a balanced assessment of the Departments role and development from its creation through to its
abolition. The central issue that the Department had to address was: what was an appropriate and acceptable role for a government information organisation in Australias democratic political system? The issue was not primarily one of formal restrictions on the governments power but rather of the accepted conception of the role of government. No societal consensus had been established before the Department was thrust into dealing with this issue on a practical basis. While the application of the Departments censorship function attracted considerable comment, the procedures were clear and accepted.
Practices laid down in World War I were revived and followed, while arguments were over degree rather than kind. It was mainly in the context of its expressive functions that the
Department had to confront the fundamental issue of its role. This study shows that the development of the Department was driven less by sweeping ministerial pronouncements
than through a series of pragmatic incremental responses to circumstances as they arose.
This Departmental approach was reinforced by its organisational weakness. The Departments options in its relations with media organisations and other government agencies were, broadly, competition, compulsion and cooperation. Competition was never
widely pursued and the limits of compulsion in regard to its expressive functions were rapidly reached and withdrawn from. Particularly through to 1943 the Department struggled when it sought to assert its position against the claims of other government
agencies and commercial organisations. Notwithstanding some high profile conflicts, this study shows that the Department primarily adopted a cooperative stance, seeking to
supplement rather than supplant the work of other organisations. Following the 1943 Federal elections the Department was strengthened by stable and focused leadership as well
as the development of its own distribution channels and outlets whose audience was primarily overseas. While some elements, such as the film unit, remained reasonably
politically neutral, the Department as a whole was increasingly employed to promote the message of the Government of the day. This led to a close identification of the Department
with the Labor Party, encouraging the Departments abolition following the Coalition parties victory in the 1949 Federal elections. Nevertheless in developing its role the Department had remained within the mainstream of administrative practice in Australia.
While some of its staff assumed a greater public profile than had been the practice for prewar public servants, this was not unusual or exceptional at that time. Partly through the efforts of the Department, the accepted conception of the role of government had expanded
sufficiently by 1950 that despite the abolition of the Department most of its functions continued within the Australian public sector.
10
Mazzoli, Valentina. "Le tecniche di sincronizzazione del voice-over: analisi della proposta di adattamento per il voice-over in italiano del documentario Utopia di John Pilger." Master's thesis, Alma Mater Studiorum - Università di Bologna, 2018. http://amslaurea.unibo.it/16047/.
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This dissertation focuses on the translation mode for audiovisual products known as voice-over. This practice has always been neglected by Translation Studies, in favour of more popular translation methods such as dubbing and subtitling. However, it is often ignored that voice-over is the preferred translation mode for the non-fiction genre. Moreover, it is gaining increasing popularity due to its inexpensive and fast approach, and as such it deserves more attention. Through the translation of Utopia, a documentary on native Australians by John Pilger, this study aims at providing a work pattern for voice-over translation, and a quantitative and qualitative analysis of a defining element of this translation mode: synchronization techniques. The analysis is thus based on the classification of the four different types of voice-over synchronies proposed by Franco, Matamala, and Orero (2010): voice-over isochrony, literal synchrony, kinetic synchrony, and action synchrony.
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MacLennan, Gary. "From the actual to the real : left wing documentary film in Australia." Thesis, Queensland University of Technology, 2000.
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This thesis constructs and develops a critique of the tradition of left wing documentary film in Australia. The critique is from the perspective of the Critical Realist paradigm developed by Roy Bhaskar and others. The thesis is both an attempt to critique a tradition and to provide a new basis for documentary theory and criticism. On the theoretical level the thesis engages the work of the
leading documentary film theorists including Noel Carroll, Bill Nichols, Paula Rabinowitz, Michael Renov and Trinh T. Minh-ha. These theorists take up positions, which range from New Realist to Poststructuralist. It is the contention of this thesis that, because they lack a notion of a stratified ontology, they are unable to sustain either
a critique of or a coherent account of documentary practice.
The definition of left wing that underpins the selection of the films is a narrow one, namely, coming from or influenced by the Marxist tradtion. The criticism of the films begins with Joris Ivens Indonesia Calling (1946) and concludes with Tom Zubrycki's Billal (l996).
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Robertson, Robert Philip. "Ghostwriting Hong Kong : post-colonial documentary and the western tradition /." Thesis, Hong Kong : University of Hong Kong, 1998. http://sunzi.lib.hku.hk/hkuto/record.jsp?B20007450.
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van, den Heuvel Fleur H. C. M. "Muslim women in Australia and the Netherlands: A multimodal enquiry into television documentary representations." Thesis, Edith Cowan University, Research Online, Perth, Western Australia, 2018. https://ro.ecu.edu.au/theses/2156.
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Almost two decades after the terrorist attacks of 11 September, the Western media continues to portray Islam and its people negatively and within the dominant knowledge and ideology of the superior West. These media representations remain largely unquestioned. Hereby the appearances of veiled Muslim women continue to be used by the media as a visual symbol confirming Islam’s difference in norms and values with the West.
Framed within the understanding that television documentaries provide audiences with ‘unscripted’ realities of both Islam and Muslim women, this research looks at representations and perceptions of how Muslim women are portrayed within two television documentaries – Halal Mate (2006) from Australia and Meiden van Halal (2005/2006) from the Netherlands. The research draws upon questions of objectivity and subjectivity which are interwoven into discussions of documentaries and their ability to portray this ‘unscripted’ reality. This includes an exploration of how such documentaries may affect viewers’ ideologies of Islam and Muslim people, in particular those of Muslim women as the ‘other’ in Western societies.
The Western media uses stereotypes of Muslim women to assist audiences in the understanding of the portrayed images. Stereotypes are used by audiences to decode both media messages and real-life experiences within a preferred reading. Positive readings of Muslim women are often overshadowed by – existing – negative readings. As evident in this research through questionnaires and focused interviews, stereotypical representations of Muslim women in the media therefore affect the understanding and perception of audiences in Australia and the Netherlands.
This research used multimodality as an overarching research methodology, supported by a mixed method approach. Firstly, a social semiotic multimodal analysis of the two television documentary series was undertaken. This provided important insights and understandings on how television documentaries are inclined to put familiar layers of Western ideologies over the depiction of Muslim women, yet how these layers do not change the communication of Western ideological and stereotypical concepts of Islam and Muslim women to audiences.
An exploratory online questionnaire was then carried out with respondents from both Australia and the Netherlands. In addition, focused interviews – and a corresponding pre-interview questionnaire – were conducted with Australian and Dutch participants to elicit comments after having watched one of the documentary episodes. Together with the results from the questionnaire and multimodal analysis, the data from the interviews were analysed and organised into three themes – the stereotypical representations of Muslim women, perceived social distance towards Muslim people and the hijab as a symbol of ‘otherness’. Data from these themes form the three findings chapters.
This research illustrates the imperfect relationship between media expressions and meaning. That is, norms and values associated with media images of Muslim women and Islam are deeply embedded in the Australian and Dutch society. However, it is noted that, if stereotypes are a matter of perception, the attributes allocated to Islam and Muslim women in Western media representations can be changed, although this will be challenging. This research project will contribute to a better understanding of and insights into the role of the media as a provider of universal and particular values related to Islam and its women for Western societies.
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Li, Tingting. "An Analysis of the 4:2:1 Documentary." Thesis, University of North Texas, 2014. https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc500078/.
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As a Chinese filmmaker, I feel obligated to reveal a true story about Chinese international students. Through my subjects and my stories, I am planning to express the messages that both adapting to a new culture and paying the financial cost of a foreign education have never been simple, but we will never give up our dreams.
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Bickford, Sophia Anastasia. "A historical perspective on recent landscape transformation: integrating palaeoecological, documentary and contemporary evidence for former vegetation patterns and dynamics in the Fleurieu Peninsula, South Australia." Title page, contents and abstract only, 2001. http://web4.library.adelaide.edu.au/theses/09PH/09phb583.pdf.
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Includes bibliographical references (p. 301-319). Palaeoecological records, documented historical records and remnant vegetation were investigated in order to construct a multi-scaled history of vegetation pattern and change in the Fleurieu Peninsula, South Australia over the last c. 8000 years. Aims to better understand post-European landscape transformation and address the inherently historical components of the problems of regional biodiversity loss, land sustainability and the cumulative contribution to global climatic change.
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Debenham, Jennifer Anne. "Representations of Aborigines in Australian documentary film 1901 - 2009." Thesis, 2013. http://hdl.handle.net/1959.13/1038027.
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Research Doctorate - Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)This thesis examines the ways in which Indigenous Australians have been represented in twelve documentary films made in Australia between 1901 and 2009. As historical artifacts, the films examined provide an emblematic visual representation of the scientific, political and social debates about Indigenous Australians that were in play when they were produced. The purpose of the thesis is threefold: to explore the role of documentary film in representing Australia’s Indigenous peoples to a dominant white Australian audience over a long period of time; to trace the ways changes in film and camera technology, policy making and social attitudes have collectively altered the relationship that Indigenous Australians have with documentary film as a medium of communication; and to demonstrate how changes in the process of making documentary films over the past century has been a force for both change and empowerment for Indigenous Australians. Although, some of the earliest documentary films made in Australia were about Indigenous Australians, as a collection they have not been the subject of serious study. Making films about Indigenous Australians initially had close connections with science, both natural and medical. This helped to re-enforce and sanctify the ‘objectification’ of Indigenous Australians as subjects of scientific enquiry within the context of the discourse of Social Darwinism. The visual images contributed to their positioning as the anthropological Other in which they were considered as outside of history; an image that is now under challenge by contemporary Indigenous filmmakers. It was not until the middle of the twentieth century that Indigenous Australians began to emerge from these ethnographic narratives. Documentary films made from that time began to recognise that Indigenous Australians were living in the political and social present. Public perceptions about how Indigenous Australians were coping with the dispossession of their traditional lands and living at the interface of two ideologically opposed cultures were dramatically challenged. As changes in perception continued to shift in the 1970s and 1980s, astute white documentary filmmakers began to collaborate with Indigenous people to make films about their lives. These filmmakers recognised that Indigenous Australians had a lot to talk about and with access to funding available from recently established public instrumentalities, filmmaking about Indigenous Australians reflected the changing attitudes about Australia’s Aboriginal people. By the latter years of the twentieth century, a vibrant and dynamic Indigenous film industry was emerging in Australia. With Indigenous filmmakers and technical experts in control of film production, white Australians have been witness to further shifts in the ways in which Indigenous Australians are represented on film. Indigenous filmmakers with a more intimate understanding of cultural protocols and with a high degree of social investment are taking on the responsibility of representing the Indigenous perspective on film. They have taken the medium that once positioned them as a people on the brink of extinction and are now demonstrating their acuity and skill with the visual medium. Their innovative and dynamic approach to the craft defies earlier preconceptions of a primitive and static culture unable to participant in a modern Australia.
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Ogilvie, Charlene Sarah. "The Aboriginal movement and Australian photography." Phd thesis, 2007. http://hdl.handle.net/1885/149690.
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Vickery, Edward Louis. "Telling Australia's story to the world: The Department of Information 1939-1950." Phd thesis, 2003. http://hdl.handle.net/1885/49256.
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This study focuses on the organisation and operation of the Australian Government’s Department of Information that operated from 1939 to 1950. Equal weighting is given to the wartime and peacetime halves of the Department’s existence, allowing a balanced assessment of the Department’s role and development from its creation through to its abolition. ...
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Peters-Little, Frances. "The return of the noble savage by popular demand : a study of Aboriginal television documentary in Australia." Master's thesis, 2002. http://hdl.handle.net/1885/110389.
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This thesis, entitled The Return of the Noble Savage: By Popular Demand, is written after
several years of being an avid Aboriginal television watcher, filmmaker, and activist. It is
based on research on a neglected topic and in response to the consistent attack from well-meaning
critics, in an attempt to argue for the complexity of the meanings generated on
television, and for the rights of the individual filmmaker in representation.
In myth-making about Australian Aborigines there has been a consistent paradigm of
opposing poles-noble and savage, good blacks and bad blacks, primitive and civilised, real
and unreal. Oscillating between these two poles are all kinds of imaginings of Aboriginal
identity, politics and desires for truthful representation.
When early documentary filmmakers began to film Aborigines they disregarded the
Aboriginal audience, and spoke rather to themselves and to white audiences whom, for all
kinds of reasons, they wanted to inform about Aborigines. In contrast, there are in the
Australian television industry today many more Aboriginal people making films than there
have ever been, and a greater recognition of the existence of Aboriginal television audiences.
Aboriginal filmmakers have been backed by a history of radical politics and by the efforts of
non-Aboriginal filmmakers.
The recent marriage between Aboriginal filmmakers and mainstream television has been
neglected by most commentators and scholars. Critics ignore the efforts and progress made
by mainstream television and documentary filmmakers. They have written about television
without making references to Aborigines; and they have written about Aborigines without
making reference to television. This is startling when one considers the invisibility of
Aborigines before television, and the difference television has made.
The thesis also addresses the problem that in the current climate, new pressures being brought
to bear on filmmakers making documentary films on Aboriginal topics. Because they do not
take into account the nature of filmmaking, or the rights of individual filmmakers, these
pressures are infringing upon the rights not only of white but also Aboriginal filmmakers.
This pressure has swung the pendulum from savage to noble imagery, the latter of which is
just as unrealistic and untrue as the former. It also requires Aboriginal audiences and
filmmakers to protect and uphold a particular vision of Aboriginality, and denies them the
right to critique and defend themselves.
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Bilbrough, Paola. "Givers, takers, framers : the ethics of auto/biographical documentary." Thesis, 2015. https://vuir.vu.edu.au/26229/.
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The tensions between ethical practice and aesthetic freedom in documentary film are particularly magnified in auto/biographical films that involve representations of family members or participants from a different cultural background to the artist, both contexts that demand a greater awareness of self and other. In this doctoral thesis I use 'auto/biographical' in its most expansive sense to signify the blurring of autobiographical stories with biographical material - the impossibility of telling the self's story without implicating others and vice-versa.
Also accompanying this thesis is a booklet of poems, titles "Porous", which is held in the Victoria University Library. The related URL links to the catalogue entry for this booklet.
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Lydon, Jane. "Regarding Coranderrk : photography at Coranderrk Aboriginal Station, Victoria." Phd thesis, 2000. http://hdl.handle.net/1885/147197.
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Lohse, Hardy. "Can introducing collaboration and trade and exchange into the photographic encounter respond to the inherent potential for exploitation, abuse and humiliation in traditional documentary photography? And, will doing this still maintain documentary photography's ability to capture the reality of living in towns in decline in Australia?" Phd thesis, 2017. http://hdl.handle.net/1885/133593.
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Documentary photography is built on assumptions of factual
objectivity, and seeks to provide direct access to human
experience and emotion. Throughout its long history it has become
synonymous with the recording of social conflict and human
misery. However, it has also been criticised for exploiting,
abusing and humiliating its subjects, as viewers often look at
the downtrodden and their reality from a position of relative
privilege
and passivity. My exhibition of photographs and photobook
collectively titled Other People’s Lives, and supported by the
accompanying exegesis, challenge traditional documentary
photography and propose a more
ethical approach. The works are the result of fieldwork-based
photographic practice involving people living in small towns in
decline in Australia. My methodology examines whether
collaboration and introducing notions of trade and exchange into
the photographic encounter can respond to the inherent potential
for exploitation, abuse
and humiliation in documentary, whilst still maintaining its
ability to capture the reality of those people living in towns in
decline. The medium of the photobook, combining text and image,
allows for a deeper
exploration of subjects and their surrounds, whilst the exegesis,
through two key case studies - Richard Avedon’s In The American
West and Walker Evans and James Agee’s Let Us Now Praise Famous
Men - examines the relationships between subjects and
photographers, including the impact of making payments to
subjects, the effect of celebrity and the idea of trade and
exchange in the photographic encounter. The research project
references critiques of photographic practice by Ariella Azoulay,
Susan Sontag, Roland Barthes and John Berger, as well as
reflecting on
work by a selection of contemporary documentary photographers
that relates to the development of the methodology and aesthetic
in the research project.
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Bickford, Sophia Anastasia. "A historical perspective on recent landscape transformation: integrating palaeoecological, documentary and contemporary evidence for former vegetation patterns and dynamics in the Fleurieu Peninsula, South Australia / Sophia Anastasia Bickford." Thesis, 2001. http://hdl.handle.net/2440/21741.
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Includes bibliographical references (p. 301-319).xx, 319, [30] leaves : ill. (some col.), maps ; 30 cm.
Palaeoecological records, documented historical records and remnant vegetation were investigated in order to construct a multi-scaled history of vegetation pattern and change in the Fleurieu Peninsula, South Australia over the last c. 8000 years. Aims to better understand post-European landscape transformation and address the inherently historical components of the problems of regional biodiversity loss, land sustainability and the cumulative contribution to global climatic change.
Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Adelaide, Dept. of Geographical and Environmental Studies, 2001
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Dale, Graeme. "'Stepping out of the Shadows': an examination of female larrikins in Melbourne and the influence of popular culture on their behaviour (1878-1888); an Exegesis and Documentary Theatre play, ‘Flash Donahs’." Thesis, 2019. https://vuir.vu.edu.au/42231/.
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This thesis is a two-part practice-based research project comprised of a Documentary Theatre play-script, ‘Flash Donahs’, and an accompanying exegesis, entitled, 'Stepping out of the Shadows': an examination of female larrikins in Melbourne and the influence of popular culture on their behaviour (1878-1888)’. This thesis is also comprised of a live performance and recording of ‘Flash Donahs’ (20/4/18).
Despite the best efforts of a patriarchal ‘Victorian-era’ society to suppress female dissent and activism, the defiant and often confronting behaviour of larrikin women was a contributing social factor in the struggle for increased equality for women. ‘Flash Donahs’ embodies and performs the research undertaken into the lives of female larrikins. The Exegesis elucidates the choices taken in the construction of the play and provides an historical perspective to the research It also evaluates the use of Documentary Theatre when re-presenting archival artefacts in a contemporary theatrical context. Contrary to the derisive content of contemporary publications such as the Bulletin, young women were active participants in larrikin culture, and not merely the property of male larrikins (Bellanta 2012).
In recent years, the work of Australian historians, particularly that of Melissa Bellanta, have initiated a change in our awareness of female larrikins by revealing that they were not simply subordinates of their male counterparts. Bellanta’s work, Larrikins: A History (2012) has informed the analytical and creative components of my thesis by showing that amidst the everyday aspects of their lives, young larrikin women were active participants in a broader struggle for female emancipation. ‘Flash Donahs’ is a re-presentation of gender-related issues in Melbourne during 1878-1888, and of two significant events1 affecting women during this period. In order to accentuate the female characters chosen to ‘people’ the world of the play, an all-female cast playing all the roles (including male roles), has been utilized. The characters in the play are based on actual people and events. They are mostly strong and independent women from a broad cross-section of life, including from the religious sector. They highlight the often oppressive socio-economic and cultural factors affecting young larrikin women from this period, and their responses to critical social issues such as inequality in the workplace and danger in the family environment. Because of the significant influence of popular culture in reinforcing gendered social values, their lives are shown in a theatrical and performative context using aspects of Victorian-era melodrama and burlesque (Bellanta 2012).
Drawing upon a diverse range of archival sources and material, the research methodology was the creation of a Documentary Theatre play featuring popular songs and music. ‘Verbatim’ material was incorporated into the playscript but this was often disassembled and then used in a different setting. Wherever possible, the structure and syntax of the original textual material has been kept intact, even when using the technique of bricolage to construct dialogue between characters. The Exegesis situates ‘Flash Donahs’ within the history of Documentary Theatre, and also positions itself in relation to recent examples of the genre. Its aim is to examine and present new information about female larrikins and to do so in the context of feminist history, including recent feminist theatre practice. Within this practice, female writers, performers and producers have sought to highlight the roles played by women throughout history. It has also been argued that feminist theatre offers an opportunity to reverse the historical marginalization of women.