Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Motion picture industry – Australia – History'

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Wollongong, 2002.
Title from PDF title page (viewed on Aug. 14, 2005). Ill. in print version lacking in electronic version. Includes bibliographical references (p. 285-301).

More certified-Canadian feature films were shot in Canada in 1979 than in any other year. The height of what has become known as the "tax-shelter boom," 1979 stands as a remarkable moment in the history of the Canadian cinema, with 70 features shot in a year in which Hollywood produced only 99 films. The extant history of the Canadian cinema has largely ignored this moment, and in this thesis I argue that the slim treatment of the period by critics represents a "received wisdom," consistently repeated, but seldom scrutinized, and that this received wisdom is representative of the culturally nationalist impulse which has coloured the entire historiography of the Canadian cinema. Because many of the films produced during the boom were in the style of Hollywood genres, the "received wisdom" presents the entirety of the tax-shelter boom as a cultural and industrial near-disaster for the Canadian cinema, and this thesis, partly a revisionist history, explores not only those conclusions, but also provides critical discussion of them.
I begin by presenting the received wisdom, the existing account, on the period. This is followed by a chapter which situates the tax-shelter boom in a history of state intervention in the feature film industry. Following this, I provide analysis of the contexts surrounding the tax-shelter boom, including critical discussion of articles and reviews from the contemporaneous popular press, and of the industry discourse. I then turn my attention to the texts themselves, which the received wisdom more or less ignores, and provide three thematically-organized chapters of textual analysis: the first organized around readings of gender and genre in the films, the second on the prevalent theme of "selling out," which is central to numerous films of the period, and a third chapter which explores the place of Quebec in the films of the period.
The thesis concludes with an analysis of the material effects of the government policies which led to the boom, and concludes that in this respect too, the received account of the period---once again, as a failure---needs to be reexamined.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Georgia State University, 2006.
Title from file title page. Ted Friedman, committee chair; Kathy Fuller-Seeley, Angelo Restivo, Jung-Bong Choi, Alisa Perren, committee members. Electronic text (249 p.) : digital, PDF file. Description based on contents viewed Oct. 29, 2007. Includes bibliographical references (p. 236-249).

Little research into historical, architectural and social significance of the picture theatre in pre-television rural Australian society has been undertaken. Taking a New South Wales country area (to represent a microcosm), this thesis records the picture venues and qualitative research material from past patrons and theatre staff. The study 1/. establishes the environment created by a picture theatre 2/. shows that New South Wales was typical of Australia in film attendance before the 1960s 3/. introduces the Central-West subject area, and describes how data was gathered from available records 4/. shows the development of the picture venues within the subject areas 5/. gives 'life' to the occasion formerly associated with going to the pictures 6/. suggests the success ot the rural picture shows was a happy co-incidence: the exhibitors' desire to make money and the patrons' desire for a social experience (and entertainment). A recommendation is made that one of the venues discovered during the course of research should be investigated for heritage listing. It is important that we should acknowledge the vital part that going to the pictures once played in pre-television days, especially in rural areas
Master of Arts (Hons)

This thesis considers varied representations of landscape in Australian narrative film and designed landscape. Landscape is taken as an active concept that combines the associative meanings of place and the dynamism of space. Sixteen film and designed landscapes are examined to derive their landscape sources, forms and ideas, using the methodology of 'contextual poetics', Each of these landscapes is considered under a specific theme: landscape as delight, absence, nation or hope. In addition to detailing specific landscape responses by the designers of the examined landscapes, this project aims to contribute to an enhanced conversation about the effective, just practice of landscape architecture. The topic derives from a question central to landscape architectural practice in a post-colonial context, such as Australia. In a cultural setting where no single, agreed definition of landscape is allowed by the conditions of its history, which versions do practitioners of landscape architecture take up? What should be their limits, where are their inspirations and whose landscape narratives are ignored in these decisions?

In the 1970s and 1980s New Zealand experienced significant socio-economic upheaval due in part to the global economy, economic experiments, and the gains of Maori activism. Despite the divisiveness of this period (or possibly because of it), anxieties over notions of New Zealand national identity were heightened. There was a general feeling among many Kiwis that New Zealand culture (however it was defined) was in danger of extinction, mostly due to the dominant influences of the United states and Britain. New Zealanders sought ways to distinguish themselves and their nation. One of the ways in which this desire was manifested was in the establishment of the New Zealand Film Commission (NZFC). This government sponsored body corporate was designed to provide an infrastructure for New Zealand filmmaking, through which New Zealand and New Zealanders could be represented. As a result, New Zealand filmmaking boomed during the early to mid-1980s. Significantly, this boom occurred simultaneous to the increasing relevance and importance of notions of biculturalism, both in cultural and socio-political terms. The question that drives this thesis is how (or whether) biculturalism was articulated in the explicit or implicit relationships between cultural debates, governmental policies, the NZFC�s own policies and practices and its interaction with filmmakers. This thesis examines the ways in which aspects of the discourse of biculturalism feature in New Zealand cinema of the 1980s in terms of the content, development, production and marketing of three films of this era that share particular bicultural themes and elements: Utu (Geoff Murphy, 1983), The Quiet Earth (Geoff Murphy, 1985) and Arriving Tuesday (Richard Riddiford, 1986). This thesis also examines the role of the NZFC in these processes as prescribed by legislation and in terms of the NZFC�s own policies and procedures. This thesis consults a variety of primary and secondary sources in its research. Primary sources include film texts, public documents, archival material, trade journals, and interviews with important figures in the New Zealand film industry. Conclusions suggest that the interaction of numerous socio-historical factors, and the practices and policies of the NZFC, denote a process that was not direct in its articulation of notions of biculturalism. Rather, this involved an array of complex cultural, fiscal. industrial, professional and aesthetic forces.

After the "Cultural Revolution" in 1976, the Chinese film industry returned to normal. Between 1976 and 1979, most filmmakers returned to their film studios and began to reorganize the production system. After 1980, the Chinese film industry began to develop multi-dimensionally. The highlight of this development was the rising of a large number of young directors and their works, which became hits and attracted attention both at home and abroad. More and more Chinese films were seen at international film festivals, often winning the awards. This study focuses on the important period between 1976 and 1988 in the Chinese film history and its influence on the development of the Chinese film industry; it concludes with the discussion of the direction the Chinese film industry is heading in the future.

Orientador: Jose Mario Ortiz Ramos
Tese (doutorado) - Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Instituto de Artes
Made available in DSpace on 2018-08-04T03:27:30Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 SaNeto_ArthurAutranFrancode_D.pdf: 11882720 bytes, checksum: db30cbb6ee1df82ebd19160092a2442e (MD5) Previous issue date: 2004
Resumo: Esta tese versa sobre o pensamento industrial cinematográfico brasileiro no período que vai de 1924 a 1990. Partindo da constatação da centralidade para o meio cinematográfico das discussões em tomo da formação de uma indústria de cinema no Brasil e de que esta nunca chegou a se configurar plenamente, investigam-se quais as propostas para sua constituição, analisando desde as promessas aí contidas até suas limitações e contradições. Para realizar tal pesquisa foram utilizados livros, artigos, entrevistas, memórias e os próprios filmes nos quais diretores, críticos, produtores e políticos expõem suas idéias sobre como formar a indústria cinematográfica e quais devem ser os seus objetivos econômicos e culturais. Também foram realizadas comparações com o rádio e a televisão, a fim de se delinear diferenças presentes no ideário das três áreas passíveis de explicar, ainda que parcialmente, os motivos pelos quais o cinema não se desenvolveu economicamente tanto quanto aquelas indústrias culturais
Abstract: Not informed.
Doutorado
Multimeios
Doutor em Multimeios

The United States Supreme Court placed the major Hollywood studios in violation of antitrust laws in 1948, leading to the end of the classical Hollywood studio system of the 1930s and 1940s. Subsequent changes in the corporate organization and mode of production of the major studios signaled the end of the traditional B-movie as a product of block-booking policies.
B-movies became a distinctly different entity in the 1950s, however. From the institutional effects of the antitrust ruling, to changing audience demographics, the emergent patterns in production, distribution and exhibition had a profound effect on the evolution of the B-movie from its origins in the early 1930s to its new role in the cinematic marketplace of the 1950s. Increasingly the result of newly formed independent companies, B-movies innovated such industrial components as new genre cycles and demographic patterns.
This dissertation takes a political economy approach to examining the B-movie in the 1950s as an economic product, with a specific emphasis on independent filmmaking. The implication for film studies lies in answering questions about the unique nature of the B-movie filmmaking process: how is the mode of production of a B-movie different from that of mainstream Hollywood filmmaking? How does the low-budget nature of independent cinema determine its mode of production? How is a B-movie limited and/or defined by the low budget nature of its mode of production, and how does this affect the film's aesthetics? How do B-movies function in, and what is their value to, the film marketplace? Changes in film production, distribution and exhibition will be examined, as will patterns in film spectatorship in relation to the changing institutional landscape of the film industry in the 1950s.
The B-movie was a volatile entity during the 1950s, with both major and minor studios questioning the economic viability of low-budget production. B-movies existed in opposition to the cinematic mainstream in the 1950s, a legacy that was passed on to independent filmmakers of subsequent decades. Analyzing the mode of production of these B-movies is essential in understanding their aesthetics, as well as their historical role in the film industry.

This study explores the reasons for the rise in independent film's popularity, which have created a unique Hollywood phenomenon, the successful "mini-major" independent studio, dedicated to both art and commerce. Chapters cover the history of independent film, characteristics of both independent and mainstreamfilms with regards to financing, acquisition, distribution and marketing, trends within independent film in the late 1980s and 1990s, crucial distributors and landmark independent films, and key growth areas in the future for independent film.

From the polluted canals of turn-of-the-century Birmingham, England, William Moxley is an ineffectual captain of industry burning for a Music Hall life. With his unlikely bride Elvina in tow, he journeys to the west coast of the United States, only to shipwreck against his lifelong dream--a vaudeville hall called "The Sunshine." In "Dear Clara," a depression-era love story, Warren Wilkerson has been a Sunshine fixture since the age of six; suddenly forced out by the theatre's back-stabbing, bootlegging "owner," Warren must resort to desperate measures in order to pay for his dying wife's insulin. Freewheeling philosopher Holly Jo is a Seattleite sausage cart owner with a bun in the oven. Having recently lost her parents, she forges a new family from the fringes of 1974 arthouse--it's "The Labor of Holly Jo Daffodil." In "Chapter Eleven," foul-mouthed Red--the Helios's manager--learns that his boss is selling out to evil Emerald Cinemas; the news triggers a long-overdue heart attack, which turns out to be the least of his worries. Beginning with the birth of the feature length and ending at the onset of the digital age, Cinerati is a comic salute to the celluloid era--a grand era spanning over a century. Featuring an eccentric ensemble where a bit player in one decade can take a lead role in the next, Cinerati celebrates the venues in which cinema was meant to be seen, and the strange families that pop up wherever the projectors flicker.

This comparative study is an investigation into the changing concerns of feature film policy in Canada and Australia from 1968 to 1998. Its purpose is to determine how similar policy initiatives have produced divergent results in two economically, culturally and socially similar nations. The inquiry's aim is to establish what financial, political and geographic variables affect the application of feature film policy. While resemblances between these nations justify the contrasting of comparable feature film policy initiatives, differences in outcomes suggest that these nations are not entirely alike. Therefore, rather than following the leads of comparable national agencies, film policy makers in Canada and Australia need to concentrate on conditions specific to their own particular situation.

Two years after Dutch émigré Andries Deinum was fired from the University of Southern California in 1955 for refusing to cooperate with the House Un-American Activities Committee, he moved to Portland, Oregon to teach film courses through the Portland Extension Center. By 1969 he had become integral to the local film community and had formed Portland State University's Center for the Moving Image (CMI), where he and Tom Taylor taught film history, criticism, and production for the next thirteen years. Although CMI was eliminated in 1981 as part of PSU's financial exigency, CMI's teachers and students have been a vital part of the thriving film community in Portland since its foundation. A key former student and figure in Portland's film community, Dr. Brooke Jacobson credits Deinum, Taylor, and CMI for laying the foundation for the Northwest Film Center (co-founded by Jacobson in 1971 as the Northwest Film Study Center). Through archival research and oral history methodology, this thesis pieces together Andries Deinum's role in the development of film education in the United States and the mark he left on Portland's cultural landscape, specifically the city's vital and thriving cinematic community.

This project is an examination of the Hong Kong film industry, focusing on the years leading up to the handover of Hong Kong to communist China. The influence of classical Chinese culture on gender representation in martial arts films is examined in order to formulate an understanding of how these films use gender issues to negotiate a sense of cultural identity in the face of unprecedented political change. In particular, the films of Hong Kong action stars Michelle Yeoh and Brigitte Lin are studied within a feminist and cultural studies framework for indications of identity formation through the highlighting of gender issues.

This thesis discusses the impact of the counterculture on Australian cinema in the late 20thcentury through the work of the Sydney Underground Film group, Ubu. This group, active between 1965 -1970, was a significant part of an underground counter culture, to which many young Australians subscribed. As a group, Ubu was more than a rat bag assemblage of University students. It was an antipodean aspect of an ongoing artistic and political movement that began with the European avant-garde at the beginning of the 20th century and that radically transformed artistic conventions in theatre, painting, literature, photography and film. Three purposes underpin this thesis: firstly to track the art historical links between a European avant-garde heritage and Ubu. Experimental film is a genre that is informed by cross art form interrelations between theatre, painting, literature, photography and film and the major modernist aesthetic philosophies of the last century. Ubu's revolutionary aesthetic approaches included political resistance and the involvement of audiences in the production of art. Their creative wellspring drew from: Alfred Jarry, Dadaism, Surrealism, Futurism, Fluxus, Conceptual and Pop art. This cross fertilization between the arts is critical to understanding not only the Australian experimental movement but the history of contemporary image making. The second purpose is to fill a current void of research about early Australian Experimental film. This is a significant gap given it was a national movement with many international connections. The counterculture movement also contains many major figures in Australian art history. These individuals played their parts in the Sydney Push, Oz magazine and the activities of the Yellow House and have since become important multi arts practitioners and commentators. Thirdly, the thesis attempts to evaluate Ubu's political and social agenda for the democratization of film appreciation through their objectives of: production, exhibition, distribution and debate of experimental film both nationally and internationally. Ultimately the group would succeed in these objectives and in winning the war on repressive censorship laws. Their influence has informed the practice of many of Australia's current film heavy weights. Two key films have been selected for analysis, It Droppeth as the Gentle Rain (1963) and Newsfront (1978). The first looks forward to Ubu's contemporary practices and political agenda while the second demonstrates their longer term influences on mainstream cinema.

by Grace Leung Lai-kuen.
Thesis (M.Phil.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 1993.
Includes bibliographical references (leaves 120-124).
Preface --- p.ii
Abstract --- p.iii
Contents --- p.iv
Chapter Chapter 1. --- Introduction --- p.1
Chapter Chapter 2. --- Theoretical Review and Method of Study --- p.5
Chapter i) --- An Anomaly to Media Imperialism
Chapter ii) --- Inadequacies of Non-Marxists Theories
Chapter iii) --- Analytical Framework
Chapter iv) --- Research Questions and Research Design
Chapter Chapter 3. --- Hong Kong as a Regional Movie Production & Export Centre -- a Statistical Review --- p.19
Chapter i) --- Hong Kong as a Movie Production Centre
Chapter ii) --- Hong Kong as a Movie Export Centre
Chapter Chapter 4. --- Evolution of the Movie Industry in Hong Kong -- a socio-historical analysis --- p.44
Chapter i) --- An Overview
Chapter ii) --- Stages of Development
Chapter 1) --- Initial Period
Chapter 2) --- Nascent Period
Chapter 3) --- Growing Period
Chapter 4) --- Developing Period
Chapter 5) --- Quiescent Period
Chapter 6) --- Reconstruction Period
Chapter 7) --- Prosperity Period
Chapter 8) --- Declining Period
Chapter 9) --- Revival Period
Chapter Chapter 5. --- In Search of an Explanatory Framework --- p.77
Chapter Chapter 6. --- Conclusion --- p.111
Appendices --- p.118
Reference --- p.120

Shin, Kei-Wah Victor.
"November 2010."
Thesis (M.Phil.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2011.
Includes bibliographical references (leaves 177-198).
Abstracts in English and Chinese.
Abstract --- p.i
Acknowledgments --- p.iv
Table of Contents --- p.vi
List of Tables --- p.ix
List of Figures --- p.xii
Chapter Chapter 1: --- Framing the Puzzles --- p.1
"INTRODUCING: ""The Curious Case of... a Fallen 'Asian Hollywood'""" --- p.3
METHOD AND DATA --- p.6
STRUCTURE OF THE THESIS --- p.12
Chapter Chapter 2: --- "“The Blind Side"" of Existing Explanations" --- p.15
CONVENTIONAL EXPLANATIONS --- p.17
Triad Intrusion and Piracy --- p.17
Hasty and Unpolished Productions --- p.19
EXPLANATIONS DERIVED FROM THEORETICAL PERSPECTIVES --- p.21
The Cultural Imperialism approach --- p.22
The Cultural-flows/ Network approach --- p.27
Suppositions related to the Cultural-flows/ Network approach --- p.32
The Reception approach --- p.36
The Cultural Policy and Strategies approach --- p.41
What about the Receiving Countries? --- p.46
THE POLITICAL-CULTURAL APPROACH --- p.48
Chapter Chapter 3: --- The “Bloom´ح in the 1970s and the 1980s --- p.53
"THE ""BLOOM""" --- p.53
BRINGING IN THE POLITICAL-CULTURAL APPROACH --- p.57
THE INDUSTRIAL SETTING OF THE HONG KONG FILM MARKET VIS-A-VIS HOLLYWOOD --- p.59
THE SOCIAL STRUCTURE OF THE HONG KONG FILM MARKET --- p.62
From Studio System to Independent Production System since the 1970s --- p.63
The Revenue-sharing Structure --- p.68
"""CONCEPTIONS OF CONTROL"" IN THE HONG KONG FILM MARKET (1970s - 1980s)" --- p.70
Distributor-driven Exhibition --- p.72
Distributor-driven Production --- p.75
HONG KONG FILM INDUSTRY AT ITS PEAK IN THE LATE 1980s --- p.81
SUMMARY --- p.88
Chapter Chapter 4: --- "The ""Twilight"" since the mid-1990s" --- p.91
WHAT HAPPENED DURING THE 1990s? --- p.91
The Plot in Brief --- p.92
THE KEY TO SUCCESS TURNS INTO A SOURCE OF STRESS --- p.97
"Conventional Practices inscribed in the ""Conceptions of Control""" --- p.99
The Entwined Financial Practice --- p.99
The Exclusive Exhibition Practice --- p.101
What caused a Turn in the late 1980s? --- p.102
"The ""Meteor Shower"" of Taiwan Capital" --- p.102
China's Cinematic Reform --- p.104
"The Resultant Cross-Strait “Industrial Complex""" --- p.106
The Exogenous Shock Induced --- p.108
Reduction of Theatres in each Theatre Chain and its Impact --- p.110
The Consequence of Exclusive Exhibition Practice --- p.113
The Consequence of Entwined Financial Practice --- p.114
A REVERSAL OF FORTUNE IN 1993 --- p.117
"The Short-lived ""Newcomers""" --- p.119
The Rising Land Price --- p.122
The Ebb Tide of the Taiwan Capital Flood --- p.128
The Last Samurai and the Finale of the Distributor-led Production System --- p.134
Summary --- p.138
TRANSFORMATION IN THE HONG KONG FILM MARKET --- p.139
The Return of the Challengers: Distributors of Foreign Movies --- p.143
"The Emergence of New ""Conceptions of Control""" --- p.147
The Impact on Film Companies producing Local Movies --- p.151
Chapter Chapter 5: --- "A ""Revolutionary Road"" to the Peak and Drop" --- p.156
A BRIEF REPRISE --- p.156
"The ""Bloom"" in Retrospect" --- p.158
"The ""Twilight"" in Retrospect" --- p.161
IMPLICATIONS OF THIS STUDY FOR EXISTING APPROACHES --- p.168
Implications for the Cultural Imperialism approach --- p.168
Implications for the Cultural-flows/ Network approach --- p.169
Implications for the Reception approach --- p.172
AN INTEGRATIVE APPROACH TO CURRENT THEORIES --- p.174
LIMITATIONS OF THE RESEARCH AND SUGGESTIONS FOR FUTURE DIRECTIONS --- p.175
REFERENCES --- p.177

This thesis explores contemporary Canadian cinema by investigating the convergence of films, policy and criticism as they are implicated in the idea of canon. Both fluid and multiple in its frame(s) of reference, the term canon extends beyond a list or core of privileged texts to include the processes of evaluation. Posited as a performative construct, the national cinema canon can be seen as offering a strategically deployed expression of national cultural identity, with appraisals of each film's value arising from the intersection of critical and governmental discourses; however, narrow admission criteria along with the displaced goal of developing a distinctive national art cinema reinforce perceptions of absence-of Canadian culture and/or identity-by delimiting canonical boundaries to exclude more than they include. Focussing on feature film production since 1984, and adopting a predominantly English Canadian perspective, this thesis aims to examine the underlying assumptions that direct canon formation; rather than attempting to reject or replace the existing canon, this process of rereading entails working within the prevailing discourses in order to generate an awareness of the politics of selection. Emerging from a tradition of liberal humanist nationalism, canon formation in the Canadian context invokes conflicting conceptions of high cultural enlightenment and mass commodity success which have become entrenched as a continuing tension between cultural and industrial goals. These tensions are further complicated by a "double conscious" perspective that simultaneously values and rejects American cinema culture. Chapter One explores the factors shaping the admission criteria of origin and value, while Chapter Two addresses the relationship between national culture and canon formation. Chapter Three considers the ways in which Canadian cinema is defined through policy, including a case study of the 1999 Feature Film Advisory Committee Report, which encapsulates the directional challenges facing cultural policy development. Approaches to devising a descriptive canon are addressed in Chapter Four, in which hybrid categories are suggested that could be used to supplant the nationalist perspective with an acknowledgement of the fluidity of the metaphysical frontier of culture, and hence the transnational, or perhaps post-nationalist, aspects of Canadian cultural experience.

Cultural policy studies, or studies in the relations of government and culture (Mercer, 1994) were initiated in Australia in the 1980s, where cultural studies have been reinterpreted into a dialogue of policy-making and cooperation between the government and academia (Cunningham, 1994; Hunter, 1993/1994; Molloy, 1994; Santamaria, 1994). This Australian-pioneered "cultural policy moment" (Cunningham 1994; Hawkins, 1994) thus provides an epistemological starting point for an analysis of cultural policy developments in South Africa, especially after 1994. Early South African cultural policy studies tend to draw from the Australian experience (Tomaselli and Shepperson, 1996). It must be noted that in terms of South African film policy analysis, there have been two cultural policy moments, one that addresses film post World War II to 1991, a period that is generally characterised as a "cinema of apartheid" (Tomaselli, 1989). This period is indebted to the seminal work of Keyan Tomaselli and Martin Botha. The second cultural policy moment begins in 1991 and continues to the present. It is this "moment" that informs the research and critical focus of the ways in which cultural studies in South Africa have modified the foundation of its critical position towards the state in response to developments since 1990. The aim of this thesis is to critically examine the ways in which South African cultural studies have responded to the Australian "cultural policy moment" in terms of academic-state relations, and the impact of discussions that were engaged in by various film organisations on film policy after 1990, and which resulted in the written proposals on film submitted to the Arts and Culture Task Group in 1994 and 1995. The Arts and Culture Task Group was the case study within which the notion of cultural policy was studied, along with the White Paper on Film. This thesis draws on and applies a variety of methods: firstly, there is the participatory research: I was employed by ACTAG to undertake research into film policy. My own experience of the process in which I worked very closely with the film sub-committee provides an "insider" account of assumptions, conflicts, practices and how outcomes were reached. I was also designated, along with Professor Tomaselli and Dr Botha, as one of the co-authors of the White Paper, and was thus part of the process of revising the ACTAG recommendations into draft legislation. Secondly, there is the method of comparative study: this thesis initially draws on the Australian cultural studies and film policy on the one hand, and South African cultural studies and film policy on the other. It then evolves into a critique of the "cultural policy moment" (Cunningham, 1994; Hawkins, 1994) as it related to the development of South African film policy between 1991 and 1997. Lastly, there was the empirical investigation: ACTAG, which was established to counsel Dr Ben Ngubane on the formulation of policy for the newly established government (see Chapter Four of this thesis, and see Karam, 1996), served as a case study. The final ACTAG document resulted in a reformulated arts and culture dispensation consistent with the new Constitution. This process in turn led to the origination and publication of the Government of National Unity's White Paper on Film in May 1996. Incorporated into this analysis was an "information trawl" (Given, 1994; Mercer, 1994 and Santamaria, 1994) of prior and extant policy frameworks and assumptions of various film, cultural and media organizations formulated during the period under review. The link between film and culture, and hence film and cultural policy, emerges from the following two commonplace associations: firstly, that film as a form of visual creation is therefore a form of art; and secondly, that the concepts of art and culture are inextricably connected. What drives the present debate is the Australian appropriations of Raymond Williams's description of culture as "a whole way of life". This, while validly dissolving the early-twentieth century identification of culture with "high" or "canonical" forms of traditional literature, sculpture, or painting, none the less leaves theorists with a "distinct fuzziness" (Johnson, 1979) as to what the term "culture" actually denotes. Australian policy studies' approaches tend to focus on culture as personifying a structure of "livability" under terms of employment, environmental concerns, and urban planning (Cunningham, 1994; Hawkins, 1994). In general, however, the focus has only attained any concrete outcomes when research has resuscitated precisely the link between culture and the arts, thereby drawing on the old polemics of "high" versus "low" and "popular" culture. The individual chapters cover the following topics: the Introductory Chapter provides a general historical overview of the South African film subsidization system, a crucial element of the analytical framework, from its inception in 1956 to it's dissolvement in the 1980s; Chapter Two, "Cultural Policy" deals with the origination and development of the concept of "cultural policy"; Chapter Three focuses on the Australian "cultural policy moment" and it's application to film; Chapters Four and Five deal with the ACTAG Film Sub-committee and the White Paper on Film respectively; and the last chapter, Chapter Six critiques these processes and their resulting documents, as case studies, from a cultural policy standpoint.
Thesis (M.A.)-University of Natal, Durban, 1997.