Film for a purpose: a pictorial introduction

Abstract

ABSTRACT Created for the Uses of Cinema conference (SSAAANZ, Monash University, November 2018), the video Film for a Purpose (13 minutes, 2018) offers a précis of my research with the ARC Discovery project ‘Utilitarian film in Australia 1945-1980'. The video essay ironically deploys certain tropes of the sponsored film - the green screen, the authoritative presenter, the wallto-wall narration, the literal illustration, etc. - in its exposition of the studies cited. An overview of the National Archives of Australia (NAA) where moving image collections of Australian government agencies are collected then drills down to films from the CSIRO (Commonwealth Science and Industrial Research Organisation) Film Unit. Uses of Cinema then turns to films of the Australian labour movement through the lens of Tom Zubrycki's controversial documentary film history of the Australian trade union movement, Amongst Equals (1986-1991). Each case study brings to light certain problems pertinent to the broader category: the ‘utilitarian film', in the Australian context. Finally a fourth research paper, completed after 2018, examines the surveillance image and its uses in political propaganda and investigative documentary. This ‘pictorial introduction' lightly annotates a selection of freeze frames from the film, explicating aspects of their ‘screen design’ and treatment.