Religion in Australian Film - A Database 1900-2003
"How has the film treatment of religion helped influence our perception of religion and the religious makeup of Australian society today?"
Religion in Australian Film began as a third-year university project to explore an area of Australian film industry history that has not been the focus of much investigation. At the time of writing (2003) only one small booklet dedicated specifically to the topic of religion in Australian film existed; 'From Back Pews to Front Stalls - the Churches in 100 years of Australian Cinema', edited by Peter Malone.
Compiling this film list offered me a glimpse into how various religious groups have been represented (or misrepresented) in Australia since the art of film making began– a little over 100 years ago.
The Anglo-Christian faith dominates much of the religious content in Australian films for the first 100 years. From 1973 onward, we see more reflections on religious life from an indigenous perspective, in films like Walkabout, Storm Boy and The Last Wave.
As we move into the 70's Christian tradition is increasingly mocked by the irreverent streak of the Australian 'Ocker' or portrayed as deeply flawed.
The end of the 20th century depicts a greater diversity of religious topics, and more documentaries that reflect Australia's broader migrant population religions and a seemingly more global or open attitude to cultural difference.
Adapted from my Religion in Australian Film 1900 - 2003:
http://www.elfinn.com/filmweb/index.htm
Religion in Australian Film began as a third-year university project to explore an area of Australian film industry history that has not been the focus of much investigation. At the time of writing (2003) only one small booklet dedicated specifically to the topic of religion in Australian film existed; 'From Back Pews to Front Stalls - the Churches in 100 years of Australian Cinema', edited by Peter Malone.
Compiling this film list offered me a glimpse into how various religious groups have been represented (or misrepresented) in Australia since the art of film making began– a little over 100 years ago.
The Anglo-Christian faith dominates much of the religious content in Australian films for the first 100 years. From 1973 onward, we see more reflections on religious life from an indigenous perspective, in films like Walkabout, Storm Boy and The Last Wave.
As we move into the 70's Christian tradition is increasingly mocked by the irreverent streak of the Australian 'Ocker' or portrayed as deeply flawed.
The end of the 20th century depicts a greater diversity of religious topics, and more documentaries that reflect Australia's broader migrant population religions and a seemingly more global or open attitude to cultural difference.
- Kim Senior
Adapted from my Religion in Australian Film 1900 - 2003:
http://www.elfinn.com/filmweb/index.htm
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- DirectorHerbert BoothJoseph PerryStarsBeatrice DayHarold GrahamMr. GrahamThe plot outlined the story of the early Christian martyrs with a compendium of horrors guaranteed to jolt audiences into an awareness of terrible suffering for the sake of Christianity. Contained maulings at the Colosseum, crucifixions, beheadings, savage hackings and burnings at the stake, burnings in the limepit, the spectacle of human torches in Nero's garden. Overall "soul stirring stories of the martyrs, illustrated by the most beautiful living pictures by kinematograph and limelight and never before witnessed in this or any other country.
- DirectorGeorge MarlowStarsAda GuildfordJ. StanfordH. TwitchamReleased only a short time after the Titanic went down, this was cutting-edge drama for its day. The flick itself was a screen adaptation of a play George Marlow himself had produced in Australia the previous year. Bearing remarkable similarities to the plot of The Silence of Dean Maitland, it played-up two social aspects for which Marlow was long associated - sex and scandal! Murder, adultery, theft, surprise confessions and alcoholism all played a significant part here in the tale of a woman from most definitely the wrong part of town, who seduces an innocent young clergyman. You just didn't DO those things in 1912! Well to cut a long story short, Miss Guilford does JUST that and spends the rest of the film rueing her actions.
- DirectorFranklyn BarrettStarsCharles BeethamMaud FaneHugh Huntley
- DirectorRaymond LongfordStarsLottie LyellBoyd IrwinRoland ConwayRalph Manton discovers that his sister Marjory has been seduced and demands to be told the name of the man. Faithful to her lover, she refuses but later Ralph discovers his identity and confronts him. The tables are turned.
- DirectorWilfred LucasStarsRex 'Snowy' BakerAgnes VernonCharles VilliersJohn Harland is a former boxer turned reverend posted to the town of Kangaroo. He falls in love with Muriel, an orphaned heiress, and discovers that her guardian Martin Giles is embezzling her inheritance. Harland earns the ire of parishioners by teaching young boys to box, and Giles manipulates local opinion to have the bishop remove him. Harland rescues a gentleman from a mugging in Sydney who suggests that he go to Kalmaroo where a criminal gang has driven the church out of the area. Harland preaches, and unexpectedly sees Muriel in the congregation; her property is near Kalmaroo. But her overseer is Red Jack Braggan who leads the gang which violently breaks up Harland's mission - much to the distress of Muriel who regards Harland as too timid - and is in cahoots with Giles. Harland goes to work as a station hand at a property neighbouring Muriel's. Giles arranges for Red Jack to kidnap Muriel so that he might marry the girl and thus prevent her giving evidence against him. Harland rescues Muriel: they leap from the stage coach as it thunders across Hampden Bridge into the Kangaroo River.The Man from Kangaroo (original title)
- DirectorArthur W. SterryStarsRose RooneyDavid Edelsten
- DirectorFrank Hurley
- DirectorP.J. RamsterStarsThelma Newling
- DirectorPhil Walsh
- DirectorNorman DawnStarsGeorge FisherEva NovakDunstan WebbA convict, wrongfully accused and sent a harsh prison colony, attempts to escape.
- DirectorKen G. HallStarsJohn LongdenCharlotte FrancisConstance WorthAfter serving 20 years in prison for a murder he didn't commit, a man returns home to take revenge on a local pastor who knew he was innocent but did nothing to clear his name. He discovers that things aren't exactly what they seem.
- DirectorMichael PowellStarsWalter ChiariClaire DunneChips RaffertyAn Italian sports journalist arrives in Australia but finds no work. The only employment he can find is as a builder's labourer. At first, he cannot comprehend the culture, but eventually he finds mateship and romance.
- DirectorMarc DanielsStarsWalter ChiariJack AlbertsonDave AllenWhen greed threatens the livelihood of an Italian monastery, a monk flees with the formula for their special liquor.
- DirectorNicolas RoegStarsJenny AgutterDavid GulpililLuc RoegTwo city-bred siblings are stranded in the Australian Outback, where they learn to survive with the aid of an Aboriginal boy on his "walkabout": a ritual separation from his tribe.
- DirectorDusan MarekStarsDavid StockerChristine PearceJan CernohousWhen a scientist finds a cocoon a woman emerges from it. She is being chased by two faceless monsters who are collecting specimens for a museum.
- DirectorDavid BakerTim BurstallJohn B. MurrayStarsElke NeidhartBryon WilliamsMark AlbistonExplores adultery and jealous fantasies, the end of innocence, the moral and spiritual conflicts of a priest and a nun in love. The stories define the exploration of women and the cultural upheaval of the early 70s.
- DirectorGeorge MillerStarsHarvey AdamsElizabeth AlexanderDorothy AlisonAustralian born film maker George (Mad Max) Miller offers a personal view of Australian films. He suggests that they can be regarded as visual music, public dreaming, mythology, and song-lines. In extrapolating the idea of movies as song-lines he examines feature films under the following categories : songs of the land ; the bushman ; the convicts ; the bush-rangers ; mates and larrikins ; the digger ; pommy bashing ; the sheilas ; gays ; the wogs ; blackfellas ; urban subversion. He then concludes that these films can be thought of as "Hymns that sing of Australia".
- DirectorElisa Tranter
- DirectorMichael RobertsonStarsPaul MercurioColin FrielsJohn PolsonA garage mechanic out in the middle of the outback gets involved with the girl friend of a jewel smuggler who is on the run.
- DirectorCynthia ConnopCombining ancient Tantric lovemaking secrets with modern research this program teaches you how to awaken your own natural sexual energy to experience a deeper intimacy and connectedness with your partner.
- DirectorScott HicksStarsGeoffrey RushArmin Mueller-StahlJustin BrainePianist David Helfgott, driven by his father and teachers, has a breakdown. Years later he returns to the piano, to popular if not critical acclaim.
- DirectorMonique SchwarzStarsJonathan GoldbergFreydi MrockiAmanda SandilandsBitter Herbs and Honey tells a richly textured story of the making of multi-cultural Australia. Through the saga of the the story of the Jewish migrants, mainly from Eastern Europe, who made their first home in Melbourne's inner-city suburb of Carlton, the film explores issues at the heart of Australia's development towards cultural diversity. The film builds a picture of poor immigrants who left Europe in the period of turmoil preceding, and in the wake of, the Second World War, having lost everything spiritually and materially. In a country most had never heard of on the other side of the earth, they began to rebuild their lives. Refusing to join the cultural melting pot, the Carlton Jews chose instead to keep their own language, religion, culture and traditions alive, whilst integrating into their adopted country.There was conflict and struggle between the new Eastern European arrivals, with their visible Jewish identity, and the established German/Anglo-Jewish community that had lived in the affluent suburbs south of the Yarra for generations and saw itself primarily as British, then Australian, and lastly as Jewish. Bitter Herbs and Honey is a story of struggle between the old and the new, the powerful and the weak, identity and assimilation. This struggle continued until the sheer strength of numbers of the new arrivals broke down the barriers between the two groups and the inevitable process of integration occurred.
- DirectorAdam ElliotStarsWilliam McInnesJohn FlausA nephew recalls the sometimes-lonely and often-eccentric life of his beloved uncle.
- DirectorGillian ArmstrongStarsRalph FiennesCate BlanchettCiarán HindsIn mid-1800s England, Oscar is a young Anglican priest, a misfit and an outcast, but with the soul of an angel. As a boy, even though from a strict Pentecostal family, he felt God told him through a sign to leave his father and his faith and join the Church of England. Lucinda is a teen-aged Australian heiress who has an almost desperate desire to liberate her sex from the confines of the male-dominated culture of the Australia of that time. She buys a glass factory and has a dream of building a church made almost entirely of glass, and then transporting it to Bellingen, a remote settlement on the north coast. Oscar and Lucinda meet on a ship going to Australia; once there, they are for different reasons ostracized from society, and as a result "join forces" together. Oscar and Lucinda are both passionate gamblers, and Lucinda bets Oscar her entire inheritance that he cannot transport the glass church to the Outback safely. Oscar accepts her wager, and this leads to the events that will change both their lives forever.
- DirectorAnna Broinowski
- DirectorAmiel Courtin-Wilson
- DirectorJane CampionStarsKate WinsletHarvey KeitelJulie HamiltonRuth's been brainwashed by a guru in Delhi, India. Her parents in Sydney hire a specialist in reversing this. Ruth is tricked to return to Australia and is isolated in an outback cabin with the specialist. It gets messy.
- DirectorPaul CoxStarsDavid WenhamKate CeberanoJan DecleirThe true story of the nineteenth century priest who volunteered to go to the island of Molokai, to console and care for the lepers.
- DirectorJennifer UssiStarsConnor DowdsSipho NgwenyaByron TaylorChristian Savage, a twelve-year-old farm boy, spends his childhood years with Nyadze, the son of his mother's Zulu domestic worker. Although they are from different cultures, life is one big adventure for the two best friends as they explore rural Africa. Doubts grow in Christian as he questions the values of his family and church until one day his friend's beliefs are etched in his soul forever.
- DirectorA.L. VijayStarsSai PallaviNaga ShauryaVeronika AroraAfter abortion, a woman's life takes an unexpected turn when she is visited by the foetus, who is now grown up and is visible to her.
- DirectorMark JoffeStarsBilly ConnollyJudy DavisColin FrielsAn ex lawyer now fisherman sees his fishing boat sunk by a lightning. His insurance company claims "Act of God". Sue the insurance company or God/churches?
- DirectorMojgan KhademStarsAlice HainesAden YoungSinisa CopicA girl is born to an Aboriginal mother and an Afghan father.