The Sapphires:Defining International-Australian Cinema

Dr Steve GaunsonLecture

“The outward-looking Australian-international project asks what is atypical or shared, and questions the function of cinema in articulating universal themes or common human values and concerns, and fostering the sense of connection to people and places beyond them”

— Ben Goldsmith

“Productions that have cultural resonance even if they do not fit official categories of Australianess”.

— Ben Goldsmith

• How does The Sapphires do this?– Musical

Difference in terms– National– International– Supranational

“Alongside born international production (so-called runaway production) we need to include the transformations within the national production space in terms of formats, processes, structural connections, production companies and TV network operations. These are likewise not evidently global because they are happening at the national scale, and do not need to be run through international agreements”

— Tom O’Regan and Ann Potter, 2013

“Globalisation is in local production and international production alike; it is happening from within and from without; it is across high-budget and low-budget programs and films; and it is in both quality and demotic entertainment.”

— Tom O’Regan and Ann Potter, 2013

“Transnational studies of Australian film have tended to focus on large-scale, mainstream, international production arrangements and economic benefits to the nation, with little attention paid to textual or social issues such as on screen cultural representation”

— Therese Davis, 2014• This is a dig at Goldsmith’s international-Australian

thesis.• How is ‘international’ represented in national films?

de-nationalisation?

“Different national element — whether production companies, local format production and policy settings — that are still identified as ‘localised in national settings’ are now substantially oriented towards global agendas and systems. This is leading to a subtle process of de-nationalisation.”

— Tom O’Regan and Ann Potter, 2013

• Often when we think of globalization and cross-over, it’s discussed through a de-nationalisation. – But The Sapphires brings the international musical genre into the

national.

The ending

Julie doesn’t leave to ‘make-it’ in Hollywood

“Turns its back on globalized show business” —Adrian Martin

• It doesn’t turn its back on globalization — it does it on its own terms. – It doesn’t become a fairy-tale

de-nationalisation

“Smart marketing: the best way to get The Sapphires in front of as many pairs of American eyeballs as possible.”

— Karl Quinn, Sydney Morning Herald

“There comes a time when ‘smart’ marketing taints the nuance of the product that it seeks to promote.”

— Nu’min, Bitch Media

Conclusion

“My intention has been to encourage scholars of Australian cinema to consider the diversity of relations that constitute it, and not to be limited to understanding of Australian cinema that simply conform with categories developed by government agencies for their own purposes”

— Ben Goldsmith

“Rather than understanding Australian cinema as a territory, Australian-international cinema is conceived as a space of relations”

— Ben Goldsmith