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Viewing report
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Australian Experimental Film. Edition No. 1
VDM Publishing House, Feb 2009, Pages: 184
In Australian art cinema no decade can rival the
importance of the 1960s, yet little is still
popularly known of its significance. This book
attempts 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 book discusses the impact of the counterculture
on Australian cinema through the work of the Sydney
Underground Film group, Ubu, active between 1965
-1970. Ubu 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.
The experimentation of Ubu and the counterculture
period was a necessary precondition to the public
success of Australia's 1970s cinema renaissance.
In that context two key films are discussed, 'It
Droppeth as the Gentle Rain' (1963) and 'Newsfront'
(1978).
Current trends suggest a move away from mass media
consumption to more personally driven media choices
that enable active contribution, a model Ubu was
presenting forty years ago.
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