Transnational Australian Cinema

Olivia Khoo is a Senior Lecturer in Film and Screen Studies at Monash University.

To date, there has been little sustained attention given to the historical cinema relations between Australia and Asia. This is a significant omission given Australia's geo-political position and the place Asia has held in the national imaginary, oscillating between threat and opportunity. Many accounts of Australian cinema begin with the 1970s film revival, placing "Asian-Australian cinema" within a post-revival schema of multicultural or diasporic cinema and ignoring Asian-Australian connections prior to the revival. Transnational Australian Cinema charts a history of Asian-Australian cinema, encompassing the work of diasporic Asian filmmakers, films featuring images of Asia and Asians, films produced by Australians working in Asia's film industries or addressed at Asian audiences, and Asian films that use Australian resources, including locations and personnel.Utilizing an interdisciplinary approach, the book considers diasporic Asian histories, the impact of government immigration and film policies on representation, and the new aesthetic styles and production regimes created by filmmakers who have forged links, both through roots and routes, with Asia. This expanded history of Asian-Australian cinema allows for a renewed discussion of so-called dormant periods in the nation's film history. In this respect, the mapping of an expanded history of cinema practices contributes to our broader aim to rethink the transnationalism of Australian cinema.

Chapter 1: Reframing Australian Cinema: Transnationalism, Ethics, and Asian Australian CinemaPart A. Reframing National Cinema HistoryChapter 2: Asian Stereotypes in 1920s Australian Cinema: The Cook, the Thief, the Wife and LoverChapter 3: Colombo Plan Documentary: Australia and Asia in the Postwar EraChapter 4: The Transnationalisation of the Australian Western: Japanese-Australian Productions in the Late 1960sPart B. Australia's Film Renaissance and Beyond: Uneasy Cinematic EncountersChapter 5: Romance, Entrepreneurialism and the Intercultural CoupleChapter 6: The Global Back of Beyond: Ethics and the Asian Australian Road MovieChapter 7: Landscape Cinema: Asianness and IndigeneityPart C. Networks and Technologies: Contemporary Asian Australian CinemaChapter 8: New Ethics in the Asian Australian Short FilmChapter 9: The Community Cultural Development of Action CinemaChapter 10: Co-productions and New Queer Paradigms for Mobilities and Migration