Elizabeth Ellison

Queensland's film culture: the challenges of local film distribution and festival exhibition

Queenslands film sector is currently in the midst of significant change. Organisations at the centre of the states industry, such as Screen Queensland, have undergone substantial and ongoing changes in the last five years. Other organisations funded by Screen Queensland, such as QPIX, Queenslands only film development centre, have recently closed. The Brisbane International Film Festival has been restructured to become the Brisbane Asia Pacific Film Festival as of 2014. In an uncertain industry currently characterised by limited funding and diminishing support structures, local emerging filmmakers require significant initiatives and a sophisticated understanding of how to best utilise fledgling distribution models as part of a tailored strategy for their content. This essay includes interviews with emerging Brisbane filmmakers who have used a combination of traditional and contemporary approaches to exhibition and distribution thus far in their careers. It argues that for these filmmakers, while film festivals do function as crucial platforms for exposure, in the current digital market they cannot be relied upon as the only platform in securing further mainstream or commercial release. They can, however, be incorporated into an alternative distribution model that shows awareness of the contemporary situation in Australia. The research findings are arguably indicative of the challenges faced by filmmakers statewide, and suggest that further support strategies need to be considered to revive Queenslands film culture and provide immediate support for emerging filmmakers.

The Gritty Urban: The Australian Beach as City Periphery in Cinema

The Australian beach is an iconic landscape both locally and internationally. It functions as an obvious landmark for the tourism industry, but also as an everyday location for the Australians who live along coastal regions. As a population, Australians tend to hug the coastlines, with most capital cities positioned on or near coastal areas (with the exception of landlocked Canberra of the Australian Capital Territory). Thus, the beach landscape is one that is incredibly familiar to the majority of the population and a big attraction for many international visitors to the island continent. Of course, Australia is not alone in having beaches and while many aspects of the beach and what it has come to represent in people’s lives are universal, there are still very distinct and specific elements to Australian beaches and to the ways these have been creatively expressed through cinema.