Shining a Light: 50 Years of the Australian Film Institute, by Lisa French and Mark Poole
A new book, Shining a Light: 50 Years of the Australian Film Institute, traces the progress of the film and television industries in Australia – as well as screen culture within Australia over the past half century – through the lens of one key organisation, the Australian Film Institute (AFI). Shining a Light offers a timely and significant contribution to scholarship on Australian cinema, published at a critical time in Australian film history.
The authors, Lisa French and Mark Poole, offer an insider’s view through 27 interviews with key players on
the local scene.
The book also includes a listing of every AFI Award that has been given since 1958, including the nominees and winners of each award category. This is the first time that such an exhaustive list of AFI nominees and winners has been published.
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About the Authors:
The authors' collective experience spans filmmaking, academic research and teaching, film journalism, employment and service in key screen culture organisations, as well as an abiding passion for Australian cinema – bringing to this work both the filmmaker and industry perspective, and academic scholarship.
Lisa French is a Senior Lecturer in Cinema Studies, Media and Communication at RMIT University. She is also the co-author of Womenvision: Women and the Moving Image in Australia and has previously collaborated on film projects with Mark Poole, including making the film Birth of a Film Festival (2003), a film about the first Melbourne International Film Festival. She was a board member of the AFI for nine years.
Mark Poole is a Melbourne based writer/director and current Victorian Chair of the Australian Writers Guild. He has written more than 20 hours television drama, including the AFI Award winning telefeature A Single Life; he co-produced and directed the documentary Fearless, screened on the ABC (2008); and he is a contributor to the online journal Screen Hub and other publications such as The Age, Metro and Storyline.
AFI History: Fast Facts
- A group of Carlton film enthusiasts set up the AFI in 1958
- The AFI modelled its constitution on the BFI (British Film Institute).
- The Melbourne Film Festival became an activity of the AFI from 1958 but they separated into two organisations in 1972.
- The AFI did not receive any government funding until 1970.
- The AFI was instrumental in the lobby for the ‘revival’ of Australian film in the 1970s.
- The AFI funded films between 1970 and 1978 through the Experimental Film and Television Fund.
- The AFI operated cinemas in Melbourne, Sydney and Launceston for 3 decades.
- The Nine Network produced the first ever televised broadcast of the AFI Awards in 1976.
- Steven Spielberg donated money to set up the Byron Kennedy Award.
Quotations from Shining a Light
The AFI as an idea...
“the idea of the AFI, the kind of imaginary space or oasis and potential it represents, is the central reason it is still in existence after fifty years.” p.136.
On the history of the AFI Awards
“The first Awards [in 1958 and 1959] were low key and not regarded as the only or even the principal objective of the AFI at that time. The films entered were largely documentaries, as Australia did not make many feature films during that period. However the Awards’ judges took their task extremely seriously...” p.108.
On the judging process...
“Former chair, Bob Weiss observed that filmmakers who did not win awards feel the need to blame someone, so they blame those who hand out the awards, rather than admit that their peers, who rigorously assessed their work, failed to recognise its worth.” p.121.
Supporting women in film
“[in the 1980s] the AFI aided a feminist political agenda that had been building from the previous decade (the AFC established the Women’s Film Fund in 1976). Peter Kemp was employed by the AFI in 1982 to run a Women’s Film Festival as part of his role as exhibition officer and he has commented that the focus on women was part of the ‘spirit of the times: most cultural organisations wanted to pay more than lip service to women and there were a lot of women employed by the AFI...[it was a] “femocracy”.’” p.65.
The AFI alumni and membership
“A who’s who of the industry would also be a who’s who of the AFI.” Ken Berryman, quoted, p.97.
“It’s not owned by a government, its ownership is the industry and the community that is engaged with film and I think that is why it plays an important role and why it is so valued.” Sandra Sdraulig, quoted p.103.
BUY NOW
If you would like to purchase a copy of the book Shining a Light: 50 Years of the Australian Film Institute please complete the Offline payment form.