The history of an Australian film production company : Cinesound, 1932-1970

Abstract

This thesis originated in a desire to define and assess the problems which have prevented the development of a stable film industry in Australia. Although a film industry has existed in Australia for most of this century, and dozens of profitable feature films have been produced in the 1920s and 1930s, the industry has failed since the Second World War to support the production of full-length narrative films; instead the post-war years have seen a dependence on sponsored short films (such as travelogues and advertisements), instructional films and news reports. Such activity is capable of employing hundreds of technicians and of earning healthy profits, but while the industry may prosper with such work it has almost invariably failed financially whenever it has branched off into feature product narrative feature film, especially before the advent of television, was the medium of mass entertainment which most powerfully formed popular fantasies and catered to them. Hollywood was often referred to as 'the dream factory' and its provision of easily accessible and desirable 'escape' from daily routines made it a powerful vehicle for cultural conditioning. In Australia cinema screens have for decades been dominated by American and British feature films and huge profits are made annually from the exploitation of the Australian market by British and American companies. That Australian film-makers should be able to participate with confidence and security in the film trade in their own country one of the fundamental assumptions underlying this thesis.