Celluloid Heroes, The: Arising From the Ashes (1949-1970)

1995, 55 Minutes

In a post-war film world dominated by the giants of Hollywood, local heroes managed to achieve huge successes with local stories including Jedda, Smiley and Age of Consent (based on a semi-autobiographical novel by Norman Lindsay). Lee Robinson produced features which launched the careers of many actors, including Chips Rafferty, Rod Taylor, Ron Randell and Bud Tingwell. His films included classics such as King of the Coral Sea and The Phantom Stockman.

Documentaries like Inlander were showing Australians their country and exposing the vastness and isolation. The Waterside Workers Film Unit was established to document and accurately record Australian issues of the time, often exposing poverty and hardships that Australians were encountering. The impact of television on Australian culture in this period was vital to the rebirth of the Australian film industry.

Political influences had an enormous effect on the Australian film industry and this episode examines these influences, from the conservative Menzies government era through to the Whitlam Labor government, when for the first time the Australian industry gained the basis for a solid financial footing.

A Film Australia National Interest Program. © 2011 National Film and Sound Archive of Australia.