Ryan, Mark David. (2016). Pedagogical Uses of Australian Screen Content in Tertiary Education. Screen Studies Association of Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand Conference, Sea Change: Transforming Industries, Screens, Texts, Victoria University of Wellington, Wellington, New Zealand, November 23-25 2016.

1. Pedagogical Uses of Australian Screen Content in
Tertiary Education
2016 SSAAANZ conference, 25 November, University of Victoria,
Wellington
Mark David Ryan and Kayleigh Murphy
E: m3.ryan@qut.edu.au T: @Markdavidryan
Queensland University of Technology

2. Broader Research Context
This paper emerges from and builds on two projects:
Australia cinema studies: how the subject is taught in Australian universities
• 1 year study into curriculum/syllabus models
• Finding published in Australian cinema studies: How the subject is taught in
Australian universities in The Journal of Australian Studies (Ryan 2017)
Screen Content in Australian Education: Digital Promise and Pitfalls
(Cunningham et al 2016)
• Funded by ‘Australian screen content in education’ Linkage Grant
(Cunningham and Dezaunni)
• I led a component on screen content in tertiary education
***
This conference paper was published in Ryan (2018) in Studies in Australasian Cinema.
Cunningham et al 2016

3. Background: Mapping of Australian Cinema Studies
31 of 39 University offered an ‘Australian cinema’ subject of some kind:
22 universities offered Australian cinema units (sole object of study)
5 offered Australian cinema as a dual area of study with literature or stage
4 units where Australian cinema constituted a minor component of syllabus
(‘Australian Popular Culture’ and ‘World Cinemas’)
Units without a central Australian film focus were not analysed
Source: Ryan (2017), Australia cinema studies: how the subject is taught in Australian universities
3

4. Australian cinema
subjects by
university
University Unit
1. Australian National
University
Australian Cinema: The Kelly Gang to Baz Luhrmann’s
Australia (FILM2066)
2. Bond University Film Analysis 2: Australian Cinema (FITV12-230)
3. Deakin University Contemporary Australian Cinema (AAM319)
4. Edith Cowan University Australian Screen Studies (SCR2116)
5. Federation University Australian Cinema (FLMOL 1001)
6. Flinders University Australian Cinema (SCME2101)
[Renamed: Australian/Indigenous Media (SCME2101)]
7. Griffith University Australia Screen (3012HUM)
8. MacQuarie University Australian Film and Television (CUL221)
9. Monash University Australian film and television: Nation, culture and
identity (ATS2529)
10. Queensland University of
Technology
Australian Film and Television (KPB212)
11. Royal Melbourne
Institute of Technology
(RMIT University)
Australian Cinema (COMM1033)
12. Swinburne Australian Film and Television History (FTV20005)
13. University of Canberra Australian National Cinema (9016.2)
14. University of Melbourne Australian Film and Television (SCRN20013)
15. University of New
England
Australian Cinema (COMM385/585)
16. University of Notre
Dame
Australian Cinema (CO363)
17. University of NSW Australian Cinema and Television (ARTS2062)
18. University of Queensland Australian Cinema (MSTU2006)
19. University of Southern
Queensland
Australian Television (CMS2017)
20. University of Sunshine
Coast
Upfront: History of Film in Australia (HIS290)
21. University of Technology
Sydney
Australian Film (58321)
22. University of Western
Sydney
Postcolonial Australian Cinema (101987.1)
4
Source: Ryan (2017)

5. Subjects by university cont. …
University Unit
23.
Charles Sturt University Australian Screen and Stage (COM122)
24.
James Cook University Regional Features: Place, Location, Australia
and Asia in Cinema (CN2205)
25.
University of Adelaide Australian Classics: Literature and Film (ENGL
2055)
26.
University of South
Australia
Australia Imagined: Identity and Diversity in
Australian Film and Literature (COMM 3048)
27.
University of Sydney Australian Stage and Screen (ASLT2616)
“Australian cinema” units with a dual focus
University Unit
28.
Australian Catholic
University (no course
outline available)
Australian Popular Culture (HIST228)
29.
Curtin University World Cinemas (SCST2000)
30.
University of Western
Australia
National and Transnational Cinemas
(ENGL3401)
31.
Victoria University World Cinema (ACC3061)
Broader units with content that also
includes “Australian cinema”
5

6. Background: National Cinema Curriculum and
Australian Cinema Studies
Australian cinema studies is firmly embedded within national cinema curriculum
Focussed on Australian cinema’s distinctiveness as a national cinema and attendant discourses
Principal focus is analysing, critiquing, discussing and in some cases problematising national
issues, history and discourses
Most units have modules dedicated to contemporary issues, only a handful focussed on
contemporary cinema
6
Source: Ryan (2017)

7. Background: common approaches to syllabus
Four key approaches to curriculum are:
1.Historical and chronological accounts of Australian cinema (historical/industry/policy/text
during a specific period of time)
2.Study of a key film and corresponding theme (textual/thematic/history)
3.Key discourses of Australian cinema and critical issues (cultural, critical theory)
4.A modular approach (a combination of the above)
7

8. Background: Historical chronologies
8
Table 1: ‘Upfront: History of Film in Australia’, University of the sunshine Coast
Lecture
week
Lecture topic/key concepts
1. Introduction: The invention and early historical transitions of film: what was
cinema?
2.
The Silent Era 1: the first Australian (and international) documentaries
(‘actualities’) and the early feature film history of Australia
3.
The Silent Era 2: the development of documentary and feature film, and the
cinema industry, in Australia to the end of the 1920s: structures, techniques,
narratives, themes
4.
The coming of sound in late 1920s and 1930s – new techniques, old themes?
5. War, propaganda and colour film: WW2 and the effects on Australian film
6.
1940s-50s Britain/Australia/Hollywood: the links
7. Documentary film: supporting the film industry during the decline in feature
productions
8.
The start of the revival of Australian film
9.
The film revival in full swing
10. Suburban/urban film 1980s-1990s
11.
Diversity, glam musicals and the marginalised
12.
A second revival? New directions
Key issues that shape
production, policy
settings and ultimately
the textuality of films in
a specific era
Provides a holistic
account of OZ cinema
– from silent cinema to
now …
Emphasis tends to be a
combination of text,
history, industry, policy

9. Background: key discourses/critical issues
9
Critical issues: ‘Australian Film and Television’, Macquarie University
Lecture
week
Lecture schedule and content breakdown
1. Screening Australianness – Newsfront (1977)
2. Screening National Identity – Kenny (2006)
3.
Screening Indigeneity – Mabo (2012)
4. Screening Multiculturalism – Temple of Dreams (2007)
5. Screening Australia –Australia (2008)
6.
Screening Space – Bra Boys (Sunny Aberton, Macario De Souza, 2007)
7. Screening Gender – Suburban Mayhem (Paul Goldman, 2006)
8.
Screening Sexualities – Strange Bedfellows (2004, Dean Murphy)
9. Screening Religion – The Devil’s Playground(Fred Schepsisi, 1976)
10.
Screening Diaspora and Detention – Go Back to Where You Came From, Season
1, Episodes 1 and 2 (2011, SBS Television)
11.
Screening Badlands – Underbelly: The Golden Mile, Season 3, Episode 1 – ‘Into
the Mystic’ (2010, Nine Network)
12. Screening Futures
Aligned with critical
theories/approaches
common in film theory/
Screen studies
Critical positions not
necessarily unique to
Australian cinema
studies but applied to
the Australian context

10. Background: Australian cinema discourses
and genre
10
KPB212: Australian Film and Television
Lecture
Week
Lecture Screenings
1. Introduction: Australia film and television – Crocodile
Dundee
Crocodile Dundee (1986)
2. Constructing a nation in 1970s and 1980s – Gallipoli Gallipoli (1981)
3. Aesthetics of commercialism: Ozploitation and
blockbusters – Not Quite Hollywood
Not Quite Hollywood
(2008)
4. Diversity and Australian Screen in the 1990s: Men,
women and suburbia
The Adventures of Priscilla,
Queen of the Desert (1994)
5. Post-national cinema: contemporary Australian cinema Tomorrow, When the War
Began (2010)
6. The Australian television industry
and TV soapies
Episode of Neighbours
Or Home and Away (2006 and
1993 series available)
7. Indigenous filmmaking The Sapphires (2012)
8. Suburban mayhem: crime films Gettin Square (2003)
9. Revenge of nature: Australian horror films Picnic at Hanging Rock (1975)
or The Tunnel (2011)
10. Ocker comedy The Castle (1997)

11. This Study
Examines the use of ‘Australian screen’ content in tertiary screen studies programs, namely:
‘Australian cinema’, ‘Australian Film’, ‘Australian National Cinema’, ‘Australian Film and
Television’, ‘Australian Screen’, and ‘Australian Documentary’
It drills deeper into the broad insights curriculum and syllabus models identified in Ryan (2017)
Focused on the pedagogical use of Australian screen content in undergraduate study in higher
education in Australian universities.

12. Methods/Research Design
10 x 60-120 minute semi-structured interviews with principal coordinators or lecturers
2x Queensland universities; 2x Victorian universities; 3x New South Wales universities (1x
stage and screen); and 1x university in South Australia, Western Australia, and the Australian Capital
Territory.
No standalone subjects offered in Northern Territory (Charles Darwin University) or Tasmania (the
University of Tasmania).
Mix of Go8, Australian Technology Network and regional universities examined.

13. Australian Screen and their position in curriculum
Many coordinators are former filmmakers, activists, cinephiles, critics
Australian screen units, and their emphasis, are strongly associated with individual coordinators
Part of a broader suite of screen studies subjects (sometimes alongside various Australian screen subjects)
Australian Screen units are also part of a suite of cultural analysis or cultural studies-type units – have a
strong cultural function.
The number of Australian screen subjects offered at any one time fluctuates – offered on a rotating basis

14. Screenings
Teaching and learning for Australian screen studies is typically structured around:
• A one to two hour lecture
• A scheduled in-class screening of generally an hour and an half
• A tutorial
• Out-of-class viewings and in some cases an expectation for out-of-class attendance of film festivals,
exhibitions or other relevant screen culture events.
In-class screenings & out-of-class viewing – feature films, television programs, and documentary
films, is central to curriculum, weekly syllabus and T&L activities.
Coordinators have options for sourcing screen content: physical DVDs/Blu-ray, streaming services
such as Kanopy and EduTV.
Feature film was most dominant form of screen content studied.

15. In Class Screenings
In-class screenings remain the dominant practice
Timetable scheduling, a push for students to watch feature-length
screenings outside of class-time, poor screening attendance put
pressure on in-class screenings
For interviewees: world cinema, documentary units no longer have
dedicated screenings
Few Interviewees felt as though their Oz screen subject was not under the same timetabling or
institutional pressures
There has bee a contraction in no. of subjects offered in recent years; those that remain are on stable ground

16. In-class Screenings
Australian screen subjects may have a privileged position relative to other screen subjects
Interviewees justify in-class screenings in three key ways:
1. Screenings critical to curriculum
2. Importance of social practice/awareness of cinema experience
3. A key way to foster attendance
Cultural function/cultural heritage may also play a key role in maintaining this privileged position

17. ‘Curating’ content and screening practices
Screenings: physical DVDs/Blu-ray copies purchased by university libraries and supplemented by
titles from a coordinator’s personal collection is the most established practice for sourcing content for
in-class screenings is.
Quality is a key determining factor – streaming viewed as unreliable in terms of quality
YouTube is widely used to show clips, rarely weekly screenings.
Coordinators go to extraordinary lengths to acquire and ‘curate’ screenings.
• Institutional librarians license NSFA and ACMI 16/35 mm prints.
• Margot Nash secured 16mm prints from filmmaking networks not housed by NFSA
• QUT purchased Ozploitation rarities from Trash Video Collection for T&L activities

18. An Australian Screen Studies Canon?
There are canonical films commonly screened in many screening programs
across Australian universities.
There is no one accepted canon of Australian cinema screened in higher
education (Ryan 2017 forthcoming).
For interviewees: key AFC films are central to what can be understood as
classic Australian cinema
But there is no agreeance on what constitutes and Australian canon, or the
criteria by which if should be judged .

19. Screened in four or more
subjects
• The Sentimental Bloke (1919) – six
• Gallipoli (1981) – five
• Jedda (1955) – five
• Picnic at Hanging Rock (1975) – four
• They’re a Weird Mob (1966) – four
Screened in three subjects • The Adventures of Barry McKenzie (1972)
• Australia (2008)
• Wake in Fright (1971)
• Not Quite Hollywood (2008)
• Samson and Delilah (2009)
• The True Story of the Kelly Gang (1906)
• Mad Max (1979)
• The Castle (1997)
• The Proposition (2005)
• Lantana (2001)
• Newsfront (1977)
• Ten Canoes (2006)
Screened in two subjects • Bedevil (1993)
• The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert (1994)
• Muriel’s Wedding (1994)
• Breaker Morant (1980)
• Radiance (1998)
• My Tehran for Sale (2009)
• Kenny (2006)
• East West 101 ( 2007–2011)
• Underbelly (2008–2013)
• One Night the Moon (2001)
• My Brilliant Career (1979)
• Kath & Kim (2002–2007)
• The Boys (1998)
Australian cinema screenings (2014)
Source: Ryan, Mark David. (In press 2017). Australian
Cinema Studies: How the Subject is Taught in Australian
Universities. The Journal of Australian Studies, Iss. 4.
Accepted 23/11/2016.

20. Huw Walmsley-Evans stressed the importance of studying the highest aesthetic and technical quality,
or what he refers to as “film as film”.
For Walmsley-Evans, he would not screen Kenny because:
It's not a good film. So in that sense there is a sense of "capital C" cinema about Australian
film. Because we know that other approach, the more socio-cultural approach doesn't …
necessarily care for pro-filmic values and will get taught elsewhere in units or courses in
"Australian Studies", "Cultural Studies" or "Gender Studies" at the University of
Queensland. These media/cultural studies’ approaches to Australian cinema allow us to be
more pro-filmic with our offering in the film department. (Walmsley-Evans, UQ, 2016).
For other interviewees, delimiting screenings to films of the highest aesthetic or technical quality was
less of a determining factor
How well films align with relevant cultural and national cinema discourses was more important.
An Australian Screen Studies Canon?

21. Coordinators attempt to screen a range of contrasting films that reinforce as well as challenge the idea
of classic Australian cinema:
“I think in terms of teaching the canon, I try to include some canonical things … some [films] that are
bad taste or … a mixture in terms of genre and in terms of period, in terms of ethnic groups” (Lesley
Speed, Federation University, 2016).
“I’m more interested in films as cultural history. So, yes, I aim to include what might be called “keynote”
films by well-known directors, as well as some other, less art house movies. Working Dog’s The Castle
was brought back this year, for instance, partly due to student demand, and partly to speak to themes
about the representation of suburban life that also run through a number of the play texts.”
(Kirkpatrick, Uni of Sydney, 2016)
“I tend to choose films that I think they probably haven’t seen. I do have a main theme running through
the course, which is the classic and the canon, what do we mean by the canon. Because I’m interested
in ideas about taste, and I’m also yeah, I guess it is about taste that I’m interested in. And so the, what
is a classic? Why is it a classic? What is the canon? Who’s canon? Are we talking about a canon or
genre?”
(Jane Mills, UNSW, 2016).

22. Australian Screen and Cultural Heritage
Teaching Australian screen history is viewed as important to curriculum to:
• Introduce students to key films and their historical lineage that they will not have seen otherwise;
• Frame contemporary films within an understanding of historically-informed industry, policy and cultural
contexts; and
• Encourage students to think about Australian culture, national identity and their own cultural identity
through critical engagement with the films studied.
However, teaching history is problematic and is a major challenge to teaching Australian screen.
Despite a strong desire by coordinators to teach history, students have little interest in engaging with
historical content.
Students also often have a minimal understanding of Australian history (both domestic and international
students).

23. Australian cinema studies Assessment Items (2014)
23
Type of Assessment Specific Assessment Task Number of Units
offering Task
Total
Written Essay (< 1,000 words) 8 29
Essay (> 1,000 words) 21
Examinations Exam 8 13
Viewing Exam 1
Take Home Exam 3
Test/quiz 1
Tutorial-Based
Assessment
Tutorial Reports/Journals 2 13
Critical Contribution 1
In-class Review 1
Attendance/Participation 7
Weekly Tutorial Exams 2
Oral Presentation Presentation 11 11
Exhibition Exhibition Program Rationale 2 4
Exhibition Catalogue 2
Creative Creative practice
(short film/multimedia piece)
1 4
Creative Research Project/
Creative reflection
2
Creative Response (to film
history, recurring themes)
1
Bibliography Annotated Bibliography 3 3
Company/Institution
Profile
Company/Institution Report 1 2
Filmmaker profile 1
Multimedia Blog Entries 1 1
Fundamental critical literacy
skills
Graduate destinations are:
Education, production,
support roles in ‘production
culture’, criticism, higher
degree research and
academic professions
But largely textual based,
not fusing of
production/theory little
experimentation with new
media technologies
Source: Australian Cinema Studies: How the Subject is Taught in Australian Universities. The Journal of Australian Studies.

24. Pedagogy and Assessment
It is common for students to commence the study of Australian screen with:
• Limited prior knowledge of Australian film.
• Either a negative/ambivalent attitude towards Australian screen content.
• And a reluctance to watch historical content.
Engagement with ‘Australian screen’ as a subject is a key priority for pedagogues
Essay has long been a dominant form of assessment – aimed at developing research, writing, and
critical analysis skills
There is increasing emphasis on creative responses and non-essay based assessment.

25. Pedagogy and Assessment
Assessment design priorities:
• To enable students with non-screen disciplinary knowledge to apply this knowledge in non-
essay based assessment
• Developing creative outputs relative to a student’s specific craft (costumes, art-design, scripts,
video and photographic essays)
• Authentic assessment aligned with screen culture (curating film festival catalogues, film
criticism)
• For students studying practical film production, an emphasis is developing critical informed
practice
Few online/new media projects (YouTube channels, transmedia, online videos)

26. Examples: authentic and applied assessment items
Students program and project 35mm prints for weekly screenings
Students create a portfolio of critical writing for actual publications
Students produced a short trailer for an Australian movie concept
Exhibition catalogues responding to industry-standard briefs
Set/prop design for a movie concept

27. Stephen Gaunson, Australian Cinema (RMIT)
Gaunson’s (RMIT) Australian Cinema is one of the few films to focus solely of films released in last 15 years.
Assessment 1. Choose your own assessment (design your own essay/written assessment based on your
disciplinary knowledge) – marketing briefs, business plans, distribution plans etc.
Assessment 2. Research and examine a material object from an Australian screen object
Students attend the Screen Worlds exhibition at ACMI, Melbourne, and must write a portfolio on a object:
“The exhibition displays props and set pieces from iconic Australian films, including: the canoe from Ten
Canoes (2006), a replica of the Mad Max (1979) Interceptor car and the windmill from Moulin
Rouge! (2001). Assessment requires students to write an essay that places a chosen cultural artefact
in either a cultural or filmic context” (Gaunson, RMIT, 2016).

28. Week Lecture schedule and content breakdown
1. What is an Australian film? – Finding Nemo (2003)
2. Outwardly Australia – The Sapphires (2012)
3. Australian Films for China – 33 Postcards (2011)
4. The Problems of ‘International’ Australian Stories: Finding Local Audiences – Balibo (2009)
5. Inflated Budgets and Poor Box Office: A Case for Robert Connelly’s ‘White Paper’ – Netherland
Dwarf (2008) and The Rover (2014)
6. CinemaPlus: Robert Connolly’s Event Screening – The Turning (2013)
7. Test Screenings and Young Audiences – Tomorrow, When the War Began (2010)
8. Finding the Wide Audience: Film Festivals and Audience Response – Stranded (2011) and
Samson and Delilah (2014)
9. Genre Markets and Marketing – Monster (2005) and The Babadook (2014)
10. Watching Australian Films on the Small Screen – The Mule (2014)
11. Australian Hit: When is a Film Successful? – Mystery Road (2014)
12. Next Generation Filmmaking – Blue-Tongue Shorts and Lake Mungo (2008)

29. Screen studies and Industry outcomes
Me my mates and the zombie Apocalypse (2015) screenplay written as an
assessment item for “Australian National Cinema” coordinated by Susan
Thwaites, University of Canberra
“For that film, and [the student] basically, all the things that we were looking
at, in terms, especially the larrikin, the archetype … all of that stuff was in
there. So it’s one of the lovely success stories of that unit that inspired
someone to think of … that idea of the larrikin in a zombie apocalypse”
(Susan Thwaites 2016).
Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pmsdSx3PLqs
Dario Rosso’s YouTube sensation Italian Spiderman was conceived for an
honours project at Flinders University and early ideas were developed in
Mike Walsh’s Australian cinema subject (Walsh 2016).

30. Assessment and Industry outcomes
In Margot Nash’s unit, a key assessment item is a Creative Response to
any aspect of Australian screen:
Students choose a film or a group of films that embody an issue
… and produce a creative response that draws on ideas
discussed in the class. They were invited to re-imagine a
familiar work or produce an original [artefact] as a personal
response. They can write a critical essay but it must be
supported by visuals such as stills from the film … They can
do an audio-visual [piece] … One or two maybe wrote an
essay but when I taught it, they made films, they did
photographic essays, one student did a choreographed dance.
Another… embroidered an evening purse as a tribute to the
McDonagh Sisters [Isabel, Paulette and Phyllis McDonagh] who
were pioneering female filmmakers during Australian silent
cinema (1896-1930)] (Nash, University of Technology Sydney,
2016).
A prop developed by a
fashion student as a tribute
to the McDonagh Sisters

31. Conclusion
Australian screen studies is on stable unstable ground
Tensions between desire by coordinators to teach history and cultural heritage and students’ attitudes
towards Australian screen
An increasing shift towards a more contemporaneous focus on Australian screen though tensions
remain
Assessment and teaching and learning is to an extent becoming more applied – to increase perceived
relevance of the subject to career trajectories
There is a vague sense of a canon but every screening program is quite different
Student engagement is more of priority than pedagogical innovation

32. References
Cunningham, Stuart, Dezuanni, Michael, Goldsmith, Benedict, Burns, Maureen, Miles, Prue, Henkel, Cathy, Ryan, Mark, &
Murphy, Kayleigh (2016) Screen content in Australian education: Digital promise and pitfalls. Digital Media Research Centre,
Queensland University of Technology, Australia.
Ryan, Mark David (2018) Australian screen studies: pedagogical uses of Australian content in tertiary education. Studies in
Australasian Cinema, 12(1), pp. 70-84.
Ryan, Mark David (2017) Australian cinema studies: How the subject is taught in Australian universities. Journal of Australian
Studies, 41(4), pp. 518-535.