It was probably the world’s first full-length feature film in 1906: The story of the Kelly gang. Australian cinema thrived during the silent era but the industry went into decline in the late 1920s as ever-expanding US and British production companies took over distribution and exhibition, often excluding Australian product from local cinemas. By the end of the 1960s, Australia had virtually no feature film production. The intervention of the Gorton and Whitlam governments in the early 1970s rescued the industry from oblivion. Taking advantage of this re-invigorated production climate, a new breed of independent filmmakers sought to reflect the complexity of history, thought and culture in Australia.

Screening in conjunction with the exhibition The photograph and Australia, the documentaries and feature films in this series sought to raise questions, redress gaps in recorded history, bring uncomfortable truths to the fore, register social change and depict contemporary realities. They cast a new light on the historical events, people and ideas that shaped Australia’s history during the 20th century.

Film series: Brought to light
29 March – 3 June 2015
Art Gallery of NSW, Sydney
www.artgallery.nsw.gov.au

Photography has been crucial in the development of our understanding of Australia as a place and Australians as a people. Tracing the evolution of the medium and its many uses from the 1840s until today, The photograph and Australia investigates the role that photography has played in shaping our view of the world, ourselves and each other.

Sourced from more than 35 private and public collections across Australia, New Zealand and England, the exhibition features works by renowned artists, as well as images by unknown photographers and everyday material such as family albums and postcards. Weaving together the multiple threads of Australia’s photographic history, it proposes a new way of thinking about the connections between photography, place and identity.

Artists include Morton Allport, Richard Daintree, Paul Foelsche, Samuel Sweet, JJ Dwyer, Charles Bayliss, Frank Hurley, Harold Cazneaux, Olive Cotton, Max Dupain, Sue Ford, Carol Jerrems, Tracey Moffatt, Simryn Gill, Robyn Stacey, Ricky Maynard and Anne Ferran, among many others.

As part of The photograph and Australia, Patrick Pound’s installation The readers 2011-15 is on display in the Gallery’s research library.

The photograph and Australia
21 March – 8 June 2015
Art Gallery of NSW, Sydney
www.artgallery.nsw.gov.au