A monograph focusing on Australian World War One feature films has been released by the National Film and Sound Archive to celebrate the 90th anniversary of the Gallipoli landing.
The National Film and Sound Archive, a division of the Australian Film Commission, will also present a screening of an interpretation of the 1915 Gallipoli film, The Hero of the Dardanelles. The screening, presented in association with the Melbourne Cinémathèque, will take place at the Australian Centre for the Moving Image (ACMI) in Melbourne on 27 April 2005 at 7pm.
The monograph, The Hero of the Dardanelles and Other World War One Silent Dramas, discusses all the war-related feature films known to have been produced from 1914 to 1930, paying special attention to the footage that has survived and been preserved in the Archive.
The monograph is the latest in a series produced by the National Film and Sound Archive. Archive Director Paolo Cherchi Usai said today that the medium of film was a very powerful element in the development of a nation's cultural story. "The films about the Gallipoli campaign have played a major part in determining how that campaign is now seen. This monograph is a most welcome addition to the ongoing discussion about film and culture."
The author of the monograph is Dr Daniel Reynaud, Senior Lecturer in the Faculty of Arts at Avondale College in NSW. Dr Reynaud, an authority in this area of Australian film history, discusses the historical and socio-political context of the films, noting among other things the enthusiastic tone of the early films, which gradually turned to weariness in the later works. Dr Reynaud said, "These films help us understand the development of Anzac as a national myth. As popular films, many were seen by large audiences and they were influential in shaping the Anzac legend."
With advice from Dr Reynaud, the National Film and Sound Archive has undertaken a reinterpretation of the The Hero of the Dardanelles, which is the first ever Gallipoli movie, made while the campaign was still underway. This version has been compiled with other surviving World War One silent dramas and is available for viewing from the Archive.
The Archive's Digital Spotlight feature on its website, www.screensound.gov.au includes a fascinating range of additional references and digitised images from the national collection relating to World War One.
Wednesday 27 April, 7pm at the Australian Centre for the Moving Image, Melbourne: An Anzac Program, featuring the partial reconstruction of the surviving footage of The Hero of the Dardanelles (1915), presented by the National Film and Sound Archive and the Melbourne Cinémathèque. Dr Daniel Reynaud will introduce the screening. Contact ACMI box office on 03 8663 2201.
Photographs and TV grabs on betacam are available. Interviews can be arranged. |
