Studies in Australasian Cinema Themed Issue 9.2: Abstract submission to editors by: October 31, 2014 Article submission deadline for 9.2: April 1, 2015 Co-edited by Stephen Gaunson and Jeannette Delamoir The 1927 Royal Commission into the Moving Picture Industry in Australia was a massive undertaking, with 147 sittings in 18 locations around Australia. Its 253 witnesses included filmmakers, distributors, exhibitors, educators, church representatives, journalists, and concerned citizens. Set up after years of agitation by members of the film industry concerned about the American film industry’s “stranglehold” on all levels of the industry in Australia, the 1927 Royal Commission had four areas into which “to inquire particularly”. All related directly to film business: (a) The importation, production, distribution, and exhibition of moving picture films; (b) The incidence and effect of the Customs Tariff upon the importation of such films and the sufficiency or otherwise of existing duties of Customs; (c) The sufficiency or otherwise of the existing income tax of the Commonwealth in relation to persons, firms, and companies engaged in the industry; and (d) In connection with any or all of the foregoing matters, the income, profits, expenditure and losses of such persons, firms, and companies derived from or incurred in connexion with, the industry, and the amount of capital invested in the industry. (Part 1, Introduction, to Report, p.1) Today, films are financed from sources in multiple countries, and the idea of national cinema is problematic and contested. Yet “Australian film” still has strong emotional resonance, and is a significant trigger for government investment. It is clear that, nearly 90 years since the Royal Commission, the Australian film industry still struggles with issues of financial and cultural viability. In spite of radical changes in technology, marketing, audience access, and the “imagined communities” in which spectators situate themselves, the solutions suggested in the 1927 Royal Commission—quotas, tariffs, subsidies—are frequently framed as protections and supports for the current Australian film industry. Is it possible the conceptualizations of problems, solutions, and “Australian cinema” have not changed enough since 1927? That by looking back at the Royal Commission we could better understand how those conceptualisations arose, and how they continue to shape—or don’t shape—the Australian film industry today? This snapshot of the film industry in 1927 also reveals a young nation’s lifestyles, tastes, economic health, industrial organization, political tensions and interconnections with local and global culture. For this special issue, we invite you to use the Royal Commission to explore themes including, but not limited to: • the film industry in Australia in 1927/Australia in 1927/Australian production/Australian exhibition • national identity/British loyalty/cultural purity and contamination; • Australian audiences; • special interest groups (religious groups, women’s groups, educators) • social organization of a city or town as revealed by the evidence; • regional entertainment; differences between evidence given in city and regional areas; • attitudes to the film industry as an industry; • border patrols (industrial, racial, moral); • issues of sex and violence/censorship; • the Commissioners and their political backgrounds; • American distribution; • Raymond Longford; • Australasian Films Ltd.; • Entertainment films vs. Educational films; • Archiving the Royal Commission. Email 250-word abstracts to [log in to unmask] -- __________________________________ Dr Stephen Gaunson Head of Cinema Studies Lecturer - Cinema Studies and Creative Writing School of Media & Communication Design and Social Context RMIT University City Campus GPO Box 2476 Melbourne, VIC Australia 3001 Web: www.rmit.edu.au/mediacommunication Facebook: www.facebook.com/RMITMediaComm ---- To sign off Screen-L, e-mail [log in to unmask] and put SIGNOFF Screen-L in the message. Problems? Contact [log in to unmask]