Making Film and Television Histories

Making Film and Television Histories: Australia and New Zealand considers film and television texts as primary historical media with the potential to bring historical topics alive through their interplay between past and present. The book offers a compendium of brief chapters on selected New Zealand and Australian films and television programmes that can be situated within a clear historical context, ranging from highly successful films such as Gallipoli, The Piano, Australia, Once Were Warriors and Heavenly Creatures to less well-known texts that form the basis for intriguing examinations of history, representation and identity. The book is written by a diverse and exciting team of scholars and filmmakers, who illuminate the multifaceted nature of these screen texts, their production, meaning and value for a twenty-first century audience. Making Film and Television Histories will appeal to all those with an interest in Australian or New Zealand history, film or television, and will be of particular value to teachers and trainee teachers wishing to inspire students to engage with history by utilising audiovisual media in the classroom.