Screen Education

A portrait of a dystopian world not entirely removed from our own, this disturbing, compelling television series has brought Margaret Atwood’s classic feminist novel to new audiences. As SUZIE GIBSON argues, the series serves as an allegory for the g

As both artists and consumers, girls and women have important roles to play in the world of videogames. Issues such as gender imbalance, poor character representation and online abuse, hower, have long conspired to make the to five local creatives ab

Mike Mills’ film assembles an array of outsider characters – loosely associated with a range of epochs and social movements – and places them in the bygone milieu of late 1970s California. Exploring what the film has to say about history and the indi

Warwick Thornton’s new film, a grim, historically inspired story of death and injustice in the Australian outback, draws upon and subverts elements of the classic western. As JASMINE CRITTENDEN finds, the film offers complex observations on white and

An adaptation of one of Charles Perrault’s lesser-known fairytales, Jacques Demy’s Donkey Skin is a classic French musical that is equal parts dark and playfully surreal. Analysing the film’s subtle commentary on age-old romantic narrative tropes

The Australian same-sex marriage postal survey was a controversial, hard-fought and often emotionally draining process that culminated in a resounding victory for the ‘Yes’ vote. On the frontline of both campaigns’ strategies were their television ad

The rapid advance of the internet into all aspects of our lives has brought with it near-ubiquitous access to pornography, and ever younger viewers of it. While there are good reasons to be concerned about the impact this may be having on the develop

The energy is palpable. When the four members of 1960s Aboriginal Australian girl group The Sapphires step onto the stage of a Saigon nightclub in front of a crowd of expectant marines, they know the stakes: an unconvincing show will cost them their

I recently had the pleasure of attending ATOM Qld’s Looking Forward state conference, presented by QUT Creative Industries and an amazing team of experienced and enthusiastic ATOM executive members. The two-day conference included extremely insightfu

An endlessly quotable comedic touchstone of the early 1990s, Wayne’s World can still hold a great amount of appeal for today’s junior secondary students. LOUISE LAVERY explores ways in which the film can be used as a Media text, both as a means o

Set in 1921, James Gray’s The Immigrant (2013) can be seen as something of a prologue to the filmmaker’s four previous movies – Little Odessa (1994), The Yards (2000), We Own the Night (2007) and Two Lovers (2008) – in that it goes several generation

Nearly all filmmakers get their start by shooting short works, and doing so is an excellent way for secondary Media students to learn about story structure, visual language and camera equipment. BRETT LAMB provides a handy guide for students on the t

Spider-Man is one of the most popular heroes of all time, as evidenced by his cinematic persistence. Much like that pesky spider you can’t seem to scare out of your bedroom, Spider-Man just keeps turning up on the big screen no matter how many times

Late in 2017, Jane Campion, one of the most celebrated directors in cinema history, was addressing an industry conference in her hometown, Wellington. The 63-year-old spoke of Hollywood’s erupting sexual-harassment scandal, Campion having worked – an

When it comes to sorting out movie genres, we need to be both more flexible and less flexible than the usual categories allow. More flexible, because labels like ‘thriller’, ‘fantasy’ or ‘adventure’ specify very little beyond a very vague, general su

The first movie adaptation of the wildly popular children’s book series is as zany as its title promises, with all the pranks, shrink rays and marauding toilets a primary schooler could ever hope for. Yet, amid all the silliness, CAROLYN LESLIE finds