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MELBOURNE
BRUNSWICK
BUNDOORA
FISHERMANS BEND
POINT COOK
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HO CHI MINH CITY
HANOI
RMIT academic co-authors book on history of the AFI
RMIT Cinema Studies, Media and Communication academic Lisa French has co-
authored a new book, Shining a Light ~ 50 Years of the Australian Film Institute.
The book, co-authored with Mark Poole, traces the progress of the film and
television industries in Australia – as well as screen culture within Australia over
the past half century – through the lens of one organisation, the Australian Film
Institute (AFI).
Since its establishment in 1958, the AFI has played a central role in nurturing and
supporting both screen culture and production – from small beginnings to an
internationally recognised billion dollar industry.
Shining a Light offers a timely and significant contribution to scholarship on
Australian cinema, published at a critical time in Australian film history. The
authors, Lisa French and Mark Poole, offer an insider’s view through 27 interviews
with key players on the local scene. The book also includes a listing of every AFI
Award that has been given since 1958, including the nominees and winners of
each award category. This is the first time that such an exhaustive list of AFI
nominees and winners has been published.
Lisa French is a Senior Lecturer in Cinema Studies, Media and Communication at
RMIT University. She is also the co-author of Womenvision: Women and the
Moving Image in Australia and has previously collaborated on film projects with
Mark Poole, including making the film Birth of a Film Festival (2003), a film about
the first Melbourne International Film Festival. She was a board member of the AFI
for nine years.
Mark Poole is a Melbourne based writer/director and current Victorian Chair of the
Australian Writers Guild. He has written more than 20 hours television drama,
including the AFI Award winning telefeature A Single Life; he co-produced and
directed the documentary Fearless, screened on the ABC (2008); and he is a
contributor to the online journal Screen Hub and other publications such as The
Age, Metro and Storyline.
The book is published as part of The Moving Image series by the Australian
Teachers of Media (ATOM), with support from Film Victoria. The publishing
partners are the AFI, the Australian Centre for the Moving Image, the National Film
and Sound Archive, RMIT University and Victoria University. The Moving Image is
Australia's premier monograph series for writing on theory, criticism, history, film
practice, multimedia, television and photography in Australia.
What: Book launch - Shining a Light ~ 50 Years of the Australian Film Institute
When: Monday 23 November 6pm
Where: ACMI, Federation Square, Flinders St, Melbourne.
For further information and interviews, contact: Lisa French, Co-author: (03)
9925 3026 or 0407 682 341.
13 November, 2009
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