ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the development of the cinemas of Australia and New Zealand, considering their enduring national and international, cultural and commercial importance. The interplay of funding demands, commercial realities, and national and international representational conventions that formed the "background radiation" to the revival still registers consistently in the milieux of production, distribution and consumption for Australasian films since 2000, suggesting that Australasian filmmakers may actually represent an oppressed minority within their own countries. Textually Australasian films have been made and read as purveyors of highly specific national imagery, ideals and orthodoxies, and as commercial competitors and aesthetic assertions against media imperialism. Historically, Australasian films and filmmakers have assumed responsibilities of cultural representation, and they maintain their distinctiveness, relevance and influential profiles in contemporary international cinema. The vibrant filmmaking of the silent period in Australia and New Zealand epitomises the distinctiveness, and the distinct challenges, faced by both film cultures.
