Literature
The following clips have teachers’ notes related to this topic:
Taree High School
Poet Les Murray recalls his experience of being bullied at high school to friend, writer Bob Ellis. Murray was psychologically damaged and recovered by writing a poem.
Bliss, punishment, heaven and hell
Harry Joy (Barry Otto) is a successful advertising man, with a nice house, a wife he loves (Lynette Curran) and two children, David (Miles Buchanan) and Lucy (Gia Carides). After a long birthday lunch, Henry …
‘Ten years on’
In the decade since That Eye, the Sky (1986) was published to rave reviews, there has been a theatrical version by Justin Monjo and Richard Roxburgh and now a film adaptation by Melbourne director John …
‘Treated with respect’
Andrea Stretton asks Tim Winton whether he could ever really be happy with an adaptation, given that his work is very much about the use of language and not just story-line and plot. He generously …
The discipline of writing
David Malouf explains why living in Tuscany is important to the way he writes, which includes the need to lock himself away. In Italy he is able to work through the morning until 10 am …
What is a woman?
Andrea Stretton is talking to Germaine Greer about her new book The Change: Women, Ageing and the Menopause (1991), which is proving just as controversial as her previous work. In the interview, Greer suggests that …
You must like your characters
Andrea Stretton comments on the strong sense of family in Carey’s fiction and he tells us he has no real idea of family. He was sent to boarding school at the age of 10 …
The end of Ted Parker
Club president Ted Parker (Graham Kennedy) is under pressure to resign, following allegations that he beat up a stripper at a club function. In the committee room, ex-coach Jock Riley (Frank Wilson) and administrator Gerry …
Cousins
Vinnie (Kelton Pell) is sitting beneath a tree in the park, sketching from an old photograph. Franky (Bruce Hutchison) approaches him with a photo of his own. In the photograph are both their mothers, who …
We Are Going
Aerial views of Minjerriba (Stradbroke Island), and Oodgeroo Noonuccal (Kath Walker) walking along the beach with children. Oodgeroo tells us the inspiration for her poetry, and its role in personal and political resistance to white …
‘What’s your name? What’s your father?’
Laura (Susannah Fowle) arrives in the refectory at her new school, an upper class ladies’ college in Melbourne, carrying a cake made by her mother. She is frightened and alone. The deputy headmistress, Miss Chapman …
What have those little monsters been telling you?
Laura (Susannah Fowle) joins the other girls for an illicit midnight feast, with her cake and other supplies stolen from the kitchen. Maria (Sigrid Thornton) terrifies them with stories of what happens in childbirth. During …
‘She’s got a heart like a bullock!’
Maggie Mulligan (Sally Anne Bourne) uses her strength to show up Mr Tucker (Don Barker) in the classroom after he has ridiculed Alan (Adam Garnett). Later, Maggie and Joe Carmichael (David Clencie) and Alan’s …
‘Try the lot, no matter what the risk’
Alan (Adam Garnett) and his father (Tony Barry) discuss the problem Alan is having with the bully Macintyre, contemplating ways Alan can beat him. His mother (Julie Hamilton) is distressed at what is happening as …
The Battlers
Kylie Tennant talks about researching and writing her third novel The Battlers.
‘A stripling, on a small and weedy beast’
Jim Craig (Tom Burlinson) has joined the crack horsemen in pursuit of the wild brumbies, but the men baulk at following the mob down a precipitous decline. As Harrison (Kirk Douglas) declares the mob has …
‘You hold your nose and you jump in’
Robert Hughes describes the long hard slog of writing. He says that all his books, except for The Culture of Complaint (1993), would never have been written if he’d known what was ahead of …
The expat
Robert Hughes is dismissive of anyone who says you can see the great art works online or in books. He says that it is important to travel to the world’s art galleries to see …
The writer’s craft
Robyn Davidson tells Andrea Stretton that she doesn’t take notes during her epic treks. Long after the journey is over she sits down to distil and write the story using her memory to recall …
‘You have a wildness of spirit’
While staying with her well-to-do grandmother, Sybylla (Judy Davis) has a crisis about her looks. Her Aunt Helen (Wendy Hughes) tells her to stop looking in mirrors and tries to make her more feminine. Suitor …
‘I want to be a writer’
Harry Beecham (Sam Neill) has waited two years for Sybylla (Judy Davis) to agree to marry. As drought grips the land again, he comes for an answer, but Sybylla explains why she cannot.
‘Felicity is a girl of delicate sensibility’
In a flashback, Doris (Ruth Cracknell) plots the marriage of her daughter Felicity (Kerry Walker) to a rising young Canberra diplomat, John (John Derum). Felicity is late home, so Doris tries to entice John with …
Fighting a fire
The whole family joins a desperate battle to save the fencing around the crops, to no avail. Youngest son Joe (Arthur Wilson) thinks the fire is a splendid sight. Dad (Percy Walshe) sees it as …
Dave in love
Dave (Tal Ordell) dances with glee after he receives a letter from his new sweetheart Lily White (Carmen Coleman). Joe, the youngest Rudd (Arthur Wilson) thinks he’s gone mad. The Rudd women crowd around …
‘We shall only be gone a little while’
After their picnic lunch, school friends Miranda (Anne Lambert), Marion (Jane Vallis) and Irma (Karen Robson) ask permission from their French mistress Mademoiselle de Portiers (Helen Morse) to go for a walk around the base …
Slum clearance
Mumma Darcy (Anne Phelan) and her friend and neighbour Mrs Campion (Lois Ramsey), are discussing the latest drama in the relationship between Princess Margaret and her great love, the divorced Group Captain Townsend, when they …
Sticking together
Warrigal (Tommy Lewis) is confronted with the reality of losing his 'brother’ Captain Starlight (Sam Neill) as the gang makes plans to escape to America. Meanwhile, the troopers are perfecting a killing machine to ambush …
Capulets and Montagues
A TV news reporter describes a bitter rivalry in the city of Verona Beach. Engaged in the deadly feud are Romeo’s Montague family and the Capulet family of Juliet.
A dangerous solution
On the eve of her marriage to Dave Paris, Juliet (Claire Danes) becomes suicidal. Father Laurence (Pete Postlethwaite) proposes a radical solution that will allow her to avoid the marriage and reunite with Romeo.
‘Seven of them, and I’m only 20!’
The children are all trying to make it up to their father (Leonard Teale) after the dinner disaster, but unfortunately Bunty (Mark Shields-Brown) and Baby (Tania Falla) just make it worse. It’s all too …
Banjo’s place
A nostalgic look at life in the district of old Jindabyne, long before the advent of the Snowy Mountains Scheme.
‘You run like a blackfella!’
While his father takes a catch of fish to sell in town, Mike (Greg Rowe) discovers some illegal hunters shooting birds. An Aboriginal stranger, Fingerbone Bill (David Gulpilil), drives them away with a warning shot …
‘Wild things should be free’
Mike (Greg Rowe) is overjoyed when Mr Percival, his pet pelican, returns after being set free.
Triumph
At the Pan Pacific championships, Doug Hastings (Barry Otto) starts a handclap in support of son Scott (Paul Mercurio) and his partner Fran (Tara Morice). Scott and Fran give a thrilling exhibition of their rule-breaking …
