Australian
Screen

Teacher’s notes

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This clip shows city shots of Sydney by night, accompanied by pumping techno music. A series of re-enacted shots of the theft of a car wheel at night are shown, intercut with shots of a young man looking directly at the camera. In a voice-over, the young man describes his daily existence – a cycle of unemployment and petty crime. He then gives his views on issues that are important to him, including his future aspirations, his perception of success and his notion of family.

Educational value points

• The values of a young Australian man from a non-English-speaking background are portrayed. He has a patriarchal view of family and places importance on image, success and wealth. The clip highlights some of the issues for second-generation Australians who are trying to reconcile often divergent cultural influences and family values in an Australian context.

• The clip introduces some issues that are important to young people, including finding work, financial independence, self-image and the need for respect. The young man shows particular interest in enterprise and his future direction.

• The clip makes effective use of symbolism and selected imagery to construct meaning. The traffic light changing from red to green suggests positive transition. Re-enactment is used as an allusion to the young man’s current circumstances. The choice of imagery and camera angles in the early scenes suggests that he is among the chaos, and this contrasts with later shots of him standing still and confident in front of a tall building, dressed in a suit.

• The visual style and music used are associated with urban youth culture and identity. A series of cityscapes by night, with shots of traffic, bright lights and buildings, is set to loud techno music to create the effect of a fast-paced urban lifestyle. The selection of camera angles, random abstract imagery, lighting and editing are reminiscent of popular music videos.

• Colour Bars is an acclaimed documentary, directed by Mahmoud Yekta, and was nominated for Best Documentary at the 1997 Australian Film Institute (AFI) Awards.

Footage shows Sydney by night, accompanied by pumping techno music. A series of re-enacted shots of the theft of a car wheel are shown, intercut with shots of a young man looking directly at the camera. Voice-over of an interview with a young man plays over these images.
Young man There’s not much for me to do ‘cause I’ve got no money. I go out and look for work but they don’t employ – so there’s nothing so I go up to my father and I ask him for, you know, some money so I can eat or buy something. He doesn’t give you so there’s nothing – there’s not much for me to do, you know, except for doing some crime. So I go out, do a bit of my things, I end up getting charged or locked up – at – at the end it’s not really worth it, you know. But because I’m really stressed out and really pissed off and that, you know. You just got out and do something you wanna do. So in the future I would like to relax. Um, like, I wanna be, like, a big boss of a big company, you know? And, um, you know, go to work every morning, and wear a mad suit, nice tie, mad shirt and a long coat, nice glasses and all that. You look really decent and you’ve got lots of respect from everyone. Everyone looks at you, all ‘Look at him,’ you know. And on the way back from home, you know, you go home to your family and there’s a big house and you’ve got your children there waiting for you and your wife, give them all, like, kisses and that and you sit down and relax by the fire and watch TV. That’s how I would like to be.