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A Place to Live (1950)

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'Across the river'

This clip chosen to be G

Clip description

A montage of brick houses and apartments gives way to an intertitle which introduces the contrasting living conditions of workers who live ‘across the river’. A wide shot of an industrial cityscape cuts to a shot of a street, which then cuts to a shot of a small terrace-style house. A man slowly enters. This is followed by a sequence of housing styles including tin-roofed slums, terraced houses squashed together, and dingy apartment blocks.

Curator’s notes

by Poppy De Souza

The sequence of three shots which introduce the living conditions ‘across the river’ (the Yarra) work to pull the viewer into the lives of the workers. The industrial cityscape sets the scene and the next shot of a typical street ‘zooms in’ a little closer. The third shot, of a house front and its occupant entering, brings us one-on-one with the ‘workers’ in an attempt to create empathy. The intertitles throughout this documentary are strongly worded and project a clear position on the social justice issues of living conditions and workers’ rights.

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australianscreen is produced by the National Film and Sound Archive. By using the website you agree to comply with the terms and conditions described elsewhere on this site. The NFSA may amend the 'Conditions of Use’ from time to time without notice.

All materials on the site, including but not limited to text, video clips, audio clips, designs, logos, illustrations and still images, are protected by the Copyright Laws of Australia and international conventions.

When you access australianscreen you agree that:

  • You may retrieve materials for information only.
  • You may download materials for your personal use or for non-commercial educational purposes, but you must not publish them elsewhere or redistribute clips in any way.
  • You may embed the clip for non-commercial educational purposes including for use on a school intranet site or a school resource catalogue.
  • The National Film and Sound Archive’s permission must be sought to amend any information in the materials, unless otherwise stated in notices throughout the Site.

All other rights reserved.

ANY UNAUTHORISED USE OF MATERIAL ON THIS SITE MAY RESULT IN CIVIL AND CRIMINAL LIABILITY.

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