Australian
Screen

an NFSA website

Titles tagged with ‘masculinity’

25 titles - sorted alphabetically or by year

A

The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert feature film – 1994

The most unforgettable scenes in Priscilla feature excessive costumes on incongruous characters in vast, humbling spaces.

B

Bit of Black Business – Two Big Boys short film – 2007

When their car breaks down at a drive-through restaurant, a speed bump becomes a seemingly insurmountable obstacle for two bickering brothers.

The Book of Revelation feature film – 2006

The Book of Revelation is based on a simple, powerful idea: most films about rape are about women as victims of men, so reversing that idea allows men to experience the trauma of violation.

Bra Boys documentary – 2007

This first-hand look at localism and tribalism, identity and belonging, is set deep within Maroubra’s surf culture.

Burning Man feature film – 2011

A chef finds his life in crisis after a personal tragedy.

C

Cactus feature film – 2007

Cactus, while full of thrills and suspense, gradually reveals a more humanistic agenda as it employs genre conventions to explore notions of masculinity, class and power.

Careful He Might Hear You feature film – 1983

In Sydney in the 1930s, two sisters fight for custody of a six-year-old boy.

Correlli – Rat Tamer television program – 1995

Hugh Jackman and Deborra-Lee Furness star in a drama about a psychologist and her relationships with the staff and inmates of an all-male prison.

Crackerjack feature film – 2002

An overgrown boy from a spoiled generation, becomes a man through fraternising with an older, wiser — and very daggy — generation.

D

Deadly Yarns – Ganggu Mama short film – 2004

In this short film, Ganggu Mama guides his nephew towards his culture and out of trouble.

F

Footy Chicks documentary – 2006

Footballers are often criticised for their treatment of women; this offers insights into the kind of women that pursue them.

G

General Motors Holden – Holden’s Got More Horses advertisement – 1966

By the 1960s, Holden had added theme music and jingles to the devices used to make their brand memorable.

L

The Last of the Knucklemen feature film – 1979

Near the remote town of Andamooka a group of opal miners work for Tarzan, a tough foreman known as ‘the last of the knucklemen’ for his fighting abilities.

M

Mad Bastards feature film – 2011

TJ returns to the Kimberley region of Western Australia to try and reconnect with his teenage son.

Maverick Mother documentary – 2007

When filmmaker Janet Merewether could no longer ignore her loudly ticking biological clock, she chose to have a child on her own.

Men’s Group feature film – 2008

A group of men meet regularly to discuss their feelings and their lives, but it takes a tragedy to help them reach a new understanding.

My Brother Jack television program – 2001

This acclaimed mini-series is based on the classic Australian novel, a record of the changing social mores of the restless time between the First and Second World Wars.

N

Nice Coloured Girls short film – 1987

The tongue-in-cheek title of Tracey Moffatt’s first film positions Aboriginal women as naïve and 'nice’ but these are merely roles played by the women.

P

A Personal History of the Australian Surf: Being the Confessions of a Straight Poofter documentary – 1981

His father told young Sydney-born theatre director Michael Blakemore that the world was divided into three groups, 'fools, crooks and gentlemen’.

Pussy Pumps Up short feature – 1979

This 2D animated film features a tiny cat-girl heroine who metamorphoses into a muscular, powerful figure.

R

Rusty Bugles television program – 1980

Based on a banned 1948 stage play, this telemovie follows a group of soldiers posted to a remote base in the Northern Territory during the Second World War.

S

The Shiralee feature film – 1957

Arguably there are two major themes in Australian cinema – the problem of the landscape, and the related problem of masculinity – and both are the subject of The Shiralee.

Snowy Hydro - Where Men and Mountains Meet sponsored film – 1963

This film is a fascinating depiction of the national ideal of postwar masculinity, looking at the spectrum of workers involved in the Snowy Mountains Scheme.

W

We Aim to Please short film – 1976

We Aim to Please incorporated experimental and feminist ideas and was a bold break away from the narrative films and factual documentaries of the time.

What I Have Written feature film – 1995

A layered mystery that revolves in part around the classic question of the unreliable – or perhaps reliable? – narrator.