Australian
Screen

an NFSA website

Titles tagged with ‘recession’

22 titles - sorted alphabetically or by year

1920s

Christmas Hustle and Bustle: Crowds Leave for Well-deserved Holiday on 22 December newsreel – 1928

This Christmas 1928 newsreel includes a hint of the economic hardships of the time by contrasting well-dressed women with two homeless swagmen.

1930s

The Mighty Conqueror documentary – 1931

Made only a year before Phar Lap’s death, The Mighty Conqueror boasts some of the last moving images of Phar Lap in Australia both on and off the track.

That’s Cricket documentary – c1931

A featurette directed by Ken G Hall promoting cricket as the game that 'helps unite the Empire’ and is important to Australian identity.

His Royal Highness feature film – 1932

The performance of George Wallace, star and writer, is a road map of comic techniques from the passing vaudeville era.

Revolution by Referendum: Political advertisement by Mr Costello advertisement – c1932

One of many activists or political aspirants who have proposed socialist visions for the country’s future over its recent history.

Strike Me Lucky feature film – 1934

The Holocaust made vaudeville star Roy Rene’s Jewish caricatures unacceptable in later years, but this wasn’t the case in 1934.

The Broken Melody feature film – 1938

A film with music rather than a musical, The Broken Melody is one of the few films of the 1930s that tries to depict the Depression’s effect on real people.

A Brief Survey of the Activities of the Brisbane City Mission sponsored film – c1939

This is a moving portrait of the charity work of the Brisbane City Mission for the poor at a time when many people struggled financially because of the Depression.

Mr Chedworth Steps Out feature film – 1939

Cecil Kellaway was probably the best actor that Ken G Hall ever worked with. He returned from Hollywood to play the titular little man who learns to assert himself.

Take Notice documentary – 1939

Take Notice uses innovative and sophisticated filmmaking techniques to describe the need for a solution to rising rents and substandard living conditions in Sydney.

1940s

Give Us This Day advertisement – 1943

This food rationing advertisement takes its title from a phrase in the Lord’s Prayer ‘give us this day our daily bread’.

Beautiful Melbourne sponsored film – 1947

This film, put together by the Brotherhood of St Laurence in 1947, increased public awareness of the dire state of those living in slum housing in Melbourne.

1950s

Il Contratto feature film – 1953

In 1950s Melbourne, four recent Italian migrants eager for work to pay off their debts finally find employment on a rural farm near the city.

Pensions for Veterans documentary – 1953

A first glimpse of the Waterside Workers’ Federation Film Unit’s agenda – to depict labour history from the point of view of the workers.

1970s

Profiles of Power, HC Coombs television program – 1970

When Dr Coombs saw the unnecessary cruelty of the Great Depression and its terrible impact on ordinary people, he decided to dedicate his life to economics.

Caddie feature film – 1976

Caddie is a powerfully emotional statement of the ways in which women outside marriage were socially and economically disadvantaged in the period between the wars.

1980s

Four Corners – We’ll All Be Rooned television program – 1982

A lack of envirommental perspective somewhat dates a tragic record of the death of a country town. The wheat belt of Coonamble is now entering its fourth year of drought.

Greetings from Wollongong short feature – 1982

Writer-director Mary Callaghan’s film provides an insight into the creativity and friendships that give meaning to an otherwise desperate existence.

For Love or Money documentary – 1983

Using almost totally historical material, For Love or Money encompasses the role of Australian women in both paid and unpaid work, over a 200 year period.

Palace of Dreams television program – 1985

In this acclaimed drama series, an aspiring writer arrives in Sydney from the country during the turbulent and desperate times of the Great Depression.

Kylie Tennant documentary – 1986

Determined to experience at firsthand the lives of her characters, Tennant travelled alone in her buggy, camping with swagmen and destitute families.

1990s

Win Some Lose Some documentary – 1996

This documentary traces the fall and rise of three entrepreneurs during the economic recession of 1990–1991 and examines the dynamics of families under pressure.