• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

The Institute of Australian Culture

Heritage, history, and heroes; literature, legends, and larrikins

  • Home
  • Articles
  • Biographies
  • Books
  • Ephemera
  • Poetry & songs
    • Recommended poetry
    • Poetry and songs, 1786-1900
    • Poetry and songs, 1901-1954
    • Rock music and pop music [videos]
    • Early music [videos]
  • Slang
  • Timeline
    • Timeline of Australian history and culture
    • Calendar of Australian history and culture
    • Significant events and commemorative dates
  • Topics

Films to foster our tradition: Appeal by Charles Chauvel [11 October 1945]

10 May 2012 · Leave a Comment

[Editor: A film producer promotes the idea of using films to foster Australian culture, as a way of fighting cultural Americanisation.]

Films to foster our tradition

Appeal by Charles Chauvel

Mr. Charles Chauvel, leading Australian film producer, told members of the Canberra Film Centre at Civic Theatre on Sunday night, that films could play a substantial part in fostering a healthy Australian tradition in art, music and literature.

“In the old days,” he said, “we used to sing songs and recite verses with a true Australian flavour. We all knew the old ditties like ‘The Wild Colonial Boy,’ ‘Botany Bay’ and the ‘Old Bark Hut.’ Now we hear nothing but cowboy songs and we even see our girls in country towns dressing in sombreros and chaps and apeing the garb of other nations. We have allowed the tradition of virile Australianism to deteriorate but the film can be used as a powerful vehicle for its revival, in a new and striking form.”

Mr. Chauvel screened several of his lesser known films including “Power to Win,” describing the need for more coal production in the dark days of the war, “Soldiers Without Uniform,” illustrating the importance of industrial workers in a war economy, and an excerpt from his “melodrama of the Australian jungle,” entitled “Uncivilised.”

Australia had all the necessary raw materials for the development of a distinctive film art including magnificent scenery. In one of these raw materials at least he found no deficiency as his appeal for an ample supply of snakes to star in an aborigine camp scene met with immediate success. For the information of members of the audience who might desire to explore the same market, Mr. Chauvel explained that snakes were not sold at so much per serpent but at a standard rate per foot.



Source:
The Canberra Times (Canberra , ACT), Thursday 11 October 1945, page 2

Filed Under: articles Tagged With: Americanisation, Australianism, SourceTrove, year1945

Reader Interactions

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Primary Sidebar

Australian flag, Kangaroo, Wattle, 100hThe Institute of Australian Culture
Heritage, history, and heroes. Literature, legends, and larrikins. Stories, songs, and sages.

Search this site

Featured books

The Man from Snowy River and Other Verses, by Banjo Paterson A Book for Kids, by C. J. Dennis  The Bulletin Reciter: A Collection of Verses for Recitation from The Bulletin The Songs of a Sentimental Bloke, by C. J. Dennis The Complete Inner History of the Kelly Gang and Their Pursuers, by J. J. Kenneally The Foundations of Culture in Australia, by P. R. Stephensen The Australian Crisis, by C. H. Kirmess Such Is Life, by Joseph Furphy
More books (full text)

Featured lists

Timeline of Australian history and culture
A list of significant Australiana
Significant events and commemorative dates
Australian slang
Books (full text)
Australian literature
Rock music and pop music (videos)
Folk music and bush music (videos)
Early music (videos)
Recommended poetry
Poetry and songs, 1786-1900
Poetry and songs, 1901-1954
Australian explorers
Topics
Links

Featured posts

Advance Australia Fair: How the song became the Australian national anthem
Brian Cadd [music videos and biography]
Ned Kelly: Australian bushranger
Under the Southern Cross I Stand [the Australian cricket team’s victory song]

Some Australian authors

E. J. Brady
John Le Gay Brereton
C. J. Dennis
Mary Hannay Foott
Joseph Furphy
Mary Gilmore
Charles Harpur
Grant Hervey
Lucy Everett Homfray
Rex Ingamells
Henry Kendall
“Kookaburra”
Henry Lawson
Jack Moses
“Dryblower” Murphy
John Shaw Neilson
John O’Brien (Patrick Joseph Hartigan)
“Banjo” Paterson
Marie E. J. Pitt
A. G. Stephens
P. R. Stephensen
Agnes L. Storrie (Agnes L. Kettlewell)

Recent Posts

  • EC83 A loving greeting [postcard, 15 April 1913]
  • Market St., Sydney [postcard, 3 April 1913]
  • Kangaroo and Map stamps
  • A billabong: Goulbourn River [postcard, 27 November 1907]
  • Dear Mac [postcard, early 20th Century]

Top Posts & Pages

  • Poetry and songs, 1786-1900
  • Rommel’s comments on Australian soldiers [1941-1942]
  • The Man from Snowy River [poem by Banjo Paterson]
  • Australian slang
  • The Bard and the Lizard [poem by John Shaw Neilson]

Archives

Categories

Posts of note

The Bastard from the Bush [poem, circa 1900]
A Book for Kids [by C. J. Dennis, 1921]
Click Go the Shears [traditional Australian song, 1890s]
Core of My Heart [“My Country”, poem by Dorothea Mackellar, 24 October 1908]
Freedom on the Wallaby [poem by Henry Lawson, 16 May 1891]
The Man from Ironbark [poem by Banjo Paterson]
Nationality [poem by Mary Gilmore, 12 May 1942]
The Newcastle song [music video, sung by Bob Hudson]
No Foe Shall Gather Our Harvest [poem by Mary Gilmore, 29 June 1940]
Our pipes [short story by Henry Lawson]
Rommel’s comments on Australian soldiers [1941-1942]
Shooting the moon [short story by Henry Lawson]

Recent Comments

  • rob buntine on No Foe Shall Gather Our Harvest [poem by Mary Gilmore, 29 June 1940]
  • Carol on Poetry and songs, 1786-1900
  • Annie Crestani on Under the Southern Cross I Stand [the Australian cricket team’s victory song]
  • Peter Pearsall on The Clarence [poem by Jack Moses]
  • Trevor Hurst on Timeline of Australian history and culture

For Australia

Copyright © 2023 · Log in