B[l]acktracking Towards Australia: 'Australian Film After Mabo'

Much of the serious commentary on Australian film has tended to trace a trajectory towards self-definition, a pattern mimicking - and often figured as - the child's progression towards adulthood. This language of maturing and developing has shaped many narratives analysing Australian cinema. Neil Rattigan, for example, in his seminal text on Australian films from the mid 1970s, the period which saw a renaissance in the industry, 'Images of Australia: 100 Films of the New Australian Cinema', suggests that one feature of many of the films of the period he considers is their articulation of something of an "adolescent identity crisis", a characteristic that involves, he suggests, a type of self-scrutiny manifesting as a dominant return to the question "Who are we?" Richard White, in his 'Inventing Australia' includes a chapter entitled 'Growing Up' which analyses this discourse.