Do Australian Movies Really Reflect Our Multiculturalism?

Interesting discussion and debate over diversity and Australian film (Canadian record not so great either):

But many others strongly believe that national cinema industries, especially publicly-funded ones, have some responsibility to open hearts and minds – and that great stories are missed if diversity is ignored.

“Filmmaking is about having something to say and letting people think about it,” says Caradee of his own cinema practise. His production company’s stated aims include challenging audiences and asking questions about identity and justice. The radicalisation of young Australian men, a hot political issue, is a dominant theme in the planned My Country.

“In TV we tell these stories because we have SBS and the ABC, but there’s no equivalent in film,” says Caradee. More diversity within the filmmaker ranks will result in more diverse films, he adds.

“When stories are written by people not from the culture in which they’re set, they come up fake and the rhythms of speech are wrong,” says scriptwriter and assessor Karin Altmann. She estimates that of the 130-160 scripts she reads annually, only about a dozen are not driven by Anglo Saxon creators.

Caradee is for affirmative action focussed on multicultural groups and involving mentoring and technical upskilling; she’s more into creating opportunities, more broadly. “Writers, emerging filmmakers, people from other cultures: all have less opportunity, and when you open up opportunities it is surprising what happens,” she says.

… Another aspect to multiculturalism is Australian cinema’s appalling record of colour-blind casting. In other words, lead roles are usually played by white people, and taxi drivers and criminals by brown or black people.

Do Australian Movies Really Reflect Our Multiculturalism? | Movie News | SBS Movies.

And from Queensland (where Brisbane is located), strong support for inclusive multiculturalism prior to the state elections:

But he [Premier Campbell Newman] also asked the new citizens to respect Australia’s “democracy, our rule of law, our court system”.

“Multiculturalism works,” he said.

“It makes us stronger, it makes us richer. There are all sorts of wonderful things that take Australia forward from being a successful multicultural community.”

Mr Newman said the world had given Australia much and it was up to its citizens to embrace the melting pot of cultures.

“We have ties to people all around the world that help us economically,” he said.

“We have fantastic things that we can see and do, food and dance and festivals and it works.

“Today I say to you it only works while we continue to work hard to embrace one another, to understand one another, to actually be enthusiastic and appreciate of that diversity.

“There have been some things that have happened in the last year or so and we must keep that well and truly behind us. We must say that we are going to continue to make this country work and be so successful.”

Multiculturalism works: Newman