AustLit

'Mary Tomsic’s important and interesting book examines 70 years of women’s participation in Australian filmmaking and film culture. Rather than focusing on women as movie stars or movie fans, this book demonstrates the multiple dimensions of women’s ‘film-work’. A useful concept, film-work encompasses ‘work directly involved in the production of films’ and ‘work involved in supporting, controlling and valuing film in society’ (3). Women’s film-work in Australia spanned the production of feature, documentary, government, independent, and feminist films, distribution and exhibition activities, as well as social reform and educational efforts. To convey this breadth, Tomsic structures her book effectively, using her chapters as case studies to explore different dimensions of women’s film-work across time, beginning with early women filmmakers, such as the McDonagh sisters, and ending with film-school trained directors, such as Gillian Armstrong. Each chapter also contains biographical sketches of and interconnections among significant women film-workers, producing in the end a valuable collective biography alongside an appreciation of women’s contributions to film-work in Australia.'  (Introduction)