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Therese Davis Therese Davis i(A90090 works by)
Gender: Female
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Works By

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1 Australian Indigenous Screen in the 2000s : Crossing into the Mainstream Therese Davis , 2018 single work criticism
— Appears in: Australian Screen in the 2000s 2018; (p. 231-259)
Examines Indigenous film-making with a particular focus on two strategies: cross-cultural 'cross-over' features and Indigenous-produced and themed television.
1 [Review Essay] The Mother’s Day Protest and Other Fictocritical Essays Therese Davis , 2017 single work essay
— Appears in: Australian Humanities Review , May no. 61 2017;

'The Mother’s Day Protest and Other Fictocritical Essays by Stephen Muecke is the latest contribution to Rowman and Littlefield’s series Place, Memory and Affect. The aim of this series is ‘to forge an agenda for new approaches to the edgy relations of people and place within the transnational global cultures of the twenty-first century and beyond’. This collection of Muecke’s essays offers a unique geo-philosophical, non-humanist approach to these relations, firmly planted in discussion of a wild array of places, events and things. Their insights into issues of climate change, indigeneity, protest, colonial history, critique and more engage readers in new ways with debates in Indigenous Studies, Environmental Humanities, History and Philosophy.' (Introduction)

1 Warning Signals : Indigenous Remembrance and Futurity in Post-Apology Australia Therese Davis , 2017 single work criticism
— Appears in: Australian Humanities Review , May no. 61 2017;

'The 2008 national Apology to the Stolen Generations was met with jubilant acclamation from across the country, generating a collective wave of optimism that Australia could be a better place that it had been, even if this was a ‘largely symbolic’ event. Nine years on, the Apology’s promise to make Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians equal partners by ‘closing the gap’ in health and life-expectation has spectacularly failed in all areas bar one, while the nation stalls yet again on questions of formal recognition of the first Australians in its handling of the campaign for a referendum on constitutional change that would ‘end the exclusion of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples from the Australian Constitution and deal with racial discrimination in it’ (Commonwealth of Australia, Constitutional Recognition).' (Introduction)

1 Locating The Sapphires: Transnational and Cross-cultural Dimensions of an Australian Indigenous Musical Film Therese Davis , 2014 single work criticism
— Appears in: Continuum : Journal of Media & Cultural Studies , vol. 28 no. 5 2014; (p. 594-604)
'This essay discusses transnational dimensions of the Indigenous musical film The Sapphires, based on the true story of an Aboriginal all-girls soul band that entertained American troops in the Vietnam War. It suggests that there are strong resonances between the film's story of four young Indigenous women who affirm their Indigenous identity while negotiating their way across national and cultural borders and contemporary Indigenous filmmakers operating in Australia's rapidly internationalizing mainstream screen industry. It argues that while the original Sapphires' adopted the American musical genre of soul as a means of breaking free from colonial forms of social restriction and racism, The Sapphires appropriates the film genre of the musical to tell the story of this all-girls group in ways that transpose the musical into an Indigenous cultural realm...'
1 Offshore Processes: International Perspectives on Australian Film and Television Therese Davis , Mark Gibson , Tony Moore , 2014 single work criticism
— Appears in: Continuum : Journal of Media & Cultural Studies , vol. 28 no. 5 2014; (p. 571-573)
'The focus of this special issue of Continuum is on the international or 'offshore' life of Australian film and television, shifting attention away from questions of national self-interactions of its production, both past and present...'
1 Between Worlds : Indigenous Identity and Difference in the Films of Darlene Johnson Therese Davis , 2014 single work criticism
— Appears in: Camera Obscura : A Journal of Feminism and Film Theory , vol. 29 no. 85 2014; (p. 81-110)

'The article looks at the contributions of writer and director Darlene Johnson to an emerging Australian Indigenous cinema. It discusses the ways in which Johnson draws on her experience as a young, urban Indigenous woman and her knowledge of Aboriginal culture to explore the postcolonial subjectivity of being caught between two worlds in her documentary and short fiction films, including River of No Return (2008), Gulpilil: One Red Blood (2002), Crocodile Dreaming (2006), and Two Bob Mermaid (1996). It argues that these films offer unique insights into the history of Indigenous involvement in cinema as a global system, and into the complexity of contemporary Indigenous filmmaking in Australia as a specialist sector that operates within while remaining different from the state-funded national film industry.' (Publication summary)

1 y separately published work icon Australian Indigenous Film and Television Digital Bibliography Romaine Moreton , Therese Davis , Monash University , Clayton : Monash University , 2014 7586502 2014 website bibliography

'The Australian Indigenous Film and Television Digital Bibliography is a resource where students, teachers, researchers, filmmakers and members of the public can access a wide range of sources of information about Australian Indigenous Film and Television...' (Source: Monash University website)

1 Indigenous Performance of History, Loss and Remembrance in Whispering in Our Hearts : The Story of the Mowla Bluff Massacre Therese Davis , Romaine Moreton , 2013 single work criticism
— Appears in: Interventions : International Journal of Postcolonial Studies , vol. 15 no. 2 2013; (p. 211-223)
'This essay undertakes a cultural analysis that draws from the authors' different disciplinary and media backgrounds – Romaine Moreton in Indigenous philosophy, spoken-word performance and filmmaking and Therese Davis in film and cultural studies – to examine the Australian historical documentary film Whispering In Our Hearts: The Mowla Bluff Massacre (2001). Directed by Mitch Torres in collaboration with her community, the Nyikina, Mangala and Karrajarri people of northwestern Australia, the film uses a range of performance modes to expose how Indigenous accounts of a massacre in 1916 have been systematically covered over in and through written history. We examine ways in which the film ‘translates’ the meanings of the Indigenous community's songs and stories, making their content available to a wider audience and argue that the film is more than a contested or competing history in the western sense. The community innovates to produce a new historiography by adopting and adapting film technology as a means for transmitting Indigenous embodied ways of knowing the relation between the present and the past, sentient and non-sentient, to perform Indigenous history and remembrance for the purpose of cultural healing.' (Authors abstract)
1 Beyond Good/Should/Bad : Teaching Australian Indigenous Film and Television Therese Davis , 2010 single work criticism
— Appears in: Continuum : Journal of Media & Cultural Studies , vol. 24 no. 5 2010; (p. 799 - 804)
1 Love and Social Marginality in Samson and Delilah Therese Davis , 2009 single work criticism
— Appears in: Senses of Cinema , no. 51 2009; Senses of Cinema , October no. 92 2019;

'What exactly is it that so many different love about Samson and Delilah? For those who haven't heard, it is an unusual love story about two teenagers living in a remote Aboriginal community in Central Australia. Delilah (Marissa Gibson) is a shy but headstrong 14 year old, solely responsible for the care of her elderly grandmother, Nana (Mitjili Napanangka Gibson), while Samson (Rowan McNamara), also 14, is a "petrol sniffer" - a young Aboriginal teenager addicted to petrol as a form of intoxication. In the Australian popular imagination, petrol sniffers are objects of pity or repulsion, shadowy figures seen mainly in the news reports of the so-called "Aboriginal problem" in the Northern Territory. They are what Thornton calls "the untouchables" - young Aboriginal addicts who are socially marginalised within both their Aboriginal communities and the wider Australian society.' (Introduction)

1 Surrendering Control : Two Laws as Collaborative Community Film-making: an Interview with Carolyn Strachan and Alessandro Cavadini Therese Davis (interviewer), Cassi Plate (interviewer), 2008 single work criticism
— Appears in: Studies in Documentary Film , vol. 2 no. 2 2008; (p. 149-168)

'This interview with film-makers Carolyn Strachan and Allesandro Cavadini focuses on their collaboration with the Borroloola Aboriginal community in the making of Two Laws (1981). They explain why they chose to ‘surrender’ directorial control to the community and how this action led to the unique form and style of this documentary. The detailed and frank discussion of the complex processes of collaboration, what Marcia Langton once called the‘actual dialogue’ of cross-cultural film production, deepens our appreciation of this unique group-authored film. It also allows us to consider how film in general can function meaningfully as a site of cross-cultural exchange.'  (Introduction)

1 Shimmering Screens : Making Media in An Aboriginal Community, Jennifer Deger, (2006) Therese Davis , 2008 single work review
— Appears in: Studies in Documentary Film , vol. 2 no. 2 2008; (p. 219-221)

'The title of this book refers to the shimmering effect produced in the distinctive art forms of the Aboriginal clans (Yolngu) of north-eastern Arnhem Land in Australia. In bark and rock painting, for example, fine cross-hatching designs create a unique pulsating sensation of light and movement, which has, for some time now, attracted intense interest from both anthropologists and the international art world. This critical ethnography of the place of media in the Yolngu community in Gapuwiyak explores how media technologies such as video are being adopted as a new means of producing this shimmering effect and examines the significance of this effect in Yolgnu culture and identity. The aim of the book’s in-depth analysis of this new media practice is to guide non-Aboriginal readers towards an understanding and appreciation of Indigenous media in Yolngu terms.' (Introduction)

1 Remembering Our Ancestors: Cross-Cultural Collaboration and the Mediation of Aboriginal Culture and History in Ten Canoes (Rolf de Heer, 2006) Therese Davis , 2007 single work criticism
— Appears in: Studies in Australasian Cinema , vol. 1 no. 1 2007; (p. 2-14)
'In 2000, maverick Australian director Rolf de Heer began a collaboration with Australian Aboriginal screen legend David Gulpilil to make a film set in Gulpilil's traditional lands in North Eastern Arnhem Land. The result of the collaboration is the new feature Ten Canoes (2006). For Gulpilil the project represented an opportunity to launch careers in film for members of his community, including his son Jamie Gulpilil (who plays the lead role). He has also stated that "the film will allow people from the community and around the world to know how our ancestors lived and to understand them". In order to try to achieve this, de Heer took on the challenging task he describes as "fusing two very different storytelling traditions". Drawing on the documentary Balanda and the Bark Canoes (2006) (also known as Making Ten Canoes) and other sources, this article goes behind the scenes to examine processes of cross-cultural collaboration and intercultural fusion. It argues the film shows that while stories have different forms and functions in different societies, one story can be made to serve two different cultural requirements and, further, in doing so can expand possibilities for both cross-cultural recognition and cinema.' Source: Studies in Australasian Cinema 1.1 (2007): 5.
1 Working Together : Two Cultures, One Film, Many Canoes Therese Davis , 2006 single work criticism
— Appears in: Senses of Cinema , October - December no. 41 2006;
'An examination of director Rolf de Heer's unique collaboration with the Yolngu people of Ramingining of Northern Australia on Ten Canoes and the behind-the-scenes documentary Balanda and the Bark Canoes.' (Publisher's abstract)
1 Disputing History : Remembering Country in the Tracker and Rabbit-Proof Fence Felicity Collins , Therese Davis , 2006 single work criticism
— Appears in: Australian Historical Studies , October vol. 37 no. 128 2006; (p. 35-54)
1 Sustaining Grief in Japanese Story and Dreaming in Motion Felicity Collins , Therese Davis , 2004 single work criticism
— Appears in: Australian Cinema after Mabo 2004; (p. 172-204)
The proposal presented by Collins and Davis throughout this book is 'that the post-Mabo era in Australian cinema can be read through the metaphor of backtracking. This intermittent activity of reviewing, mulling over and renewing icons, landscapes, characters and stories defines contemporary Australian national cinema.' The conclusion that the authors draw from their analysis of Australian cinema is that 'in the post-Mabo context, this brooding passion for raking the national repetoire of icons serves as a vernacular mode of collective mourning, a process involving both grief-work and testimony.' Source : Australian Cinema after Mabo (2004).
1 Escaping History and Shame in Looking for Alibrandi, Head On and Beneath the Clouds Felicity Collins , Therese Davis , 2004 single work criticism
— Appears in: Australian Cinema after Mabo 2004; (p. 152-171)
In this chapter Collins and Davis analyse how the films, Looking for Alibrandi, Head On and Beneath the Clouds 'invites us to consider the relation between the past and the present .' The authors argue that the stories these films tell, regarding 'coming of age, reveal a picture of young Australians as the inheritors of a nation divided on issues of race relations, land politics, national security, and how best to deal with the shameful episodes from our colonial past.' Although these films differ in style and content they express a common 'form of teen mobility fuelled by the desire to 'escape history' ... that is symptomatic of the specific difficulties of coming of age in post-Mabo Australia.' Source : Australian Cinema after Mabo (2004).
1 Lost stolen and Found in Rabbit-Proof Fence Felicity Collins , Therese Davis , 2004 single work criticism
— Appears in: Australian Cinema after Mabo 2004; (p. 133-151)
In this chapter Collins and Davis argue that in bringing the story of enforced child removal to life, the film Rabbit-Proof Fence is a vehicle for retracing, reworking and recovering 'stolen histories.' According to the authors the films 'rhetorical elements of testimony and witnessing are best understood in terms of international screen studies debates about memory, history and trauma.' Source : Australian Cinema after Mabo (2004).
1 Coming from the City in the Castle, Vacant Possession, Strange Planet and Radiance Felicity Collins , Therese Davis , 2004 single work criticism
— Appears in: Australian Cinema after Mabo 2004; (p. 112-130)
In this chapter, Collins and Davis analyse how emergent themes within contemporary Australian cultural studies, repudiate 'the 19th century bush as the template for a British-derived national identity, turning instead to the cosmopolitan city , the multi-cultural suburbs, and the hedonistic holiday coast as templates for the a dynamic, post-national, post-multi-cultural identity in the 21st century.' The authors argue that 'the problem of belonging and of being at home in Australia is evident in the afterwardness of the history wars that followed the Mabo decision.' Source : Australian Cinema after Mabo (2004).
1 Coming from the Country in Heartland, Cunnamulla and Message from Moree Felicity Collins , Therese Davis , 2004 single work criticism
— Appears in: Australian Cinema after Mabo 2004; (p. 94-111)
'The foucs of this chapter is on the ways that the films Heartland, Cunamulla and Message from Moree send a message to the viewer about what's going on in the country. The asssunption that life in the the country is shaped by what happened after the frontier wars is axiomatic for these programs. In the 1990s, reconciliation policies at the national level have influenced film narratives about the survival of Aboriginal communities and the various ways that settler and Indigenous Australians have intermingled in the country.' The authors argue that 'these narratives have found their way through the public film-funding bodies to ABC Television and can thus be construed as contributing to the national interest rather than to the sphere of entertainment.' Source : Australian Cinema after Mabo (2004).
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