AustLit

'Jess Hill’s documentary See What You Made Me Do, based on her best-selling book, is a tough but illuminating look at a scourge of Australian society. By Celeste Liddle.' 

'Last year, two documentaries regarding the Adam Goodes booing fiasco were released mere weeks apart: Shark Island Productions’ The Final Quarter and Madman Films’ The Australian Dream, anchored by Stan Grant. These two films took different tacts reflecting on this public example of racialised harassment and how it manifested using the power of retrospect. While The Final Quarter relied entirely on archival footage to construct the narrative, The Australian Dream primarily relied upon interviews and talking heads to set the scene.' (Introduction)

'I will never forget the worst gig I have ever been a part of. It was a few years ago now, and it was supposed to be a major event. When I agreed to take part, I was so proud to do so. Yet when I left that stage, I left it angry and disillusioned. and is gig has since become a benchmark for me of what I will and won't accept - what is respect for my voice and what is not.'  (Publication summary)

'The oft quoted, and misquoted, line from Romeo and Juliet which formed a big part of my undergraduate drama education still creeps in from time to time when pondering the perils of nomenclature in contemporary Australia. For despite any idealistic declarations of love the teenaged Juliet may have made, they both end up dead in the end (spoilers!) and the final message is clearly that no, misnamed roses don't actually always smell as sweet.' (Introduction)

'Black bum: these two words mark the first time I realised I was different because my difference was pointed out to me. I was five years old, in my first year of primary school in Canberra, and this small barb was thrown at me by another girl in my class. It hurt me emotionally and so I decided to hurt her back. I pushed her, and she fell to the ground. My five-year-old brain didn't record what happened next, though my Kindergarten school report - which still exists in my mother's albums to this day - outlines a girl who showed advanced capabilities in most subjects but who needed to learn how to 'control her temper'. I think it's reasonably clear to work out who was seen as the problem in this circumstance.'  (Introduction)

'Lisa was radically intersectional well before it became a mere buzz word for the millennials, for she truly lived the idea that each of the movements she was involved in needed to investigate the ways it oppressed in order to become effective.' (Introduction)