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AbstractHistoryArchive Description
Adaptations
- Priscilla, Queen of the Desert, The Musical 2006 single work musical theatre humour satire
Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of
Works about this Work
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Gender and Sexual Diversity and Suicide on Australian Screens : Culture, Representation, and Health Pedagogies
2021
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Journal of Popular Culture , April vol. 54 no. 2 2021; (p. 365-387)'Despite an often‐repeated cliché that gender and sexually diverse characters are relatively absent from film and television, Australian screen production has a very rich history of representing sexual and gender diversity: greater than nineteen wide‐release films since 1993, including internationally recognized films such as Priscilla, Queen of the Desert (1994), The Sum of Us (1994), Head On (1998), and The Monkey’s Mask (2000), portray gender and sexual diversity. Nine Australian films with LGBTQ, gender, and sexually diverse themes were released between 2013 and 2018, indicating an entrenchment of LGBTQ representation on Australian screens. Characters in major Australian television dramas and soap operas, such as Home and Away and Neighbours, have increased in regularity and complexity over the past two decades. Sexual stories, including narratives of minority sexual lives, have never, of course, been repressed or invisible, but according to Ken Plummer, they have long been central to contemporary Western culture (4). Stories representing gender and sexually diverse subjects depicting identity struggles and articulating minority health outcomes are a major and ongoing part of Australian creative production. What is significant in cultural analysis is not questions of visibility or invisibility but how the continuities and disruptions of depictions of gender and sexual minorities play a significant, pedagogical role in social participation, social harmony, acceptance, individual health and wellbeing, and community belonging (Cover, Queer Youth Suicide; Emergent Identities).' (Introduction)
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More Than Just a Gay Pun : the Changing Nature of Australian Queer Film Criticism
2019
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Studies in Australasian Cinema , vol. 13 no. 2-3 2019; (p. 51-66)'This essay looks at the critical reception of Australian queer cinema demonstrating the difference in reviews of queer Australian films. The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert (Elliot, Stephan. 1994. The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert. Sydney: Roadshow Distribution) and The Sum of Us (Dowling, Kevin, and Geoff Burton. 1994. The Sum of Us. Sydney: Southern Star) will be compared to films that came later in the 1990s, notably Love and Other Catastrophes (Croghan, Emma-Kate. 1996. Love and Other Catastrophes. Sydney: Fox Searchlight), The Well (Lang, Samantha. 1997. The Well. Sydney: Southern Star) and Head On (Kokkinos, Ana. 1998. Head On. Melbourne: Umbrella Entertainment). These later films managed to generate buzz on the queer film festival circuit as well as at general international film festivals. Their queerness attracts international LGBTQ audiences while, secondly, genre-related elements have the potential to attract a wider cinephile audience. I will utilise paratextual elements, particularly reviews during their film festival and theatrical runs, to demonstrate how they cross-over to wider audiences. In investigating their framing and reception, these films increasingly engage audiences through their genre signifiers. This essay demonstrates that the discourse around Australian queer cinema has matured to offer multi-faceted perspectives.' (Publication abstract)
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After Priscilla
2017
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Overland [Online] , October 2017;'Whenever I think about marriage, I think about these sex dreams I used to have as a teenager. They were based on a porno called Here Cums the Bride where this bride sleeps with the best man on her wedding day and gets left at the altar, only to then fuck the best man again while the priest jacks off in a corner. I went to a Catholic school; it’s all very Freudian. Anyway, I would have dreams where I would be fucking the bride, making her cum, and then suddenly everything would shift and I would become the bride tearing my big white gown for easy access and using my veil for leverage so the best man could fuck me standing up, and then I would wake up confused, sticky.' (Introduction)
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'I Will Survive!' : Australia's 10 Best LGBT Films
2016
single work
review
— Appears in: The Guardian Australia , 7 April 2016;
— Review of The Getting Of Wisdom 1978 single work film/TV ; The Sum of Us 1994 single work film/TV ; 52 Tuesdays 2014 single work film/TV ; The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert 1994 single work film/TV ; Head On 1998 single work film/TV ; Love and Other Catastrophes 1996 single work film/TV ; Remembering the Man 2015 single work film/TV ; The Suicide Theory 2014 single work film/TV -
y
Making Priscilla
Sydney
:
Momentum Books
,
2016
9325637
2016
single work
autobiography
'Al Clark, producer of The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert, describes in hilarious detail the follies of the movie business, how this outrageous and enduring film came to be made, how it could so easily have gone wrong, and how it became the international phenomenon it remains over two decades later.
'One of the most successful Australian films of all time, it is now also a stage musical which has been performed in a dozen countries – and on one cruise ship.' (Publication summary)
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Don’t Let Them Drag You Down
2008
single work
review
— Appears in: Senses of Cinema , 2008 no. 48 2008;
— Review of The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert 1994 single work film/TV -
Cultural Comparisons
2000
single work
review
— Appears in: Senses of Cinema , September-October no. 9 2000;
— Review of Muriel's Wedding 1994 single work film/TV ; The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert 1994 single work film/TV -
'I Will Survive!' : Australia's 10 Best LGBT Films
2016
single work
review
— Appears in: The Guardian Australia , 7 April 2016;
— Review of The Getting Of Wisdom 1978 single work film/TV ; The Sum of Us 1994 single work film/TV ; 52 Tuesdays 2014 single work film/TV ; The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert 1994 single work film/TV ; Head On 1998 single work film/TV ; Love and Other Catastrophes 1996 single work film/TV ; Remembering the Man 2015 single work film/TV ; The Suicide Theory 2014 single work film/TV - y The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert Strawberry Hills Canberra : Currency Press Australian Film Commission , 2008 Z1471536 2008 single work criticism
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The Orphan Complex : An Australian Myth Travels to Asia
1997
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Australia and Asia : Cultural Transactions 1997; (p. 52-69) 'This essay is a redescription of Australian films set in or dealing in some way with Asia. If an imaginary 'Asia' is sometimes a feature of Australian films, it is only as a generic motif viewed entirely through a lens of internal preoccupations of Australian culture. [...] To my eyes Romper Stomper and The Good Woman of Bangkok have a long cultural genealogy (pp. 53, 54). -
Top Five Oz Road Films
2009
single work
column
— Appears in: The Sunday Mail , 20 December 2009; (p. 12) -
Australia Crossed-Over : Images of Cross-Dressing in Australian Art
1997
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Art And Australia , vol. 34 no. 3 1997; (p. 372-379) McMahon discusses the way in which 'from the early colonial period, transvestism has been deployed as a central motif or conceit in Australian visual art, photography and film, as well as in ballads, literary narratives and drama (p.374). -
Tripping on the Light Fantastic : A Bit of a Look at Australian Film
1997
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Sydney Studies in English , vol. 23 no. 1997; 'In the beginning is the word: there has to be a script. But even before a word is said there's light, and camera, and action. Films are before all else about light, and about what can be realised through light. That pre-eminence of light was acknowledged in the old-time movie theatres, in the custom, now regrettably lapsed, of having the projection illuminating the screen before the curtains were drawn open, so that the promised world of light could be glimpsed before revelation, symbolically seen through a veil which then parted — and behold, a new heaven and a new earth. Those who arrived late, after the houselights had gone down, followed their own little subdued pool of light, the usherette's torch, down the carpeted aisles.' (Author's abstract)
Awards
- 1995 nominated Writers Guild of America Award — Best Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen
- 1995 nominated British Academy of Film and Television Arts Awards — Best Screenplay - Original
- 1994 nominated Australian Film Institute Awards — Best Original Screenplay
- Australian Outback, Central Australia,
- New South Wales,
- South Australia,
- Northern Territory,