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AbstractHistoryArchive Description
'This is the true story of Rose, a glamorous Shanghai nightclub singer, who struggles to survive in '70s Australia with two young children. Based on writer/director Tony Ayres' own life, The Home Song Stories is an epic tale of mothers and sons, mothers and daughters, unrequited love, secrets and betrayal.'
Source: Australian Film Commission. (Sighted: 8/10/2014)
Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of
Works about this Work
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The Laughter and the Tears : Comedy, Melodrama and the Shift Towards Empathy for Mental Illness on Screen
2018
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Australian Screen in the 2000s 2018; (p. 165-189) Analyses five Australian films (both textual analysis and production history) with a focus on their empathetic presentation of mental illness and their deployment of melodrama and comedy. -
Chineseness, Australianness, Homelessness : The Home Song Stories : Retold in a Spatial Perspective
2017
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Antipodes , December vol. 31 no. 2 2017; (p. 313-325)'[...]the three concepts of perceived space, conceived space, and lived space are used as the theoretical framework to investigate how the social space participates in Rose's life and how different factors join to cause her personal disillusionment and eventually her death. [...]the multicultural history of Australian society is highlighted and celebrated to ensure positive space production for all Australians, so that tragedies such as Rose's do not happen. Lefebvre's spatial triad illuminates space and ever yday politics connecting space with history and society, which helps us better and more broadly "understand the complexity and originality of the global space we live in" (Wegner 179). [...]the discussion of the film The Home Song Stories in this article attempts to "grasp the concrete" through Lefebvre's triadic spaces to understand the complexity of Rose's tragedy in-depth. Yet this space includes not only the built environment but also the processes by which materiality is produced. [...]perceived space can be analyzed in relation to the practice of a repressive space, the way space is dominated, the way body is appropriated, and the way the relation in the space is reproduced.' (Publication abstract)
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When Asians Attack
2015
single work
column
— Appears in: The Monthly , March no. 109 2015; (p. 15-16) -
Asian Australian Intercultural Domesticity in Aya and The Home Song Stories
2011
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Journal of Australian Studies , March vol. 35 no. 1 2011; (p. 19-32) 'Interracial couples at home, within the bounds of domesticity and the nation, offer difficult or somehow troubled subject matter that is seldom confronted on screen in Australian cinema. This essay explores the representation of intercultural domesticity in Aya and The Home Song Stories. It draws on theorisations of melodrama and national cinema in order to examine the figure of the first generation Asian Australian woman. I argue that while focused on the domestic realm, the inter-personal relationships and character construction in the two examples formulate an historicised politics of disappointment that not only explores the position of migrant women in interracial marriages in the 1960s and 1970s, when the films were set, but also suggest a critique of the politics of ethnicity that were prevalent at the time of the production of the films.' Source: The author. -
Interview with Tony Ayres : On The Home Song Stories and Asian Australian Film-Making
2008
single work
interview
— Appears in: Studies in Australasian Cinema , vol. 2 no. 3 2008; (p. 245-254)
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A Heartfelt Journey
2007
single work
review
— Appears in: Brisbane News , 18 - 24 July no. 645 2007; (p. 12-13)
— Review of The Home Song Stories 2007 single work film/TV -
Songs of Innocence and Experience
2007
single work
review
— Appears in: The Monthly , August no. 26 2007; (p. 58-59)
— Review of The Home Song Stories 2007 single work film/TV -
Far Horizons : A Chinese Immigrant Finds Discontentment in Suburbia
2007
single work
review
— Appears in: The Sydney Morning Herald , 18-19 August 2007; (p. 14)
— Review of The Home Song Stories 2007 single work film/TV -
Shangai Rose Crafts a Suburban Tragedy
2007
single work
review
— Appears in: The Canberra Times , 25 August 2007; (p. 27)
— Review of The Home Song Stories 2007 single work film/TV -
Mother's Day in Memoir
2007
single work
review
— Appears in: The Sunday Mail , 26 August 2007; (p. 9)
— Review of The Home Song Stories 2007 single work film/TV -
Truth Shaped by Time
2007
single work
biography
— Appears in: The Age , 11 August 2007; (p. 17-18) -
My Mother, My Story
2007
single work
biography
— Appears in: The Canberra Times , 18 August 2007; (p. 4-5) -
When the Spotlight Fades
2007
single work
column
— Appears in: The Sydney Morning Herald , 24 August 2007; (p. 5) -
Capturing the Pain Within
2007
single work
column
— Appears in: The Age , 8 september 2007; (p. 21) -
Reel Time
2007
single work
column
— Appears in: The Australian , 31 October 2007; (p. 5)
Awards
- 2007 nominated Film Critics Circle of Australia — Best Film
- 2007 winner Film Critics Circle of Australia — Best Original Screenplay
- 2007 winner Australian Film Institute Awards — Macquarie Private Wealth Award for Best Screenplay (Original or Adapted)
- 2007 nominated Australian Film Institute Awards — Best Film
- 2007 nominated Inside Film Awards — Best Feature Film
- Melbourne, Victoria,
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Shanghai,
cChina,cEast Asia, South and East Asia, Asia,
- 1970-1971