Australia produced the world's first feature film in 1906 about the Kelly gang. We then had a mini boom in 'bushranger' films. This ended when the government banned production of all bushranger films due to a perceived 'civil unrest' they were causing. The Australian film industry died as a result. Soon after this, the government began funding films themselves and today almost every Australian feature film is government-funded.
A century later and the government has not relinquished control of the film industry. It has even extended its influence by funding absolutely every aspect of the filmmaking sector including film festivals, film schools, film publications, film distributors, film festival junkets and film industry awards. You name it – they fund it.
Screen Australia, the central government filmmaker, says it “will promote an environment where… screen content contributes positively to the cultural fabric of Australian society”. Screen Australia Charter of Operations 2010-2011
Simon Crean, Minister for the Arts, said, “The more we invest in those sorts of things (the arts), the better citizenry we develop”. Annual government arts spending is in the billions.
One of Screen Australia’s stated priorities is to invest in films that are “culturally relevant”. This means the government is responsible for determining which elements of the Australian culture are relevant and which elements of our rich and diverse culture are irrelevant.
Screen Australia’s Charter of Operations does not mention the word ‘entertainment’ once. It views films as vehicles for cultural propaganda. The government would be well advised to heed the words of U.S. President John F. Kennedy, who said, “We must never forget that art is not a form of propaganda; it is a form of truth”.
The brand ‘Australian Film’ is tarnished. It has earned the reputation as being non-commercial and unentertaining, and filmmaking has come to be viewed as a type of government cause, rather than the highly profitable business it can be. This makes it more difficult for all Australian filmmakers to raise independent finance, which makes filmmakers more dependent on government support. It’s a vicious cycle that needs to be broken.
Filmmakers need to break away from the government system and create work that is entertainment-driven. The trouble is, independent filmmakers face an almost impossible task of competing with the government. The government has millions to spend on production and marketing so it can easily buy an audience and squeeze the independents out.
Independent filmmaking is the lifeblood of any film industry and currently Australia’s independent film sector is all but non-existent. This is a shameful blight on the government system, and a dire state of affairs for the industry as a whole.
The government simply does not need the power to pick and choose which films are produced. If any government support can be justified, tax breaks are the best form because they allow creative control to remain in the hands of filmmakers.
But the ideal scenario is where audiences pay filmmakers directly for their work, rather than paying for films via the government in the form of taxation. This way it is the people who decide which types of films are made and not the government, and we all have a few more dollars in our pockets to go to the movies.
Currently filmmakers don’t need to connect with audiences. They make most of their money from the front end—the budget, and they’re not accountable to the unwitting taxpayers who foot the bill. As a result, Australian filmmaking is running at a huge financial loss. This is unsustainable and if we allow it to continue, Australia’s share of the box office will continue to shrink.
Filmmaking is a multi-billion dollar industry that can provide jobs, growth and exports; however, much of our best filmmaking talent leaves Australia to make films overseas and like so many other Australian resources, they are sold back to us as finished products.
Australia has a large enough economy to support a commercially viable, self-sufficient film industry. It also has the talent, infrastructure, climate, geography and language that make it the ideal filmmaking nation. We’re probably the only country in the world with real competitive advantages over Hollywood.
Independent filmmakers can help to revive our industry, and rebuild it from the bottom up. But they need our help, which is why this writer is launching an entirely new non-government filmmaking initiative.
By creating a new platform, solely for independents, we hope to level the playing field so that independents can compete with the government. We aim to lure private sector investment back to the film business by showing that films really can make a profit. The key is to cut costs to the bone and allow creativity to shine, like only independent filmmaking can.
Some of the world’s most profitable films have had extremely low budgets. Films like Paranormal Activity, Clerks, and Open Water are among them. Digital technology has paved the way for micro-budget filmmaking. There’s no excuse for Australia not to have a thriving self-sufficient commercial film industry.
Films should be made by the people, for the people; and be financed by ticket-sales, not taxation. If this sounds like the type of film industry you would like to see, please join us.
Jason Kent is an independent filmmaker who hopes to encourage other independent filmmakers to stay true to their vision and remain purely independent.
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