Australian films

Imagining the secondary school: the 'pictorial turn' and representations of secondary schools in two Australian feature films of the 1970s
History of Education Review, Jan, 2006 by Josephine May

This article engages with the cinematic history of Australian education by examining the historical representation of secondary schools in a number of Australian feature films of the 1970s. By what narrative strategies, metaphors and understandings were Australian high schools encoded into images and how might these interpretations differ from written accounts of the secondary schools? Specifically the analysis centres on two seminal films: Picnic at Hanging Rock (Weir, 1975) and The Getting of Wisdom (Beresford, 1977). These films of the 'New Wave' cinema revival have usually been interpreted as discussions about Australian national identity, and the historical settings of secondary schools have not been foregrounded.

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