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nostalgia’. Documentaries were the only visual medium available to Australia at the time. This period generally matches Moran’s ‘nation-building period’ of the Government Film Division from 1945 to 1953. Moran (1989a) wrote that the films produced in that period ‘are nationalist in a particular way. As well as promoting a general civic consciousness, these films could also help to overcome regionalism and parochialism by moulding the Australian nation’ (p. 155). A total of 24 films reviewed in this book belong to this period. Period II extends from 1956 to 1965, a period containing the advent of television, but almost without local productions. Australian television was not engaged in broadcasting locally oriented documentary films at this particular time (Moran, 1989b). In this period, Australia experienced the influx of European migrants, and assimilation was the dominant national ideology. The ANFB reorganised the film production team and gave it a new name: the ‘Commonwealth Film Unit’. A total of 20 films reviewed in this book belong to this period. The time frame of this period is similar to Moran’s period of ‘dominance of classic documentaries’ from 1953 to 1964. Moran (1989a) wrote,
Period III spans 1966 to 1975, a period with the emerging identity of integration and seeds of multiculturalism. The influence of documentary films was declining in Australia, as 90% of the population in Sydney and Melbourne owned televisions (Beilby, 1981). A local television drama production industry also emerged alongside the growth of television during this period. In 1972 colour television began broadcasting in Australia, and in 1975 4% of Sydney’s population and 3% of Melbourne’s population owned colour television sets (Beilby, 1981). The government film production agency was reorganised and renamed