|
|
holiday in Christmas Under the Sun (1946) and of a surfing migrant in The New Australians (1963) are two prominent examples of depicting Australia and the Australian way of life to potential migrants. These films showed Australian families enjoying an unsurpassable lifestyle during the Christmas holiday and how migrants from Europe (so-called ‘New Australians’) were assimilated into Australian society by joining a citizenship ceremony on Manly Beach. However, these two documentary films were produced at different periods in Australia’s migration history and were the products of different stages of the formation of the Australian national identity. They had different target audiences (British or European), presented a different emphasis (Australian way of life or migrant experience), and were made under the migration policies of different states (British source or European source).
Christmas Under the Sun (1946) was one of the very first migration documentary films made in the post-war era targeting British migrants. It was one of the four films in the Australia and Your Future series produced by the Australian National Film Board (ANFB) in the late 1940s. The purpose was to show British migrants the Australian lifestyle and family activities at Christmas under southern skies. Christmas in summertime is unique to Australia, and the experience was depicted as fun and interesting. Family get-togethers, turkey meals, Christmas tree decorations, and other typical Western rituals for celebrating Christmas could all be found in Australia, although there is no snow. How comparable was the Australian standard of living and family values to those of the United Kingdom? How did Australian families enjoy Christmas without seeing snow? What was unique about the world ‘down under’ and the alternative gift of sunshine offered in Australia? These questions were answered positively in Christmas Under the Sun. Images of families and the Australian way of life were presented in this film to attract British migrants.
The treatment script of The New Australians was designed in 1963 as part of theLook at Life series.1 Europe became a new source of Australian migrants from the late 1950s due to the shortage of British migrants at that time. Europeans were the target audience of this film. It described the migrant experience of naturalisation into Australian citizens and postulated