Archiving Change: Film Versions and Cultural Heritage at the National Film and Sound Archive

Abstract

Short Abstract

This thesis argues that the multiple versions of films held in the Australian National Film and Sound Archive are not simply practical or technical objects, but instead palimpsestic, process-laden records that hold the traces of a film's history and identity. The Australian National Film and Sound Archive's (NFSA) Strategic Direction document states, "The NFSA tells the national story by collecting, preserving and sharing audiovisual media, the cultural experience platforms of our time." This "national story" consists of over three million items, including multiple versions of films (what I term 'film versions') such as alternate formats, cuts and local and international releases. In its preservation and restoration practices, the NFSA necessarily prioritises some versions of a specific film over others.

Focusing on four films selected for restoration, in this thesis, I argue that comparing multiple versions of a single film - a process I call 'versional analysis' - is an important and overdue exercise. This approach not only recuperates the opaque, selective process in deciding which versions of a film the Archive chooses to use for a restoration but also analyses the commercial, political and institutional infrastructure that contribute to a version's continuing existence. It offers an enriched understanding of the film artefact (the chosen version) as never simply singular, but always tethered to its other iterations. Moreover, I challenge the claim that the act of managing, preserving and restoring film versions can be reduced to a technical exercise. Instead, I show that these processes are necessarily generative. I argue that the changes made to the versions of films I analyse demonstrate the important role the NFSA plays in constructing and revising Australia's national film identity.

Through a case study of unrestored and restored versions of four films held at the NFSA - those being Wake in Fright (Ted Kotcheff, 1971), Starstruck (Gillian Armstrong, 1982), Bliss (Ray Lawrence, 1985) and Proof (Jocelyn Moorhouse, 1991) this thesis critically explores how the Archive's processes of restoration and preservation actively construct its telling of the "national story".

These versions, when placed into context and compared with one another, become a lens through which to view the practice of the Archive and its staff. The insights I glean from comparing these versions reveal broader implications for how the institution navigates its relationship to heritage, Australianness and national film history. I argue that the NFSA, through initiatives like the NFSA Restores program, becomes a creator or producer of new film versions.

I examine these versions not only in relation to the production of the newest and most recognised instances of classic Australian films, but also in terms of their materiality. These physical and digital objects bear important relationships to historical records at the NFSA and the nostalgia they provoke. Further, these versions furnish evidence of the intersections of commerce, political policy and national memory. In other words, versions are more than echoes or memories of a film's past - they are explicit and specific instances of a film that locate it in a time and place and contribute to the dynamism of films as records of Australian history. Show more