BiblioVault - Books by Williams, Deane

Australian Film Theory and Criticism

Volume 1: Critical Positions

Noel King, Constantine Verevis, and Deane Williams

Intellect Books, 2013

The first part of a planned three-volume work devoted to mapping the transnational history of Australian film studies, AustralianFilm Theory and Criticism, Volume 1 provides an overview of the period between 1975 and 1990, during which the discipline first became established in the academy.

Tracing critical positions, personnel, and institutions across this formative period, Noel King, Constantine Verevis, and Deane Williams examine a multitude of books and journal articles published in Australia and distributed internationally though such processes as publication in overseas journals, translation, and reprinting. At the same time, they offer important insights about the origins of Australian film theory and its relationship to such related disciplines as English, and cultural studies. Ultimately, Australian Film Theory and Criticism, Volume 1 delineates the historical implications—and reveals the future possibilities—of establishing new directions of inquiry for film studies in Australia and internationally.

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Australian Film Theory and Criticism

Volume 2: Interviews

Edited by Noel King and Deane Williams

Intellect Books, 2014

A three-volume project tracing key critical positions, people, and institutions in Australian film, Australian Film Theory and Criticism interrogates not only the origins of Australian film theory but also its relationships to adjacent disciplines and institutions. The second volume in the series, this book gathers interviews with national and international film theorists and critics to chart the development of different discourses in Australian film studies through the decades. Seeking to examine the position of film theorists and their relationship to film industry practitioners and policy makers, this volume succeeds mightily in reasserting Australian film’s place on the international scholarly agenda.

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Australian Film Theory and Criticism

Volume 3: Documents

Edited by Deane Williams and Constantine Verevis

Intellect Books, 2017

The third part of a three-volume work devoted to mapping the transnational history of Australian film studies, Volume 3: Documents concludes the project by gathering together the documents that were produced during the rise of film studies in Australian academia from 1975–85. Through these sources we see the development of the particularities of Australian film theory and criticism, its relationship to its international counterparts, and the establishment of key positions and the directions in which they develop. Editors Deane Williams and Constantine Verevis here collect key articles, including the works of Paul Willemen, Sam Rohdie, Ross Gibson, and Meaghan Morris, among many others, in order to conclude this pioneering historiographic account of Australian film studies.

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Australian Post-War Documentary Film

An Arc of Mirrors

Deane Williams

Intellect Books, 2008

The postwar period in Australian history was rife with critical debate over notions of nation-building, multiculturalism, and internationalization. Australian Post-War Documentary Film tackles these issues in a considered, wide-ranging analysis of three types of documentaries: governmental, institutional, and radical. Charting the rise of progressive film culture, this volume critiques key films of the era, including The Back of Beyond, and retells film history by placing these documentaries in an international context.

“A significant contribution to documentary history, the history of left-wing thought in the West, and Australian studies.”—Ian Henderson, Editor of Studies in Australasian Cinema

“Deane Williams re-evaluates Australian documentary film production after World War II, positioning it as part of an international left culture which can embrace producers as different as the Realist Film Unit, Cecil Holmes, John Heyer and Maslyn Williams. He invites readers on an always enlightening and often exciting journey through a complex web of people and films and events, to view Australian culture through the documentary film ‘arc of mirrors’.”—Ina Bertrand, University of Melbourne

“Australian Postwar Documentary Film: An Arc ofMirrors is a thoroughly and painstakingly researched study of its subject, which draws upon a wealth of new oral and other forms of historical resource related to the Australian labour movement and associated film-making.”—Ian Aitken, De Montfort University

“With erudition and insight, Deane Williams in this book reconstructs a previously obscured era of documentary cinema in Australia, shedding light on the network of affiliations and associations that underlay the making of a cluster of compelling, politically charged documentary films in the postwar era. . . . This is an immensely thoughtful and timely contribution to the growing literature on the history of documentary cinema.”—Charles Wolfe, University of California, Santa Barbara

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The Intellect Handbook of Documentary

Edited by Kate Nash and Deane Williams

Intellect Books, 2025

The growth of documentaries and their role in culture, activism, and social impact.

The Intellect Handbook of Documentary is an important go-to resource for practitioners, scholars, and students in this burgeoning field. It tackles key topics and debates including the role of documentary in post-truth culture, the rise of streaming giants, and the implications for national documentary cultures, as well as the shifting, increasingly hybrid, practices of documentary activism and the professionalization of impact. Featuring work by key figures in international documentary scholarship and talented emerging scholars, the Handbook is a landmark publication for documentary studies in the twenty-first century.

The Handbook is broad in its scope, incorporating historical, theoretical, empirical, and practical scholarship. It is organized around ten key themes and debates: What and where is documentary (studies); documentary in an age of epistemic uncertainty; documentary histories; documentary and the archive; audio and visualities; documentary relationalities; beyond the Anthropocene; digital and documentary practices; documentary and (new) politics; and a golden age of documentary distribution and funding. Importantly, the Handbook incorporates the voices and practices of practitioners from the Global South, challenging the dominance of Western voices in documentary scholarship.

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