Set in the Victorian goldfields of the 1850s, New Gold Mountain breaks new ground in its dramatic rendition of the power dynamics, racism and violence of this time and place, as seen from the perspective of Chinese migrant miners. Considering the SBS series in the context of the western genre it seeks to emulate and the Australian history it attempts to do justice to, Tahney Fosdike finds the show more willing to confront some myths than others.
A household name but with no one watching, are the Academy Awards… over? In 1998, the Oscars drew 55 million viewers to their self-professed glamorous ceremony. In 2010, numbers hovered above 40 million. Each year since, they have plummeted: 23.6 million in 2020 to 9.8 million in 2021. So why does no one watch the Oscars anymore?
Helena Sinclair’s work exists at the edge of a boundary – or playfully sits either side. Seeing it, take note of your first feeling or instinct. Is the platter bristling with hairsoothing with its delicate beauty, or discomforting with a grossness that’s not quite gross? Does your reaction sit between the two, not at neutrality but an in-betweenness that depositions your body? Does its silly name undo you further?
Cousins, a new release from New Zealand, has its heart in its throat, harmonising a driftless protagonist with the enduring love of her whanau (Māori for extended family).
Why did I harbour dread at something so many find lovely? I couldn’t imbue marriage with new meaning; purity culture had tarnished it. No matter how far you go, moving on from indoctrination is sticky terrain.
The past is what happened, history is what is remembered. Recognising this dichotomy, John Young Zerunge reconstructs dominant historical narratives…