‘Reel love’ across ethnic boundaries? The extent and significance of inter-ethnic intimacy in Australian cinema

Abstract

National cinemas play an important role in the construction of national identities, representing the ‘self’ to both domestic and international audiences. Evidence of the material impacts of media representations on individuals and society, and the pervasiveness of movie-watching as a cultural activity, underscore the importance of scholarly inquiry into film. Here, we are concerned with how ethnic diversity has been negotiated within the Australian national cinema – specifically at the scale of intimate interpersonal relationships. Our analysis of twenty-five recent Australian films considers how cinema alerts audiences to the possibilities and limitations of love within and across ethnic boundaries. We find cause for modest optimism in regard to the frequency of Australian cinematic representations of inter-ethnic intimacy, although the narrow range of ethnic groups permitted to participate in these encounters, and an apparent reticence to portray marriage, co-habitation and child-bearing across ethnic boundaries, remain cause for concern.

Keywords:

• intimacy
• cinema
• film
• ethnicity
• inter-racial
• prejudice

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank Dr Carol Farbotko and two anonymous referees for their valuable comments on an earlier version of this manuscript. All remaining errors are our own.

Notes

1. Ancestry is the term through which ethnicity is operationalized in the Australian census.

2. Each state and territory had an Aboriginal Protection/Welfare Board, which exercized extensive paternalistic control over Indigenous Australians. The ‘Chief Protector’ acted as a legal guardian to make decisions in the ‘best interests’ of Indigenous Australians (Probyn 2003).

3. A total of 2,566 respondents were asked about black Africans, compared to 12,512 for all other groups.

4. The US literature refers to interracial intimacy, reflecting the use of racial categories in the US census. We use ‘inter-ethnic’ unless referring to the US literature.

5. Khoo (2004) found that 58 and 49 per cent of third-generation Lebanese Australian men and women (respectively) had spouses with ‘Australian’/Anglo-Celtic ancestries. The comparable figures for Indian Australians were 65 and 55 per cent.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Natascha Klocker

NATASCHA KLOCKER is a Lecturer in Human Geography in the School of Earth & Environmental Sciences at the University of Wollongong.

Elyse Stanes

ELYSE STANES is a PhD Candidate in the School of Earth & Environmental Sciences at the University of Wollongong.