In Search of Cultural Authenticity: The 1991 Travelling Film Festival

Abstract

The Travelling Film Festival, a hand-picked selection of the year's finest foreign and/or fringe films from the Sydney Film Festival, is a refreshing change from the Hollywood block-busters and low budget comedies usually offered by the big commercial cinemas. The Festival generally offers one or two films in English and four or five "foreign" films, allowing provincial movie goers access to the art and culture of regions which are rarely seen at such close range by Australians. With this in mind, it could be suggested that the selectors feel the need to "bring the world back home" or to broaden provincial Australia's "world view". However, it also suggests another phenomenon, which encourages a narrowing rather than an expansion of the Festival's "world view".

Films from Germany, Britain, Burkina Faso, Argentina, the United States and Iran were offered this year. A brochure which outlined each of the films in the Festival promised a well-rounded international selection, a cross section of First, Second and Third World issues and cultural attitudes.