Samson and Delilah and Mao's Last Dancer lead the charge at the Awards ceremony last night and swept the floor. Baz Lurhman was hailing the variety of Australian TV and film industry and so as Peter Andrikidis mentioning the final representation of multicultural Australia in East West 101 (which won the best TV drama series beating Underbelly and Packed to the Rafters).
Now I don't want to be a sceptic but I do sincerely wish that this is not a single year representation but an on going one. The issue here is, would Mao's Last Dancer be made if it was not a multi-million copy best seller already? For those who had seen the movie will no doubt that Bruce Beresford did a great job for the book. As for Samson and Delilah, it was hailed first in an overseas festival and then rides its champion wave back to Australia. Another classic case of "it is successful overseas, so lets give it a go" mentality.
What would be interesting is that in the coming years, how multi-cultural Australia will truly be represented in the Australian TV and film industry. Are Indigenous actors still playing indigenous roles? Are Chinese actors still kitchen hands and restaurant owners (or hookers in the girls' case)? Are Japanese actors still tourists? Are Middle Eastern actors still terrorists and gangsters? In my opinion, only when we see that these groups and other groups of actors managed to break through this casting glass ball that have been binding us for years that we can say the Australian TV and film industry truly embraces multi-cultural or modern Australia.
How can we change this? By the collective force of all writers, producers, directors and actors. Short+Sweet is coming shortly and hopefully it will sweetly represent actors of all ethnicity beyond their ethnic constraints in terms of roles on stage. Also Tropfest is around the corner too. Have you thought of using the best actors without considering their skin colour?
East West 101 will be returning next year. It will be very interesting to see how it is going to further represent cultural diversities. Remember: cultural diversity is more than just putting actors of different cultural background on screen - what they do on screen matters more than just have them showing up repeating the same roles in the last 200 years.
It seems to be a good year for non-Anglo / ethnic actors in Australia, but how sustainable it will be is yet to be seen. This is an issue that needs to be dealt with for years but throughout these years, they are just discussions. Hopefully with more non-Anglo industry practitioners pushing this forward, Australian TV and Film industry can finally embrace what modern Australia is.
