The Picture Show Man

The Picture Show Man is one of only a small number of Australian films that deal directly with aspects of local and national film history, and which draw extensively on the archival research undertaken by one of its key creative personnel, writer/producer Joan Long. The film's reputation may have suffered in comparison to the more audacious, ambitious, technically brilliant and truly seminal Newsfront (Philip Noyce), a similarly cinema history-focused, but more filmically dynamic, opus released to much fanfare the following year. As this essays demonstrates, however, The Picture Show Man does deserve to be re-evaluated in relation to the writing and rewriting of Australia's film history in the 1970s and 1980s, the much-derided 'AFC genre' (referring to the Australian Film Commission) or period film, the increasing importance and invaluable contribution of key female production personnel to the Australian feature-film industry, and the model and example it offers for local films attempting to attract international recognition and distribution, among various other factors.