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There are networks of circulation, rather than spaces in communication, and the space-local, national, inter-national-where one is acting at any given time is criss-crossed by all those networks, each of them constructing "spaces" differently. . . . So what matters now is not the origin of ideas- here, there, coming in, going out-but . . . the performance of the text on the spot, and how intellectuals work to define their "spot" in the world, and its relations to other "'spots.'"
Meaghan Morris
During its formative years (specifically, the period 1975-85), a crucial component in the consolidation of Australian film theory and criticism was the local and international exchange of critical formations facilitated by academic film studies (and associated) conferences and related organizations, including the Australian Screen Studies Association conferences and antecedents (1978-86), the biennial conference of the Film and History Association of Australia and New Zealand and its precursors (1981-present), and (later) the Cultural Studies Association of Australasia annual conferences (1991- present). The first of these, the Australian Screen Studies Association (ASSA), developed out of the Australian Journal of Screen Theory (AJST), a mid-1970s publication, initially edited by John Tulloch (and later by an editorial board consisting of Philip Bell, Colin Crisp, Stephen Crofts, Peter R. Gerdes, Neil McDonald, and others). The journal ended its short tenure in 1986, "the large gap in film and media studies within Australia created by [its] demise" filled substantially by Continuum: An Australian Journal of the Media (1987-present).1 This article (and its larger project)2 takes an interest in the sometimes idealistic, sometimes prescriptive nature of this "original" and formative moment in Australian film studies and reflects on its statements and achievements, on the theory and practice that shaped the moment, on its various intellectual and political engagements, and on the personal, professional, and institutional motivations that defined (and continue to define) Australian film studies. There is here, admittedly, a certain arbitrariness to the limits imposed on the inquiry, not only in selecting the decade-long period under investigation, but also in limiting the concept of "film studies," which overlaps substantially with literary, communications, and cultural studies, and its geographical demarcation ("Australia") that elides the connections and exchanges of ideas and personnel from other parts of the world, and...