From creativity to disruption: introduction to the double issue

Welcome to another timely and robust collection of research on Australasian screen texts, industries, and cultures. This double issue of Studies in Australasian Cinema is a combination of the second part of the special issue ‘Creativity Matters’, guest edited by Margaret McVeigh, Aurora Scheelings, Joanne Tindale, and Joseph Grogan, and a special issue entitled ‘Disruptive Narrative Practices’, guest edited by Glenda Hambly and Anna Dzenis. Issue I: ‘Creativity Matters’ includes Joanne Tisdale’s analysis of older women in the Australian mini-series Stateless through the prism of policy programs and reports, as well as a case study by Michael Sergi, Chris Fitchett, and Darren Paul Fisher which canvasses ‘University Film Schools at the Heart of Creative Collaborations with Industry’. As with part one of ‘Creativity Matters’, the papers are extensions of work presented at the 2022 conference of Australian Screen Production Education and Research Association (ASPERA). Issue II: ‘Disruptive Narrative Practices’ represents cutting-edge analysis and explorations on a topic surprisingly unexplored in the journal thus far – ‘disruption’ from multiple perspectives across practices and approaches of all kinds. The issue comprises an introductory framing from editors Glenda Hambly & Anna Dzenis, ‘A Dream, A Visual Diary: Disruptive Narrative Modes in When the Camera Stopped Rolling’ from Felicity Collins, Susan Cake, and Louise Sawtell’s ‘Disrupting the Self: Script Development within the Academy’, ‘Manifesto as Method for a Queer Screen Production Practice’ by Stayci Taylor, Angie Black, Patrick Kelly, and Kim Munro, ‘Disruptive Docs: Teaching Hybrid Documentary Filmmaking in Australia’ Phoebe Hart, and finally Susan Cake and Sean Maher’s ‘Innovation in True Crime: generic transformation in documentary series’. As always, please enjoy these (extra) special issues of Studies in Australasian Cinema.