Australian Movie Magazine: 1971 Year in Review

Title:

NFSA ID

65885

Year

1971

Courtesy

Cinesound Movietone Productions

Summary

This 'year in review’ edition is not a typical example of the newsreel’s format. It presents some of the significant events of 1971 and includes a range of story types.

This clip includes scenes of anti-apartheid demonstrations against South African sporting teams; John Gorton’s tour of Vietnam; William McMahon becoming Prime Minister; a wool fashion parade staged in the New Guinea Highlands; an unusual wedding celebrated underwater at Sydney’s Marineland; and tennis player Evonne Cawley (then Goolagong).

Note: the quality of the soundtrack on this clip is poor because of deterioration of the original sound negative.

CURATOR'S NOTES

In early silent newsreels, little editorial comment was made when presenting the news to audiences. As newsreels developed and became established in Australia, each company developed its own editorial style and emphasis. Due to the nature of this particular newsreel edition, this clip features little editorial comment in regards to the political protests over apartheid, for example, and the commentary is restricted to recounting events. The Australian Wool Board’s presence in New Guinea is an intriguing segment, but we get little insight from the narration about this relationship other than to say that 'wool is best’. The nature of news footage such as this, however, means that the images often speak for themselves. It is an interesting snapshot of just some of the political, sporting and cultural events of 1971.

Cinesound Movietone

newsreels