Two motifs predominate in racing fashion: the horseshoe and the horse bit. But what does it mean when “fillies on the field” dress in clothes adorned with stirrups, bits and other equine symbols?
Can screen adaptations of literary classics ever be as good as the source text? Well, yes. As the new ABC miniseries The Beautiful Lie shows, they can explore timeless themes in unpredictable and engaging ways.
The idea that the Australian accent may be the product of drunkenness in early European settlers is wildly speculative. And yet it has gained international attention in the past week. Why?
JK Rowling has come under fire for signing an open letter opposing a cultural boycott of Israel. The form of the complaints, and Rowling’s response, tell us much about the author-fan relationship.
Award-winning documentary film On the Banks of the Tigris explores the influence of Iraqi Jewish musicians in the cultural life of Iraq and paints a portrait of a country that was once a thriving multicultural centre.
David Court, Australian Film, Television and Radio School and Abi Tabone, Australian Film, Television and Radio School
For every film, specialists are employed for everything from rigging the lights executing the stunts. The announcement of two major new productions coming to Australia will develop that expertise.
While Game of Thrones author George R.R. Martin openly draws on medieval and early modern history in the worlds of his books, his subversive depictions of witchcraft make his female characters both intriguing and powerful.
Jurassica, the latest play from Red Stitch, is a cross-generational reflection on the migrant experience. It’s part of a long tradition of plays exploring the challenges faced by Italian-Australians.
Research shows that when people share happy news on social media, they make their friends - and extended social network - happy too. Picking up on this trend is a new swathe of “good news” websites.
Federal arts minister Mitch Fifield said every job in the film and television industry supported 3.57 jobs in other industries. We should be wary of such promises.
What makes Ai Wei Wei so powerful? Critics say if he didn’t exist, he’d need to be invented: an artist who’s combined his life and art into a politically charged performance that helps define how we see modern China.
Germaine Greer’s comments that “post-operative transgender men are not women” have provoked outcry from transgender activists. So let’s have a meaningful discussion about gender, sex and the complex relationship between the two.
Egyptian mummies have fascinated Europeans since the 5th century, but a new exhibition considers the more recent role they have played in medicine, art and popular culture – and the ethics of their display in museums.
Struggling to get a handle on modern-day China and all its complexities? Looking to have fun while doing so? The Detective Chen novels could be just the ticket.
The Experiment – showing at the Melbourne Festival – is just that: an experiment. It aims to create a meditation in which disquieting questions can menacingly float. Does it succeed? Well …
For all the speculative commentary as to what the new Star Wars trailer reveals plot-wise, its true “force” is surely located in the various sounds that infuse this perfectly constructed teaser.
As a theatre director and supporter of the arts, Jules Wright was political, provocative and passionate. She was also overlooked in Australia’s obituaries when she died earlier this year. Why?
The Intern is a film ostensibly about gendered and generational role reversal that quickly turns into a treatise about how much even successful young women still have to learn (from old men).
Smith’s claim that she is writing about nothing is really her way of renouncing any expectation that her memoir should be anchored by a readily defined plot. This isn’t a story in which a lot of things happen.
Orwell’s 1984 is a heavily laden text, which turned the author’s name into a byword for authoritarian nightmare. So what can we take from the 2015 stage version at the Melbourne Festival?
It’s every performer’s dream. To stand in front of a huge live audience and perform the national anthem. So why did Deborah Cheetham decline the chance to sing at the 2015 AFL Grand Final?
The Melbourne Festival production of Desdemona, written by Toni Morrison and with music by Malian songstress Rokia Traore, puts the women of Shakespeare’s Othello centre stage.
The dreaded blank page haunts every writer. But what happens in your brain when you run dry? And, more importantly, what – if anything – can be done about it?
Marlon James won the Booker Prize this week with a book that focuses on the unrest and violence of 1970s Jamaica, a troubled chapter that continues to shape the island nation’s present - and its future.