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Using drama as an intermediary between warring factions

by Tony Ayres


I was recently asked to speak at “8×8” at the Australian Film Television and Radio School where eight filmmakers from eight Australian states and territories were asked to address the question – is Australian storytelling important?


It’s a timely debate, given the precipitous state of the Australian TV industry with threats of ending or reducing domestic drama quotas for the commercial networks and ongoing punitive budget cuts to the ABC. And it’s a question that I’ve grappled with for most of my career. How do we as storytellers, as artists, meaningfully engage with the society we live in? How do we speak and what do we have to say?



Instead of focusing on the “Australian” part of the question, which I was sure my fellow speakers would cover, I addressed the idea of “storytelling” and its social significance.


Read full article at Inside Film


Originally published 13 July 2018 in Inside Film Magazine. Reproduced with kind permission of Tony Ayres.

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