Contents:
Introduction -- 1. More than a filmmaking hobby (1920-1930s) -- 2. public pressure from film reformers (1920s) -- 3. utopian visions and activist filmmaking (1930s - 1950s) -- 4. creating cultures cinema-going (1945-1965) -- 5. training and creativity in government (1940s-1980s) -- 6. political expression and film (1970-1980s) -- 7. film schools, film business and industry (1970-1990) -- conclusion -- index.

"Beyond the Silver Screen" tells the history of women's engagement with filmmaking and film culture in twentieth-century Australia. In doing so, it explores an array of often hidden ways women in Australia have creatively worked with film. "Beyond the Silver Screen" examines film in a broad sense, considering feature filmmaking alongside government documentaries and political films. It also focuses on women's work regulating films and supporting film culture through organising film societies and workshops to encourage female filmmakers. As such, it tells a new narrative of Australian film history. It reveals the variety of roles film has in Australian society and presents film as a medium of creative and political expression, which women have engaged with in diverse ways throughout the twentieth century. Gender roles and gendered ideologies operating within society at large have influenced women's opportunities to work with film and how their filmwork is."--Back cover.

Includes bibliographical references and index.