Ealing Down Under: The Australian Films of Ealing Studios

In the fifteen years following the end of World War Two, Ealing Studios built its reputation on a series of iconic comedies with which the Ealing name has been synonymous ever since. Throughout that same period, however, the studio also embarked on a bold filmmaking experiment that took them 10,000 miles away from their West London headquarters. Drawing on his upcoming book on Ealing's Australian productions, Stephen Morgan will guide us through the parallel history of this quintessentially British studio, touching upon the stories, struggles, and personalities at the heart of the endeavour.

From tales of outback endurance to harbourside thrills, Ealing's Australian films reveal another side to the West London studio, a side that was a world away from the quaint comedies of 'Little Britain'. Largely neglected in accounts of both British and Australian cinema, this series of films depicts an emerging nationhood and an Empire (and Commonwealth) in transition, whilst also reflecting the realities of the settler colonial endeavour, including rare depictions of Indigenous dispossession and conflict on the frontier.

This online talk will be presented by Stephen Morgan, a film and cultural historian specialising in the links between Britain and Australia, and the wider contexts of British settler colonialism.