Stuart Richards  The University of South Australia

‘A Hopeful Turn’

As with all areas of academia, Screen Studies has had its own challenges over the last few years that could constitute an emergency. As Adrian Martin notes in his conclusion, there is a distinction between a crisis and an emergency. While the word crisis suggests ‘panic, fright, blockage, breakdown’; to refer to this current situation as an ‘emergency’ infers that something can emerge from this post-pandemic unease. I agree that we have an opportunity to learn from our experiences of being teachers and researchers of Screen Studies in this mid and post-COVID period.

Quite a few of the themes in Martin’s essay have resonated on a personal note.

First, teaching during the pandemic has been particularly difficult. The communal gatherings of a cohort are no more. For many institutions, lectures and screenings have been moved online and there is no indication (or dialogue) that these classes will return to being in-person. Screen Studies has always responded to and adapted along with the changes in industry and teaching. Asking students to watch their films online at home rather than in-person as a cohort reflects the dominant nature of screen consumption today. Still, I can’t help but think that they are missing out.

Martin talks of the Field of Screen Studies, and I agree that our position in academia is complicated. I have taught Screen Studies across several institutions, where it has been positioned directly with media studies, film and television production courses and cultural studies. This helps with some enrolments as these courses are cross listed in other programs. Not having a core can be a strength, as it means students who intend to focus on the practical side of, or periphery to, screen studies can be reminded of the importance of theoretical underpinnings of the screen. I must say though, I am still shocked that I sometimes need to defend the critical approach to studying and appreciating screen content to film production students (and staff). This is also why I maintain the importance of researching topics that others view as esoteric. My research feeds into my teaching practice and I find this to be fundamental to the successful implementation of a tertiary Screen Studies program.

As Martin notes, there is evidence of silver linings to the pandemic. Access to filmmakers, festivals, artist talks and so on are much easier.  Now that some film festivals have online programs, content is more accessible. There is no dedicated queer film festival in Adelaide, beyond the few queer films programmed in Feast and the Adelaide Film Festival. Since Melbourne Queer Film Festival and Queer Screen developed online programs, we now have access to more queer films. For us here in Adelaide, this felt like we were part of something queer happening elsewhere in Australia. Research seminars increasingly include filmmakers and researchers from far off countries. For a course on digital mediascapes, I interviewed Logan Mucha and Kate Darrigan, co-creators of TikTok series Scattered for my students. They both live in Melbourne. Of course, the technology to break down these geographical hurdles existed prior to the pandemic, our openness to using them in our teaching and research is more prevalent.

A few caveats on research: First, in the age of the bureaucratic university, many academics don’t get the opportunity to teach their research, all the while universities implore the importance of the research-teaching nexus – a contradiction that I don’t see being overcome anytime soon. Second, given the current state of emergency that we are emerging from, any research is an achievement. This is particularly so for research that is deemed too esoteric to those pushing for commercialised outcomes. I am currently writing a book on the screen adaptations of Agatha Christie and there have been many times when this has felt like a guilty pleasure.

I am writing this following the Federal Election where our political representation has decidedly moved to the left. This must be a positive move for those working in the humanities tertiary sector. The coalition government’s Job-Ready Package has been a disaster and cruelly punished students wishing to follow their dream areas of study. With a new government, I am hopeful for substantial cultural policy that will reverse some of the funding cuts under the previous government. According to Richard Watts on ArtsHub regarding Labor’s election pledge:

Such a policy would centralise First Nations art and culture; reaffirm the need for arms-length arts funding; revive cooperation between Federal, State and Local governments; and examine the potential for a national live events insurance scheme to counteract the sector’s uncertainty as Australia emerges from the pandemic.

This policy would also support and promote Australian creators on streaming platforms. Genuine support for Screen Australia, Australia Council for the Arts, ABC and SBS will be a welcome direction for the Australian screen industry. As a Screen Studies academic, this will also mean that we aren’t engaged with an industry that is in conflict or, to draw on Martin’s usage of Rancière, an industry bound up in paranoia and hidden conspiracy.

I hope that this election will result in a hopeful turn for us all – that we emerge from this emergency as a stronger discipline of study.

© Stuart Richards, 2022