Anatomy of a film industry Redux: Notes on the West Australian case (1969–1993)

Using the Western Australian (WA) film industry as a case study, this article revisits the framework proposed by Susan Dermody and Elizabeth Jacka in their anatomy of a film industry project. Acknowledging the power of Dermody and Jacka’s work, the article highlights a lack of detail surrounding the WA case. Drawing on the idea of an ‘imaginary’ industry as a key construct, it argues that a modified version of the framework is needed to account for the WA case, especially at the organizational level. The article proposes that the period 1969/70 to the present can be analysed in terms of three distinct eras and focuses on the first two (1969–1983; 1983–1993). It discusses the organization of film industry policy according to a logic of industry development, and a persistent tension between constructions of industry as production and culture. It gathers the extant scholarly resources for an anatomy of the WA industry (including works by Brian Shoesmith, Tom O’Regan, Tim Fetherstonhaugh, Vincent O’Donnell and others). Drawing on this writing, this article represents a belated contribution to the anatomy of a film industry project and a call to action in relation to the analysis of contemporary industry discourse in WA.