Dr Stephen Morgan

A Busy (Late) October: Screenings Ahoy!

October 15, 2025

Long time no post (expect, at some point, a recap of a busy summer of screenings, including London Australian Film Festival returning to its summer slot, a bonus Q&A screening of Jaydon Martin’s excellent working class docufiction Flathead, AND a very special event with the one and only, David Wenham).

In the meantime, some belated news about things I have coming up in the latter half of this month, as I host two special screenings for KCL Film Studies (Chilean animation tonight, an Aussie WWI doc on Sat), before heading south-west for Ozploitation and Aussie heist noir.

“All the Little Devils Are Proud of Hell”: Making sense of The Surfer (2024)

April 30, 2025

In a burst of procrastinatory creativity, I’ve written a short ‘review’ of the The Surfer (Lorcan Finnegan, 2024). (Originally published over at Letterboxd.com, but reproduced here.)

There’s an apocryphal story about an early Australian screening of Wake in Fright, supposedly attended by one of the film’s stars, Jack Thompson in 1971. Legend has it that local audiences had been rankling at the representations of Australians thrown up on screen, prompting a man to stand up and shout “that’s not us!”, to which Thompson replied: “yes it bloody well is, now sit down!” Maybe I’ve been too long on this side of the planet, but this particular Aussie country boy – who recognised every single frame of Wake in Fright’s sun-scorched and dustblown picaresque, and the violent hospitality that governs small, isolated Australian towns – felt an abiding urge to stand up during The Surfer and make a similar declaration of denial.

Picnic at Hanging Rock @ 50

January 20, 2025

This year marks the 50th anniversary of the release of Peter Weir’s landmark film, Picnic at Hanging Rock. And although the so-called Australian New Wave had been gathering pace throughout the first half of the 1970s, it was the international success of this film (and Sunday Too Far Away) that saw this wave begin to break on foreign shores.

That success didn’t come until after its starring role at the 1976 Cannes Film Festival – Sunday Too Far Away had, in fact, already played the previous year to much acclaim – but as the film had its world premiere in Adelaide in August 1975 – this seems as good a year as any to celebrate its 50th anniversary and its legacy within the last five decades of Australian cinema.

As well as an upcoming theatrical re-release via BFI Distribution (using the same Peter Weir and Russell Boyd-approved 4K restoration that was the basis for Second Sight’s recent home media release), the significance of Picnic at Hanging Rock will be celebrated as part of a special symposium being held at the University of Sheffield (and online) in June.

2024 in Review #2: Writing & Film Criticism

January 2, 2025

A new year is supposed to be about looking forward, rather than looking back, but I was distinctly slack at posting updates across 2024, so here’s a quick round-up of some of the things I’ve done over the last twelve months.

See my previous post for an update on the film curation and programming work I did in 2024, or scroll down to see what I’ve been up to in terms of writing, and other assorted bits of film criticism.

2024 in Review #1: Curation

January 2, 2025

A banner image compiling several promotional elements from screenings I've worked on this year, including an Instagram post for London Australian Film Society's 2nd Annual Screening of The Castle; a Fred Negro designed poster for The Great Australian Punk Rock Movie Massacre double bill; the 2024 London Australian Film Festival; and the Cinema Rediscovered strand Jeff Barnaby: The Art of Forgetfulness.

Scroll on for an update on the film curation and programming work I did in 2024, or check out the other 2024 in Review post, which focuses on writing and film criticism.

New job: Lecturer in Film Studies at King’s College London

November 16, 2024

A very belated update, since I started back in September, but pleased to say that – after years (on and off) of doing hourly teaching there, dating right back to my PhD days – I’ve now joined the Film Studies department at King’s College London on a (slightly) longer-term basis.

New Writing: Where to Begin with Warwick Thornton (for BFI website)

March 15, 2024

As Warwick Thornton’s brilliant third feature The New Boy arrives in UK cinemas, I’ve put together a primer on where to begin if you’re new to Thornton’s work, which spans drama, documentary, television and moving image art.

NEW PUBLICATION: Review of Victoria Herche’s The Adolescent Nation for JACANZS

September 4, 2023

The open access Journal of Australian, Canadian & Aotearoa New Zealand Studies recently published my review of Victoria Herche’s book The Adolescent Nation: Re-Imagining Youth and Coming of Age in Contemporary Australian Film (Universitätsverlag Winter, 2021) an interesting addition to recent book-length surveys of contemporary Australian cinema.

Celebrating Gulpilil: London Australian Film Festival (5-13 November 2022)

November 4, 2022

So, the 2022 installment of the London Australian Film Festival starts tomorrow (November 5th), with a screening of the absolutely brilliant MY NAME IS GULPILIL (2021) at Regent Street Cinema.

For those who don’t know, the London Australian Film Society and Festival is an absolute labour of love for myself and Laila Dickson (and a handful of wonderful pals who help out in various ways, including Lucy Fen, who designed our flyer and social media campaign!), but that is especially true for me this year, as we pay particular tribute to David Gulpilil. I’ve spent a lot of time over the last few years, academically and otherwise, thinking about Gulpilil, his legacy, and his immeasurable impact on Australian cinema, and this is my tribute to him.

New job: Lecturer of Film & Television at University of Bristol

September 29, 2022

Now that the contract is signed and returned, I’m pleased to say that I’ve joined the brilliant folks at the University of Bristol, where I’ll be Lecturer in Film and Television for the next ~~six~~ ~~ten~~ ~~months~~ little while.

(EDIT: I’m now contracted at UoB until the end of ~~July 2023~~ January 2024.)

Film Historian / Academic / Programmer / Archivist