22 Jul 2018
Dangerous Yes-Means-Yes Laws
Big Edna And The Decline Of The Arts
By James Gervaise: Back in the 80s, when I was just beginning my career as a TV writer my newly acquired agent secured me my very first job. It was writing a little in-house doc for the then NSW Film Corp. The film was to be used to educate school principals on the joys of multiculturalism. I threw myself head first into it just like any other fresh faced and overly keen cadet and did my research. Within in a day my heart sunk. As I explored the theme of the doco I quickly came to the conclusion that “multiculturalism” was simply a concept. It did not exist. It was someone’s idea. And worse, it was a very bad idea and, when held up to the sunlight, could not hold its shape or form in reality. Imagine my dilemma. The person running the NSWFC at the time was a formidable woman, “Big Edna.” To get an accurate picture of Ed think Doris Lessing, up-sized, wearing a house dress, grey hair tied back, chardonnay marinated face devoid of make-up. From what I had been told Ed had been a Gough Whitlam appointee in the “arts” bodies and had managed, over the ensuing years, to lever her way into various positions she was wholly unqualified for. Similar woman went on to dominate all the Australian Film funding bodies and still do. They are entirely political and have a ruthless agenda.
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