'A Haze of Visions': Dream Work in Early Australian Avant-Garde Cinema

Abstract

Prior to the highly visible outbreak of avant-garde cinema in the 1960s, a number of earlier films made in Australia displayed broadly experimental aesthetic concerns. This essay considers these proleptic works via an analysis of the recurring motif of the dream, exploring the historical forces leading to their production, and suggests that the consonance with the aspirations of international Surrealism subtending these works had both an experimental and pragmatic agenda.