MINISTER TONY BURKE - SPEECH, PARLIAMENTARY SCREENING: THE NATIONAL FILM AND SOUND ARCHIVES RESTORES STRICTLY BALLROOM - FRIDAY, 23 AUGUST 2024

EO&E TRANSCRIPT

SPEECH, PARLIAMENTARY SCREENING: THE NATIONAL FILM AND SOUND ARCHIVES RESTORES STRICTLY BALLROOM

FRIDAY, 23 AUGUST 2024

SUBJECTS: The restored viewing of Strictly Ballroom, the National Film and Sound Archive, the role of Australian stories in film

TONY BURKE, MINISTER FOR HOME AFFAIRS, MINISTER FOR IMMIGRATION AND MULTICULTURAL AFFAIRS, MINISTER FOR CYBER SECURITY AND MINISTER FOR THE ARTS: Thanks so much, Caroline, and a real pleasure to join you here on the traditional lands of the Ngunnawal and Ngambri people, with the rich storytelling history that that involves going all the way back to the first sunrise. I acknowledge all my parliamentary colleagues, in particular Susan Templeman, the Arts Envoy. Thank you Caroline, to Patrick, and to all the members of the board of the National Film and Sound Archive who are here.

Often when we think about history, we think about books. We often think about major moments that hit the news. But if you read any of Trent Dalton's novels and all the popular culture references, you realise what really brings our memories back to life and what punctuates our life are the moments of music, the moments of film, the moments of storytelling, where we can remember not simply that's when it happened, but remember how we felt.

I want with Strictly Ballroom tonight – and this is the wonderful thing that the Film and Sound Archive have done with seeing the importance of restoring a film like this – to do away with the concept that we all have had for a long time, because we all now live with the concept that Strictly Ballroom has always been there. It's always been there. But of course it hasn't.

There was a time where the concept of film being that in-your-face energetic was not something anyone had seen. Some fans of Bollywood would have seen some of the genre, but the Australian cinemagoer largely had not seen anything like this before in their lives. The vibrancy of the colour, the close camera shots, the pace of it – it was something very new in every way.

Think of the stories of the western suburbs and of multicultural Australia. They'd been told through movies like They're a Weird Mob. They'd been told through Paul Hogan's comedy, where it was meant to be something to be mocked. Yet here you have a film with the Spanish community in Western Sydney, where there's strength and there's pride and there's a richness of culture to tell a story to the rest of us. That was new. That being told to a mass audience was new in Strictly Ballroom. The concept of ballroom itself being the story was something we were not familiar with. People had sort of got caught up with there might be a sporting reference here and there, but the concept that we would see through ballroom dancing, some of the most aggressive behaviour we have seen on screen, was something new.

The thing that you need to remember; this was before Looking for Alibrandi, before a whole lot of stories that we've come to know. In terms of the soundtrack – this is before Priscilla, this is before Muriel's Wedding – and what's the soundtrack? It's not just contemporary music. You're hearing John Paul Young and Ignatius Jones. You're hearing music that Australians know. In a world pre-Spotify, some of these songs are songs that you remember being constantly on repeat. You love them and in fact - unless you owned the vinyl - you've had no way of hearing them for years. Then, suddenly, it's there, and the memory of how those songs make you feel is being incorporated there into film.

When you have the moment- and I'm working on the basis that, I reckon everyone can cope with this spoiler alert.

[Laughter]

When you have the moment when Paul slides out on his knees to the centre, and that rush of energy, remember that moment in Strictly Ballroom doesn't only belong to Paul's character and that part of the story. This was a rush of energy that was felt Australia over.

This film is a fundamental turning point in cultural confidence for Australia. It's something to celebrate, and it's why the work of the National Film and Sound Archive in presenting this, not just as a little bit of entertainment, but as an iconic part of what it is to be Australian and the opportunity for Australians to see themselves, to see each other, and for the rest of the world to get the shock of its life when it sees us, that's what our collecting institutions are for. That's what the National Film and Sound Archive is doing. That’s why we have so much, so much to celebrate tonight.

[Applause]

ENDS