Marriage: Love and Law exhibition catalogue - Flipbook - Page 92
The ‘real’ experiences of women became a focus for a number of Australian
feminist film makers in the 1970s, including Deborah Kingsland. Her film,
George and Toula, which was made for Film Australia’s Our Multicultural Society
series in 1978, delves into the marriage of one Melbourne couple.
Kingsland made several other films in a similar vein including All in the same
boat, which presents the story of Barbara, a young married woman living
in Western Sydney with two infant children. Her husband sees his role solely
as the family breadwinner with no domestic or child-rearing responsibilities.
Barbara and other women in a similar position use alcohol and Valium
in an attempt to cope with the sense of isolation and stress that they feel.
Barbara reflects on her situation: ‘It’s really incredible to think back and think
of what you could have been if you didn’t get married, and what you are now’.
Toula, an Australian-born woman of Greek parentage has been married
to migrant George—who was raised in Greece—for 10 years. She feels that the
Greek community’s expectations concerning married women and family clash
with her own experiences and aspirations. She is conflicted about her marriage:
‘I’m not really happy. I do think of bucking out often. But I don’t have the guts to
do it.’ George, it would seem, has a different understanding: ‘We are very happy
together. We are ten years together now. Everything goes rosy: goes all right.’
71
72
71 Deborah Kingsland
George and Toula
Film (digitised)
1978
Footage supplied by the
National Film and Sound Archive
of Australia’s Film Australia
Collection, Title no: 16050
92
72 Deborah Kingsland
All in the same boat
Film (digitised)
ca. 1977
Footage supplied by the
National Film and Sound Archive
of Australia’s Film Australia
Collection, Title no: 250579
93
