Women Filmmakers: Gillian Armstrong

When she directed My Brilliant Career in 1979, Gillian Armstrong became the first woman to make a feature film in Australia in over 40 years. Today, she is a commercially successful director of over 18 feature films and documentaries and an important, early example of a woman director focused on mass audiences who has crafted an authorial image that is powerful and unique. Both Armstrong the director and her films have been framed through the language of gender inclusivity, including the fact that her movies frequently foreground female characters and themes of interest to women audiences. Armstrong's movies are unique in the ethical relationships that they depict, and she is an outspoken critic of the challenges that women in the industry face and of ongoing need for support. Armstrong has been a forceful presence in the period film genre, with multiple Australian productions and international coproductions to her name, and an innovator in documentary, with her longitudinal series about three young women set in South Australia. This entry establishes the multidimensionality of Armstrong's career and examines her engagement with the Australian period film genre to demonstrate how she refashions generic conceits to bring new, engaged, and affective meaning to familiar forms.