“You may think you know what you’re dealing with but believe me, you don’t.”
A conversation about the achievement and legacy of Chinatown

Presented by: Michael Eaton and Prof. Jason Jacobs

Date: Friday 26 May 2023
Time: 12-1pm
Location: Online via Zoom and in-person at the SCA Writer's Studio (Level 6, Michie Building)


Abstract

Nearly 40 years ago Robert Evans produced and Roman Polanski directed Robert Towne’s stunning screenplay Chinatown for Paramount Studios. This neo-noir tracks the investigation of private eye J. J. Gittes (Jack Nicholson) into the corruption at the heart of Los Angeles in the 1930s, and the film has since acquired the status of a masterpiece of 1970s Hollywood art. Michael Eaton and Jason Jacobs will discuss the achievement and legacy of the film prompted by some extracts from it. 


Presenter

Michael Eaton is an award-winning dramatist for cinema, television, radio and the theatre.  He has written TV docu-dramas such as Why Lockerbie?, the BAFTA-nominated Shoot to Kill and Shipman as well as original dramas including Signs and Wonders and Flowers Of The Forest.  His script for the HBO feature film Fellow Traveller won Best Screenplay at the British Film Awards in 1989.   He has written four plays for Nottingham Playhouse, his local theatre, of which the last was Charlie Peace – His Amazing Life and Astounding Legend.  Among his plays for BBC radio he has adapted several works of Charles Dickens as well as adapting Great Expectations for the stage. His latest radio drama is Never Mind The Ballocks, about the Sex Pistols Indecency trial in 1977, which will be broadcast later in the year.  He is the author of the BFI Film Classics book on Chinatown.

Jason Jacobs is Professor of Film and Television Studies at the University of Queensland and author of the BFI TV Classics book on Deadwood, and Reluctant Sleuths, True Detectives in the SUNY press series, Horizons of Cinema.


 

About Research Seminar and Workshop Series

 


School of Communication and Arts Research Seminar Series

The research seminar and workshop series occur each semester, each with a different topic and guest speaker from UQ or otherwise.

Friday, 4 August
12-1pm

Hybrid: Online via Zoom and in person at the
SCA Writer's Studio
(Level 6, Michie)

After the Future: Heat, Collapse, and Exhausting the “Future of Work”

Dr Luke Munn

Friday, 25 August
12-1pm

Hybrid: Online via Zoom and in person at the
SCA Writer's Studio
(Level 6, Michie)

Promoting children’s environmental responsibility in the EFL classroomDr Valentina Adami

Friday, 1 September
12-1pm

Hybrid: Online via Zoom and in person at the
SCA Writer's Studio
(Level 6, Michie)

Write FOR your reader vs. writing WITH your reader: human-centred design in professional communication

and

Portraying Asian-diasporic identity beyond the limits of the literary label Asian-Australian

Catriona Arthy

and

Olivia De Zilva

Friday, 8 September
12-1pm

Hybrid: Online via Zoom and in person at the
SCA Writer's Studio
(Level 6, Michie)

Exploring Digital Humanities through the Lens of Journalism: A Case Study of Reader Comment Analysis

Dr Lujain Shafeeq

Friday, 15 September
12-1pm

Hybrid: Online via Zoom and in person at the
SCA Writer's Studio
(Level 6, Michie)

The Medicalised Body - On Illness, Humour, and Sexuality

and

Talkin about the thing that stops me writing about the thing Im talkin about: Hacking and Hofstadter on the looping effect of diagnostic labels and writing the strange double

Carly-Jay Metcalfe and Bianca Millroy

Friday, 22 September
12-1pm

Hybrid: Online via Zoom and in person at the
SCA Writer's Studio
(Level 6, Michie)

Coping with eco-anxiety: A guided journal trialDr Ans Vercammen and Dr Skye Doherty

 

Venue

Online via Zoom and in-person at the SCA Writer's Studio (Level 6, Michie Building)