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Ghosts, Technology and Landscape in Lake Mungo
Australian film Lake Mungo (Joel Anderson, 2008) is, in terms of generic form, a mock documentary. In essence, this means that it is a fiction film told through conventions associated with documentary realism. The conventions Lake Mungo draws on are largely derived from television formats. For instance, many scenes in the film resemble a human-issues television documentary along the lines of Australian Story, which is a national weekly series that focuses on the stories of various Australian individuals and families. Generally speaking, each episode constructs a narrative based on a personal story that contains inspiring and/or fascinating characters. Each episode also usually has twists and turns that are designed not only to give audiences unexpected moments, which can draw them into the intrigue of the story, but also to advance certain themes. For the most part, these themes are meant to have universal appeal, 'providing insight into life's big dilemmas, challenges and the human condition'.1 In other words, Australian Story represents a dramatic form of documentary storytelling since each episode pays attention to characterisation, emplotment and thematic development.
Drawing on the format of such programs, Lake Mungo is presented as a documentary about a family living in the country town of Ararat, located about 200 kilometres west of Melbourne. Like Australian Story, the film works within the scope of the human-interest narrative by making the subjective testimonies of interviewed subjects a key aspect of its realism. That is to say, Lake Mungo's authenticity is largely based on the individual views and reflections of characters confessing 'openly' before the camera, conveying a sense of verisimilitude that is Australian Story's raison d'être.2 Through this kind of investigative approach, the film tells the story of Alice Palmer (Talia Zucker), a teenage girl who, it is said, mysteriously drowned while swimming with her family at a dam in Ararat in December 2005. In the film, interviews are conducted with each of the remaining Palmers about their perspectives on Alice and what happened to her. However, the film also investigates events that have unfolded since Alice's death, including ghost sightings of Alice at the dam where she drowned and in the Palmers' home.
While the story in Lake Mungo is told...