The Cool Allatonceness

＇Cool All at Onceness＇ explores television and its effect upon the public, namely returning humankind to a primitive state.

Ian Baker, the student writer/director of this film, became an award winning cinematographer, most notably in partnership with celebrated Australian director, Fred Schepisi. Baker went on work on films such as ＇The Devil’s Playground＇, ＇The Chant of Jimmy Blacksmith＇, ＇Plenty＇, ＇Evil Angels＇, ＇The Russia House＇, ＇Six Degrees of Separation＇ and ＇The Eye of the Storm＇.

“Ours is a brand new world of all at onceness” says the film’s narrator, quoting the popular mass media theorist Marshall McLuhan in his book ＇The Medium is the Massage: An Inventory of Effects＇ (1967). Inspired by McLuhan’s theories, such as ‘the medium is the message,’ this short film explores the television era of electronic storytelling and its impact on society.

The year this film was made - 1968 – was a pivotal year for social and political change. Baker’s ＇Cool All at Onceness＇ uses a raw aesthetic to trace mankind’s journey from oral storytelling to writing, to mechanised printing and the introduction of mass dissemination of information. It incorporates many key cultural and social events of its era, such as the space race, the Beatles and the 1968 Mexico Olympics. It also features performances by local musical luminaries such as Russell Morris and Johnny Young. This very short, ‘ride of a film’, packs in a worldwide web of 1960’s happenings.