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German unification is frequently seen as an event and a date October 3, 1990 - on which a divided people could finally live as one, restored to a natural state of togetherness. Within Germany, however, the experience since 1990 has been one of realisation of deep inner division, and recognition that unification is in fact a long term process, and perhaps even an uncertain goal in Europe, where, everywhere else, new regional consciousnesses are questioning old national identities. Since the future role of Germany in Europe is a major and controversial issue in economic, political and cultural circles, the critical construction of realistic and authentic portrayals of post-unification Germany is of considerable importance. The concept, size and location of a 'German nation' have been contested and fought over from outside and within since its 19th century forging under the leadership of Bismarck, but if one proceeds on today's dominant assumption that between 1949 and 1989 the German people existed as one nation, though they were separated by one of the most tightly guarded borders in world history - a border that separated more than just two countries, but rather served as the confrontational line between two superpowers with opposing ideological, economic and political systems - one can come to the logical conclusion that German unification in 1990 was merely an event which enabled 'the German Nation' to live in the same, unified country once again. However, if one recognizes the fact that 40 years of separation superimposed on more complex historical and contemporary mappings inevitably led to the development of two distinct collective identities, it becomes clear that German unification was - and still is - in fact an on going process of attempting to merge the peoples of two states into one, or one into the other. This is a process that will reach deep into the 21st century, involving the development of a new German national identy within the European Union in a rapidly changing world. This thesis does not try to speculate on or define a 'general' or 'essentialist' sense of what the new German national identity might be. It rather analyses texts of a selection of Germany's image makers since 1990, and examines critically a range of constructions of the new identity from documentaries and docudramas to feature films. The project does not ask to be judged as a contribution to film studies in the narrow sense of that term, seeing itself instead as an interdisciplinary undertaking which derives its insights from a fruitful mix of approaches used in Critical Discourse, Analysis, History, Cultural Studies and Film Studies. Just as it may be said that the German Democratic Republic to some extent talked itself out of existence through its people's acceptance of Western discourse, and images of a Western consumer paradise, so it is now worth analysing how the new Germany is, in complex and sometimes contradictory and sceptical ways, attempting to talk itself into existence through discourse and imagery. The thesis examines whether and how, through the medium of film, opinion formers and creative minds, with their various agendas are seeking to influence public perceptions of the post-1990 confrontation between idealised projections of German identity and recalcitrant reality.

The research brings together elements from two disciplines, the sociology of education and film studies, to investigate the relevance of 'reel' world teacher representations to the real world lives of teachers, and to explore how the former offer opportunity for reflection on professional development and change. Media texts are utilised as an unconventional resource as either a replacement for and/or enhancement of educational theory, and teachers drawn from different stages of the teaching life cycle provide empirical data via their writing aspects of teacher culture in response to the stimulus of each text. In an age of visual culture, educational research which explores the medium of film is an important resource for professional development and change is an original contribution to knowledge at a time when current concerns are largely related to the repercussions of the ongoing implementation of government reforms. The research identifies the charismatic teacher who inspires loyalty and admiration in his/her students, forming a special relationship with them in a way which no other colleague can. A more complex analysis suggests that there are four varieties of the charismatic teacher: the eccentric, the resilient, the romantic and the enduring. Responses to such characters reveal that real world teachers reflect on the uncinematic bureaucracy of their everyday work compared with energised settings where student problems and cynical colleagues are overcome by 'reel' world teachers unfettered by pre-set agendas. A real/'reel' overlap occurs as real world teachers re-examine the personal and professional relationships which underpin their everyday work. Through watching examples from screen culture, they reflect on what the demands and rewards of teaching are, and how these impinge on a teacher's health and private life; the development of relationships with both students and colleagues; and the influence of those outside classroom and staffroom, both at local and government levels.

This thesis investigates the daytime audience participation talk show and the docu-soap, in terms of public participation in a televisual public sphere. It is argued that these genres show the conversationalization of television talk where the dichotomies of public/private, citizen/consumer and information/entertainment are played out. On the talk show and the docu-soap laypersons make private revelations in public and in the increasingly commercialised boradcasting environment the citizen-viewer of public service television is addressed as a consumer resulting in the infotainment genre. It is argued that these genres exemplify cultural and social shifts in language usage, commodification and public sphere (Dahlgren, 1995, Scannell, 1989) and this thesis examines 'reality' TV to assess television's potential to improve a democratic televised show as there has been little critical entertainment with non-American shows: Esther, Kilroy and Vanessa. The docu-soap is used as a comparison as it illustrates the conversationalization of the documentary form. Critical discourse analysis (CDA) has been employed as a critical tool in order to analyse the discursive practice of these texts and to ascertain if there is evidence of negotiations in terms of power relations in these forms of 'trash' television. The results indicate that the structures of the genres confine the participants and that the confessional and therapeutic discourses forestall public participation on television. Within hegemonic televisual structures it is posited that, in terms of micro-power relations, there are some forms of negotiation in the talk show site. The genres are compared in terms of performance and the results forma a synthesis of these television texts and theories of the public sphere, drawing on Hanermas and critical revisions of his work. These programmes reveal the problematic nature of public participation through television in the climate of increasing commercialisation. The points when the lay participants resist control are drawn upon in order to illustrate the ways in which television could ameliorate public participation.

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This study is intended to provide a record of the founding and development of one of Australia's oldest and longest surviving film festivals and to determine the nature and impact of the Festival in its engagement with other cultural, social, and political institutions over the thirty years from 1954 to 1983. I have taken my research from a variety of sources, primarily the archive of Sydney Film Festival papers and ephemera lodged at Mitchell Library, Sydney. I have utilized a number of publications from the period, including daily newspapers, trade papers and specialist film and art journals. These give some indication of the Festival's influence and impact within the wider community and help position it in terms of predominant cultural and social values. I conclude that the Sydney Film Festival has played a significant, and so far somewhat underestimated, role in the development of Australian film culture and industry, and has influenced the nature and reception of films in commercial distribution within the country. In a pedagogical sense, it has influenced contemporary understanding of film and film history, in part by privileging particular movements and filmmakers over others and in part by creating a communal and interactive environment in which films, filmmaking and other aspects of film culture can be discussed, analysed and celebrated. This is a history of an organisation whose membership included some of the major figures in Australian film and related media and I have been committed to bringing a human element to the events and issues explored. To this end, I have utilized the extensive Oral History archive created in 1992 by the Sydney Film Festival in order to commemorate its fortieth anniversary. As is often the case with historical research, some of these personal memories are in conflict with one another and with the documentary record. By a process of referencing and cross referencing, I hope I have arrived at an approximation of a truth about a moment in the life of an Australian cultural icon.

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Thin-film silicon photovoltaics are seen as a good possibility for reducing the cost of solar electricity. The focus of this thesis is the ALICIA cell, a thin-film polycrystalline silicon solar cell made on a glass superstrate. The name ALICIA comes from the fabrication steps - ALuminium Induced Crystallisation, Ion Assisted deposition. The concept is to form a high-quality crystalline silicon layer on glass by Aluminium Induced Crystallisation (AIC). This is then the template from which to epitaxially grow the solar cell structure by Ion Assisted Deposition (IAD). IAD allows high-rate silicon epitaxy at low temperatures compatible with glass. In thin-film solar cells, light trapping is critical to increase the absorption of the solar spectrum. ALICIA cells have been fabricated on textured glass sheets, increasing light absorption due to their anti-reflection nature and light trapping properties. A 1.8 μm thick textured ALICIA cell absorbs 55% of the AM1.5G spectrum without a back-surface reflector, or 76% with an optimal reflector. Experimentally, Pigmented Diffuse Reflectors (PDRs) have been shown to be the best reflector. These highly reflective and optically diffuse materials increase the light-trapping potential and hence the short-circuit currents of ALICIA cells. In textured cells, the current increased by almost 30% compared to using a simple aluminium reflector. Current densities up to 13.7 mA/cm2 were achieved by application of a PDR to the best ALICIA cells. The electronic quality of the absorber layer of ALICIA cells is strongly determined by the epitaxy process. Very high-rate epitaxial growth decreases the crystalline quality of the epitaxial layer, but nevertheless increases the short-circuit current density of the solar cells. This indicates that the diffusion length in the absorber layer of the ALICIA cell is primarily limited by contamination, not crystal quality. Further gains in current density can therefore be achieved by increasing the deposition rate of the absorber layer, or by improving the vacuum quality. Large-area ALICIA cells were then fabricated, and series resistance reduced by using an interdigitated metallisation scheme. The best measured efficiency was 2.65%, with considerable efficiency gains still possible from optimisation of the epitaxial growth and metallisation processes.

This study proposes that aspects primary to film festival operation be identified and logically linked through established system-based theories. Researchers are then able to establish a foundational comprehension of film festivals and overcome areas that are currently nebulous and detrimental to the field of study.

Polycrystalline silicon (poly-Si) thin-film solar cells are receiving attention by many researchers in recent times. The focus of this thesis is the evaporated ALICE solar cell, a thin-film poly-Si solar cell fabricated on a glass superstrate by e-beam evaporation. The acronymn ALICE comes from - ALuminium Induced Crystallization Solid Phase Epitaxy. The concept is first to form a high-quality crystalline silicon layer on glass by Aluminium Induced Crystallization (AIC). The AIC seed layer (grain size>20 ??m) acts as the template from which the crystalline information is transferred into the silicon over-layer by solid-phase epitaxy (SPE). As a result, the ALICE solar cells have much larger grain size compared to the poly-Si thin-film solar cell (2~3 ??m) by random nucleation and growth (RNG). This leads to the minimized grain boundary recombination and hence potential improved conversion efficiency. The temperature of 200??C is found to be optimal for the deposition of amorphous Si (a-Si) precursor thin films. The epitaxy process of the ALICE cell is successful, proving the feasibility and reliability of the deposition and post-treatment processes. The ALICE cell is successfully metallized using a bifacial interdigitated scheme. Wet etching using KOH is introduced to realize the uniform Si etching, and phosphoric acid etching is introduced to remove the local shunts in the ALICE cell. The results show that the material quality of ALICE solar cells are much worse than that of the AIC seed layer, which is related to the poor epitaxy quality on (111) planes grown from the AIC seed layer. Additional experiments show that the fraction of (100) oriented grains in AIC is the main factor in determining the material quality and the resulting solar cell performance, rather than grain size. Therefore, both a high fraction of (100) oriented grains and large grain size are required for AIC seed layers to achieve the ALICE solar cells with superior performance. Comparison of the ALICE cells prepared at different base pressures and deposition rates show that the base pressure is much less important than the deposition rate. Therefore, the capital cost of the evaporator system can be reduced and hence potentially the manufacturing cost of solar cells. The densification anneal was introduced to improve the crystal quality of poly-Si thin films by SPE. It is shown that the cause is the structural relaxation induced into the a-Si film, instead of the prevention of the oxygen percolation. The crystal quality of c-Si films obtained from low-rate (50 nm/min) evaporated a-Si is considerably improved by densification anneal, whereas densification has no beneficial effect on c-Si films obtained from high-rate (300 nm/min) evaporated a-Si. However, the densification anneal has no improvement on the electrical performance of ALICE solar cell. The ALICE solar cell performances are strongly related to the doping level in the absorber layer. The optimal doping density needs to be determined to achieve the best performance. The highest Voc and Jsc are simultaneously achieved when the minimum phosphorous doping density of ~5.5??1015 cm-3 (unintentionally doped) is applied for the evaporated ALICE solar cells. Since silicon is a weak absorber and ALICE solar cell has only ~1.5 ??m thickness, light trapping is applied to enhance the light absorption of the visible and the red light. Three different approaches are applied: ALICE cells on textured glass sheet, back surface reflector and thicker Si film. The ALICE cells on textured glass suffer from a significant loss of performance. The only successful approach to improve the light trapping in this thesis is to apply white paint as back surface reflector, which increases the Jsc drastically (~60%) compared to a planar sample. Analysis of the optical properties of poly-Si thin films is important as it assists the design of the thin-film solar cells. It is found that there is enhanced absorption in the visible wavelengths. This is mainly attributed to defected a-Si material at the grain boundaries. The hydrogenation process does not affect this enhanced absorption. The optical analysis proves that large grain size is desired to obtain high performance poly-Si thin-film solar cell, e.g. ALICE solar cell. At the end of this research, ALICE cells with η~3.83%, Voc~485 mV, Jsc~17.75 mA/cm2 have been achieved.