Hybrid Life'

The cliché goes that Australia is one of the most successful multicultural societies in the world. There is a lot of bragging about how cosmopolitan Sydney and Melbourne have become, how one can now find restaurants serving every imaginable international cuisine. The Opening Ceremony of the Olympics presented a rosy, self-congratulatory image of migrants from all continents coming to live in harmony in this great country. Despite Pauline Hanson, anti-refugee sentiment, and the widespread persistence of ethnic stereotypes, Australians are now officially called upon to celebrate cultural diversity. But what does that mean, beyond the superficial enjoyment of ethnic food, song and dance?

How do migrants and ethnics themselves live their lives here? How do they carve out a place for themselves in multicultural Australia at the beginning of the twenty-first century? Hybrid Life, a thirteen-part series of documentaries and dramas for SBS Television, is a path-breaking exploration of these questions, told from the perspectives of young filmmakers of different backgrounds, most of whom are second- or third-generation migrants. The series, SBS's contribution to Australia's Centenary of Federation celebrations, provides us with an intimate snapshot, an inside look into the lived experiences of multicultural Australia in 2001.