ALLIES is a landmark documentary from 1983, made at the time of Bob Hawke’s unequivocal embrace of the American alliance.
The extraordinary story of the Melbourne community campaign that put a stop to the $18billion East Wast toll road link.
Provocative, funny and profoundly moving, Bastardy is the inspirational story of a self proclaimed Robin Hood of the streets. For Forty years and with infectious humour and optimism, Jack Charles has juggled a life of crime with another successful career- acting
Stephen Cummings is one of Australia's most revered rock 'n' roll icons. Rising to fame as frontman of ‘70s legends The Sports, he has spent more than 30 years at the forefront of the local music scene, forging a reputation both as one of Australian rock's greatest lyrical storytellers and also one of its most incendiary critics. Based on his scathing tell-all memoir Will It Be Funny Tomorrow, Billy?, Don't Throw Stones tells Cummings' story in his own words – as well as the words of those he has so gleefully skewered. Featuring interviews with Michael Gudinski, Steve Kilbey, Joe Camilleri and many more, Don't Throw Stones is a revealing portrait of three decades of rock-world gossip, larger-than-life personalities and good, old-fashioned artistic beef.
Filmmaker Warwick Thornton investigates our relationship to the Southern Cross, in this fun and thought provoking ride through Australia's cultural and political landscape.
The 1970s punk rock movement: New York had the Ramones, London had the Sex Pistols, Australia had the Saints. Stranded takes a look at the role four musicians from suburban Brisbane played in the explosion of one of the all time greatest musical movements. Featuring interviews with the members of the band, including its leaders Ed Kuepper and Chris Bailey, as well as the likes of Sir Bob geldof, former Dead Kennedys frontman Jello Biafra and Buzzcocks guitarist Steve Diggle, Stranded examines how the oppresive and conservative government of Joh Bjelke-Peterson in the 1970s helped act as a catalyst for the rise of punk rock in Australia, and how as a result The Saints went on to be one of the most influential bands in the country.
In 1984, Midnight Oil released their iconic record Red Sails in the Sunset. They embarked on a relentless tour around the nation performing raw and electrifying music that reignited the imagination of young Australians. That same year, their lead singer Peter Garrett committed to run for a Senate seat for the Nuclear Disarmament Party. With the mounting pressure of balancing the demands of music and politics this is the year that would make, but nearly break, Australia's most important rock and roll band. Thirty years in the making and featuring never seen before seen footage of the band on and off the stage, Midnight Oil: 1984 is the untold story of the year Australia’s most iconic rock band inspired the nation to believe in the power of music to change the world.
Frackman tells the story of accidental activist Dayne Pratzky and his struggle against international gas companies. Australia will soon become the world's biggest gas exporter as more than 30,000 'fracked' wells are sunk in the state of Queensland where Dayne lives. He and his neighbours have unwittingly become the centre of a massive industrial landscape and they have no legal right to stop mining on their land. Dayne embarks on a journey that transforms him from conservative pig-shooter to sophisticated global activist as the Frackman. He meets the people drawn into a battle that is crossing the ideological divide, bringing together a peculiar alliance of farmers, activists and political conservatives. Along the way Dayne encounters love, tragedy and triumph.
An essay film by filmmaker and archivist Sari Braithwaite, [Censored] offers an overview of film censorship in Australia, told through an ever-changing collage of images compiled from the footage that was cut from films released domestically between 1958 and 1971.
Australian-born filmmaker George Miller offers a personal view of Australian films. He suggests that they can be regarded as visual music, public dreaming, mythology, and song-lines. In extrapolating the idea of movies as song-lines he examines feature films under the following categories: songs of the land; the bushman; the convicts; the bush-rangers; mates and larrikins; the digger; pommy bashing; the sheilas; gays; the wogs; blackfellas; and urban subversion. He then concludes that these films can be thought of as "Hymns that sing of Australia."
To promote the release of his album Garth Brooks in... The Life of Chris Gaines, Garth Brooks appeared as Chris Gaines in a television "mockumentary," a version of VH1's seminal cable classic Behind the Music, featuring a totally made-up tale that just may be the greatest rock n' roll documentary ever made. This piece of art has everything that makes the story of being a rockstar fucking cool. It has childhood trauma, record label trauma, death, disfigurement, a plane crash, a car crash, sex addiction, redemption, a house fire, random unexplained commentary from Billy Joel, and more sex addiction.
The Dreamtime is the Aboriginal worldview. It consists of many different dreaming's. If you look long enough at a bird, stone or a wave, you'll be surprised at what you will find. A surfing journey throughout Australia like never before. Featuring Luke Egan, Munga Barry, and Mark Occhilupo. The music of Not Drowning Waving, Schnell- Fenster, Yothu Yindi, The Woodentops, Concrete Blonde and INXS.
A retrospective documentary on filmmaker Andrew Leavold's debut feature, 'Lesbo-A-Go-Go' (2003). This is the tale of a man with big ideas but no budget who assembled a crew and set out to make a faux sixties exploitation film, the kind of film he would want to see though sadly at the time due to the niche nature of the subject matter very few else did. Despite its entrapment in distribution limbo for over a decade, 'Lesbo-A-Go-Go' has garnered a minor cult reputation internationally and this documentary explores the film's sordid production history as well as its enduring legacy. A no-holds-barred tell-all tale with interviews from cast, crew and industry professionals interspersed with never-before-seen alternate takes, bloopers and behind-the-scenes footage from the film.
An exploration of the work of a new generation of young Muslim artists, who use their work to explore issues of faith and identity and what it means to be Muslim and Australian in the 21st century.
The Douglas Mawson Antarctic Expedition of 1912 is considered one of the most amazing feats of endurance of all time. Although his two companions perished, Douglas Mawson survived, but how? In a bold historical experiment, scientist and adventurer Tim Jarvis is retracing the gruelling experience, with the same meagre rations, primitive clothing and equipment to uncover what happened to Mawson physically — and mentally — as a man hanging on the precipice of life and death.
Starting her life as Colin, a husband, father, policeman, film-projectionist and self-declared shoe fetishist, Colleen and her wife Heather's love transcended their gender roles. But what are the medical complications that can arise from transitioning later in life? Ian Thomson's Becoming Colleen examines the role of gender, about society's own transition to understanding, and a caring community that ultimately offers support for an individual to express themselves, to find comfortability in their own skin.
Stories of injury, fear, humour and falling in love from soldiers caught up in conflicts from World War II, Vietnam and Afghanistan. Discover the people behind the new sculptures in Greensborough War Memorial Park.
Set in a social housing estate in central Sydney, 57 Lawson preserves the disparate voices of the tenants at a time when these communities are becoming increasingly marginalised by the city around them. A patient observation of the daily lives of the area’s inhabitants over the course of one evening, 57 Lawson is a hybrid drama-documentary film about a specific place at a specific time.
A lonely house-wife’s plan to end it all takes an unexpected turn when her last hurrah begins a radical journey of sexual exploration and personal re-invention.
A film about Men At Work, their hit single Down Under, and the Kookaburra controversy. The band were sued for copyright infringement and faced the label of 'plagiarists', 35 years after their success. An examination of the organic development of the song, its commercial success and cultural significance and questions the relationship between art and law, influence and copyright.