Narrated by Uncle Jack Charles and seen through the eyes of Indigenous prisoners at Victoria’s Fulham Correctional Centre, this documentary explores how art and culture can empower Australia's First Nations people to transcend their unjust cycles of imprisonment.
Powerful and poignant, Her Name is Nanny Nellie offers us the rare privilege of bearing witness to a family reclaiming their history. In 1925, the Australian Museum commissioned three statues of ‘full blood ’Aboriginal people: a child, a man and a woman, exhibited as nameless objects to be studied as examples of a ‘dying race.’ The woman was Nellie Walker, Irene Walker’s great grandmother and director Daniel King’s great, great grandmother. Now Irene is on a journey to retrace Nellie’s life and to reconnect the other families to their ancestors’ statues and re-display them, this time with their names, identities and dignity. This is far more than a symbolic quest, but an opportunity to change how we remember and represent, and to give the nameless names.
Like an antipodean version of Romeo and Juliet, it emerges that Warri and Yatungka became the last nomads because they had married outside their tribal laws and eloped to the most inaccessible of regions. In 1977 the land was stricken by a severe drought and their tribal elders mounted a search for them with the help of a party of white men led by Dr Bill Peasley and one of their own number, a childhood friend named Mudjon. The film takes Dr Peasley back into the desert to relive his momentous journey with Mudjon and culminates with poignant archival footage of the elderly couple found naked and starving.
Something in the Water explores the rock phenomenon that is music in WA. How can the most isolated city in the world have exploded with so many successful bands over the years? Across decades and genres, Something in the Water asks "what is responsible for the sparkling talent pool?"
Filmmaker Warwick Thornton investigates our relationship to the Southern Cross, in this fun and thought provoking ride through Australia's cultural and political landscape.
When most people think about Australia, they picture massive sandy beaches, singlet-clad locals drinking beer, and kangaroos bounding through the dusty red outback. Saris, musical numbers, and masala are the furthest from anyone's mind - unless of course, you're one of the millions of Bollywood fans from around the world.
For millenniums, Aborigines used tracking to survive. Their ancient skills now help police capture murderers and save people's lives. Will modern technology replace an art based on the intimate bond between man and nature?
Envoy: Shark Cull is a fascinating, deeply moving documentary narrated by Eric Bana, which sheds light on the real story behind the coastal ‘shark safety’ programs in Queensland and New South Wales. The current methods of baited drum-lines and nets have not only been scientifically proven to be ineffective in protecting swimmers and surfers, leaving them at risk in the sea, but these outdated solutions continue to be allowed to negatively impact entire marine ecosystems—including the Great Barrier Reef. Follows some of the biggest names in ocean conservation, such as Sea Shepherd, Ocean Ramsey and Madison Stewart. We will join these experts as they explore and expose this scarcely understood topic. We will also learn the importance of sharks in our oceans while uncovering the longest marine cull in history.
An observational documentary which looks at Sydney’s first community Aboriginal radio station, 88.9 Radio Redfern. Set against a backdrop of contemporary Aboriginal music, 88.9 Radio Redfern offers a special and rare exploration of the people, attitudes and philosophies behind the lead up to a different type of celebration of Australia’s Bicentennial Year. Throughout 1988, 88.9 Radio Redfern became an important focal point for communication and solidarity within the Aboriginal community. The film reveals how urban blacks are adapting social structures such as the mass media to serve their needs.
An anthology of award winning short films, this feature show cases an international cast and crew, shooting all over New South Wales, telling all kinds of stories.
In his most personal documentary yet, Chris Hemsworth turns the camera on his own family after his dad’s recent Alzheimer’s diagnosis. They embark on a road trip into their past, exploring the science of social connection and how it can support memory function. They revisit meaningful places and faces, capturing it all as a home movie, and reviving treasured recollections.
From the remote Australian desert to the opulence of Buckingham Palace - Namatjira Project is the iconic story of the Namatjira family, tracing their quest for justice.
A panorama of scenic beauty unfolds as the newspaper delivery man works his run along Sydney's northern beaches of Newport and the Palm Beach area.
Eight men escape from the most isolated prison on earth. Only one man survives and the story he recounts shocks the British establishment to the core. This story is the last confession of Alexander Pearce.
Australia: Land Beyond Time takes viewers on a breathtaking journey back in time to witness the birth and evolution of a mysterious land that harbors remnants of Earth's earliest life and many of it's strangest creatures that exist nowhere else on the planet.
An Aboriginal Australian and Native American documentary narrated by award-winning actor Jack Thompson, One Heart-One Spirit tells the story of Kenneth Little Hawk, an elder Micmac/Mohawk performing artist, meeting the oldest surviving culture on the planet: the 40,000 year old Yolngu nation located in northern Australia.
This film takes us on an emotional journey from sacred ground above Byron Bay to Antarctica, Indonesia to Pakistan, and is sure to light a fire under the strongest climate change denier. THE POWER OF ACTIVISM focuses on six highly spirited female activists as they are put under the microscope to ascertain the financial impact of their environmental solutions… and the results are astonishing. From shark conservation to indigenous practices, intensive farming to plastic pollution; all their ‘causes' fall under the umbrella of "climate change", but they should also fall under the umbrella of "saving tax payers hundreds of millions of dollars!”
There's a mysterious predator lurking in the depths of Australia's wild Southern Ocean, a beast that savagely devoured a great white shark in front of cinematographer David Riggs 11 years ago. Riggs's obsession to find the killer leads him to an aquatic battle zone that's remained hidden until now. Here, killer whales, colossal squid and great white sharks face off in an underwater coliseum where only the fiercest creatures of the marine world survive.
The Europeans want to be forgiven for the tragic colonial period. The aborigines try to preserve their ancient roots from the present and the future. In the North Territory.
The story of 95-year-old Aboriginal elder Laurie Baymarrwangga and her work to maintain the language and cultural traditions of the Yan-nhangu people of Murrungga.