WWII American Army Medic Desmond T. Doss, who served during the Battle of Okinawa, refuses to kill people and becomes the first Conscientious Objector in American history to receive the Congressional Medal of Honor.
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WWII American Army Medic Desmond T. Doss, who served during the Battle of Okinawa, refuses to kill people and becomes the first Conscientious Objector in American history to receive the Congressional Medal of Honor.
England, 15th century. Hal, a capricious prince who lives among the populace far from court, is forced by circumstances to reluctantly accept the throne and become Henry V.
Mumbai, India, November 26, 2008. While several terrorists spread hatred and death through the city, others attack the Taj Mahal Palace Hotel. Both hotel staff and guests risk their lives, making unthinkable sacrifices to protect themselves and keep everyone safe while help arrives.
A victim from World War II's "Death Railway" sets out to find those responsible for his torture. A true story.
The true story of Australia's cat-and-mouse underground mine warfare—one of the most misunderstood, misrepresented and mystifying conflicts of WW I. It was secret struggle BENEATH the Western Front that combined daring engineering, technology and science. Few on the surface knew of the brave, claustrophobic and sometimes barbaric work of these tunnellers.
Vietnam War, 1966. Australia and New Zealand send troops to support the United States and South Vietnamese in their fight against the communist North. Soldiers are very young men, recruits and volunteers who have never been involved in a combat. On August 18th, members of Delta Company will face the true horror of a ruthless battle among the trees of a rubber plantation called Long Tân. They are barely a hundred. The enemy is a human wave ready to destroy them.
Face Of Unity is the definitive Nelson Mandela documentary feature and first retrospective to be released since the president's death in late 2013. It includes a never before seen speech where Mandela outlines the groundwork for peace and reconciliation to future generations. The piece also includes tributes to Nelson Mandela from President Barack Obama, Sam Jackson, Jack Nicklaus, George Lucas, Ray Charles, Morgan Freeman, and two former Australian Prime Ministers, among others.
The story of Margaret Humphreys, a social worker from Nottingham, who uncovers one of the most significant social scandals in recent times – the forced migration of children from the United Kingdom to Australia and other Commonwealth countries. Almost singlehandedly, Margaret reunited thousands of families, brought authorities to account and worldwide attention to an extraordinary miscarriage of justice.
The fantastic story of how an ancient martial art, Chinese kung fu, conquered the world through the hundreds of films that were produced in Hong Kong over the decades, transformed Western action cinema and inspired the birth of cultural movements such as blaxploitation, hip hop music, parkour and Wakaliwood cinema.
Australian filmmaker Sophia Turkiewicz investigates why her Polish mother abandoned her and uncovers the truth behind her mother's wartime escape from a Siberian gulag, leaving Sophia to confront her own capacity for forgiveness.
At the heart of this true story is Damien Oliver, a young jockey who loses his only brother in a tragic racing accident, hauntingly reflecting of the way their father died 27 years earlier. After suffering through a series of discouraging defeats, Damien teams with Irish trainer Dermot Weld, and triumphs at the 2002 Melbourne Cup in one of the most thrilling finales in sporting history.
An army nurse and a Catholic nun find their friendship and beliefs tested when Japanese forces arrive in Papua New Guinea.
France’s Bordeaux region has long commanded respect for its coveted wine, but shifts in the global marketplace mean that a new, voracious consumer base in China is buying up this finite product. Bordeaux both struggles with and courts the spike in demand, sending prices skyrocketing. Narrated by Russell Crowe, Red Obsession is a fascinating look at our changing international economy and how an obsession in Shanghai affects the most illustrious vineyards in France.
In this documentary companion to CHARLIE'S COUNTRY, Australian actor David Gulpilil tells the story of when his people's way of life was derailed by ours.
The story of Bob Hawke - Australia's most loved Prime Minister as he faces his greatest challenge: a battle within his own party. As he fights for his life, we discover his incredible transformation from a hard-drinking womanising trade union leader into a visionary world leader. For a man who once sacrificed his family to his job, he must now rely solely on his friendships and allegiances to defeat his challenger and remain in power.
In the 1980s and 1990s a wave of murders bloodied the idyllic coastline of Sydney’s eastern suburbs. The victims: young gay men. Disturbing gang assaults were being carried out on coastal cliffs around Sydney, and mysterious deaths officially recorded as "suicide", "disappearance" and "misadventure". Individual stories are woven together by first person interviews and detailed re-enactments, piecing together the facts of these unsolved cases, decades later.
In Between Songs follows an Australian Aboriginal family's struggle to survive. Djalu Gurruwiwi, Yolngu elder, and his sister, Dhanggal, strive to restore eroding tradition. While shepherding their Galpu clan through economic, environmental, and social pressures, they search desperately for new custodians to safeguard their priceless musical legacy. Emmy award winner and Oscar nominated actor/activist James Cromwell narrates this stirring feature documentary.
The remarkable life story of Eddie 'Koiki' Mabo; a Torres Strait Islander who left school at the age of 15, yet spearheaded the High Court challenge that overthrew the fiction of terra nullius.
In the late 1800s, two Solomon Islander siblings, Kiko (16) and Rosa (24), were kidnapped from their Pacific island home and forced to work on a sugar cane plantation in Queensland. In a world where exploitation of Pacific Islanders for cheap labour is legislated and conditions for islanders are akin to slavery, Rosa struggles to keep an eye on her spirited young brother as he journeys into adulthood.
Oakie, a young blue heeler pup, is supposed to be delivered to Texas, USA, but through a courier bungle he ends up in Texas, Queensland, in Outback Australia. Oakie is quickly befriended by Action Dann (an animated character identifiably based on Troy Dann) and they embark on a series of adventures, meeting many wonderful and quirky characters in the rugged and unique beauty of the Australian Outback.
300 Spartans-The Real Story. Putting aside the myths and legends, this documentary takes a detailed look at the Battle of Thermopylae in 480 BC Greece leading to the last stand of the 300 Spartans and Spartan King Leonidas. On the 3rd day of the battle, when Leonidas was being surrounded, he sent most of his troops away and covered their retreat with a last stand because Spartans never retreated.
During the 1940s, Nevil Shute had a steady job as an engineer in the British military but in his spare time, he wrote novels that were being well-received. Once the war was over, Shute choose to move to Australia and focus on writing, soon becoming an internationally acclaimed novelist. His novel On The Beach, particularly hit a chord with the international community, depicting the impact of global nuclear destruction. This documentary studies Shute's career and the adaptation of his most famous novel into a feature film in Melbourne, as his predictions of a post-Hiroshima world seem to be foreboding in their accuracy.
In 1968, John Weiley shot 'Autopsy on a Dream' - a film about the Sydney Opera House detailing its construction process and the politics of Jorn Utzon's dismissal. Weiley's film was controversial; it was screened once and then he was told it had been destroyed. Forty five years later a copy was discovered in the BBC vaults by an ABC producer looking for archive footage of the Opera House. Weiley was contacted and told about a film that had no sound track. Weiley was overjoyed; for years he had kept the original sound. So began the painstaking process of restoring this record of a unique moment in Australian culture to its former glory, complete with updated voice-over from the original narrator, Bob Ellis. It is set in context by a 30 minute prologue entitled 'The Dream of Perfection'. Made by the same filmmaker, John Weiley, forty-five years on, 'Dream of Perfection' tells the story of the 1968 film - from commission to destruction, to surprise resurrection.
Cyclone Tracy 40 years on, exploring the myths and revealing new perspectives on one of the worst natural disasters in Australia's history.
When a pair of young lovers are discovered dead, a tangled web of deception unravels revealing that behind the passionate tragedy lies a dangerous truth.
At an exclusive Catholic boys school in Melbourne 1976, Tim Conigrave and John Caleo fell madly in love. Their passionate, tempestuous, operatic romance lasted for 16 years, facing disapproval, temptation, separation, and the looming shadow of the Grim Reaper. Their relationship has been immortalised in Conigrave's posthumous autobiography Holding the Man (now a major Australian film directed by Neil Armfield). This is the true story of how Romeo met Romeo and how first love can not only last but endure.
Beatriz’s young husband disappears during the brutal Kraras massacre by occupying Indonesian forces, sixteen years later she is troubled by his return; is this mysterious stranger her husband, an impostor, or a spirit?
An account of the reign of Herod the Great, king of Judea under the rule of the Roman Empire, remembered for having ordered, according to the Gospel of Matthew, the murder of all male infants born in Bethlehem at the time of the birth of Jesus, an unproven event that is not mentioned by Titus Flavius Josephus, the main historian of that period.
It is Christmastime, 1914, and World War I rages. A young French soldier named Pierre who had quietly left his regiment to visit his family for two days is imprisoned when he returns.
Inspired by the woman who edited "Man with a Movie Camera" (1929), "Woman with an Editing Bench" reveals the personal impact of Stalin’s censorship of cinema on a woman navigating politics, bureaucracy and the impetuous outbursts of collaborators to create something beautiful despite the odds.
TAKE (te reo Maori: issue, promise, challenge) weaves mana wahine (female knowledge), dance and archival materials to retell the story of the removal of the ancestral Maori meetinghouse, Hinemihi o te Ao Tawhito, from Aotearoa, New Zealand to England in 1892. It is a call to return Hinemihi, embodied by Australian born Maori dancer and performance artist, Victoria Hunt. Set in the liminal spaces between history and emotion TAKE unfolds a story of origins, of traumatic events and colonial violence.
Verdi’s monumental music makes this historic epic an enduring favourite. Davide Livermore’s radiant production is a thrilling theatrical experience. Ten towering digital screens create ever-changing floor-to-ceiling set pieces. Immersive digital video design ranges from rich symbolism to vivid landscapes. Opulent costumes and props reflect the splendour of Egypt at the height of its power. Together with dramatic video, the massed grandeur of the famous Triumphal March is a visual and musical feast.
1967, the height of the Red Scare. Australian Prime Minister Harold Holt is embroiled in a power struggle after discovering his spymaster has illegally investigated and exposed Red sympathisers embedded within Holt's administration.
Packed with drama, high emotions and cliff-hanger moments, Australia Says Yes is the intimate and personal history of struggle and perseverance that propelled Australia to say Yes to marriage equality. The film shows how a group of determined individuals fought tirelessly against unjust laws that treated LGBTIQ people as second-class citizens, creating a movement that saw them go from criminals to legally equal over the course of five decades.
Neil Pigot travels from Australia to South Africa and the United Kingdom to reveal the true story behind Aussie soldier Harry 'The Breaker' Morant.
Keith Garner visits historical locations, elegant chapels and bustling city centres as he discovers the impact of the work of cleric and theologist John Wesley, 200 years after his death.
In the first century, after the death of Herod the Great, Judea goes through a long period of turbulence due to the actions of the corrupt Roman governors and the internal struggles, both religious and political, between Jewish factions, events that soon lead to the uprising of the population and a cruel war that lasts several years and causes thousands of deaths, a catastrophe described in detail by the Romanized Jewish historian Titus Flavius Josephus.
When Australia stopped the refugee boats in 2001, most Australians applauded. Ten years later, the people who were there tell us what we didn't then know.
The infamous Kelly Gang is at it again spreading mischief and death throughout bush. However, their gunfire has attracted unwanted attention from the local police. When shots are let loose, which side will come out on top...
Gallipoli from Above: The Untold Story is the true story of how a team of Australian officers used aerial intelligence, emerging technology and innovative tactics to plan the landing at Anzac Cove. It is now nearly 100 years since the landing and hundreds of books, movies and documentaries have failed to grasp the significance of the ANZAC achievement. Instead, the mythology has clouded the real story of how these two influential Australian officers took control of the landing using every innovation they could muster to safely land their men on Z beach.
1950's Australia, Mudju's daughter Munna has been stolen, helpless against the Mission governance and violence, until she learns to read and write to be reunited with her daughter.
Leon Trotsky is considered one of the most controversial revolutionary figures of his time. Was he a practical revolutionary or a naive idealist? On the practical side, he was the mastermind behind the Bolshevik seizure of power in 1917, and was totally ruthless during the ensuing Civil War. As an idealist, he was committed to the pursuit of international revolution, but created many political enemies. After Lenin's death, Trotsky lost in a power struggle with Stalin, and later was expelled from the Communist Party. Trotsky was exiled from the Soviet Union, eventually finding refuge in Mexico. In 1940, Stalin ordered his assassination, and Trotsky died after being struck in the head with an ice-pick. History records that Trotsky was a master theoretician, a skillful propagandist and a brilliant orator.
A haunting evocation of the aftermath of the explosion at Chernobyl, 25 years on. This visually stunning road movie takes the spectator on a bleak journey from the shores of the Black Sea to the frozen heart of Chernobyl, passing through desolate, snowy landscapes, littered with abandoned villages. Squatting in this icy wasteland, the ghostly sarcophagus of Reactor No.4 is a constant reminder of the threat still lurking below. Accompanied by testimony from a group of unseen veterans of the disaster, Precarious bears witness to both the folly and resilience of humans and to nature's fragility.
A true story of shipwreck, murder and ruin.
How the church is better and worse than you ever imagined, a documentary by the Centre for Public Christianity, confronts the worst of what Christians have done - and also traces the origins of Western values like human rights, charity, humility, and non-violence back to the influence of Jesus.
The story of 18-year-old Gianni who was one of thousands of Italian immigrants living in Western Australia forcibly put into camps.
Filmmaker Trevor Graham is an Australian 'hummus tragic'. Every week in his Bondi Beach home he observes the hummus making ritual, mashing chickpeas, lemon juice, garlic and tahina. But when the Hummus War erupted in 2008, among the usual suspects, Israel, Lebanon and Palestine, Graham was hungry for more. But this war ha no soldiers, bullets or tanks. Just chickpeas and hummus. Make Hummus Not War is a humorous homage to the chickpea's most distinguished dish. But there's a personal story, how Graham became a hummus tragic, a father who served in Palestine during WW2 and two lovers in his life, one Syrian, one Jewish, with whom he shared a great culinary passion.
Featuring the latest news and theories in the 120-year-old worldwide quest to identify the person dubbed Jack the Ripper responsible for the murder of 5 common prostitutes around the seedy district of Whitechapel in London's notorious East End between 31 August 1888 and 9 November 1888. Will this serial killer's identity ever be revealed through DNA or other - as yet unrevealed - evidence?
Forgotten Wars, Forgotten Victims (2012) John Tsambazis Over the last 20 years, Africa has experienced some 15 devastating civil wars with over 20 million victims in death, injury or displacement. Yet the West has turned a blind eye. This documentary sheds light about the conflict and post conflict reconstruction in particular in West Africa , discussing issues such as child soldiers and the many damaged victims of war and how they have found support. Missionaries have played a vital role in the restoration and healing process of post war conflict. The documentary is narrated by the former Australian Rock Star Themi Adams, who once toured with the Rolling Stones and who now heads the Orthodox Mission in Sierra Leone. He talks about how his mission in particular is contributing to the recovery process.
Suellyn thought the Department of Community Services (DOCS) would only remove children in extreme cases, until her own grandchildren were taken in the middle of the night. Hazel decided to take on the DOCS system after her fourth grandchild was taken into state care. Jen Swan expected to continue to care for her grandchildren but DOCS deemed her unsuitable, a shock not just to her but to her sister, Deb, who was, at the time, a DOCS worker. The rate of Indigenous child removal has actually increased since Prime Minister Kevin Rudd delivered the apology to the ‘stolen generations’ in 2008. These four grandmothers find each other and start a national movement to place extended families as a key solution to the rising number of Aboriginal children in out-of-home care. They are not only taking on the system; they are changing it…
During the 1980s, claims of satanic ritual abuse ran rife throughout the western world, uncovered by hypnotic therapists and perpetuated throughout the media, including high-rating television talk shows. In Demonic, filmmaker Pia Borg delves into this bizarre chapter of history, examining the elusive line between fact, fiction and the persuasive power of the media.
In the circle of life - birth, survival and death, Aboriginal people have a network of sites and tracks, embedded in the land, that connect them to all things and enable them to practice their laws, traditions and beliefs. Colonisation in Australia, denied Aboriginal people access to their land - breaking the life cycle for Aboriginal people. The Free-Settler Colony of South Australia was going to be different. King William IV recognised the continued rights to land for Aboriginal people in South Australia's founding document, the Letters Patent, in Feb 1836. The first ever Aboriginal rights granted in Australia's colonial history. Rights to the land, to occupy and enjoy their land for always, enshrined in law by the King's seal. What actually occurred in South Australia after colonisation in 1836 was treason. The King's Letters Patent was disobeyed and Aboriginal rights that were granted, to occupy and enjoy their land, were denied.
A television documentary charting the history of the Eurovision Song Contest and its impact on European political and social structure.
This bone-chilling minimalistic animation film (made with black, white and red colors only) is voiced by the director herself, the Australian illustrator Anita Lester, whose grand-aunt had lost her entire family in Nazi camps and has then gone mad. Her confused, distorted, extrapolated memories full of despair and horror, of mysterious interiors and someone’s eyes, became the foundation of this impressive conceptual short film.
A journey through the dark, chilling and frequently unbelievable tales of power-broking and deceit from inside the nation's capital. Australian political journalist and commentator Annabel Crabb goes in search of Canberra's secrets over the past century, exploring the passionate interplay of sex, secrets and subterfuge that has long been carried out in the shadows of the national stage. How have our secrets changed over the past century and what does this reveal about us as a society? This is the history that Canberra has tried to hide.
A noble socialite and her butler must concoct a plan to stop her husband's affair with a younger woman.
Andrew Scott would have his wish granted 115 years after his death. Engineer, soldier, and bank robber. He would be one of Australia’s most notorious outlaws. His relationship with a gang member that would capture the imagination of modern historians.