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Double Trouble

Can't find what you are looking for? All you have to do is ask. Such advice is not so straightforward when you can't speak the language. By 1951, Australian postwar migration programmes were geared to receiving large numbers of non-British migrants. Considerable efforts were made to overcome prejudice on the part of the predominantly British-derived community towards the newcomers. Double Trouble was an attempt to make the point with humour. Bob and Stan, two Aussie blokes, are magically transported to the streets of a foreign country, where their inability to communicate gets them into a tight spot. They discover that it's not easy being a foreigner in a strange land. The central message in this film is that Australia needs migrants so Australians should make them feel welcome and offer assistance, not complaints.

Double Trouble

NR 1951
Ella

Ella Havelka made history in 2013 by becoming the first Indigenous dancer at the 50-year-old Australian Ballet. In this engaging, MIFF Premiere Fund-supported world premiere, Ella – a descendant of the Wiradjuri people – charts her inspiring journey from growing up in modest circumstances as the only child of a single mother in rural Australia to gaining entry to National Ballet School, then spending formative years with the acclaimed Bangarra Dance Theatre before accepting the invitation of The Australian Ballet's artistic director David McAllister to join one of the world's foremost ballet companies.

Ella

NR 2016
No Measure of Health

No Measure of Health profiles Kyle Magee, an anti-advertising activist from Melbourne, Australia, who for the past 10 years has been going out into public spaces and covering over for-profit advertising in various ways. The film is a snapshot of his latest approach, which is to black-out advertising panels in protest of the way the media system, which is funded by advertising, is dominated by for-profit interests that have taken over public spaces and discourse. Kyle’s view is that real democracy requires a democratic media system, not one funded and controlled by the rich. As this film follows Kyle on a regular day of action, he reflects on fatherhood, democracy, what drives the protest, and his struggle with depression, as we learn that “it is no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society.”

No Measure of Health

NR N/A
The Islanders

Above the tip of Cape York, beyond the northernmost point of the Australian continent, are the Torres Strait Islands. The economy here is based on home gardens and pearlshell fishing. The culture, with its basis in music, dancing and ceremony, provides a striking contrast to that of mainland Australia. This film, shot in the late 1960s, shows how strongly old traditions still affect Torres Strait Islander people, even though they also have most of the trappings of modern life.

The Islanders

NR 1968
Two Laws

White people don't understand that there are two laws - white people have different laws from Aboriginal people. TWO LAWS is a film about history, law and life in the community of Borroloola in far North Queensland. The films offers viewers a remarkable and different way of seeing and hearing. Like the film, BACKROADS, it is one of the few productions at that time in which Aboriginal people had creative input. The impetus for TWO LAWS came from the community themselves. There was substantial collaboration with the film makers before and during the shooting period. It is one of the most outstanding films to be made during the 1980s. It is an historical analysis of what, nearly forty years later, is an increasingly contemporary question. Two Laws.

Two Laws

NR 1982
Canberra Confidential

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.

Canberra Confidential

NR 2013
The Human Face of the Pacific: New Caledonia. A Land in Search of Itself

New Caledonia is a country divided. The largest community is Melanesians, self-styled “Kanaks” who make up 43 per cent of the population. They want independence from France. On the other side are the French and locally born Caledonians, supported by immigrant Polynesians, who want to retain links with France. This film outlines the political conflict that has led to tension and violence over the years. It takes a look at two politicians representing each side and reveals something of the Kanaks, with their tribal social structure, and the Caledonian French, who are more concerned with economic progress.

The Human Face of the Pacific: New Caledonia. A Land in Search of Itself

NR 1983
Here's My Hand

The 1988 Australian bicentenary prompted many artistic events and contemporary expressions of Australia's living cultures. One of the most remarkable of these was the first memorial ever created by Aborigines for Aborigines - two hundred bone burial poles were carved and painted by Arnhem land artists to honour the deceased of the past - lost people, lost tribes, lost languages. This unique Aboriginal Memorial captures this spiritual event. This collection seeks to reassure surviving Aboriginal Australians that there is a living continuity of traditions. -Ronin Films

Here's My Hand

NR 1988
The House That Eye Live In

Migrating by sea from Holland as an eight-year-old, Dirk de Bruyn went on to be a doyen of Australian experimental cinema. But as this intimate film reveals, his work is suffused with the trauma of migration, and the struggle to recognise himself as a ‘new Australian'. In conversation with documentarian Steven McIntyre, Dirk guides us through more than 40 years of his filmmaking: the early years exploring technique and technology, a subsequent phase of unflinching self-examination brought on by upheaval and overseas travel, and more recent projects where he attempts a fusion of personal, cultural, and historical identity. What emerges is an inspiring, rugged, and at times poignant portrait of an artist committed to self-expression and self-discovery through the medium of film.

The House That Eye Live In

4.0 2014
Strong Men Of Nguiu

The problems that confront the remote communities on the Tiwi Islands of the Torres Strait are similar to those that confront young people everywhere – but isolation and a lack of things to do make the young people of these communities particularly vulnerable to crime and substance abuse. The "strong men" of the community is a group determined to solve the problem themselves, by offering positive role models and beneficial activities to the young people. In this documentary, we see these leaders take young people away from the township to experience traditional hunting and living, and to hear the stories of their elders.

Strong Men Of Nguiu

NR 2007
Intervention 2 Years On

This impassioned documentary was rejected for broadcast by ABC TV as "biased" and lacking "balance". John Howard introduced the Intervention legislation in July 2007. Two years later, an official United Nations rapporteur on human rights, Professor James Anaya, described the policy as an "extraordinary measure which infringes on the rights and determinations of Indigenous People". In this film, two Aboriginal spokespersons - Barbara Shaw from the Mount Nancy Town Camp, Alice Springs, and Richard Downs from the Alyawarr Nation - give their views on the effect of the legislation over its first two years of operation. Their stories are accompanied by archival footage and news broadcasts of key moments in the history of the Intervention. Richard Downs speaks especially of the shame and humiliation that came with Howard's unsupported allegations of child abuse in Aboriginal communities, and of the disillusionment that came with the Rudd government's continuation of Howard's policies.

Intervention 2 Years On

NR 2010
Gandhi's Children

A shelter for children on the outskirts of Delhi provides food and accommodation for 350 boys. Some are orphans, others have been abandoned, still others have run away from home. About half are held under a court order, having been picked up from the streets for petty crimes. Living at the institution for several months, the filmmaker explores its routines and the varied experiences of several boys. Despite the harshness of their lives, many show remarkable strength of character, knowledge, and resilience. One day 181 child labourers arrived, placing additional strain on the building's deteriorating facilities. The institution does what it can, but is it enough?

Gandhi's Children

5.0 2008
Hillsong Worship: THERE IS MORE

In Genesis 32 we read the story of Jacob wrestling with God through the night. On the other side of Jacob’s divine encounter was a new name, a new blessing, a new identity and a new way of walking (literally). Will we be a worshipping people who are not content to sleep through the night (spiritually speaking) and wake in the morning unchanged? Like Jacob, will we enter into the wrestle with God, dare to know Him more intimately and be changed in the process? This is the premise for Hillsong Worship’s 26th live praise and worship album.

Hillsong Worship: THERE IS MORE

NR 2018
Yer Old Faither

Set in the industrial town of Whyalla, this is an intimate portrait of John Croall, a Glaswegian immigrant to Australia, and the father of long-time Adelaide Fringe director, Heather Croall. John Croall delivered three generations of babies and planted thousands of trees in the town. He was also a great letter writer, and this very personal documentary uses these letters as its point of departure. Heather Croall films with her father as a way of coping with his approaching death and reflecting on the close, and often very funny, relationship between a father and a daughter.

Yer Old Faither

NR 2020