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Originally filmed as an archival record of a Warlpiri (Walbiri) ceremony in 1967 by Roger Sandall, the film footage was re-worked 10 years later by anthropologist Nicolas Peterson and filmmaker, Kim McKenzie, to make this short version for public viewing. Involving large numbers of both men and women, Ngatjakula is one of the most spectacular ceremonies of central Australia, employing fire, and several days of singing and dance, to resolve conflicts and re-affirm social order among the Warlpiri (Walbiri) people. One of Sandall’s many films about ceremonial life, including several of Warlpiri rituals, the film was part of the program of the Australian Institute of Aboriginal Studies to record traditional aspects of Aboriginal life and culture. McKenzie’s collaboration with Peterson (who had been present at the time of the original filming) to edit this public version, is a meticulous representation of the fire ceremony, much of which took place at night.

On 7 July 1978, the Solomon Islands regained its independence from Britain. This documentary, filmed by cinematographers John Hosking and Academy Award winner Dean Semler, looks at the people of these islands and their views on independence, and records aspects of their way of life, including their songs and dances. It also describes some of the problems facing the new nation and what is being done to combat them.

The Celluloid Domain is the brainchild of Sydney based Zimbabwean-Australian filmmaker, Paul Matereke. A year in the making, the film centres around the Art Gallery of New South Wales' uniquely all-35mm film program and its exceptionally talented curator, Robert Herbert. As a budding young artist, Paul explores Robert's 20+ year career in the film industry and uses the knowledge gained to inform his own ambitions. The film includes intimate interviews with Sydney locals & cinephiles, and showcases the immensely interesting world of Celluloid film. Robert handles these films; which he considers an art form like any other, with the utmost care and respect. Much like the largely forgotten world of film projection, Robert represents a rare breed of people. His commitment to preserving the art of cinema proves to be an inspiration to the younger generation of filmmakers, and highlights the significance of remembering and maintaining the treasures of the past.

"Pretend I existed" is a memoir about the filmmaker's relationship with his mother when she had her cancer treatment in Japan.

Sentience starkly contrasts the stunning beauty of Guanxi Provence's ancient mountains and the abrasive imposition of modernity playing out on Yangshou's famous 1400 year old West Street.

Great Ocean Love is part documentary, part road trippin’ surf flick that follows Belinda Baggs, Linley Hurrell and Lilly Pollard on a journey of discovery from the teachings of Gunditjmara whale dreamer Yaraan Bundle. Along the way they meet saltwater women of the deep south who share their love for the rugged coastline that they call home.

The sun-drenched landscapes of the Northern Territory form the backdrop for a politically neutral, storytelling approach aimed at fostering learning and connection between Indigenous Australian communities and urban Australians. Our documentary chronicles the transformative journey of two First Nations men, Jaxon De Santis and Justin Grant, as they grapple with their uncertainty about the impending Voice to Parliament referendum.

A Big Life is told through the tales of Bobbie Nugent it is a story of butches and femmes, gangsters, sex workers, travelling side shows and early Australian transgender history.

This moving documentary is a record of a few hours in the life of a small 7 year old boy, Ricco, from Hidden Valley, one of the many town camps on the outskirts of Alice Springs. He has lived in the camp for most of his life, and is looked after by his three older sisters and his foster mother, Nanna Maudie.

Broadcast on Novermber 4th, the day of the US Presidential election, Mr Firth Goes to Washington is an SBS election special about how Charles Firth goes to Washington and manages to score an exclusive meeting with President George Bush. Along the way he explores the relationship between politics and Hollywood in America, realizing that much of American politics has been "Hollywoodised" and is nowadays based on pure fiction. Part documentary, part mockumentary, part docudrama, Firth claims he has developed a new genre of television. The show provides a comprehensive lack-of-analysis about the 2008 Presidential elections.

A film exploring the innovative world of Acoustic FingerStyle guitar featuring interviews with many leading players including Andy McKee, Kaki King, Newton Faulkner and Tommy Emmanuel. Acoustic Uprising looks at the rich history of FingerStyle and the fusion of musical ideas the style has become known for.

Rhys Day presents NO DIVIDE - a sticky mashup biopic/ videofeast.

Filmed over 10 years, Constance on the Edge is an unflinchingly honest portrayal of one refugee family’s resettlement story in Australia.

Australia's own car, 60 years of Holden (2009): "Holden - it's as Australian as meat pies and kangaroos. Laugh along with them at the early advertising campaigns and celebrate great cars like Monaro, Commodore and Torana with rare never before-seen footage. Meet the people who design, test and build these great cars - people with real passion, dedication and ingenuity that has driven Holden to export success around the world. It's an engaging look at how Australia got its own car, how Holden came of age to be regarded as a world leader".

One man’s journey to help alleviate homelessness in Cairns. A hair raising documentary uncovering what lies beneath this Paradise island.

Snakes and Surf Breaks follows a daring and amateur team’s 3 month expedition across the Indonesian archipelago in search of a Cobra.

SKIN IN THE GAME is a documentary about the provocative Jewish standup comedian Sandy Gutman (aka Austen Tayshus).

Abraham Nouk moved to Australia as a Sudanese refugee unable to read, write or speak a word of English. Now, he's an aspiring spoken word artist and poet. This is his story.

“Citizen Gane” chronicles the life of legendary Australian Graffiti Writer Gane 2, who back in the early 1980’s at age 12, was one of the very first generation writers to play a significant role in developing the Graffiti and hip hop scene in Australia. His influence was felt for decades after, until his passing in October 2022. He first came to the attention of the Australian public back in 1985 when, aged 15, he was featured on the popular television program 60 Minutes. Overnight, he was a graffiti and pop culture sensation. Reviled by the general public but revered and admired amongst his peers, it earned him the highest honour of “King” status. The King of Sydney.

The life and times of artist Richard Ellis

The film outlines the history of the redevelopment of the Sydney suburb of Waterloo. Residents are interviewed and archival footage is used to outline the history of change in the area. The documentary emphasises the need for consultation and shows the results of more recent residents’ action groups.

In Central Texas, Barbecue is more than a way to cook meat - it's a way of life, a path to salvation, and a sure-fire way to start an argument at the dinner table. This documentary covers five barbecue establishments.

In this personal documentary, a daughter uncovers the controversial choices that her father made in order to survive the Holocaust.

What if you temporarily took leave from the safety of everyday life to battle through a challenge that scares you? What if your only worries were riding, finding food and water and a place to sneak a few hours of sleep? What if you forgot your self-imposed limits just to see what you were truly capable of for once? What if you were a racer at heart? Why wouldn't you want to take on the toughest races on the planet?

The 'Little Black Book' is now forgotten. before the mid 60s it meant having some human rights, being able to raise children in safely and interact with towns... Derby, W.A. - The Benning Family has a unique and amazing history as well as outlook. All the brothers had a natural musical talent and they are the first instrumental Aboriginal band, bringing the community together since the early 1950s... This Short Documentary is a narrative driven, oral history and pop interview based 'expos'e' which also explores 'Lateral Violence' - a theory that explains many trends in Aboriginal communities today.

Things Will Be Different documents two neighbours’ experiences of displacement as they are forced to relocate from the Walker Street public housing estate in Northcote, Melbourne when it is sold for private redevelopment. The film explores the impact of losing one’s home and the important role public housing plays in our communities.

From the remote, islands of Vanuatu, comes an extremely unique and rarely seen tradition, water music.

The story of Bev Francis' attempt to become the world women's power lifting champion 1983.

The number of babies born with severe deformities and children developing leukaemia is rising dramatically in parts of Iraq. US forces used depleted uranium weapons to attack the city, which locals say has left them with this devastating legacy. One report even says the number of such illnesses in Falluja is higher than that recorded after the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Walkley Award winning video journalist Fouad Hady returns to his home country to see some of the deformed and desperately ill children, and meets some of the people battling against the odds to rebuild their lives, and their city.

The Oldest Heart is a short documentary that follows the inspiring journey of Australia’s oldest female amateur boxer, Lyn Joy Mills, who at 71, embarks on an extraordinary journey toward her first official fight.

Luc Longley on Andrew Bogut: Lane Violation explores the unlikely mentorship between two basketball greats. As Bogut transitions from polarising NBA star to assistant coach of the Sydney Kings, this intimate documentary charts ego, resilience, growth and the shaping of a new legacy in Australian basketball.

Family is more than just blood bonds. Christian, a gay man of Filipino-Australian origin, discovers the truth of queer life in the antipodes.

In the eighteenth century, London was the biggest city in the world, a global centre for trade, manufacturing and industry. Bigger and richer than ever before, there was money to spend.

A documentary about the odeon star cinema

Bitter Herbs and Honey tells a richly textured story of the making of multi-cultural Australia. Through the saga of the the story of the Jewish migrants, mainly from Eastern Europe, who made their first home in Melbourne's inner-city suburb of Carlton, the film explores issues at the heart of Australia's development towards cultural diversity. The film builds a picture of poor immigrants who left Europe in the period of turmoil preceding, and in the wake of, the Second World War, having lost everything spiritually and materially. In a country most had never heard of on the other side of the earth, they began to rebuild their lives.

Modern interviews coupled with archival footage, South Australians tell the story of their protests and persecutions surrounding the Vietnam War.

In 1981, Yuki [Noriko] Sekiguchi went to Australia to study International Relations. She spoke little English, but quickly befriended Joyce and Jack Hegarty, who became her 'second parents'. While close, Noriko sensed in Jack a buried resentment towards her, perhaps due to his experience fighting Japanese in World War II. Jack died in 1988 with this issue unresolved. Now retired and widowed, Mrs Hegarty lives alone in a Sydney western suburb. She is a devout Catholic and bowls at Ashfield Lawn Bowling Club. Mrs Hegarty expressed a desire to visit Japan and Yuki saw this as an opportunity to right some wrongs. In appreciation of Mrs Hegarty's hospitality, the natural parents of her 'adopted Japanese daughter' agreed to host Mrs Hegarty in their Yokohama home for three weeks.

Burning Daylight is a dance/film project. The performance is set from late one night until dawn in a transit zone outside a notorious pub on a Broome-style Karaoke night. A series of contemporary dance scenes unfold expressing the...

The eight ladies in this film come from Alyawarr Country in the Sandover River region in central Australia, about 250km north of Alice Springs. The filmmakers joined them on a five-day journey into the bush to hunt echidna and gather bush foods such as the bush potato. As they hunt and gather, and as they sit around their campfire at night preparing the food, they talk about the old days and how life has changed.

In 1976, Ian Dunlop was invited by Dundiwuy Wanambi, a leader of the Marrakulu clan, to Gurka’wuy on Trial Bay in the Gulf of Carpentaria. He wanted Film Australia to record the first major Marrakulu ceremony to be held at Gurka’wuy since its recent establishment as a clan settlement. While they were there, a baby boy died. The Madarrpa men, including the child’s father and Dundiwuy, asked for the funeral to be filmed.Mortuary rites of the Yolngu are extremely complex. Despite some practical modifications to traditional ceremonies as a result of life on mission stations, ritual remains extremely strong.

Unlike many spirit mediums, Jero Tapakan practices as a masseuse once every three days, when possession is not auspicious. This film focuses on Jero's treatment of Ida Bagus, a member of the nobility from a neighboring town. Jero has been treating her client for sterility and seizures. She begins work this day with religious preparations and the assembling of traditional medicines. Treatment includes a thorough massage, administration of eyedrops, an infusion, and a special paste for the chest. The dialogue, which is subtitled, includes a detailed discussion between anthropologist Linda Connor, Ida Bagus, and Jero, about the nature and treatment of the illness, as well as informal banter between Jero, her other patients, and people in her houseyard. In an interview, Ida Bagus and his wife speak about the ten-year history of his illness and a variety of diagnoses

Featuring Brendan Davies and David King, both locals, the film explores their deep connection with the Blue Mountains. The Blue Mountains are known for their dramatic scenery, rugged sandstone tablelands, wilderness, valleys, waterfalls and rainforests. Brendan is a professional trail runner and explores countless areas through running. He starts to prepare for Ultra Trail Australia 100KM and also, the career transition to an outdoor adventure guide. David King, a Gundungurra man, has indigenous ancestors that have lived in the mountains for thousands of years. David continues to educate people on his past, the mountains, environmental activities and through Swamp Care.

Since the late 1970's a thriving underground scene of extreme music has continued to evolve in Australia. Metal Down Under takes a look at the bands, people and events that have shaped this unique slice of Australian history. More than just the music, we meet the characters that make metal in Australia what it is today. From promoters, radio hosts and magazine editors, to band members and extreme fans, Metal Down Under introduces you to a world you either didn't want to know existed, or have been a part of all your life. Featuring over 40 exclusive interviews as well as rare archive footage and photographs from Metal for the Brain, Metal for Melbourne, The Big Day Out, SBS, music videos, live concerts and much more.

On a sunny weekend in the People’s Square in Shanghai, parents gather to arrange potential dates for their child, with discussions started through signs stating their child’s age, height, education and home town. By talking to professional matchmakers and mothers at the dating market, this documentary provides an insight into the importance of a child’s marriage to parents in Chinese society.

Documentary covering Aboriginal leader Narratjin Maymurru's response to the unwelcome development of Nabalco Bauxite Mine, Gove Peninsula, during 1971.

Architectural distortions of the second city.

Set against the thriving dance music scene in the city of Adelaide, Decks and the City explores the passion for electronic music within the night time cityscape and the obstacles that DJ's, producers, venue owners and patrons face from lawmakers and a conservative society.

In rural Ghana, Clara faces the challenges of teaching, as her students discover the happiness of having wheels.

Fly on the wall documentary following The Badloves recording and touring their second album The Holy Roadside.

After 40 years in exile, Yulparitja elders take Daniel Walbidi, their most promising young artist, back to the desert heartland they left behind. In the remote Aboriginal community of Bidyadanga a new art movement has emerged. At its helm is a young Aboriginal man who is well on the way to international fame and possible fortune. Daniel Walbidi paints the desert country that his parents walked out of 40 years ago. Now, with the rock holes, sandhills and salt lakes of their country revitalized through the creation of the paintings, they are determined to go back and show Daniel their desert country for the first time.

The Buyback follows James Stanton-Cooke, co-founder of not-for-profit organisation Halfcut. Their mission is to purchase undeveloped land in the Lowland Daintree Rainforest and protect one of the world's last surviving ancient ecosystems. With more than half the world's forests lost to deforestation, time is running out. This fact is physically etched into James himself as he proudly wears half a beard in constant protest. We uncover the effect human habitation is having on this ecosystem and follow amazing individuals who are fighting against development pressures. There are tangible solutions to these issues, and through organisations like Halfcut everyone can help to protect and restore what's left of the world's oldest rainforest.

After former Afghan refugee and photographer, Muzafar Ali, discovers that Afghans have been an integral part of Australia for over 160 years, he begins to photograph their descendants in a search to define his own Afghan-Australian identity. The Cameleer Descendants are a mix of Aboriginal, Afghan and Colonial Australian and as Muzafar meets and connects with the resilient but traumatised community he learns about his new country’s complicated history. His journey is interrupted when Afghanistan is handed back to the Taliban by the US and International Forces, and he races to help his friends and colleagues left behind.

Transforming Australia’s biggest climate polluter is a story about hope. It's a story about collaboration. And it's about how Greenpeace, together with a diverse group of people and organisations, took on Australia's biggest climate polluter - and won. Come behind the scenes in a documentary by Greenpeace Australia Pacific, to witness the strategic multi-pronged tactics unleashed against AGL and its leadership team; challenging the company’s false clean and green image, turning away its customers, threatening its funding sources, and convincing its shareholders to take action.

Whilst eating only beige snacks like chips, bread, and chicken nuggets may just be the picky diet of a spoilt child, it may instead be the symptom of a deeply entrenched psychological disorder. The Truth About Fussy Eaters explores the cutting edge of eating disorder research with the help of expert therapists and psychologists, to shed light on a newly identified, potentially deadly and widely misunderstood condition which affects millions of people worldwide. Whilst disorders such as Bulimia and Anorexia relate to body image, sufferers of Avoidant Restrictive Food Intake Disorder instead display a deep psychological aversion to certain foods, and are often left terrifyingly malnourished, unable to function, and on the precipice of a dangerous medical crisis.

This film was made with the Aboriginal Education Unit at Melbourne State College (Phil Johnson). GUNANA is an account of everyday life on Mornington Island in Australia’s far north - homelands of the Aboriginal theatre group The Mornington Island Dancers. The film includes excerpts of their dance performance at Mt Druitt Primary School.

Five Australian boys document their final two years of high school.

A playful, dynamic and highly stylised examination of the parallels between the language used by a group of surfers in Sydney and that of the popular media. The director makes the cross-pollination plausible in the editing and uses dramatisations to give it all an ironic light.

Maja is proud of the 16 coils of brass around her neck that distinguish her as a ‘long neck’ Kayan woman from Burma. But after 20 years of living on display and constantly being photographed in a tourist village in Thailand, the rings are becoming more a trap than a source of pride. When a chance meeting with an Australian filmmaker puts a video camera in her hands, she decides to turn the lens around and make a film about what it means to live in a ‘human zoo’. The process turns her life on its head and forces her to choose between tradition and rebellion.

Follow the band on their endless global trek, shot in 42 countries on five continents, the 75-minute "Home Is For The Heartless" DVD is both a rare travelogue and an in-depth look at PARKWAY DRIVE on stage and off. In addition to footage of some of the craziest shows the band has ever played, it also captures some of their greatest adventures and most poignant shared moments.

A debut doco-style film by storyteller and icon Naavikaran and a foray into her futurist lore.