Discover Movies

Most professional surfing contests hold their final at a charity beach on a Sunday afternoon regardless of wave quality. The Billabong Challenge, a bold new direction in competition surfing, enticed 8 hot surfers from around the globe to battle a dangerous shark infested reef, at a secret location on the remote desert coast of Outback Australia. Held over a 14 day period, enduring harsh elements, till time and tide set perfect conditions for the ultimate challenge.

Confronted by his daughter's wish to own a dog, award-winning animator Dennis Tupicoff recalls the dogs of his childhood, in the industrial outer Brisbane suburb of Darra. Every household seemed to have a dog. Some were friends who shared his explorations and roamed free on adventures of their own before meeting an untimely death or simply disappearing. Some were huge, savage beasts who prowled around like the hounds of hell. This film is his memorial to those times, those feelings and to the dogs themselves.

Grace lives a comfortable life in a nice house. It’s a far cry from the mission which she fled years ago. When she returns for a funeral, she’s faced with unfamiliar family and a forgotten past.

Fifth of 6 animated shorts made for Nickelodeon.

When shipwrecked sailors first encountered wombats, they did what they had to do to survive - they ate them! More than 200 hundred years later, the wombat still suffers at our hands, blamed for damaging fences and fouling pastures, this film examines the myths and realities of wombat life, above and below the ground, as scientists begin to understand these intrepid and resourceful Bulldozers of the Bush.

A fast cut-up of images, accompanied by Teenage Fanclub's "Radio".

Melbourne filmmaker Brian McKenzie spent 5 years working on this engrossing study of a not-so-typical Brunswick household. It's a laconic, observational documentary similar to the director's I'll Be Home For Christmas (MFF '85), in which McKenzie plays a central part, camera in tow, as he documents the lifestyle of Graham (a youth in his 20s), his family and friends. After having spent so long with the family, McKenzie becomes part of the furniture - a situation which enables him to dig deep into the subject's lives.

Gold! Gold!! Gold!!! is the fifth and final TISM VHS, featuring interviews, live performances, music videos and TV appearances.

Joan Sutherland's farewell performance to the operatic stage offsets this story of the St. Bartholomew's Day massacre and the magnificence of 16th century France.

A diary film, chronicling six days in the life of a woman in her early 30's. A portrait of isolation, striving, rejection and hope.

The sexual label - gay, lesbian, bi, straight - has become a political tool which can either empower or dispossess its user. This film examines the complex tensions associated with these issues. It sets out to map the valid principles of empowerment underlying the use of sexual labels both past and present and charts the shifting relationship between the mainstream and non-straight communities.

In this introductory video to permaculture, Bill Mollison, the movement’s co-founder, takes the viewer through the history and developments of the movement. With startlingly laconic humor and insight he deconstructs the modern agribusiness and the “modern plague” : manicured ornamental lawns. In this video he offers an antidote, which is an antidote to both our currently unsustainable practices and our unsustainable culture. Both of these have to change and adapt. Permanently.

A three-colour separation of Ivor painting the Arf Arf group and performing with them on the soundtrack. (Arthur Cantrill & Corinne Cantrill)

Paddy finds there are two separate laws, the white and the black.

Mutant creatures, born into a world they've never seen, explore it.

With Greek and Turkish communities moving out of the area, the Clifton Hill Soccer Club must recruit from a newer wave of Asian immigrants or face extinction.

A comedy about a prisoner, Mohamed, relating to three fellow inmates the tale of how he landed in jail. He tells the story of his misadventures with Apolonia, a drag queen he meets at the door of a night club; realising that Apolonia is not what he'd like her to be.

In her second film, MY LIFE AS I LIVE IT (1993), Essie Coffey returns to her home in Dodge City where she and the A-Team are running in the shire elections. Inter-cutting between 1993 and 1978, the film presents the fascinating contrasts of a society in transition. Some of the kids we met in the earlier film now have families of their own and are involved in education, art and sports. Others are drifting, trying to cope with alcohol and depression. Most significantly, community programs offer the possibility of dignity and self-determination. In this film, Essie shows us the Community Development Employment Program (CDEP) making a real difference. Although the CDEP has now come under attack from the Federal government, MY LIFE AS I LIVE IT portrays the CDEP as providing meaningful work and services to an impoverished remote community.

Two teenagers get entangled in a criminal coup enterprise but must raise $500 each in order to set sail for Africa.

The light of love: a science fiction film set in Alphaville, 2015. Shot in Melbourne, 1991.

Based on the stage play, 'Who Cares?' by Gillian M. Wadds, this volatile, hand-held, social-realist drama is set in the industrial wastelands of Melbourne's western suburbs.

Reb has lied her way into herself into an awkward position. She just needs some time alone to think through the issues she's been avoiding, but her barricade of technology conspires against her and her procrastinations are on a comic collision course with her personal life.

The Writer prepares to shut off from the world; The Lover accepts the rejection of his love; The Cynic espouses the virtues of distance. Winter is here.

During an attempted rescue of their friends who have been taken into the forbidden, enchanted forest by a bad troll, the siblings, Hansel and Gretel, are assisted by friendly animals and a family of good trolls, only to be left on their own in the dark forest. They spy a gingerbread and candy house and are captured by the wicked witch.

A queer retelling of the Icarus myth.

A short dark animation about loneliness, aliens and sex in public places.

It takes a film noir shot at girls, guns and ventolin.

The loss of minimum wage in Britain has resulted in the gap between the rich and the poor growing hugely. Newtown just outside Birmingham is looking dirty, rundown and old. 50 % of its citizens are unemployed, living in grey towerblocks overlooking the urban devastation. The flats are poorly equipped with basic furnishings. All people can do is watch television. As the rich people get richer, the poor get poorer. Chris Pond from the Low Pay Unit blames poverty and hardship on the Conservative Government's free market economy and their opt-out from the social chapter. Journeyman Pictures investigates the harsh reality of 1990s Britain.

Told in five parts, Ochres was inspired by the special role ochre plays in Aboriginal ceremony. The performance, by Australia's Bangarra Dance Theatre is a fusion of indigenous and contemporary dance. Recorded at the Sunken Garden Amphitheater at the University of Western Australia during the 1996 Festival of Perth.

DROP is a brief journey through a droplet of water, hanging precariously from a downpipe, into a world of giant sea creatures and intelligent seahorses.

A film portraying the thrill of convalescence. A man bows his head, but also walks upright. Music by the Smiths.

Referencing the then-current debate over the decriminalisation of homosexuality in Western Australia, the commercial aimed to “sell” gay sexuality, but was banned by the TV station manager. One of ten TV commercials commissioned for the “Personal Ads” group art project in Perth.

An Axolotl is held hostage for a lawnmower, and the misguided blackmailer and the neighbour's wife find true love.

Coastal scenes filmed with an energetic pattern of two frames image/two frames black, intercut with Ivor Cantrill’s painting of the scene. Sounds of the sea are mixed with vigorous violin improvisation. (Arthur Cantrill & Corinne Cantrill)

"Fuckumentary" offers a scandalous insight into the warped minds behind Rupture, Australia's most extreme punk rock band.

In the last four years of his life, Lionel Murphy was at the centre of an historic battle to retain his position on the High Court in Australia. While the film concentrates on this period and the events leading up to it, in a wider sense, it uses the dramatic story of Murphy as a vehicle to consider some more fundamental issues about law. The film tackles the problem of police and security surveillance of the individual in Australian society and in particular, of prominent political and legal figures.

The story of Nathan "Nate" Vaughan, an ex-SAS commando fighter married to Nicole, a police officer with the Gulf Coast drug squad. Shortly after their wedding and in the midst of their plans to open a private security firm, Nicole is tragically killed in a seemingly senseless shooting by a drug craze kid in a convenience store hold up. Nate falls to pieces. His only friend is Nicole's ex-police partner and they decide to pursue their own form of justice on the streets low life. The death of a rapist/murderer leads to Nate being pursued by both the criminal boss and the police, which leads to twists and turns and the discovery of his wife's assassination... and bringing the killers to justice.

Facing a short term in prison, wealthy Eisenstein heads off to a masquerade ball to enjoy his last evening of freedom. But Eisenstein's wife, Rosalinde, and her chambermaid Adele show up to the costume party in disguise, and each try to teach him a lesson or two. This revival of Johann Strauss's operetta performed by Opera Australia stars Anthony Warlow and Ghillian Sullivan.

Kangaroos: Faces in the Mob is a documentary that follows award-winning Australian filmmakers Dr. Jan Aldenhoven and Glen Carruthers as they live with a mob of Eastern Grey Kangaroos in the Australian bush.

John Safran investigates the food industry.

A short piece of found footage is optically reworked as text versus imagery versus the spoken words of a 'narrator' telling the audience a story of a famous golf player.

A mysterious beast that lives in the storm drains beneath the city begins to hunt and feed on a drug cartel.

Depiction of the ugly side of Australian life.

Aiming to capture views of Hong Kong months before its return to the Chinese government, this Australian documentary features views of the city filmed from its historic trams on 16mm film.

A brutal clash between dominance and submission as Jessie makes a journey to her past.

A short examination of the work of Australian performance artist Stelarc.

In Harro & Big Barra, lure fishing legend Rob Harrison takes viewers on travels into remote Arnhemland in pursuit of big barramundi. ‘Harro’ shares his fond knowledge of these finned icons, and puts you right into the picture to show you how to come to grips with those fish of a lifetime.

The golden fairy Harmony and her fairy friend, Rainbow Rhapsody, join their friends Barnaby the Bizzy Buzzy Bee, the Fairy Tots, Elf Tots and children to have lots of magical fun. It's full of original fairy songs that kids, fairies and elves of all ages can dance and sing along with!

Made in 1992 for the White Gloves Film Festival in Melbourne, Operation Camerahead parodies the lengths the incoming State Government of Jeff Kennett will go to to raise funds to pay off the inherited public debt from the previous Cain-Kerner Labour Government.

In this captivating, perplexing portrait of her mother, Dora Bialestock, filmmaker Rivka Hartman explores the wildly contradictory nature of this well-known Melbourne figure.

Documentary about "The Coolbaroo Club",  which was the only Aboriginal-run dance club in a city which practiced unofficial apartheid. During its lifetime, the Club attracted Black musicians and celebrities from all over Australia and occasionally from overseas. Although best-remembered for the hugely popular Coolbaroo dances attended by hundreds of Aborigines and their white supporters, the "Coolbaroo League", founded by Club members, ran a newspaper and became an effective political organization, speaking out on issues of the day affecting Aboriginal people.

A wormhole is a laceration in the fabric of space-time. Our urban landscape is littered with such holes. It is just a matter of knowing where and how to look for them.

Televisions are noble, wild creatures living an idyllic lifestyle in their natural mountain habitat. They gambol and graze freely, entertaining each other with their vividly colourful visual displays. But what if they were rounded up and herded into the cities? If they were sold and rented out to anyone with the cash and desire for a video visual thrill? If their wild natural beauty was held captive and controlled by the push of a remote control button?

This feature length documentary is a personal account of the siege of Sarajevo from the point of view of a Bosnian Australian, Tahir Cambis, who spent the last six months of the war filming the conflict and its effects on the civilian population. The two main subjects in the film are a Sarajevo family whose young daughter is killed a day after she is filmed in a dance competition; and an 8 year old girl, Amira, whose eye witness account of murder and rape becomes a diary of catharsis.

Short animation by Wendy Chandler.

A bicycle seat. A roof. A car park. Light. Shadow. The aperture control. Piano. Synthesizer. Delay effects. A sci-fi/horror fantasy ... the shadows have landed.

A cheeky instructional film on the uses and abuses of the cinematographic apparatus, with the ensuing results enlivened by the music of David Dangerfield.

The image of firefighters has always been one of fairness, heroism and courage. In Australia, with the constant threat of bush fires, we are reminded seasonally of their mettle. They've even become sex symbols in straight and gay communities. Interviewing firefighters from around the world, the film explores the world of the firefighter: the risks, the danger, the excitement, the humor and the glamor.