Discover Movies

A look back at the film-maker's career, via the use of out-takes, unused scenes, scenes from uncompleted films, home movie footage, etc.

A documentary about Graeme Campbel MP, an Australian federal member of Parliament.

A man is playing with his toddler, but it ends badly.

Peter Combe: Little Groover

In this animated tale of awakening, a woman explores the anxious landscape of sexuality and desire. With the help of her mischievous alter ego, she searches for the animal within. Over three years in the making, its mutable clay characters negotiate an eerie Australasian landscape (created with multi-plane paint-on-glass sets), inhabited only by strange birds and roving creatures of the night. Feline investigates the possibilities for changing oneself in a world where physicality and identity are fluid. It is a tale of denial, sexual awakening, and self acceptance.

The Hooley Dooleys: Ready.. Set… GO!

This 1998 documentary traces the early nineteenth century American sealing history through the Australian occupation in the 1950's, and finally to the famous 1997 DXpedition.

The Australian goldfields period drama Rush (1974) was given The Late Show treatment with a slick re-editing and re-voicing which produced absurd plotlines, strange characters and 'Stupid Hat Day' on the goldfields. 'The Olden Days' originally appeared as 20 three-minute stand-alone short segments in _"Late Show, The" (1992)_, and were later strung together and released on video.

A comprehensive account of the experiences of a community of Aboriginal people from pre-colonial times to the 1990s. This film makes the connection between Aboriginals in chains in the 19th century and Aboriginal people in prisons today, so providing a deeper understanding of how the violence and denials of the past inform the present. It argues that the relentless removal of the Yindjibarndi/Ngarluma people into coastal ghettos has led to the community's current problems. Yet it never allows the viewer to forget the significance and influence of spiritual homelands, the bedrock upon which Yindjibarndi/Ngarluma tribal law is based. Above all, Exile and the Kingdom is a beautifully logical and persuasive argument for land rights.

It's 1972 and 'It's Time', but not it seems for Violet who is caught in the limbo world of adolescence in a small costal town. Director Graeme Wood's exceptional cinematic rendering of a place, a time and the hard-edged desperation of teen trouble is a tough tour de force of short filmmaking.

An experimental new media art designed for a bodily experience of ‘shock’–from culture shock to sensual shock channelled through sounds that ‘goes beyond the interface, into time, into the body, and into imagination’

A woman who recounts the early years of her life with her gay brother.

'Honey get your life together, pull your dress out of your gusset, stop stealing other girls' hair and get home to your woman who's steaming in a hot tub waiting for you.'

A woman speaks her unrepresented resistance to history.

A famous film director and his crew arrive in town for two weeks of location filming. Stamford is overjoyed to find the leading lady, Francis "Frankie" Lane, is an old flame of his from his stringer days in Cambodia. When the leading man is killed in an apparent stunt-gone-wrong, Stamford's suspicion is aroused. Unfortunately, no-one else suspects murder but him. As he quietly delves into the lives of the film unit, his investigation begins to point firmly in the direction of Frankie and Stamford finds that the 'good old days' are best left in the past.

Monica's House

Throughout history, the perception of nurses has ranged from wise women to witches, sots to ministering angels, handmaidens to battleaxes. The professional role of the nurse has changed dramatically. Originally the nurse held an independent, curative position in healing the sick. Most of this responsibility has since been lost. In its place, a profession has developed which, while demanding altruism and dedication, is locked into a supportive and secondary role to that of the medical profession.

The life of Ruby Langford Ginibi is a story of triumph against the odds. She was born on a mission station, and her mother left the family when Langford was six years old. At the age of 16 she embarked on the first of four tumultuous relationships and went on to raise nine children, working as a fencer, cleaner and machinist. Three of her children died, and one son has spent almost half his life in correctional institutions. In 1984, after shaking off an alcohol addiction, Langford wrote her autobiography Don't Take Your Love to Town, which won the 1988 Human Rights Literary Award.

A short fiction in the mode of a 'diary', a film-maker's thoughts and feelings regarding his failure to obtain funding for his films.

Cremation rites are the most elaborate rites of passage performed by Balinese householders. Poor families may wait years before accumulating enough resources to cremate their dead, who are buried in the meantime. In 1978 many more cremations than usual were carried out because of the great purification cermony, Eka Dasa Rudra, held at Bali's main temple, Besakih, in 1979. Religious officials recommended that all Balinese cleanse the island by cremating their dead, as part of the preparations for the great Besakih ceremony. Villagers of limited means pooled their resources to perform group cremations which greatly reduced the cost for each family. This film is about a group of villagers in Central Bali who cooperated to carry out a group cremation.

This documentary pierces the mystery and mystique of a dance movement adored by the West and largely ignored by the Japanese. It uses archival and modern footage of leading Butoh performers and interviews Butoh specialists to throw light on the essential Butoh themes of darkness, violence and eroticism to get to the core of the nature of Butoh.

Cinematic commercial which packs a punch

In 1992, his first senior year, he played 8 games and kicked 22 goals. But those statistics failed to warn the folk of South australia of the impending tempest which was about to hit their town.

'Boy' likes snakes. Everybody hates 'Boy' for liking snakes.

A father tries to get his daughter to swallow some medicine.

In this highly acclaimed animated film, a lone sea turtle travels through space, her breath creating a whole new atmosphere. This becomes filled with forests, rivers, mountains and enterprising monkeys…so enterprising that they are forced to learn about sustainability the hard way.

Men Like Me is a techno documentary exploring the physical and social transformation of Dale Michaels, a transgender man. With stills, text, animation, colorising, morphing images and sound, slow motion and out of sync dialogue, Men Like Me breaks new ground to illustrate the (re)construction of the body as we know it. Men Like Me is not only Dale's story, but also an account of the filmmaker's journey. What does it mean to have a friend who is changing their gender and how does one adapt to such a metamorphic experience?

In this visually stunning short film set in the 1950s, a fair-skinned Aboriginal girl gains access to the local swimming pool where Aboriginal people are legally denied access.

Enter the world of an ancient creature that has become an expert weaver, a consummate hunter, and with more than 30,000 faces - a master of adaption.

“I was fascinated by the distance Australia has travelled in the past 50 years, and by how this evolving complexion continues to be indelibly, almost unconsciously, recorded by simple family and tourist images (today via video camera). History, place, time...and how we feel compelled to endlessly photograph one another. We’re all in a way little ham actors...a wave, a smile, doing a little dance...performing for the camera in front of landscapes and monuments. I worked with some old 16mm home-movie footage I’d been given, shot in the Blue Mountains [a favourite tourist destination and wilderness area close to Sydney]. Through optical printing and camerawork in the field I managed to combine the feel of then and now. [...] I used a prism in front of the lens, which chased the images (including some of me, photographing) ‘round and ‘round...mirroring the way history endlessly repeats itself.” (Paul Winkler)

EMANANCE explores the zones of connection between visionary and concrete cinema. The film opens on a primeval forest, then moves through streams and ponds within the woods, before ultimately focusing on the movements of the water’s surface and the play of light upon it. The treatment of the black-and-white negative, combined with toning and tinting processes, radically transforms the landscape and creates an intense visionary realm. The water lies like a pool of fire within the emanating forest. The sun becomes a black star, flickering, vaporizing into a form of energy and protozoan eruption before sinking into a flow of lava.

Morning and evening maids heard the goblin cry, 'Come buy our orchid fruits, come buy, come buy.'

The story of a lonely and twisted man who is obsessed with the cult Australian drama series 'Prisoner'.

A soap/sex comedy.

Luv and Oleh are putting on a show. They have the song. They have the venue. They have the lamé. All they need now is an audience. An exploration into the dangers of showing off.

In the ‘Year of the Family’ this juicy sexual liberation movie confronts with brutal honesty issues often conveniently omitted from the safe sex debate.

Witty hit list of ‘community’ archetypes

‘Life At The Top’ depicts the life of residents of high rise commission flats.

Through a case scenario set in Pyrmont, one of Sydney's inner city suburbs, the film explores community responses to the community consultation process surrounding major urban redevelopment plans. Traditionally a working class area, Pyrmont has borne the brunt of urban residential demolition. Pyrmont's future includes a major casino complex, heliport, marinas and more. Where does a social mix community fit within this vision of the future, occurring under the guise of urban consolidation? - https://www.screenaustralia.gov.au/the-screen-guide/t/concrete-city-1994/7266/

"These Are the Days is about the passing of time. It is a computer animation of falling paper, with a sound-track of people counting. By combining mathematical models of different physical phenomena such as gravity, elasticity and aerodynamics I can create abstracted simulations of natural systems. As well as the formal qualities that are explored in this work, I am interested in other possible readings. The endless flow of paper suggests the meditative space of a waterfall, yet also speaks of consumption and waste. Our lives are documented by a continual stream of paper, from birth and death certificates to supermarket receipts."

Experimental art film with an eternal laugh-track.

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.

Monica's Trip To The Moon

A fast paced visual essay on love, sex, and A.I.D.S. in the late 20th century.

The movement of water via capillary action - the phenonema of water flowing uphill is made visible through the artificially induced osmosis of push and pull of dissimilar photographed material. Fountains and trees are the main carrier of images. Finally... an ode to the translucency of water.

A boy who knows his nail polish recounts his favorite colors and the stories they recall.

In the event of Amnesia the city will recall... explores the relationship between the individual and the metropolis. These works are not structured events for a traditional audience, they are questions proposed to the site. Open actions which rely on the surrounding dynamics to embellish them. The city as audience, collaborator and performer is emphasised in this piece.

Boyz 'N The Hoodz is the fourth VHS release by TISM (This Is Serious Mum). Live at the Palace in St. Kilda, Melbourne, 4 September 1992. Growing up is never easy. Well, not for most people anyway. Well, maybe not most, but certainly 50%. Ok, one out of three. Two out of seven. Ten out of every forty-five? Alright... growing up is sometimes hard for some. Apparently. I mean, I didn't mind it myself.

An experimental performance piece that looks at issues of sexual stereotyping.

Adapted from Michael Lazar Issa’s story of the same name (ܗܘ ܬܪܥܢ ܚܠܝܩܐ – Aw Tar’an Khleeqa), the film tells the tragic story of Ester and Eshay, a young couple who elope only for Ester to become the victim of an honour killing. The film is an elegy on the Assyrian homeland, shaped by repeated genocide, intergenerational trauma and displacement. It captures the beauty of tradition and ritual, without shying from a critique of the patriarchal values embedded in the culture. Our Locked Door also highlights the tenacity of the Assyrian diaspora, being made on a small budget and relying on the goodwill of the communities in Australia and Armenia where it was filmed.

Following the effect on Judy, a 7 year old girl, of the sudden death of her father.

Sometimes love never leaves us... even if the object of our desire does. INDEPENDENTLY BLUE dives into the heady decadence of the 1930s club scene to explore the impact of a lover's betrayal. Told through the memory of an elderly woman.

Are you being served?

A comedy about a dinner that goes wrong, when one of the host’s ex-girlfriends arrives and decides to ‘rekindle an old flame’.

A story of a body ‘in extremis’ told via 20’s horror recording and excerpts from the writing of Antonin Artaud.

Lethal cocktail of religion, sex and needles

About an identity, playing, exploring, creating new images and setting yourself free. Front-room sexual explorations.

Spy on moments in the lives of some very special Sydney queers

A Swan Song for Valentine's Day