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Indonesia Calling: Joris Ivens in Australia

Revisits the making of Joris Ivens' 1946 film Indonesia Calling! In 1945-46 Indonesian, Indian, Chinese and Australian Trade Unions blockaded Dutch shipping in Australia, defending the newly declared Republic of Indonesia. Dutch Filmmaker Joris Ivens resigned as Film Commissioner for the Netherlands East Indies and made Indonesia Calling! documenting the trade union actions and supporting Indonesian independence. This documentary revisits the making of Ivens' radical film, Australia's early relationship with Indonesia and the impact of Ivens' film. Made with passionate commitment, Ivens' film provoked a covert response from the state, while helping to create a fertile ground for Australian independent documentary.

Indonesia Calling: Joris Ivens in Australia

NR 2009
Where Do Lilacs Come From

Chris, an elderly Alzheimer's sufferer, is confined to his home. His son, Michael, is his primary caregiver. For months Chris' mind has been fading away and with it his grasp on reality. He is desperately trying to hold onto his mind. Chris is passing further and further from recognition. Michael is left wracked by survivors guilt. But to Chris, the world around him has become nothing more than a waking dream, the bounds of reality and reason bent and warped as his life cycles over and over around him. The only way he can hope to find clarity is to retrace these fractured memories from childhood to his elderly infirmity, in a desperate attempt to understand his condition.

Where Do Lilacs Come From

NR 2014
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
Grain of Truth

For over 10 years beginning in the 1980s, Frances Wright shot mysterious orbs of light darting about the open skies near her isolated cottage, located in the scenic Blue Mountains region outside Sydney. Now, for the first time, this film discloses some of her extraordinary super-8 footage from that period. But newly discovered digital footage – unearthed after she inexplicably vanished – raises a bigger question: do we believe what we see, or do we see what we believe?

Grain of Truth

NR 2023
A Quest to Heal: Beyond the Physical

Joao Texeira de Faria, also known as John of God, is a world famous spiritual healer from Brazil who has been attributed to many miracles that science cannot explain. His work attracts both controversy and acclaim. For the past 30 years, thousands of people from all over the world have been flocking to his remote village in Brazil in search of cures for illnesses Western medicine offers little hope. Film maker Michelle Mahrer follows the journey of two of her friends on a healing odyssey to Brazil - Lya Shaked from Australia has terminal cancer, and Fred Porter from USA has HIV. Will they be lucky enough to receive a miracle?

A Quest to Heal: Beyond the Physical

NR 2017
On the Waves of the Adriatic

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.

On the Waves of the Adriatic

NR 1991
Everybody Gets Stabbed

Clive likes Lauren. Lauren has no idea. Desmond is in love with Clive. Clive has no idea. Lauren and her boyfriend Tom love each other very much. Clive doesn't like Tom, because Clive was the one who put in all the friend coins and wasn't rewarded with sex and a relationship. So with Desmond's help Clive decides to start killing all of their friends and blame it on Tom, and then something something something Lauren will realise she really loves Clive. And maybe if they hang out together Clive will fall in love with Desmond. It's not the greatest of plans. And they're not the greatest of murderers. But they're going to give it a red hot go, because to do anything otherwise would make them cucks.

Everybody Gets Stabbed

NR 2020
Motonomad

Two motorcycle racers, Adam Riemann and Mark Portbury endure a 7000km mission across Europe, in hope of reaching the Pyramids of Egypt. Avoiding Syria, the find a way across the Mediterranean and venture into the aftermath of the recent Cairo massacre. Despite military confrontation, they defy the odds and make it inside the ancient compound of the Pyramids, but triumph turns to treachery as they must continue into one of the Middle East's most lawless regions... the Sinai Peninsula. Putting their lives further at risk, the boys wander into the Sinai only to stumble upon one of religion's most sacred landmarks. Motonomad isn't just a motorcycle adventure - it's a story of discovery, friendship and the undeniable power of chance.

Motonomad

6.0 2014
The Teacher's Wife

She was a wife, a mother, a sister and a daughter. Lyn Dawson had everything to live for, so why did she disappear without a trace 36 years ago? Her husband Chris, a PE teacher, always insisted she abandoned him and their two young daughters to “sort things out”. Days later he moved his teenage lover into the family home. Two coroners concluded Chris Dawson murdered his wife but to this day, he has never been prosecuted. The case has gripped audiences around the world since the release of a new podcast, The Teacher’s Pet, by investigative journalist Hedley Thomas.

The Teacher's Wife

NR 2018
One British Family

In the 1960s, as West Indians, Pakistanis, Indians and Africans began to arrive in Britain from former British colonies, race became a political issue. In the 1964 General Election, a swing to the Conservative Party in Labour’s Smethwick constituency and Enoch Powell’s “rivers of blood” speech on immigration four years later put attitudes towards ethnic minorities on the political and social agenda. In One British Family, made in 1974, John Pilger focuses on Gus and Julie Gill, who arrived in Britain from Trinidad in 1961. They now had three children and their own house on Tyneside, where they were the only black family in the street. “They take less from the social services than the equivalent white families,” says Pilger. “They’re not on any council’s housing lists and they’ve never been out of work.”

One British Family

NR 1974
Freedom Is Beautiful

Farhad Bandesh and Mostafa Azimitibar were finally freed from detention after being imprisoned for almost eight years under Australia’s brutal offshore processing regime. Each fled persecution in Iran, searching for safety, freedom and a brighter future, only to be treated callously by the Australia government. Forming a close friendship while detained, they used music and art as a form of peaceful resistance to promote humanity and tirelessly advocate on behalf of all those who remained held. Australian artist Angus McDonald’s passionate documentary, whilst not shying away from the brutality of their experience, embraces their extraordinary resilience and optimism.

Freedom Is Beautiful

1.0 2023
The Magic Arts

A visual onslaught of artistic ideas, showing how art relates to and intertwines with our daily lives. Art, personified here as an opera-singing Valkyrie, hang-glides down from the clouds to check on the state of the arts in Australia - from painting, writing and music to dance, theatre, puppetry and sculpture. Featuring John Bell, Anna Volska, Reg Livermore, Rory O'Donohue, David Gulpilil and the work of Thomas Keneally and Patrick White among others, this is a phantasmagoria of filmic effects.

The Magic Arts

NR 1978
Waste Not, Want Not

In this Eric Porter animation of ‘the grasshopper and the ant’ fable, Willie Wombat lazes and plays all summer. He laughs at his animal mates devoting time to collecting and depositing food in their local bank. Winter arrives and Willie, starving and cold, tries to withdraw food from the bank. The teller can find no record of any deposits for Willie. Dejected, Willie looks on as the other animals eat heartily and stay warm in their cosy homes. Willie collapses from hunger in the snow, but his friends come to the rescue just in time. The following summer Willie, having learned his lesson, deposits food in the bank with dedication and enthusiasm.

Waste Not, Want Not

NR 1939
Home Movie – A Day in the Bush

A film of repeated movements toward the camera, away from the camera, and across the camera's field, punctuated by a 360-degree rotational movement of the camera itself. Aside from being a reference to the repetition characteristic of home movies, the film is an exploration of a specific space. By repeatedly traversing it, the two figures reinforce their sense of depth, beginning as distant blobs in the long shot and ending with the face of one of them filling the frame. Repetition has become an important strategy in many of our recent films, which often involve reshoots or reprints. (Arthur Cantrill & Corinne Cantrill)

Home Movie – A Day in the Bush

5.0 1969