Discover Movies

A look at society's response to ageing, particularly with regard to older women.

Two sociopaths who go on a killing spree, are interrupted when a man accidentally runs over one of the psycho's legs, leaving him badly injured.

The live Channel 9 television broadcast of Elton John's March 24th 1984 concert at the Sydney Entertainment Centre, celebrating his 37th birthday which would take place a day later. Live interviews with Molly Meldrum and Dee Murray before & after the concert took place on 'Hey, Hey, It's Saturday', which was interrupted for the concert special.

A guy and a girl, a secret and a world...

After the start of WW2, a mother takes her children from Sydney to the countryside.

Park ranger Steve Mitchell is torn between Lee, a beautiful sly political aide from Melbourne who supports the government's decision to turn the local grazing areas into a national park, and his old flame Joanna, a rancher who opposes it.

Although about top Aboriginal sportsmen, BLACK MAGIC is more than a film about sport. It is an account of the creative use of sport made by the Noongar people of Western Australia's south-west to advance their people's standing. Denied access to other areas of social life like most Aboriginal communities at the time, the Noongars, from as early as 1920, channelled the natural talent of their young people into the arena of competitive sport, notably running, boxing and football. Competitive sport, as filmmaker Paul Roberts notes, is 'an open gate, a universal rite of passage, an opportunity to achieve recognition and acceptance.'

The Man in the Iron Mask finds France's King Louis the XIVth who has, unbeknownst to both himself and the kingdom, a twin brother Philip, hidden away. But when Philip realizes his royal heritage, trouble begins in the kingdom that pits the brothers against each other and throws all the kings advisors into sudden fits of confusion and treachery, raising questions about the throne. Will the brothers ever be able to reconcile now that they'v found each other, or will a battle for the throne ensue?

A documentary shot in India about the artist Nek Chand who built an extraordinary garden using rock and waste material

An in depth and wide-ranging survey of the culture, tradition, rites and practices of voodoo in Haiti. Modern choreography influenced by voodoo tradition is also shown. Various ceremonies are filmed along with an extended look at the Festival Of The Dead or Fete Ghede. Along with the spirit of Baron Samedi.

A young girl, living with her family in a lighthouse, is fascinated by her brother's aloofness and observes his relationship with an English sailor from a distance.

A look at the work of volunteer firemen fighting bushfires in the Blue Mountains at the height of the fire season in 1980.

The film starts with voice over by Julie (Jill Delaney) which sets the minimalist plot running as she rides on her Ducati 750 into Melbourne.

A touching story of a likable, but somewhat slow, teenage boy who believes he has bought a major Sydney racecourse for $20. Based on the classic Australian novel of the same name by Patricia Wrightson.

Teenager Ernie lives with his alcoholic father in the harsh and lawless opal fields of Coober Pedy in outback South Australia. When his cache of precious opals is stolen, Ernie and his best friend are determined to find the thief.

George Oppenheimer has two problems: an eccentric wife and an uncontrollable child. At work his team invented a computer with personality. George thinks the computer is faster, smarter and elegant. When his life falls apart, the computer offers suicide as the only alternative.

A personal film, a diary, an essay, of Bill Mousoulis in December 1989.

The fate of a young Australian boy is somehow linked with that of a young Roman boy who had traveled to Australia by ship during the time of the Roman Emperor, Nero.

Australian journalist Wilfred Burchett reported the Vietnam War from the perspective of the North Vietnamese. For this he was reviled as a traitor and a communist in the Australian media. He had been the first journalist into Hiroshima after the atom bomb, and he covered wars in Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia. Filmmaker David Bradbury interviews Burchett in his later years and intercuts the interview with archival footage and still photographs. Burchett is seen in newsreel coverage and in footage taken by the North Vietnamese. Archival footage of the Vietnam War and newsreel footage of Hiroshima after the atom bomb enrich the documentary.

Hand-drawn directly onto 16mm film, this animation is a 'diary' of daily drawing-on-film practice by Ivor Cantrill over a period of 18 months. Drawing style ranges from bold geometric patterns, to a delicate calligraphy.

Nick Meyers dances across the USA.

A spiritual journey, symbolized by the spiral, through images and sounds selected from the physical world over several years as the filmmaker moved between city and country and journeyed to the Center. Lee added some sounds and music to enhance the mood and sees the film as a mirror in which the image is distorted by his own consciousness.

Val Plumwood, environmental philosopher returns to Kakadu, where she was the victim of a crocodile attack. Against the backdrop of the steamy, intensely beautiful Kakadu National Park, she shares her thoughts on wilderness and wildlife.

The true story of a half million dollar gold robbery which took place in Perth Western Australia in 1982.

Karl is a cheerful and endearing 8-year-old, in spite of being terminally ill with a rare neuro-muscular disease. His single mother Judy tries to give him a normal life, and Karl befriends an elderly man called Jack.

Australian TV-Movie (Comedy), Also known as Pigs Will Fly

This short reveals a day in the life of four adolescents in Wollongong who are confronted with unemployment and an uncertain future.

An astronaut and his crew venture into a portal and encounter some strange occurrences.

Teenage Babylon presents the aftermath of three teenage suicides through the medium of what purports to be 1960s vintage black and white police file footage. The film's haunting images, evoking teenage love gone wrong, are counterpointed by a series of saccharine torch songs, celebrating falling in love and the end of a masquerade. Through a kind of bathetic synthesis, the dialectic of Eros and Thanatos, love and death, is consummated in the 'morgue' of the forensic archive.

After saving a drowning boy's life, a fifteen-year-old orphan is taken aboard by the family as a deckhand.

The Australian Hector's Bunyip concerns the misadventures of impoverished inventor Robert Coleby. As if his money problems weren't enough, Hector is being hectored by land developer Brian Moll and child-welfare officer Joan Sydney. The latter antagonist wants to claim Hector's foster child and place the kid in an orphanage. But salvation comes in the most unlikely fashion. First telecast in the US on PBS' Wonderworks series, the 60-minute Hector's Bunyip debuted January 31, 1987.

Hec, a sacked taxation clerk, seeks fame and fortune using the world of credit cards. Unfortunately for him, and the banks, he has no concept of credit card limit.

It's not until you actually sit down and relive those great ELECTRIFYING '80s year by year that the myriad of memories come flooding back. Trying to work out which was the greatest highlight of the decade is the hardest part, but they're all here. The great Grand Finals, the marks of the decade, the bone jarring stoushes and the Brownlow Medals - one by one, year by year, they're all here, making up the ELECTRIFYING '80s.

During a camping trip to Ayers Rock in outback Australia, she claims that she witnessed a dingo taking her baby daughter Azaria from the family tent. Azaria's body is never found. Police note some apparent inconsistencies in her story, and she is charged with murder. The case attracts a lot of attention, turning a simple investigation into a media circus with the public divided in their opinion.

An animated version of Dickens' novel

Based on the highly acclaimed play by Michael Gurr, 'A Pair of Claws', it revolves around a couple who have been married for more than 30 years. Although there is a great mutual warmth between them, they are both aware that a gulf exists between them. Their son, Simon, is involved in a scandal and to preserve his career Simon must publicly denounce his father.

A 16mm film dual projection film by → ↑ → assembled and edited from 16mm reels of advertisements produced for Australian television in the early 70s. A cassette audio narration accompanies the dual projection.

The 1981 murder trial of Alwyn Peter made Australian legal history when his defence lawyer successfully argued that charges of murder and manslaughter were inappropriate for dispossessed, semi-tribal Aborigines.

A man from an upper class family is manipulated into laundering drug money by his brother.

A black comedy about a family terrorised by their father who feeds his family tripe at every meal, every day. Eventually, the kids revolt, but it isn't long before the eldest son steps into his father's shoes.

This film examines the implications of the Australian colonial era for the Gogodala people of the Fly River Delta, Western Papua New Guinea. Excessive missionary zeal, tolerated and encouraged by the government, contributed to the almost total destruction of Gogodala art and culture. More recently, an indirect grant from the Australian government has enabled the people to reconstruct a traditional longhouse, along with a new meaning and function: as a cultural center.

In this magical film Dot joins up with Santa Claus in order to help her friend the mother kangaroo find her lost baby. The pair take off into the air in Santa’s sleigh led by two kangaroos and travel the world searching for the zoo where the lost kangaroo has been sent.

A documentary involving the work done by Arthur and Corinne Cantrill since 1975 in 3-colour separation. Also discussed are the classic theories and principles in 3-colour separation in film and photography.

Two men are on an elevator when fantasy intervenes. Going up? Going down?

Take a bird’s eye view of 1980s Tasmania, filmed from the window of a helicopter.

This true classic from 1980 features the incredible surfing performances of Australia's Simon Anderson, Chris Byrne, Terry Fitzgerald, Wayne Lynch, Mark Warren, Col Smith and Mark Richards. Plus heavyweight Hawaii talent Dane Kealoha, Bobby Owens, Larry Bertlemann, Mark Liddell, Mark Foo, Buzzy Kerbox, Rory Russell, Reno Abellira and South Africa's Shaun Tomson. Fantasea opens with a powerful animated sequence that dissolves into one of Greenough's tube shots filmed from a camera mounted on his back and sets the mood for a full-on surfing epic covering Australia, South Africa and Hawaii.

After a boy is knocked off his orange skateboard by a car, the skateboard continues on its way, developing a mind of its own and wreaking havoc on innocent citizens until it is stopped in its tracks by a clever little old lady with a walking stick. The eight minute saga features live action, animation, claymation, pixelation, stunts, models, puppets, special effects, superheroes, kids, animals, snails, - and no actual dialogue, just music, sound effects and "wordless dialogue" which consists of mumbled sounds to convey the appropriate emotion.

An experimental work about the Australian forests by Arthur and Corinne Cantrill.

A young homeless girl watches a wounded real estate agent after one of her fellow squatters accidentally injures him.

An independent feature-length documentary about women, food, fat, and dieting.

A high school student, heartbroken, considers suicide.

Jane Campions first short film (Sydney College of the Arts)

In Italy in the 1970s, L'altra domenica, a variety show hosted by Renzo Arbore, aired on national television every Sunday. Highly popular, its ground-breaking act was a trio of drag queens who called themselves Le Sorelle Bandiera (The Flag Sisters). They were a sensation - their signature song Fatti più in là became a national chart hit and the group a household name. This documentary tells the story of the act and its principal cast member, Tito LeDuc.

The story of the unlikely friendship between two teenage boys from vastly different cultural backgrounds. Sparrow is a working-class street kid and Sebastien a middle-class boy of privilege. One day, they meet at a video-game arcade. Together, they become friends and embark on a journey of self-discovery to locate Sparrow's long-lost mother, an immigrant Vietnamese woman.

Jackie is 38 years old. She lives with John and they have two small children. Once she wanted to be an opera singer. Once, she had a boyfriend called Paul who married someone else. Once she travelled overseas. In the sixties she was in love with Charlie. In the seventies she sang in a band. In the eighties she makes scones with the kids. In the process of (re)presenting an ordinary woman's life this film explores questions of identity, representation and truth.

For both Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal Australians, Captain James Cook is a figure of great historical significance.

It's a three-colour separation study of MacKenzie Falls in the Grampians, Victoria.

Early short film by Jane Campion.

The recollections of a shattered and traumatised man, a former escapee from the advancing Japanese army relates the horrors of war, his doubts and misgivings of the support of comrades, his fear for the loss of his best friend, and of course, his own fear of dying. "Journey to the End of Night" is the diary of a soldier. Although it was filmed forty years after the event, it is a timeless universal testimony because of its power and emotion. It is the voice of an individual raised against the violence, the horror and the futility of war. The film raises one question which continues to haunt us: a soldier is trained to kill, but not to commit murder. Who can draw the line?