Discoveries from Australia World Cinema

A lively succession of breasts are animated to the Fugs’ title hit.

Filmmaker Trevor Graham is an Australian 'hummus tragic'. Every week in his Bondi Beach home he observes the hummus making ritual, mashing chickpeas, lemon juice, garlic and tahina. But when the Hummus War erupted in 2008, among the usual suspects, Israel, Lebanon and Palestine, Graham was hungry for more. But this war ha no soldiers, bullets or tanks. Just chickpeas and hummus. Make Hummus Not War is a humorous homage to the chickpea's most distinguished dish. But there's a personal story, how Graham became a hummus tragic, a father who served in Palestine during WW2 and two lovers in his life, one Syrian, one Jewish, with whom he shared a great culinary passion.

A short film musical about the choice between following you dreams, and making next week's rent.

An observational documentary which looks at Sydney’s first community Aboriginal radio station, 88.9 Radio Redfern. Set against a backdrop of contemporary Aboriginal music, 88.9 Radio Redfern offers a special and rare exploration of the people, attitudes and philosophies behind the lead up to a different type of celebration of Australia’s Bicentennial Year. Throughout 1988, 88.9 Radio Redfern became an important focal point for communication and solidarity within the Aboriginal community. The film reveals how urban blacks are adapting social structures such as the mass media to serve their needs.

A documentary on gay, lesbian, and transgender Muslims across the Muslim and Western worlds.

As the Supreme Court refuses to grant marriage equality, Queering India captures a pivotal moment in the world’s largest democracy. Through the eyes of journalist and actor Swapnesh Dubey, the film weaves a powerful narrative, combining his coming-out journey with voices from across India. This multilingual documentary doesn’t look outward for validation, it looks inward, reclaiming a forgotten truth: that queerness in Indian culture was once revered, not erased. It confronts colonial hangovers, societal silences, and the class and language divides that shape who gets to participate in the national conversation.

Shot around the 1968 Arts Vietnam protest—where artists gathered to oppose Australia’s role in the war—this experimental collage film splices festival footage with news imagery, photographs, commercials, and televised material to expose how Vietnam was “experienced” through media and to implicate the viewer in that mediation.

A documentary that delves in the motivations and trauma that drives Sydney's own Real Life Superhero, The Black Rat in his crusade against crime.

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.

Imperial Rome, between the first and second century AD. A young nobleman suddenly dies and before too long his mother follows him to the grave. Summer of 2000, a chance discovery of a tomb in the suburbs of Rome, presents the scientific establishment with an extraordinary opportunity and a unique set of clues. Inside the tomb are two marble coffins and in each coffin preserved bodies and some very special artifacts. This film is a scientific detective story to uncover just who these two people were, their status and lifestyle and, most importantly, why they were preserved at a time when most citizens were cremated.

The inspiring story of one of Australian sport’s greatest families - the Gaze’s. See how Lindsay and Andrew Gaze became two of the nation’s most beloved sports heroes.

After a rough night, Ed must come to terms with his way of life.

A recently unemployed con artist takes on a job as a carer for a blind woman, unaware of who she really is.

On a banana plantation in northern Australia a young deer hunter longs to be accepted by the workers around him.

'Authentic' is a portrait of a man desperately trying to find meaning - or, perhaps, escape - in the compulsive pursuit of climax. In his quest for satisfaction, he either does not see his real desires or ignores it deliberately; but it all changes when the 'Right One' steps in.

In 1979, acclaimed Iranian actor Manouchehr Farid fled his country, turning his back on the stage. Inside an Australian detention center, he finds new purpose.

Lured into a seemingly ordinary encounter during the height of the 1960s, an unwitting individual becomes a pawn in a secret government experiment involving psychedelics and mind control. Drawing from the real "Operation Midnight Climax", the story plunges into the dark reality of intelligence agencies betraying the citizens they claim to protect.

Smokedog goes about his day.

The Sailor washes up on the shore and is hit with violent and libellous accusations of gang affiliations. The Sailors drink hearty ales and enter a pop music competition. The Kid pines for suburb exploration.

A short look at “Craft”

On a full moon's night Charlie asks her best friend Max to protect her from a beastly transformation as she thinks she's a werewolf. What they'll both learn is their reality is far stranger and the truth comes out in the full moon's light.

Three Indonesian diaspora trying to venture their way through the city of Melbourne

John Pilger documentary from 1974.

A brilliant young psychiatrist builds a machine in the hope of reconnecting with his dead wife but before he can overcome his grief, the machine uncovers something he never expected.

Doesn't need a title. Doesn't need awards. Three-times Helpmann Award nominee. "Tom Gleeson really doesn’t need a good review." Herald Sun

A wonderful animated version of the First Christmas. Filled with prophets, wise men, warriors, kings and messengers.

In 1930s Australia, a young woman defies societal expectations and risks losing everything as she embarks on a forbidden love affair, challenging the boundaries of family, faith, and the pursuit of true happiness.

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

A shell-shocked man battles his war trauma and crumbling domestic issues.

A young couple get away to the country to decide whether to stay together or end their relationship.

A tentative teenager, entering her formative years is confronted with her own sense of mortality when faced with an otherworldly time warp.

Jack drives around his hometown of Mount Gambier, South Australia, looking for an excuse, however trivial, to snap, to vent and to rage.

Each screen shows exposure variations in a room with a seated figure, the sunlit bush seen through large windows, its tonality altering with the exposure changes. A stereo track of birdcalls and voices was added in 2010.

A glimpse into a future where “self-care” has become a mandatory, brainwashing ritual, guided by an unknown, controlling presence.

A gay man’s attraction leads to a tense confrontation. Homophobia and fear play out in post gay marriage Australia.

Reality and expectation collide as Mona delves into her past and prepares to meet her estranged Iranian father.

Butterfly Crush is a modern love story, starring award winning Australian actress Amelia Shankley, and set against the backdrop of the Sydney music industry. The song and dance duo, Butterfly Crush are about to break big, and are up for the Australasian Song Awards, but their chance at success is jeopardized when half of the duo; Eva, gets involved with a Kings Cross cult, the “Dreamguides”, deep into astrology and virtual dreaming. Moana must risk everything to save her, in this brand new contemporary feature about music and love.

Traces the life and artistic development of the Aboriginal painter, the late Albert Namatjira. His environment, his introduction to painting, his subsequent success with beautifully original landscapes and his influence on fellow Aborigines are recorded.

A Movie of 4 Friends who end up meesing up with illigal activities

Paul is having a great day. It’s a pity that the documentary crew following him doesn’t seem to see that…

A montage of a Nigerian athletics meeting cut to music by Okoli Obazo

“An ‘avant-garde’ film of the seventies. A man obssessed with Phantom comics fantasises himself as the contemporary Phantom. Shot on location in Sydney, various Sydney visual artists play characters in this short comic story intercut with images from Phantom comics. Gary Shead is a visual artist who utilised cartoon imagery in his work, hence the idea for this film.” (Screensound)

A Magician performs for her freaks in the circus when she looses control and finds something is living inside her. At an attempt to keep this creature away she comes face to face with her child only to end up in another womb.

A struggling art student's race to complete her self-portrait turns nightmarish when it begins to bleed-dragging her toward the edge of self-destruction.

Tyler is late for his mate’s party.. again. In an attempt to get there as soon as possible, he’s faced with small disasters and companions getting in his way. What should be a simple task becomes a crushing test of time.

TWO WOMEN records our passage through the tribal lands of the Central Australian region – a personal charting of this mythical landscape. The film is shaped by an unedited recording made of a Pitjantjatjara women’s song cycle: "Two Women", which describes the travels of ancestral women through this region. The film is not a literal interpretation of the song story, and there is no translation of the song. We are outsiders to this culture, and must therefore learn what we can from the ‚surface’ of the song cycle – from the voices singing, talking, whispering, coughing, laughing, reprimanding children.

After a night with the girl of his dreams, Michael has a story to tell. And a favor to ask.

A dark and creepy horror set in rural Victoria, Australia on the eve of Christmas in the small isolated town of Miranda Falls, a beautiful and suspicious quiet country town, but not for long! Joe Melton has just moved into town and soon discovers an evil presence lurking both in the dark forest and in his home. Being chased by demons and suspected of murder, Joe becomes a man on the run. The only other person to witness the devil's work first hand is a local girl by the name of Kylie Fitzgerald. She is unwillingly swept up in Joe's desperate plight and together they must try to survive the ensuing horror.

One day in the squat, Wolf finds an abandoned baby and she is faced with a decision that changes both their lives.

Encountering a frustrating creative block, a passionate artist begins to doubt her muse, once the cornerstone of her inspiration. As she delves deeper into her work and emotions, she realises that her muse may not be the ideal catalyst she imagined.

Aunty Donna Presents a Brand New Live Special, 'The Magical Dead Cat'.

A disillusioned young man unwittingly joins a self-help group for men, only to discover that the program, led by the infamous figure known only as ‘The Leader’, is simply an outrageously sexist cult.

Reflecting on her culpability, a woman recounts the traumatising assault she witnessed of a young man in a small Australian coastal town.

Is tomorrow beyond the void?

A man picks himself up off a barren landscape and begins to walk. An electronic soundtrack pulsates ominously. Unable to get a lift while hitchhiking, the man turns to the sky to bellow the eternal existential question, “What do you want me to do?” He answers himself by conducting 'Magic Ceremony 777' in front of a small and blackened winged-demon all the while invoking the second coming...

Hopelessly awkward Lucy falls for her school's most popular student and risks suspension to get her crush's attention.

TEXTBOOK: noun, a book used as a standard work for the study of a particular subject IDIOT: noun (informal), a stupid person This is Felicity Ward. Award winning stand up comedian and 1992 Walk-A-Thon Participant, Felicity Ward, shines a floodlight on the thoughts that should have stayed in her diary; about growing up in a small coastal town, having a Mother named Trevalyn and a pan toilet until she was 11; about BETA Videos, cat hatred, sweat moustaches and peri-peri chilli charts… but mostly, it’s a show about Felicity discovering she’s the last person to realise she’s a Textbook Idiot. As seen on The Ronnie Johns Half Hour, Thank God You're Here, Good News Week and Spicks and Specks.