Discoveries from Australia World Cinema

A tape is found after the disappearance of a teenager in a small Australian town. On the tape is his descent into a shifting inescapable labyrinth disguised as a children's tv show....

Hundreds of millions of years pass by in less than half an hour in this fascinating journey through Australia's natural history, from the creation of the world to the extinction of humanity far in the future. Ancient fish, amphibians, reptiles, birds, mammals and marsupials are all brought back to life in brilliant 3-D animation.

After a swelling undercurrent of violence at a peaceful protest erupts into a bloodbath, an elusive cult leader's bodyguard must salvage the plan that he undermined or else lose the object of his obsession... her.

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.

Our hero begins her journey through an unsettling and painterly world. She drives down a highway, arrives at an abandoned house, travels through a seemingly endless corridor of broken-hearted lovers, praises love out of a window, and finds furtive romance in a garden. Familiar domestic spaces are rendered uncanny as she muses on love and its power to intoxicate the world around us. This moody vision is torn apart and laid bare. A frenzied film set is deconstructed and our characters play and revel in the cynical absurdity of this mad human endeavour that simultaneously thrills and depresses us.

May and Beau head off on a slow, tooled-up, distracted lap of the block - which happens to be a perfect mile.

Presented by Vodka O, darling of aussie indie-pop Amy Shark performs stripped-back versions of acclaimed hits like 'Adore' as well as some brand new tracks from her album 'Monster Love'.

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

Along the roads of Australia travels a small film crew headed by filmmaker Phoebe Hart, who is determined to turn this on-the-road trip into a journey of self-discovery. Her hermaphroditism played a painful and significant role in her past: she has had to deal with it from her adolescence on, but now this conflict has happily been solved. Even her relationship with her parents was damaged by her condition: in her opinion they were to blame for having forced her to undergo a traumatic operation to remove her internal testicles. Along the road, she will connect with other intersex people, ready to open up to her about their common condition. Will Phoebe succeed in openly confronting her mother, who is reluctant to be interviewed, and to talk about an issue that is so important for her? Will she find the answers she is looking for? A journey of self-discovery that is difficult, but at the same time light, ironic and detached.

Exploring the lives of stray cats in Athens and beyond, ACROPOLIS CATS AND OTHER WONDROUS CREATURES examines the tenderness and tragedies in human-animal relationships. It reflects on love, cruelty, compassion, and what we can learn about freedom in a rapidly changing world.

This is the story of John Andrews, world-famous Australian architect. In the mid-1960s, when only 29, Andrews was commissioned to design Scarborough College at Toronto University. One of the world’s first ‘megastructures’, it was an important experiment in urban and educational planning. Andrews also designed the Canadian National Tower in Toronto, which was the tallest freestanding structure in the world at the time it was built.

Sam Taunton is the perfect comedian for couples, parents, groups of friends, friends of friends, enemies, dogs, cats and anyone else. Cancel everything and spend an hour with Australia's best stand-up comedian (self-appointed).

Actor and comedian Celeste Barber takes the stage in Sydney to get personal in public about marriage, mental health, celebrity-branded sex toys and more.

Skin Shade Night Day explores the daily routine and rituals practised by the artist’s Cambodian-Australian family, which are reperformed and documented through a process of embodied empathy. Acts of service, such as gardening and cooking, play out as echoes from the past across a sound and image installation displayed in a shadehouse. Spectres, shadows and aural textures conjure up impressions of a place that remembers how its inhabitants once lived.

Getting thrown onto 3000 thumbtacks, elbowed in the face, or being on the receiving end of a “stone cold stunner” are not the obvious career goals for a kid growing up in rural Australia; but when James Lanham first laid eyes on the sweat and glory of WWE’s WrestleMania as a teenager, his heart was set on dedicating himself to professional wrestling.

Santa is getting ready for Christmas, but where is his hat?

Australien Skies2: Contact Of Interest is the second film in the critically acclaimed "Australien Skies" UFO series from documentary filmmaker Don Meers. In “Contact Of Interest” we accompany Don as he returns to Kiama in New South Wales to visit UFO contactee Liam Freaney, who appeared in the first Australien Skies film. With a collection of UFO footage, black helicopters and claims of government conspiracy, Liam’s appearance in the first film caused a great deal of excitement and controversy. However, as Don discovers, not all is well with Liam. In the time that has passed, his experiences have taken a decidedly darker turn. Contact Of Interest asks the question “Is capturing a video of a UFO the end of peoples experiences or could it be only the beginning into the far broader landscapes of this phenomenon"

Transforming Australia’s biggest climate polluter is a story about hope. It's a story about collaboration. And it's about how Greenpeace, together with a diverse group of people and organisations, took on Australia's biggest climate polluter - and won. Come behind the scenes in a documentary by Greenpeace Australia Pacific, to witness the strategic multi-pronged tactics unleashed against AGL and its leadership team; challenging the company’s false clean and green image, turning away its customers, threatening its funding sources, and convincing its shareholders to take action.

On July 4th 1975, Juanita Nielsen - style icon, journalist and activist - went to what she thought was a business meeting at The Carousel Club, Kings Cross and vanished, never to be seen again. Juanita was an unforgettable Sydney character with her large beehive hairdo, long false eyelashes and fashionable clothes. Glamorous and well-connected, Juanita built a powerful alliance between construction workers and residents that stopped Sydney's developers in their tracks. With millions of dollars at stake, Juanita's disappearance remained unsolved. Filmmaker and artist Zanny Begg explores this mystery through the eyes of those living in Sydney today. Bringing together a cast of actors, performers, activists, stripers, sex workers and beekeepers, Juanita Nielsen NOW probes what it means to live in a city that killed one of its own.

The fragile relationship between a father and daughter is tested, when an unexpected call jeopardizes their time together.

When Taylor moves away from her family home her past grief begins to haunt her. Taylor must now confront this stifled pain in order to begin her life anew.

It’s therapy time for Mr Sloth, but progress is slow.

It's the Miss First Nations competition! Beyond the glitz, glue guns and glamour of black drag to reveal a fun, fabulous and sometimes fearful place. A sassy, intimate portrait of what it means to be an Indigenous Drag Queen today.

With an anarchic and life-affirming heart, this documentary feature celebrates self-expression, friendship, life and death, and the power of the imagination to ignite, enrage, heal and inspire. With exclusive, intimate access to Michael Leunig - one of Australia’s most renowned artists - we reveal the man behind the household name.

A beautiful young man has been summoned to an eerie meditation retreat by a dying theatre director. The young man has been given a tape of instructions; over a weekend he must perform scenes from the director's life. He visits different rooms encountering five actresses who all portray key women in the director's life. They rehearse the boy to play the lead role in an as yet 'unmade film'. The dying director watches young boy's progress as he searches to inhabit the director's identity. It's an Alice in Wonderland tale and an unpredictable journey of self discovery for all concerned...

Upcoming documentary on Amyl and the Sniffers’ frontwoman Amy Taylor.

A fraudulent martial arts instructor faces a mental breakdown, as his town and those he loves turn against him.

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

In a dystopian alternate reality, at the height of the Austro-Hungarian Empire's rule over Bosnia, David Strbac sues a Badger which occupies his corn field. Adapted from the short story by Petar Kocic.

A swimming instructor is taking a class when a young girl's scream echoes throughout the public pool. Parents rush to pull their children out of the pool, assure them everything’s okay, and then flock to hurl accusations at the most likely subject… the one remaining person in the pool.

This animated short film traces the adventures of a young Muttaburrasaurus who gets separated from his family. He wanders through wooded and coastal areas encountering other prehistoric animals and reptiles as he tries to find his way home.

‘7 Minutes Of Brain Activity After Death’ is a short film following a kaleidoscope of memory and emotion that unfolds in the brief window between life and death. Recounting the intimate, golden-lit relationship between Eva and Lilah, from their shared teenage discoveries of love. The film becomes a poetic collision of intimacy, fear, and inevitability. Blurring memory and reality, it offers a life revisited in its final seconds and the love left behind.

Come take a little looksie into my sick and twisted mind.

While on the run, a young woman finds herself stranded at a mysterious, isolated petrol station. Haunted by her memories and a sinister stranger, she must confront the dark truths she’s been running from before they consume her completely.

The Go-Betweens: Rock Arena 1987

'A colour sound film funded by the Koornong School in Warrandyte, Victoria. Produced to promote awareness of the school’s activities, in particular its cooperative approach to school management, the film illustrates the traditional left ideal of collective action and again deploys the rural ideal which provides a response to the problems depicted in A Place to Live and These are Our Children. Scenes include the collective building of the school, a meeting of the school’s ‘bully committee’ to discuss students’ problems, and various activities where the emphasis is on groups of people working together. The school is located in what was a rural landscape outside Melbourne and the film shows exercise, learning and craft work in this locale as particularly wholesome activities.' (Deane Williams)

Strathewen: a lush green paradise where families built their homes to raise their children, close to nature. But at 3am one summer morning residents are woken by the trees thrashing in the hot northerly wind. "It felt like we were in a tinderbox". The lucky ones drive out before the firestorm spreads across the darkened countryside and the trucks start to explode.

The material and mechanics which form the aftermath of the moments before and during the making of the film itself.

After unknowingly cheating death, a teenager meets the grim reaper, who gives him 52 hours to live.

A woman and her family find themselves trying to get a young refugee boy out of a harsh Australian detention centre.

When a child nearly drowns his friends decide to start a local lifesaving and surf rescue club.

The new film from leading youth ocean and climate champion Kal Glanznig (Rising Up) is an eye-opening investigation of the impact of plastic on our bodies and ecosystems.

During her first term back at high school, Eliza is on the delirious brink of her first kiss. But a brazen boy crushes her innocence.

Eight intrepid pilgrims trek through the Himalaya into occupied Tibet, hoping to circle Mount Kailash—Asia’s most sacred peak. As they contend with the stresses of officialdom, altitude and physical exertion, we receive rare glimpses of present-day Nepal and Tibet.

A coming of age tale. A young boy, on the outer of the outer, at the edge of the edge, in a nameless place, discovers the faster he goes, the closer he can get to outrunning his loneliness.

A being born in a void becomes obsessed with its own reflection.

Where is the respect? The sympathy? The love for your neighbour? Kids today harass, brawl, belt, smash and grab. It’s time for an old man to teach these yobbos a lesson. Welcome to Respect 101, the only academy where you learn or you die.

Work is becoming more service oriented and more and more services rely upon us doing harm to each other. In most people's lives, work operates as a degrading and debilitating force. It disables people's critical and perception capacities. Unless workers assume responsibility for evaluating the meaning and implications of the work they do, there will never be the capacity to redirect the modern work institutions from their courses of violence and exploitation. Built in seven parts which correspond to each day of the week, this film studies the relationship between work being done and the nature of the people that are doing it.

An improvised film; a man discovers he's emotionally stuck between his ex-girlfriend, his new girlfriend and his best friend; and in the course of a day he must follow his passion and become unstuck.

On June 3rd 1992, six months after Eddie "Koiki" Mabo's tragic death, the High Court upheld his claim that Murray Islanders held native title to land in the Torres Strait. The legal fiction that Australia was empty when first occupied by white people had been laid to rest. Mabo-Life of an Island Man tells the private and public stories of a man so passionate about family and home that he fought an entire nation and its legal system. Though his greatest victory was won only after his death, it has forever ensured his place - on Murray Island and in Australian history.

Profile on three young Adelaide women. Diana, Kerry and Josie are now 18 years old, and continue to have open and frank discussions about their lives.

Dave Hughes Live is a rare chance to glimpse Dave Hughes in his natural environment – on stage with a mic in his hand. In his comedy DVD debut Hughesy kills, slaughters and slays the 2000 seat Thebarton Theatre in Adelaide.

Conceived by and starring Shane Crawford, The House of Bulger chronicles the incident-packed life of former country football star Hank Bulger who now runs major fashion empire.

It is 1853 and in Eastern Australia two men have toiled, driven by the belief that once they strike gold their struggles will be behind them. However they're about to discover that sharing the rare metal will be the hardest test of all.

Work? is a documentary about Bec's first experience as a sex worker catering for women.

Filmmaker Sam Matthews sets out to meet other gender-diverse Australian artists, challenging each of them to create a new artwork based on the theme "Unboxed".

When Count Bloodspit and his family of ghouls return from the Vampire Mirror World to feast on young virgins, they find famed Vampire Hunter Dr. Ludvic hot on their trail. When Ludvic steals the family crest off of Bloodspit’s coffin, the villainous vampire finds himself trapped in our dimension. Now, the hunt is on as Dr. Ludvic chases BLOODSPIT around the world trying to bury a stake in his heart once and for all!

The Lady Gorillas are a down-and-out basketball team from the country town of Goondi. They are at the bottom of the regional basketball ladder and are scheduled to play the last match of the season against The Sharks, who are not only at the top of the ladder, but are also mean and dirty players. There are five main players for the Lady Gorillas, and they're a hopeless lot, covering the gamut of 'social problems'. The last match of the season is about to commence, and the Lady Gorilla's coach, Graham, has no reason to think that for once, just for once, the Lady Gorillas might win!

The Oldest Heart is a short documentary that follows the inspiring journey of Australia’s oldest female amateur boxer, Lyn Joy Mills, who at 71, embarks on an extraordinary journey toward her first official fight.