Discoveries from Australia World Cinema

A feature-length documentary that follows a community in Australia who came together to explore and demonstrate a simpler way to live in response to global crises.

This social impact film focusses on preparing children for an unknown future of global change and technology.

Trees from the backyard of NANO LAB, Melbourne, Australia.

A miserable man in a leotard gets oil removed from him by a lovely lady in the forest.

A young hedonist's pursuit for pleasure is rudely interrupted by a neighbour whipper-snipping his front lawn.

A documentary about the making of Gillian Armstrong's 1982 film STARSTRUCK.

A peculiar young man, seemingly without any awareness of social conventions, crashes a party. Is he looking for trouble, or just lonely?

The extraordinary story of the Melbourne community campaign that put a stop to the $18billion East Wast toll road link.

YORKY BILLY is set in Ngurgdu (Spring Peak) in the Northern Territory, an area irrevocably disturbed by uranium mining. There, 80-year-old William Alderson (known as "Yorky Billy") reflects on his life in the outback. Yorky's mother was an Aboriginal woman who died when he was three, and his father was an Englishman who spent 45 years in Australia and "tried everything" as a prospector, railwayman, drover and buffalo hunter, often with his young son working with him. After the WWII, Yorky married an Aboriginal woman and worked in various jobs. He and his wife had a large family, and in 1977, Yorky Billy recorded his story and died soon thereafter, and was buried near his father at Ngurgdu. Filmed simply with minimal editing, this is a poignant, elegiac reflection on a disappearing way of life, capturing Yorky's slow and quiet rhythm of speech, his wry humour, and with his weather-beaten face only just emerging from the deep shadows inside his corrugated iron shack.

Fentanyl trafficking. A highly lucrative sex industry. Foreign wars, armed rebel militia, late stage capitalism, Russian electioneering and sweet, sweet oil - everything we deserved from a live action Barbie film.

When a man faking a leg injury meets a woman pretending to be pregnant, they strike an unusual connection based on shared dysfunction and a reluctance to face their past.

A dyslexic girl seeks to win her distant father’s attention by taking on an ultra-marathon.

A deconstruction of Australia's most unorthodox drag-queen, Vanessa Wagner

John Stofel goes off to fight in the Civil War, in the place of a deacon who gives him the title deed of a farm. John returns from the war wounded and insane. Oil is discovered on the farm and the deacon tries to take the land back.

Ignition DVD is Australia's only dedicated automotive DVD featuring the cars and culture of the import modified scene. This dynamic multimedia production covers all spectrums from show cars and JDM street weapons, to hi-powered kW killers and drift demons. Edition 009 has a number of feature cars including Australia's Most Powerful GT-R, Audio Stacked Nissan Skyline GTT R34, and Beau Yates' Toyota Sprinter AE86 alongside a number of shows and events.

Dancer Jozsef Trefeli, named after his grandfather, whom he did not have the chance to meet, embarks on a deeply personal journey. His father, a Hungarian immigrant, fled to Australia in 1956 after the Hungarian Revolution. Attracted by the echoes of his heritage, Jozef strives to reconnect with the language and culture of his ancestors. Inspired by his father's voice and his cherished memories, he travels to the land of his ancestors, discovering a legacy intertwined with history and memory.

An argumentative couple spend a weekend away camping, only to be confronted by a crazed bush-dwelling madman who warns them of an ever-encroaching creature: the Wombo.

A film about a series of thoughts from a sad man.

A film about a man who has to make a life-altering decision, to kill a man or let him go. we watch the man dive into a state of anxiety and panic making his decision cause what he does will change his life forever.

American defence policy under Gerald Ford, successor to a disgraced president, is the subject of Mr Nixon’s Secret Legacy. John Pilger says that military thinkers in Washington are for the first time “thinking the unthinkable” and Strategic Arms Limitation Talks with the Soviet Union announced by Ford and Henry Kissinger are “no more than a sham”. Before resigning over Watergate, President Richard Nixon had given Pentagon generals a flexible strategy that would blur the distinction between conventional and nuclear warfare.

A daughter's search for justice for her mother following a traumatic sexual assault.

Artists like Robert Smithson, Donald Judd and Peter Hutchinson borrowed liberally from science fiction film and literature in their work. This collage treats the marvellous, seemingly indestructible, objects of mid-century science fiction cinema as artworks in their own right.

Fed up with having no money and jealous of those around him who flaunt it, Ibby takes the fast road to money by selling drugs. His best friend Stuzz and his mom try to dissuade him, until he's finally convinced he should get out - but will he get out in time....

In the middle of Australia’s divisive marriage equality vote, Melbourne hosted a gala event to honour and celebrate its LGBTIQ elders. These are their stories.

An astronaut ventures through space, when he meets another astronaut like him. She shows him a polaroid of Earth and they set off together. What happened to Earth, and will they ever complete their journey to find home?

Journalist Andrew Denton travels to the National Religious Broadcasters' Convention in the Bible Belt of the USA.

It's based on the events of 6 April 1966, where, in the Melbourne suburb of Westall, 200 students, staff and local residents watched as a strange object hovered overhead for several minutes, landed briefly, then lifted off and vanished. Witnesses described it as low flying, silver-grey and shiny, shaped like a ‘cup turned upside down on a saucer’ and accompanied by five light aircraft. A mass of excited students surged out of school and ran after the object. Many reported seeing a circle of flattened grass on the ground where it had landed. One said she touched it as it took off. Others observed men in uniforms cordoning off the ‘landing site’ and removing soil samples by the truckload. Some say they saw uniformed men torch the area a few hours later. The incident was reported on the news on television that night and in the local newspapers.

Alice gets lost in the woods and has a conversation with the Cheshire Cat.

A chance encounter outside a movie theatre forces two strangers to confront their romantic pasts.

Ajay and Romeo are out to party. But Ajay has a secret. Out, loud and proud Romeo thinks he knows his best friend inside and out. They're single, gay and ready to mingle. When Ajay's girlfriend Emma unexpectedly appears, the two friends must try to navigate the truth about Ajay's sexuality and figure out if their differences - and assumptions - are too big to carry.

The Roommate is a comedy drama film centered around two people live together in an apartment. This story follow Blaine who is a psychopath whose main goal is to get Donald his roommate to move out. We will see various attempts to disrupt and make Donald’s life a living hell. These attempts over time will become more and more elaborate and risker before culminating in failure as Blaine is evicted by his Landlord.

Just beyond the walls of the cottage in the forest, sinister forces are gathering and preparing to strike.

A country boy, Jim Conroy, is living a dissolute life in the city, running around with vamp Helen Ross. When his father cuts him off, he is dumped by Helen and returns to the bush.

White Rock brings together scientists, Traditional Owners, fishers and policymakers to expose one of the biggest environmental challenges facing our oceans: the explosion of long-spined sea urchins devastating Australia's kelp forests.

The story of the 83-year-old’s life, who arrived in Australia penniless in 1956 from Sicily and became a millionaire. Part biography, part cultural celebration, Madeleine Martiniello’s film traces Cozzo’s personal fortunes alongside those of the generations of migrants who have been drawn to his ornate, ostentatious wares, viewing ownership of them as a sign of success.

This assembly of home-movie footage, shot between 1961 and 1966, was made by artist and filmmaker Shead. Homegrown pop artist Martin Sharp and writer Richard Neville appear in a sequence covering the birth of Oz magazine. The film’s impressionistic fragments capture the mood of the youth counterculture in early 1960s Sydney.

Dwarfed by the dusty wheat fields of a remote farm, two mischievous boys barrel down the dirt driveway with a sticky accelerator, leaving a trail of destruction as they head towards the farmhouse where an unsuspecting Dad bakes a birthday cake. Furiously giving chase in a giant tractor is Mum.

A music video for the song ‘Illiterati’ by The Man Himself from the album ‘All Day Breakfast.’

The story of the Fall of the World's Most Liveable City, through the eyes of those who risked everything to save it.

Icarus has almost flown too close to the sun, will his dream change forever?

Two Homelands is both a commemoration of war and a celebration of community. 2024 marked 50 years since the Turkish invasion of Cyprus. Six elderly Australian Greek Cypriots – aged 70 to 102 – reflect on their war-torn island, life in Australia and their desire to see unification with their Turkish Cypriot compatriots. Filmed in Greek, the documentary offers a powerful perspective on migration, displacement, identity, resilience and cultural legacy.

Drag queen Bertha Woodhouse takes a hen's gig in the middle of nowhere. The moment she arrives, things feel off – the party has only four guests, and their behaviour is unsettling. During a game of 'affirmations,' she receives an anonymous note: “I don't know who these people are. HELP."

The scars etched upon the souls of those fighting for freedom of speech and belief transcend the boundaries of race and nationality. In different corners of the world, individuals are often confronted with agonizing choices. It’s akin to the dilemma faced by a soldier forced to decide between harming an innocent girl or sacrificing themselves in a distant northern land. Or, in the case of a young lesbian girl, the heart-wrenching decision of whether to intervene when her lover is arrested by oppressive regime security forces in a Middle Eastern country or save herself.

When Blake discovers that his bicycle has gone missing, he goes on a journey throughout his town to find it, leading him to discover what it means to finally grow up.

Wormog, a lonely trans-dimensional being, searches for a friend - and finds one. Shot on the iPhone 14.

A mad scientist, a techno-nerd and a deadly computer virus form an ultra vivid hyper-reali­ty in this computer generated comic strip.

A father stuck in the past. A son searching for an escape. And a family business caught right in the middle, inching ever closer towards oblivion.

When Torren Martyn and Aiyana Powell borrowed the 35ft sailing boat 'Calypte' and departed from the east coast of Thailand in early 2022, they had a combined sailing experience of only a few days. The one requirement of their charter was to eventually deliver the boat to Eastern Indonesia. They could learn as they went, get a few friends with sailing experience to help through the tricky bits and pick up as much as possible from them along the way. With this plan, the pair embarked onto the South China Sea, headed up through the Strait of Malacca and around the tip of Sumatra; out into the Indian Ocean on a year-long expedition in search of waves. What seemed like an idyllic journey didn’t come easy. It was difficult to anticipate the challenges of the sleepless nights, the endless rolling and tossing of the boat, the breakdowns, the relentless maintenance and confined space. But adventures always seem sweeter if it really feels like you had to work to get there.

The film examines the organisation of civil aviation in Australia, from passenger flights to freight and utility aircraft. It includes planning and control procedures before and during each flight, safety measures established by the Department of Civil Aviation, training of pilots and maintenance staff, and plans for future development.

Made from reimagined/recycled images and sounds from the filmmaker’s archive and other found materials, Undercurrents is a poetic essay documentary about the undercurrents of history playing out in the present. It is also (at its heart) about the power of resistance.

A picture of life in the South Australian capital of Adelaide in the mid 1960s, social, commercial and recreational.

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

A short experimental film about loving your labia directed by Morgana Muses.

In the wake of a significant traumatic event, an emotional rift develops between a father and son as both struggle to come to terms with their grief. At night, the boy is haunted by a mysterious entity who is determined for vengeance.

Trust. Deception. Loyalty. Who can you trust?