Discoveries from Australia World Cinema

Kitten Smith is the biggest country singer you’ve never heard of. Living in his own imagination, he struggles to connect with others and the realities of his semi-vagrant lifestyle. But that hasn’t stopped him from pursuing his big dreams of becoming the next Hank Williams - performing to an audience of none in shopping malls, parking lots, and karaoke booths. That is, until his music finally lands with one other person, Rose, who sees and hears him for exactly who he is.

Young Sally Shambles is a naive young lady whose readiness for love leads her into a number of predicaments with men, all unsuccessful. She daydreams about her prospects and potential loves, but just can’t seem to get the method right.

GET THE GIRL is a 1985 romantic-comedy which follows Billy Bennett as he teams up with the love and wisdom genius Karli to win over the most popular girl in school, Tiffany.

The Wirth Brothers Circus, one of Australia’s largest and most successful, survived another 15 years after this film was made.

Isolated and maligned by her peers, a woodworker crafts a more assured self-image. Singular in focus and with a restrained, refined aesthetic, Craftsman is an engrossing exploration of cultural identity, agency and empowerment.

Confronted by retirement, a fourth generation fisherman grapples with the selling of the boat he built with his father.

Short film about downsizing where a man and a woman reorganise the structure of their office not realising the effects they create.

In 2010, BP was responsible for the world’s largest oil spill in the Gulf Of Mexico. Over several months, the rig spewed nearly 5 million barrels of oil into the ocean, killing millions of animals and destroying the surrounding environment. Less than a year later, the Australian Government signed papers allowing BP to come to Australia and drill in deeper and rougher seas. In 2016, The Great Australian Bight Alliance announced the launch of ‘Operation Jeedara’ – a campaign that would see the ‘Steve Irwin’ sail into the heart of the Great Australian Bight to document the beauty of the region in order to showcase what we would all stand to lose if we let BP drill there. This film is the story of the campaign.

After a passionate romance in Guadalajara, Mexico, Gabby, a passionate Australian photographer, invites Paco, a talented Mexican musician, to move into her London home, hoping to build their lives and careers together in a city of limitless opportunities. The demands of big-city life, past loves, and the challenges of immigration will test the strength of their relationship.

Public information film aimed to educate the Australian public about exercise in a fun and non-threatening manner.

A meditation on the relationship between time and fate, and what comes to make up a life, as told through a stray dog with a magnetism towards train travel.

After buying a car from the Japanese auctions, Marty & Moog arrive in Japan to pick it up... but it's not what they were expecting.

After his great-grandmother’s passing, Seth reconstructs her home inside Minecraft. Using Polycam scans, voice memos,and ambient fragments from family interviews, INDIGO becomes a portrait of loss, painted through nostalgic blocks. It's about memory, technology, and the ways we preserve what we love. The final chapter of the COLOUR SERIES.

A group of friends face psychological torment after one friend moves into the famous 88 Humberside Close. Strange encounters make them believe the haunting legend of the Goofy Gieber has returned.

When distance keeps her from her grandmother’s bedside, Lookpla — a young Thai mother — longs for a goodbye left unsaid. Through staged, improvised scenes shaped by the cast’s actual memories, this meditative hybrid short examines how we revisit and reinterpret our memories to move forward through loss.

In the 19th century, amongst a strange wilderness, smallpox mysteriously strikes a colonial family down. A woman must face a choice between accepting her narrow prospects set out by her father or following a dangerous path beyond the home.

An obsessed, washed-up Sydney filmmaker sets out to uncover what led to the cancellation of his viral high school web series, GunBlade Adventures.

Carol, carrying the weight of regret, arrives unannounced at Luke’s home, seeking reconciliation. However, the reunion takes an unexpected turn as Luke, now 18 years old, struggles to come to terms with his mother’s sudden reappearance.

When the difference between being early and on-time is a crime, a regular man must break into his neighbour’s house to make sure he is on time.

In a sunlit studio, a young woman is getting ready to have her portrait painted by a young man. The woman is curious to see how she is perceived. She spends her life carefully projecting an image of herself, but what testimony will a man's painting give?

A young person struggles to decipher what is and isn’t reality, causing strife in their friendships

Mary Chang, a 22-year-old slacker, accidently eats her housemate's weed cookie before a family Chinese New Year celebration.

"The Quatermass Experiment" was a 1967 Australian teleplay based on a novel by Nigel Kneale - "The Quatermass Experiment".

Reuben and Al, a middle-aged couple running an adult store, confront the state of their relationship in the midst of a flawed business deal. A short film about a gun, a grizzly bear, and a love that is taken for granted.

An experimental music film featuring Australian rock legends Magic Dirt.

An enigmatic vignette of displaced animals, menacing lights in the sky, and two young women stranded in a country house. Despite not sharing a common language, they form a unique unspoken intimacy.

An observational undercover documentary following 73-year-old human rights activist Peter Tatchell’s daring mission to protest at the 2018 FIFA World Cup to raise awareness of LGBTQ+ injustice in Russia and Chechnya.

In one day in Fatulai Dr Livermore travels to the remote village of Fatulai to conduct a general medical and TB clinic. Fatulai is inaccessible during the wet season. She treats an elderly man for severe burns, sees many children with malnutrition and starts a number of children and adults on tuberculosis treatment. After the clinic she visits the village school where the children hug their one precious but tattered exercise book. While showing us the daily medical work of a volunteer doctor in East Timor one day in Fatulai also provides insight into daily life for many East Timorese, especially their health and education.

After a rough breakup, a young man tries his hand at camping as an approach strategy to handle the consequential stress. Unbeknownst to him, something lurks in the shadows nearby. Mustering all his confidence and skills, he attempts to escape the impending imminente danger, and overcome the various demons both mental and physical that plague him.

An allegory on the emotional conflicts many youths face in growing up in a foreign society.

Barış and Güneş decide to go camping to escape their daily routine and to spend quality time together. Güneş offers to play a game that unexpectedly reveals Barış' true feelings about their relationship.

A suburban primary school in Melbourne has their equipment stolen. The school enlists the help of its students, namely, the 6PS detective agency, to track down the thief. The culprit? You’ll have to find out.

In a world where cloning exists, a young barista is rejected by a customer who caught his eyes. He can't have her, but maybe he could clone her?

Kisschasy: The Movie is Kisschasy's first ever official DVD release. Kisschasy: The Movie follows Aussie band Kisschasy as they hit the road for their largest and longest tour to date. This tour covered 37 shows in only six weeks. The movie documents the entire tour, from the first morning they wake up til the last person standing at the home-coming party.

Romeo and Benvolio (Morgan Shea and Chloe Dyer) arrive at a party hosted by a rival school. Romeo lays eyes upon Juliet, (Madelyne Bennett) the daughter of the principal, (Matthew Phelan). A forbidden love ensues.

LGBTIQ+ individuals from across Melbourne engage in intimate conversation and share their lockdown experiences – despite having never met before.

During the zombie apocalypse one man discovers an unusual ability that may come in handy.

Taking a journey into the harsh Australian outback, two gay men seek to repair their frayed relationship and confront the silence that has grown between them.

A closely observed portrait of a single man in his 40's who lives in St. Kilda. Although he has none of the trappings of conventional existence, Kelvin's obsessive interest in born again Christianity, physical culture and recent German/Jewish history has given him a way of making sense of the world and led him to a number of people, friends through whom we see something of his life and beliefs.

A short melodrama that explores the human psyche of a 16-year old male student, when he is raped by his 59-year old male teacher.

Drama descends upon two tennis-obsessed women as the tension moves from off the court and into the café.

A man yearns helplessly in his home attempting to deal with the small task of existing.

Famously known as the live music capital of the world, Melbourne has achieved iconic status. Countless local artists have launched their careers on the storied stages of the city’s inner north, even while gentrification threatens the scene’s viability and other issues, including sexism, continue to undercut it.

Blair encounters a rat at breakfast, so she enlists the help of her stingray friend, Sea Pancake, to get rid of the beast.

After a night at the bar, a guy invites a girl home to see his angelfish. Over the course of just a few minutes, a promising connection is cut off and a fish is no longer a fish. A taut exchange that examines acceptable behavior in dating and mating rituals.

New to town, Joanne finds herself at the local Women's Club Meeting, but soon realises the helpful tips these women are swapping are for far more than just arts and crafts.

This fascinating documentary explores the collaboration between Marion Mahony, the first registered woman architect in the world and the longest serving designer in Frank Lloyd Wright’s practice, and husband Walter Burley Griffin. Their struggle with unyielding bureaucracy, the philosophies that underscored their life and work, and their passionate commitment to an architecture that expressed a balance between society and the environment and an affinity between the human spirit and the natural world. The film weaves together their personal and professional lives, drawing on archival and contemporary footage of their work, an extensive collection of photographs, the couple’s own correspondance and writing, and interviews with prominent architects, social historians and the people who knew them.

When a scientist finds a cocoon a woman emerges from it. She is being chased by two faceless monsters who are collecting specimens for a museum.

Our Generation is a 2010 Australian documentary film about the struggle of Aboriginal Australians in the Northern Territory to retain their land, culture and freedom.

In a hungry world, remember who your friends are. Painstakingly crafted with elastic clay animation, this tale of survival tells the story of Snork, a lonely green thing, and his best friend, an excitable green plant. Featuring expressionistic lighting and shot in glorious grainy 35mm with in-camera effects. Any scratch, sparkle or dust is real! This golden oldie is a stop mo festival favorite.

Hercules, when returning to the city of Thebes, finds his home devastated and his family missing. After cursing the gods, they send him on the most impossible of journeys where he must battle mythical creatures and monsters of legends.

In the 1800s, brickmaking was one of the largest manufacturing industries in Australia. Hoffman's Brickworks in Brunswick, Victoria, was a leader of this industry, running for 133 years and fostering a strong union. Indeed Hoffman's was the birthplace of the Brickmaker's Union in Victoria. In this film, director Grant Hobson covers the final week of operation of this historic site, in December 1993. He interviews the union representatives and the close family of workers, some of whom he is able to reunite in May 2010 on the site. It is a nostalgic reflection on the heyday and demise of brickmaking in Victoria, as well as capturing the colourful personalities that illustrate the post-war migrant experience in relation to work and settling in Melbourne.

Nicknamed the "Iron Lady," Margaret Thatcher served as the prime minister of England from 1979 to 1990. The daughter of a local businessman, she was educated at the local grammar school. Her family operated a grocery store and they all lived in an apartment above the store. In her early years Thatcher was introduced to conservative politics by her father who was a member of the townʼs council.

A man eats cheap chicken and drinks a cheap drink in a cheap house. Then a strange couple appears before the terribly lonely man. They all join in spiritual aerobics. A kitschy portrayal of one man's extreme loneliness and desperation.

'Coral Sea Dreaming: Awaken' celebrates and pays tribute to the magical but fast disappearing world of coral reefs. It was filmed in High Definition on over 2,000 dives by Emmy Award winner cameraman and Producer David Hannan over the last 8 years on the world's most beautiful reefs and features Australia's Great Barrier Reef, Western Australia's Ningaloo Reef and Papua New Guinea.

A classic superhero story about love, redemption and Christ.

High-flying screamers, miracle goals and all in brawls... 'Ten Years of Slowdown' has goat all that and plenty more! Don't miss this line up of legends back at their brilliant best... ...there's Modra, the Jarman brothers and Port champions Primus and Wanganeen, along with crowd favourites, Wayne 'the Weed' Weiderman and Ryan 'Fitzy' Fitzgerald. See a virtual roll call of stars from the Crows back-to-back AFL Premierships and the Power heroes freash from their victory in 2004.