Discoveries from Australia World Cinema

A girl lets her best friend in on a secret.

A young Aboriginal man heads north in search of a girl, but discovers much more than he ever expected.

During an attempted rescue of their friends who have been taken into the forbidden, enchanted forest by a bad troll, the siblings, Hansel and Gretel, are assisted by friendly animals and a family of good trolls, only to be left on their own in the dark forest. They spy a gingerbread and candy house and are captured by the wicked witch.

Oklahoma to California: 2600 kms, 420 dollars, 30 days, 5 bikes, 3 cameras, 2 guitars and one of the most influential novels of the 20th century — The Bikes of Wrath is the story of adventure, human connection, and an in-depth look at today’s America through the lens of John Steinbeck’s seminal novel, ‘The Grapes of Wrath’.

"Innocent Killer" portrays a modern city hit with a string of inexplicable murders of seemingly random women. What happens when the murderer meets the last standing police officer on his trail will leave audiences in shock.

"Island Fuse consists entirely of the monochromatic reprocessing of black and white footage that we filmed in the 1960s on the Isle of Stradbroke. Using an analysis projector, Island Fuse is a film that focuses on the interaction of the elements that produced the film: the analysis projector, the camera and its various mechanisms; filters, the projector and its mechanisms; the ribbon and the photograms; the operators."

When Sardinian-Australian Lisa Camillo, an anthropologist and film director, returns to Sardinia, an island of Italy, after a 18 year absence in Australia, to her horror she finds her large chunks of her homeland decimated by mysterious bombs. On her journey she uncovers secret NATO bombing ranges that have been having devastating consequences on the local human and animal population, setting her on a journey to expose the truth, join the islanders’ fight to reclaim their land and livelihoods and, in doing so, learning about herself and her roots.

Winkler makes his transition from film to digital in this irreverent, amusing and absurd examination of icons from popular culture and the plastic baubles mass-produced in their image.

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

In Genesis 32 we read the story of Jacob wrestling with God through the night. On the other side of Jacob’s divine encounter was a new name, a new blessing, a new identity and a new way of walking (literally). Will we be a worshipping people who are not content to sleep through the night (spiritually speaking) and wake in the morning unchanged? Like Jacob, will we enter into the wrestle with God, dare to know Him more intimately and be changed in the process? This is the premise for Hillsong Worship’s 26th live praise and worship album.

Young Sergey is an openly gay activist in Belarus and has endured violence from police and skinheads. When his boyfriend is shot on the border he begins his fight for gay equality. Preparing for a defiant stand on the streets of the nation's capital Minsk, Sergey and a few brave activists brace to show their PRIDE against the last dictatorship in Europe.

2 police officers are hot on the trail of dangerous criminal 'Cotton'. A teenager was kidnapped a few days earlier and he is the main suspect. Can they find the teen before it too late?

Skate Bitches is a short DIY film inspired by the 1986 Danny Plotnick film Skate Witches.

Drawing on a life's work defined by controversial and ground-breaking ideas, the world's greatest architect has inaugurated his first Australian building - and debate still rages over whether it is eyesore or icon. Our film follows the drama as Gehry'Äôs vision for this commission is realized.

In a Dystopian future, a sick, dying man has a mysterious bee planted into his forehead, while he is sleeping, by a group of people in hazmat suits. When he wakes up, he hears mysterious voices, and nothing behaves as it should. As his body transforms it becomes clear that he is an unwilling participant in a bizarre ritual.

Romance is like a chainsaw: a very dangerous beast indeed.

Short documentary about—the now closed—Olympic Doughnuts in Footscray, Melbourne.

The father of two kidnapped girls pursues her killers.

The victims of a killer are distracted by a hideous face peering through the window.

Evelyn Everyone is stuck, single and lonely. On her thirty-third birthday she makes a final bid for love, in the online world of ‘Second Life.’ But as Eve immerses herself in this unreal cyber world, she begins to realize that her fantasy lover is not who she initially imagined. As Eve’s world is turned upside down, and inside out, she realizes that this is her opportunity to grab a second chance at not only love, but life.

Only metres above sea level, the nation of Kiribati is on the front line of climate change. Maria Tiimon, a Kiribati woman living in Sydney, is passionate about her homeland and, despite her shyness, is determined to raise the world's awareness of its predicament.

Featuring rare archive and powerful testimony from former Red Guards and Rebels, CHINA’S 3DREAMS takes us directly to the perspectives of China’s people, in stories that develop over eleven years. It explores, through their eyes, how China's policies affect the lives and the happiness of its people, especially the common dreams that drive their values and actions.

Living memories is a community documentary project: the result of a unique collaboration between a group of older women from Melbourne's Jewish community and twelve Media students from RMIT University. Over a six-month period in 2008 nine women told stories from their lives to the students, who in turn fashioned these tales into video documentary portraits. These are stories of survival of the Holocaust, of loss and strengh; of great love, marriages, friends and children, travels and adventures; memories fond, sad and funny. Living memories also bring to life the history of the National Council of Jewish Women in Australia (Victoria), in the video oral history'Something wrth doig'. Anecdotes weave together to paint a picture of a community.

An Australian sheep farmer looks to cover his wife's medical expenses by building a brothel.

Behind the scenes fly on the wall documentary following Coogan's tour of Australia and New Zealand.

Perth musician Robert Hunter was a pioneer of a musical genre, young father, digital communicator, ex drug and alcohol abuser, general hell-raiser and ultimately a terminal cancer patient. When Hunter's time on this earth was in danger of being cruelly cut short at 35, he co-opted the digital tools at his disposal and began to share his physical, emotional and musical journey in a very raw and honest way. For Hunter, the cancer became a lens through which life suddenly came sharply into focus

A documentary about the "Australian Taliban", David Hicks. The film follows the struggles of David's father, Terry Hicks, as he tries to free his son from the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay. Terry Hicks travels the world, locking himself in a cage on street corners in major cities as a demonstration of the harsh conditions his son is unjustly suffering under. At the same time, the movie traces David Hicks' path through Pakistan and Afghanistan, where he eventually joined the Taliban.

He's the self-proefssed love child of Paul Kelly and Ghandi and he's one of Australia's most loved stand-up comedians... In this very special 70 minute performance, he has the audience in stitches from the moment he walks out and says...how's it goin In order to experience the true essence of Carl Live, the camera does not move for the entire show capturing every movement, gag, grimace...etc

A short film by Elissa Black starring Martelle Hammer and Sarah Greenwood.

Images of gold in nature and art are repeated in a fugal structure from one screen to the next. The extra potential for image structuring provided by the multi-screen form interested us from the moment we saw a reconstruction of the final sequence of Abel Gance's Napoleon in London in 1968. (Arthur Cantrill & Corinne Cantrill).

A man jogs around an oval, a drinking bird swings back and forth. Two boys wrestle in a suburban living room. Peeling stickers, wood vinyl, beige carpet. An injured wrist is bandaged while a toy train loops in circles. A girl's name, Anna, is carved into a tree. The knife is flicked open and closed, catching a glint of light. A runner can’t arrive when he runs in a circle.

Chen is carrying a child and a lot of pressure. She is looking after a student who has had an unplanned pregnancy and an uncle with cerebral palsy who is at risk of being kicked out of a nursing home. Costs are mounting and time is short but she and her husband are getting by, just about. When she receives news that her baby has a 70% chance of being born disabled, it ignites a crisis in her marriage as Qing Chen and her husband argue over the fate of their unborn baby who is observing everything sympathetically.

Encounters on a deserted tropical island over the course of a day - visions of dreams, birth, death, and other galaxies and dimensions.

Documentary short on Kane Fetterplace and Red Tractor Foods

A man goes for his drivers licence.

A young woman promises to take her suicidal best friend to an alternative retreat but when their volatile mutual friend joins the trip, an unexpected detour to a local commune forces all three to confront some painful truths.

In a small Australian town where everyone knows everyone, Nick Jones has been hiding who he really is for the majority of his life. While playing footy for the town’s local team, Nick met Jack and the two began a secret relationship, although when Jack gets sick of hiding, Nick has to decide if he is willing to become the person everyone expects him to be – his happiness be damned – or if he’ll finally stand up for himself and admit to the world who he really is.

A man is visited by an unusual old friend after a difficult break up.

In his fourth book, and third documentary, Monte Dwyer explores the Grey Nomads - retirees travelling across the great Australian wilderness. Across his voyage, Monte cooks road kill, finds out who's pinching the toilet paper, and encounters sex, death, and even murder on the road. No story was shirked, and no topic was taboo in the timely expose on the grey nomads.

A struggling production company take on a deadly assignment.

Ever wanted to know what your high school teacher actually thought of you? Or whether she believed your excuses? Or what she wanted to say to the Year 8 boy who refused to leave the class? Well, you’re going to want to see this show. Before Bron Lewis was one of Australia’s most promising new comedians, she was a high school teacher for almost a decade. It was an era where she both nurtured young hearts and encouraged kids to be brilliant, but also made some lifelong enemies. You’ll hear more about them this show than the nerds. Bron became a teacher because she hates learning – she would rather saw off her own legs then learn a new card game, and in her opinion whoever coined the term ‘board game’ was bang on. Bron raises the question: what happens when someone tries to avoid learning at all costs? They teach. Sit down and get ready to learn.

Classic moments in Australian football. The goofs, the oddball and the downright zany. We've scoured the archives to find the funniest moments, the bloopers and the blunders that set AFL footy apart from the rest.

In a world where at 18, blood color defines societal value, three siblings await the day the Chromacy dictates their future. When Lucas's blood reveals a shocking truth, their fate takes a dark turn, forcing them into a fight for survival.

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.

A wandering cosmonaut interviews artworks in an abstract art gallery, talking about queerness, identity and the artistic process.

Between 1924 to 1970, Kinchela Boys Home in Kempsey, New South Wales, saw an estimated 400 to 600 Aboriginal children exposed to routine acts of cultural genocide and remains one of Australia’s most notorious institutions of the Stolen Generations. After being stolen from their families, country, and community, children were stripped of their names, given numbers, and subjected to ‘reprogramming’ and strict regimes of manual labour. We Were Just Little Boys is narrated by KBH survivors.

Reckoning with the inheritance of childhood trauma, a past in ruins, and the possibility of redemption.

Ernest is an ex bandit loner ridden with guilt in a lawless world. Haunted by the sins of his actions, he stumbles across Shane, a troubled orphan traumatised by the recent death of his parents. Together they form an unbreakable bond that is tested by suspicions and unspeakable actions of the past. As Ernest’s past catches up to him, shane and the ex bandit will come head to head with the past for a chance at redemption and a second life.

In the mid 1990's Mr. Ball managed a band called The Cracked Tiles. Thanks to his Certificate III in Business (Administration) and his superior intuitive powers, Mr. Ball acquired the rights to their album 'Hi-Vis Factory'. Due to various circumstances, which Mr. Ball would rather not comment on, the album was never released. As a last ditch attempt to make some money he is now releasing it after 25-30 years, no one seems to be sure on the maths for some reason. Probably because we don't know when it will actually come out.

Following the perspectives of older skateboarders as they navigate their sense of belonging and connection within the sport as their bodies and minds change.

Warlpiri painters of Central Australia and British artist Patrick Waterhouse collaborate to revise colonial Australian documents.

The journey of a dying mind.

An evil scientist, Parta Beno, who has been found guilty of imprisoning and reducing in size inhabitants of various planets. As punishment he is exiled to a remote asteroid, with the only amenities being a crude laboratory. All the specimens that Parta Beno collected were sent back to their home worlds by the World Council, except those few that the Council had no knowledge of, let alone any idea about the planets from whence they came. The hand-picked crew of 'The Interpretaris' were given the mission of returning these aliens to their home planets.

A girl suddenly wakes up on a late-night show with no idea what is going on.

The Aboriginal people of Stradbroke Island call the local dolphins by rhythmically hitting the water surface, so that the dolphins drive smaller fishes off into their fishing nets.

a man struggles to find a spoon

Life revolves around a young lad that finds interest in the art of Muaythai in the infamous training sessions of pk Saenchai Gym in Bangkok. From pre workout, shadowboxing, pad session, heavybag and sparring; time is limitless in this fast action, dramatic ordeal of workout.

Melody and her friend Ethan share a special bond. When tragedy strikes, Ethan's guilt compels him to seek absolution in a unique way. Melody is written, produced, directed, edited, scored, coloured and starring 12 year-old Harrison Thomas.

Our documentary film explores the incredible life of this globally significant and threatened species, as well as the efforts of those trying to understand and protect it.