Discoveries from Australia World Cinema

Jacqui's sister Leia comes home for a week to help her decide whether to sell their late mother's house. Leia thinks Jacqui should learn to communicate with the dead.

Found footage of a short 1970's cult initiation video. It gives unsettling instructions for Connecting with The Box – an object the cult members use to channel the forces they worship.

A story of the unending love of parents for their children, the grief of separation, and the chance moments that shape our lives.

"The devil has no power over the will and very little over the mind, but an unlimited power over the imagination." Joris-Karl Huysmans, 1903.

Set in the 1970s, the story follows brother and sister Kuenphen and Jamyang where in a remote Bhutanese village, they learn traditional archery from their old warrior grandfather. Their mothers sudden sickness gives Kuenphen the opportunity to explore the world outside the village, while sister Jamyang must stay home to weave, cook and get married. Filmed entirely on location in the breathtaking Himalaya mountains, the actors are made up of local highland village people. The 'ordinary' current traditional medieval life in tiny isolated Bhutan is fascinating and anything but ordinary from a modern western point of view.

Australia's hottest children's band presents another full-length video that's bursting with great music, amusing antics, and a fanciful story. Two mischievous "Wiggly Gremlins" have singled out the Wiggles and their own "Network Wiggles" television studio for some serious mischief in Whoo Hoo! Wiggly Gremlins. When the big red car breaks down on the way to the studio, Jeff, Murray, Greg, and Anthony have to get out and push. Meanwhile, Captain Feathersword finds leading the preparations for broadcast at the television studio unduly difficult--and most perplexing. After a truly wacky day, the Gremlins are discovered and the Wiggles' world returns to "normal." Ten catchy songs like "Dressing Up" and "Lights, Camera, Action" punctuate the events of the day, and there are lots of fun antics, colorful sets, crazy costumes, and even a glimpse into some of the magical tricks of television. This presentation offers a nice blend of story and song and is sure to captivate children ages 1 to 7.

Static images of an old country house are combined with voices of the past to evocative effect. Haunting and nostalgic, ‘Return’ conveys the life that exists in old, abandoned places.

Produced as part of a campaign by Go Gentle Australia to pass right-to-die legislation, "Stop the Horror" is a dramatic re-enactment of the agonising final moments of 56-year-old Greg Sims' life, as witnessed by his family and doctors.

Leo is dead and Saverio hasn't spoken to him for ten years. When Saverio meets Anna, his dead brother's goddaughter, she leads him to what he most wants to avoid--Leo's memory, and his own dark desires.

When Emily's boyfriend abandons her in the night, her only way home is through an alleyway where she is terrorized by the mysterious entity Alfred J. Hemlock. After reaching the depths of her despair she finds the strength that she never suspected she had

Loud music, charismatic vocalists, broken guitars and drunk fans. The fervent and accepting Melbourne music scene in shown through local rock band Mindstain. Meet the magnetic members of the band. Encounter the sociable fans that thrive in the community. Feel the vigorous intensity that is the chaotic mosh pic. Hear the booming impassioned music and discover what makes this community so special.

An anxious woman desperately looking for work tries to survive a job interview.

The story of an Aboriginal stockman, Sunny Bancroft, and his family at Collum Collum and their growing enthusiasm for "picnic races" on bush tracks in New South Wales.

In a toxic future, the wealthy move into a luxury complex built over an old asylum—only to develop the same disorders its patients once suffered.

FILMMAKER Peter Dickson spent the past 10 months studying AFL club captains, coming away from the process with a changed view of aspects of leadership. Dickson’s 90-minute film, The Chosen Few 2, was woven together from more than 100 hours of interviews conducted in some 50 locations across the country with about 30 people, including the captains of 17 clubs, some of their partners and family members, leadership experts and several former skippers. Gold Coast captain Gary Ablett declined to be involved.

In 1965, a busload of boy scouts go for a camping trip, where they start telling campfire tales. One of the older scouts, in attempt to scare the youngers, tells the "true story" about The Berko Brothers , which according to the legend, used to be a pair of Italian brothers who crashed their plane near the area years ago.

Three people in love must justify their relationship and existence to the MPAA: Motion Picture Association Of America.

A seagull, a dog, a child, a call to prayer; Looking through a window, the corridor of a train, the wall of a medina; Everyday life is momentarily paused through the eyes of a stranger in an unknown land.

An in depth look into the everyday life of a vibrant barber shop in Melbourne, it also serves as a community safe space for men to open up about mental health.

Marco was accidentally born into an overcrowded Australian-Italian household. He is relegated to his parents’ bedroom, but has other dreams.

A brilliant and young flute player discovers a life filled with love, joy and independence when he overcomes his disability after suffering an industrial accident.

Greatest Hits Live is the second live album by Australian singer Tina Arena, this concert was recorded on 7 December 2004 at the Sydney State Theatre. during her 2004 Greatest Hits Australian tour and released in late 2005.

John Harland is a former boxer turned reverend posted to the town of Kangaroo. He falls in love with Muriel, an orphaned heiress, and discovers that her guardian Martin Giles is embezzling her inheritance. Harland earns the ire of parishioners by teaching young boys to box, and Giles manipulates local opinion to have the bishop remove him. Harland rescues a gentleman from a mugging in Sydney who suggests that he go to Kalmaroo where a criminal gang has driven the church out of the area. Harland preaches, and unexpectedly sees Muriel in the congregation; her property is near Kalmaroo. But her overseer is Red Jack Braggan who leads the gang which violently breaks up Harland's mission - much to the distress of Muriel who regards Harland as too timid - and is in cahoots with Giles.

In a small Japanese town, Ko-Ko is appointed to the unenviable position of executioner. Knowing he must successfully perform before the appearance of the Mikado in a month's time, Ko-Ko finds a suitable victim in Nanki-Poo, who is distraught over his unrequited love for the maiden Yum-Yum. Nanki-Poo agrees to sacrifice his life if he is allowed to spend his remaining days with Yum-Yum, who is betrothed to Ko-Ko. Opera Australia production filmed at The Arts Centre Melbourne.

The world sizzles with climate change. A politician lets it burn. A young couple finds out they are pregnant. What should they do if they find the politician alone and barely breathing? A darkly comic drama that asks what will you do when the world is on fire?

Seven housemates prepare separate meals as they wait for the rice to cook. When they discover that there isn't enough rice, a witch hunt for the culprit begins. For the crime of ruining their meal the punishment is death.

Evan despises the concept of human emotion and won’t stay in one spot for too long, avoiding people like the plague. That is until Tallen comes along. A battle of tug of war, love and dark secrets, as Tallen tried to crack the ‘Evan Code’ and find what exactly that is, that Evan has been running from! On a road to nowhere, it’s amazing how much you find.

Taking place over three separate periods of their lives, Henry and Norah share a connection but circumstances draw them apart.

After being left to sleep on the couch alone, an apathetic husband is visited by an eerie stranger with a tempting offer.

Australia's adopted son of comedy Arj Barker, returns to make fun of our obsession with technology, the trials of relationships and how our rage-filled culture is affecting our ability to connect.

A father's takes his estranged son on a fishing trip as a way of bonding, but when the car breaks down he realises it's not the only thing that needs fixing.

A competitive puzzle tester working in Japan discovers a code he is unable to decipher which may be the cause to a global economic disaster.

Permaculture teacher Geoff Lawton enters the intensive small space gardens in the city and looks at the way Permaculture can be used to create sustainable abundance.

This iconic and Academy Award-winning newsreel shot by Damien Parer contains some of the most recognised images of Australian troops in the Second World War.

A short horror film made from the killer's point of view.

Albie Thoms' Marinetti was the culmination of the synthetic environments that the UBU group had pioneered in Australia; festive public 'happenings' that combined the energy and volume of creative rock and jazz with the mesmeric effect of multi-dimensional lightshows. Another kind of culmination: Marinetti records most of the principal collaborators in the UBU film group, like Aggy Read and the Perrys. Uniquely valuable as a document of Australia's late 1960s counter-culture, the soundtrack provides the best indication of the unrestrained liberty that bands like Tully and the John Sangster Underground band some of whose members perform on this recording were famously achieving in their improvisations of the period.

Some secrets can't be buried.

Ghost Turd is a horror/comedy about a vengeful spirit that haunts an inner city dog park. The spirit preys on dog owners who don't pick up after their pets.

A trapped man is trying to live an everyday life inside his home in the middle of the woods. Until one of his dogs go further out into the property then they should.

George is obsessed with Ronald Reagan and models his entire life after him.

Early short film by Zlatko Kasumovic

In June 1893, European prospectors unlawfully took claim to ‘The Golden Mile’ on Aboriginal land. In little over a hundred years the natural landscape has been transformed into the industrial hellscape of Kalgoorlie-Boulder. As incumbent Mayor John Bowler starts to campaign for a second term, independent prospector John ‘General Hercules’ Katahanas decides to run against him on an anti-corruption ticket. What starts out as a quirky David-vs-Goliath political battle, unravels into a portrait of a man, a town and a country sent mad by the timeless cycles of exploitation, racism and greed.

In 1978, Tom Lewis appeared in the Australian feature film, The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith. The life of the character he played was hauntingly close to his own, a young, restless man of mixed heritage, struggling for a foothold on the edge of two cultures. Tom's mother is a traditional Indigenous woman of southern Arnhem Land, his father a Welsh stockman who he never really knew. Yellow Fella is a journey across the land and into Tom's past, as he attempts to find the resting place of his father and to finally confront the truth of his most inner feelings of love and identity.

When bright-eyed Beko and anxious Nork arrive in New York, wonder and worry collide. Through the lens of the city, their quirky journey reveals the comedy, ugliness, and contradictions of being human - even when you're not.

“There is a World in one of those far off stars and things do not happen there as they happen here”. A love story with a twist, set on a distant planet.

A broken air conditioner, a cancelled coworker, and a cheating husband. A hair braider struggles to maintain composure after finding out her client is having an affair with her husband.

When Violet, a recently heartbroken brothel worker returns to work post break-up only to find her ex-girlfriend hustling the same shift, she must make the choice between avoidance and vulnerability in order to make her month’s rent.

A story of a father and daughter in the father's last days in life.

Paul Craig is an aviator-inventor who becomes blind due to overwork. He stumbles into a room as a person is being killed by foreign agents - who decide to let Craig live because he cannot identify them. The murder is part of a plot to overthrow the monarchy of fictional Ruvania.

As musical theatre superstar Valerie Broom juggles her career, motherhood, and an ambitious understudy, the arrival of live-in nanny Grace disrupts their family dynamics, exposing a disturbing secret.

An obsessive young man cast in the role of a killer in an upcoming true crime production befriends a surviving family member of the real-life events.

With a career spanning well over a decade in the bloodiest, most violent subgenre of pro wrestling, David "Gweedo" Brown reflects on his time as a deathmatch wrestler.

There is no comedian quite like Zoë. Bossy Bottom is a joyously silly return to very serious stand up from the MICF Most Outstanding Show winner and Edinburgh Best Show nominee.

Speed - the obsession of the modern world - is determining what people should eat and how. Traditional foods are at risk of disappearing forever. An international eco-gastronomic movement known as Slow Food champions the protection of traditional culture, the environment and biodiversity while encouraging regional production, food education and pleasure. For these passionate and dedicated food lovers, sustainability, community and lifestyle are as important as seasonality, quality and taste.

In his inspired first film, Chasing Buddha, Amiel Courtin-Wilson (who happens to be Robina’s nephew) provides an intimate portrait of a unique individual whose own search for inner peace helps guide others to transcend their arduous circumstances. An Australian expatriate, ex-Catholic, and ex-leftist radical with a penchant for speeding, espresso coffee, and four letter profanities, Robin Courtin hardly seems a likely candidate for a Buddabist nun. And yet, since her conversion, Robina has traveled the globe, teaching her very unique brand of Buddhism to an international following of passionate devotees.

Lawrence and Jaime were best friends in high school, but attend university on opposite sides of the globe. After four years apart, they reunite for a hedonistic week in Manila, Jaime’s hometown, untouched by Duterte’s War on Drugs but unable to escape nostalgia and ennui. Shot in one of Asia’s fastest growing megacities, An Unscripted Earth is an award-winning film about memory, young adulthood, and the uncertain future of our globalised world.

An exploration of the Samoan fa'afafine, boys who are raised as girls, who fulfill a traditional role in Samoan culture. In the past they have shared women's traditional work but today are becoming more westernized and look more like drag queens. Several anthropologists comment on the phenomenon examining issues of culture and gender and the complexities of sexual identity.

Two blind neighbors discover each other through a shared musical interlude that shapes their path to happiness.