Discoveries from Papua New Guinea World Cinema

Romila, Anand and guide Papa Buka journey through Papua New Guinea's remote villages, documenting WWII veterans' vivid memories of fighting against Japan, facing unexpected challenges along their quest.

A poignant exploration of one man’s journey to break the violent chains of intergenerational trauma.

Before the 1970s, the Commonwealth Film Unit represented the people of PNG in a paternalistic way, as curiosities. The unit used pompous voice-overs telling viewers what they should believe. Les McLaren and Annie Stiven are two of a group of Australian filmmakers who have lived and worked in PNG during the past 25 years and who see their roles rather differently. Through their films, they have endeavoured to reflect Papua New Guineans' complexity of thought, language and culture, using a wide variety of filmic styles and techniques. The film features interviews with a variety of Australian filmmakers who have worked extensively in PNG, including Bob Connolly and Robin Anderson, Chris Owen, Dennis O'Rourke and Gary Kildea. This documentary is a fascinating tracing of PNG culture and history from the 1930s until today.

In 1986, Melbourne musician David Bridie of the groups Not Drowning, Waving and My Friend the Chocolate Cake travelled to Papua New Guinea, where he heard the heartfelt sounds of George Telek and the Moab Stringband’s ‘Abebe’ (‘Butterfly Song’) on board a bus. It marked the beginning of a profound fascination with the nation and its rich culture – and of a bond with Telek that would last more than 30 years.

The Trobriand Islands lie off the eastern tip of Papua New Guinea. The island society has a complex balance of male authority and female wealth. Magic spells and sorcery pervade everyday life. This programme focuses on two important events: the distribution of women's wealth after a death and the "month of play", a time of celebration following the yam harvest.

A man encounters colorful characters while driving a taxi in Papua New Guinea.

A companion to Yumi yet, O’Rourke and Kildea’s Ileksen (derived from the English 'election’) documents Papua New Guinea’s first general election in 1977. The film records a broad cross-section of candidates who, without an extended media network at their disposal, rely on relentless campaigning, ingenuity and personal charisma to attract votes. Emphasising the divide between coastal people and highlanders, Ileksen looks at the election campaign, election day and the political manouvering that goes with the formation of a government.

Documents Independence Day of Papua New Guinea on September 16, 1975, comparing the pageantry of local celebrations with the official ceremony in the capital. Also provides historical background about the area's 19th-century colonization by Holland, Germany, and Great Britain.

A story that uncovers the insanity of the ten years of violence which followed, and the terrible lasting impact of war on women, children and communities long after the killing has ended.

When an enormous mine threatens the Sepik River, Papua New Guinean activist Manu Peni and his people launch an urgent mission to protect the waterway, by recognising the river’s own Right to Life.

In the Highlands of Papua New Guinea, tribal fighting is no longer practiced with bows, arrows, and wooden shields. Commissioned by the Jolika Collection of New Guinea Art, this film describes the loss of this cultural practice and follows a group of young men in the Waghi valley as they experience the art of shield making for the first time.

Yu Ken Mekim is a story that resonates with many Papua New Guinean women going into business. It is a glimpse into the motivations, heart-aches and sacrifices women experience when deciding to do business. Rit Karre sold food on the streets of Goroka and now successfully runs the Steakhaus Restaurant. The film explores Rita's and her husband Peter's journey of fulfulling their dream.

For the people of Mandak region, New Ireland,the most dramatic and complex ceremonial events are those surrounding death. The creation and presentation of the Malangan Labadama with its carved figures, masked dancers and feasting is the final tribute by three brothers to a deceased clansman and former leader.

During the Pacific war on the coast of Papua New Guinea, the Papuans want to claim the god Cargo's gifts by developing a new rite.

An anthropological documentary that gives voice to the Orokavia women in Papua New Guinea and shows their daily lives.

6-year-old Trish loves her daddy so much that she waits for him at the door every day to give him a cuddle as he returns from work. One day, the daily routine is broken, and one is left to bear it all. This film is a message about safety and family relationship.

A Lae is a little metal foundry whose owner has gone back to Australia and which the workers have taken over, with some help from the provincial government. An experience in cooperative-management that is new in Papua-New Guinea.

Land is our Mother, Land is our Lifeline, Land is out Future, No, no mining. In this film the people of Bougainville speak their mind about the mine they don't want, the mine they shut down in 1989 by cutting down the power pylons, which supplied the mine with electricity. A ten year war and military blockade followed, 20,000 Islanders, a fifth of the population died. Now they are fighting against the reopening of the infamous Gold and Copper mine Panguna. "Land is very important, it's the source of life, because if there's not enough land we wouldn't be surviving... we work on the land to feed the children. Land is passed from the mother to the daughters. Women are the land holders in Bougainville. So that's why we don't want anybody to take the land from us, like the BCL, the CRA."

Examines the destruction, waste, profiteering and corruption that is stripping Papua New Guinea of its forest resources. Interviews with villagers reveal how ordinary people have been taken in by the promises and propaganda of the logging companies.

A native Bougainvillian, Clive, wants to illustrate the beauty of his Island and the changes which have taken place, since the war and the closure of Rio Tinto's Panguna mine. He show the little businesses, the school, which teaches the children their Mothers tongue, new founded tourist resorts and much more. During the interviews, Clive depicts how the indigenous population are creative trying themselves in business, which used to be only run by foreigners before the crisis. Further, he convey how the Bougainvillians see their future in gardening and tourism, letting the mineral resources rest in the ground while taking good care of their land so it can be passed on to future generations.

My Name is Pengungsi (Refugee) follows the lives and families of two children, both named “refugee”, who were born and currently being raised in parts of West Papua distant from their families’ places of origin.

Voice of Change is set on Bougainville, an autonomous region of PNG coming out of a 10 year civil war. Humanitarian Sister Lorraine lived through the crisis emerging as a mediator to promote peace and reconciliation. Now she leads the Nazarene Centre, assisting individuals and families with their daily struggles, as Bougainville is not just re-building infrastructure, but its people.

In the Highlands of Papua New Guinea, a grassroots family makes a precarious living by trading in betelnut, one of the world's most widely used narcotics. This is the story of resilient people who have few material possessions but who face each day with dignity and quiet determination. As they go about their daily work, the film presents us with a vivid portrait of present-day life in Papua New Guinea.

Anthropological tourism in New Guinea. Ten days of immersion in Irian Jaya.

Kabelbel follows a group of villagers as they are taught the art of canoe making and seafaring by clan elders. Intergenerational differences and a sense of social change emerge along the way, along with a profound sense of cultural pride. Shot entirely on the remote island of Masahet in Papua New Guinea’s New Ireland Province, Kabelbel captures the daily rhythm of contemporary village life and reveals with great nuance the importance of custom and tradition in a changing world.

This film reveals the rich tribal heritage of women in New Guinea by examining ancient customs and beliefs. It also reveals a modern woman challenging tradition and the pulls of the past.

The aim of this film was to develop awareness of the dangers of infectious disease. Agriculture was beginning to rapidly intensify when overland refugees from West Papua posed a possible health problem, as they often brought their animals or crops with them. The hope was that people would be less confused by government quarantine initiatives and perhaps engage in their own monitoring.

For the Latmul of Papua-New-Guinea, the head is all the being substance. Therefore they conserve their cranes of their ancestors, which after being cleaned and modeled are painted like the dead.

The film follows the Jayapura-based Persipura Football Club which captures the imagination of many Papuans and the broader Indonesian football community. The club is now a symbol of resistance, dignity and self-esteem of Papuan people despite the racism and discrimination they face.

Decades of over-fishing by the global tuna industry have now pushed the final frontiers to the waters of Papua New Guinea. In the 1950s, the world was fishing out 400,000 tons of tuna each year. Today, this number is close to 4 million. And it comes at a high cost: a human one, now affecting the last places on earth to receive the full impact of globalisation. Set in "the land of the unexpected", in the north-eastern part of Papua New Guinea, this film follows the struggle of Indigenous tribes to protect their way of life, guarded by traditions dating back thousands of years. Many have lost hope, others are fighting for survival from their own corrupt government. They see their ancestral land taken away to make way for multinational corporations, in their quest to create the new tuna capital of the world. The question remains: is this type of development in the Pacific Bringing prosperity or poverty?

Soanin Kilangit is determined to unite the people and attract international tourism through the revival of culture on Baluan Island in the South Pacific. He organizes the largest cultural festival ever held on the island, but some traditional leaders argue that Baluan never had culture and that culture comes from the white man and is now destroying their old tradition. Others, however, take the festival as a welcome opportunity to revolt against '70 years of cultural oppression' by Christianity. A struggle to define the past, present and future of Baluan culture erupts to the sound of thundering log drum rhythms.

A study of life on remote Nukumanu Atoll, a Polynesian outlier of Papua New Guinea. Traditional culture has survived, but over-population and extensive emigration of workers to developing areas are bringing rapid change to the small community.

During his field work in the region of Omarakana, H.A.Powell filmed various sequences from which the film is assembled. In spite of the technical handicaps under which he was operating — shooting with a single, fixed-focus lens, 16mm camera without tripod — the film is nevertheless useful as a teaching aid. The commentary concentrates on the ethnography of Trobriand life.

In the Baruya tribe on the highlands of Papua, far from the sea, men make vegetable salt and pass on this knowledge from father to son. But this salt is not a food, it is their currency; a currency that attracted the lust of the first whites arrived in 1951...

I'm Moshanty. Do You Love Me? is a musical profile of the late South Pacific recording artist and transgender activist Moses "Moshanty" Tau and members of the LGBTQI community of Papua/New Guinea.

Filmed among the Bedamini people of the Great Papuan Plateau, this documentary focuses on Tidikawa, a spirit medium whose role is to communicate with ancestral spirits during trance. Set within longhouse communities that periodically relocate to clear new gardens, the film records subsistence activities such as hunting, gardening, sago gathering, and timber cutting, alongside moments of domestic life and loss. Ritual practices are documented in detail, including a séance involving Tidikawa’s spirit child and the Golyagi initiation ceremony marking the transition of seven boys into adulthood.

Exposing the so-called “Act of Free Choice” referendum in 1969 which saw the United Nations vote for West Papuan inclusion into the Republic of Indonesia. This was done with only 1026 Papuans included in the Indonesian military-controlled UN referendum which was fraught with threats and coercion.

For many people, the mention of Papua New Guinea will evoke images such as remote highlands cultures and tribal warriors; or perhaps tropical islands and palm fringed beaches, or it may bring to mind darker images of poverty, corruption and raskol violence. But in PNG's capital, Port Moresby, things are starting to look a little different. PNG is slowly joining the globalised world, and if you look closely at this society in transition you can see signs of a modest middle class on the rise, and a new generation coming of age. In Moresby you can find a small band of business people, professionals, managers, and creatives, all working hard to build a better life for themselves and their families. Moresby Modern, is the stories of 7 such people, as they work in the challenging environment of a developing country, learning to balance the traditional expectations of their culture with the demands of modern society.

In the tropical rainforest Papuans make a large traditional wooden state to commemorate their recently deceased relative Omomá. The filmmaker, who has known this man as a very good friend, follows this ritual up close. Simultaneoulsy, elsewhere he faces a harsh business reality in which he has to stand his own just by himself.

A new water pump has been proposed by a local firm. The film traces the parallel portraits of a technician-demonstrator of the new pump and that of a villager who owns two old models of water pump. Attached to his machines, he isn’t convinced that they need modernizing.

On the island of Bougainville in Papua New Guinea, victims and perpetrators are coming together in traditionally based reconciliation ceremonies after a decade long civil war left the community bitterly divided. In the largest reconciliation ceremony yet to take, BBA follows fighters who have killed each others families as they come together to break bows and arrows in a traditional gesture of peace. On a more personal journey Francis Boisivere retrieves the bones of a chief he killed, ceremonially returning them to the bereaved wife, Immaculate Atorevi . He seeks forgiveness , she a release from the hatred she harbours.

The film documents the last performance of the ritual for the fertility goddess Amb Kor, in the Western Highlands Province of Papua New Guinea. Shot over a period of approximately 15 years, the anthropologists and filmmakers have been participant-observers during a time of pivotal change for the clans of the Kavelka tribal group.