Browse 34 movies from SBS Independent
After 16-year-old Alice Palmer drowns at a local dam, her family experiences a series of strange, inexplicable events centered in and around their home. Unsettled, the Palmers seek the help of a psychic and parapsychologist, who discovers that Alice led a secret, double life. At Lake Mungo, Alice's secret past emerges.
Jul 2009
Fat Pizza is yet another slice of life at a dodgy suburban Sydney take away. Bobo Gigliotti the psychotic pizzeria owner/pizza chef is awaiting the arrival of his mail-order refugee bride Lin Chow Bang, and a new pizza deliverer is on the block. Channel V's Jabba almost steals the show as token skip delivery boy Davo Dinkum, a stoner with a bong strapped to his face like a feedbag.
Apr 2003
Set in a world of iron dirigibles and steam powered computers, this gothic horror mystery tells the story of Jasper Morello, a disgraced aerial navigator who flees his plague-ridden home on a desperate voyage to redeem himself.
Jan 2005
The community reels after an incident on a suburban train. A young cop, beset with doubt and afflicted with tinnitus, is pitched into the chaos that follows this tragic event. He struggles to clear the noises in his head while all around him deal with the after burn of the crime.
May 2007
A glamorous Hong Kong performer struggles to make a home in suburban 1960s Australia.
Feb 2007
Somewhere in Australia in the early 20th century outback, an Aboriginal man is accused of murdering a white woman. Three white men are on a mission to capture him with the help of an experienced Indigenous man.
Aug 2002
Brett, out of prison on parole, returns to his family home to catch up with his mother and brothers. The day takes a bad turn when the brothers start drinking and doing drugs, embarking on a night that they will have difficulty living down.
May 1998
Australian small-town cop Gary enjoys his nearly pastoral existence, with traffic violations providing the major excitement to his normally low-key days. While away from work, Gary spends a good deal of time fantasizing about local news reporter Julia, who would just as soon relocate to the thriving metropolis of Sydney. Soon, however, a motorcyclist is found decapitated, with a construction worker, a sailor, and a cowboy and Indian also meeting the same fate. With some murderous weirdo with some sort of Village People fixation terrorizing the town, Gary -- with the help of big-wig city detective and Don Johnson-wannabe Tony Charles -- begins to realize that a cop is the last remaining victim to be murdered in order for the killings to be complete. ...
Mar 2003
A story within a story within a story. In Australia's Northern Territory, an Aboriginal narrator tells a story about his ancestors on a goose hunt. A youngster on the hunt is being tempted to adultery with his elder brother's wife, so an elder tells him a story from the mythical past about how evil can slip in and cause havoc unless prevented by virtue according to customary tribal law.
Jun 2006
In the early hours of March 24th 2002, Wendy Chandler awoke to a stranger taking off his clothes. He held her down, raped her and fled. Despite her ordeal Wendy came to realise she was one of the lucky ones.
Jan 2007
City Loop tells the story of six young people who work in a pizzeria, as they struggle to comes to terms with boredom, fear of responsibility and pizzas to go
Jun 2000
16-year-old Gary Black is an average football player, budding wordsmith and reluctant hero. Gary helps his local Australian Rules football team win the local championship by accident, but celebrations turn to violence when Gary's Aboriginal best friend, Dumby Red is denied the "Best and Fairest" medal because of the racism of local officials.
A seven-year-old girl adopts a vow of silence in protest when her quarrelsome parents grow increasingly hostile to one another.
Mar 1996
An Australian Aboriginal DJ realizes that his job at the country radio station is about more than just playing music.
A century ago the Torres Strait Island were the subjects of the famous Cambridge Anthropological Expedition - the resulting depletion of their cultural artifacts left them with nothing but a history of remembered loss. The only people in the Pacific to make elaborate turtleshell masks have none left - they are all in foreign museums. In a quest to reclaim the past, Ephraim Bani, a wise and knowledgeable Torres Strait Islander, travels with his wife to the great museums of Europe where his heritage lies. The film, an SBS Independent production, shows that the thickest of masks cracks when a descendant of the original owners enters a museum.
Jun 1997
From 1957 to 1978, scientists secretly removed bone samples from over 21,000 dead Australians as they searched for evidence of the deadly poison, Strontium 90 - a by-product of nuclear testing. Silent Storm reveals the story behind this astonishing case of officially sanctioned "body-snatching". Set against a backdrop of the Cold War, the saga follows celebrated scientist, Hedley Marston, as he attempts to blow the whistle on radioactive contamination and challenge official claims that British atomic tests posed no threat to the Australian people. Marston's findings are not only disputed, he is targeted as "a scientist of counter-espionage interest". Now, questions are being raised about the health repercussions for generations of Australians.
Sep 2004
A white collector of Aboriginal art gets a shock when the Mimi sculpture she purchased comes to life.
Nov 2002
Two brothers and their journey into a long night of desperate living in Alice Springs.
Based on Richard Frankland's experiences as a Field Officer during the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody.
SHAMANS OF THE AMAZON is a personal account of filmmaker Dean Jefferys as he returns to the Amazon with his partner and one year old daughter. They journey deep into the Ecuadorian rainforest to learn about and experience the ancient ayahuasca healing ceremony. The film brings to the viewer an intimate and fascinating look at the shamans of the Amazon, and the life that is threatened by ecological destruction.
Jan 2001