SBS Independent

A glamorous Hong Kong performer struggles to make a home in suburban 1960s Australia.

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.

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.

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.

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.

An Australian Aboriginal DJ realizes that his job at the country radio station is about more than just playing music.

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.

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.

Brett Sprague is a violent and psychopathic man, who is released on parole after serving a sentence for assault. As he returns to his family house and we watch him and his brothers, Stevie and Glenn, for the next 24 hours, it becomes clear this day will not end well.

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.

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.

A boy climbs an unsteady path to adulthood under difficult circumstances in this drama from Australia. Shaun (Kane McNay) is a teenager growing up in a run-down suburb of Melbourne. His father Sam (Brett Swain) is in prison, while his mother Jenny (Nell Feeney) is too lost in her problems with alcohol to provide much guidance for her children. Left to his own devices, Shaun commits petty theft, smokes pot, and deals drugs to his friends as they hang out at the nearby shopping mall. Shaun seems unable to reach out to anyone, not even his girlfriend (Lauren Hawker) or Darren (Brett Tucker), a social worker eager to help him. When his father is released from prison and brings his mistress to the "Welcome Home" party Jenny throws for him, Shaun comes to realize that if he is ever to resolve his problems, he will have to do it without the help of his family. Mallboy marked the feature film debut for writer/director Vincent Giarrusso.

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

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. ...

The stories in The Habits of New Norcia are told by former Western Australian Aboriginal child 'inmates' of the New Norcia Benedictine Mission who were separated from their families in the 1940s, 50s and 60s and confined in this "orphanage without orphans". In recent decades the New Norcia Monastery has been packaged as one of the State's leading cultural tourist attractions. "A unique blend of Spanish architecture, European art treasures and pioneer history," "Monks, Music & Mystery," "New Norcia, Australia's only monastic town," the brochures announce. Aboriginal testimony in the film challenges this revised and sanitised history. The documentary provides damming evidence of the continuing violence of the Mission against its victims by deliberate omission of their experience in the New Norcia museum, guided tours, art gallery and promotions — an omission that represents a cruel and wounding cover-up.

When eldest sister Cressy, middle daughter Mae and the young Nona are reunited for the first time in years it doesn’t take long for the sparks to fly. Painful memories and secrets are revealed and put into a life-changing perspective in one unforgettable night.

A white collector of Aboriginal art gets a shock when the Mimi sculpture she purchased comes to life.

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.

A young firebrand Aboriginal man is forced to confront his spirituality when he is beaten by the police.

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.