Film Australia

The adventures of Golden Retriever pup Napoleon and his friend, the parrot Birdo Lucci.

Made by the Department of Immigration to entice immigrants from Great Britain, this film shows an idyllic picture of life in the New South Wales regional town of Wagga Wagga in the mid 1960s.

Shot with a big cowboy nod to the Western genre, this road safety film shows the danger of speeding on an unknown country road at night.

For 24 years East Timor's freedom fighter and Nobel Peace Prize winner José Ramos Horta campaigned to secure independence for his country, a Portuguese colony invaded by Indonesia in 1975. The Diplomat takes up Ramos Horta's story in the final dramatic stages of his long journey - the fall of Indonesia's President Suharto, the referendum to determine East Timor's future, the overwhelming vote for independence, the devastating carnage that ensued, the intervention of United Nations peacekeepers, and Ramos Horta's final triumphant return to his homeland.

Using the 'real life' documentary style, this drama observes two years in the life of the Byrne family as they become involved in the complicated legal path that leads to a fully defended custody hearing in the Family Court. The Byrne family are played by actors, with real-life lawyers and members of the judiciary in the legal roles.

Made by the Department of Immigration to entice immigrants from Great Britain, this film shows an idyllic picture of life in the Western Australian regional town of Geraldton in the mid 1960s.

How Wonderful is a hilarious and really honest look at pregnancy, featuring a cast of well known Australian actors and actresses.

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.

Anne Boyd, one of Australia's leading contemporary composers, teaches music at the publicly funded University of Sydney. This documentary chronicles a year in the life of an academic department that's under the financial gun.

St. Vincent's Hospital, Melbourne, faces the challenge of treating patients with limited finance. Administrators, doctors and nurses plan how to cut costs by reducing the number of operations, closing wards and justifying every expenditure.

A fire breaks out in a multi-story hospital in the middle of the night and a male nurse and a nursing sister save many lives during a fire in a major hospital.

Aussie boys of Asian descent candidly discuss their status as a "minority within a minority".

A disturbing drama about a young mother who physically abuses her baby. Feeling overwhelmed and aware that she's not coping after the birth of her third child, she sends desperate cries for help. But her mother, husband, neighbour and clinic sister do not recognise the seriousness of the situation until the baby ends up in hospital with a fractured skull. A heart-wrenching film that illustrates the experiences of many women who suffer from post-natal depression.

The story of what happens to the environment when a foreign plant upsets the equilibrium of the native landscape. This drama animation uses a unique relief collage art form to illustrate the impact that introduced plants have on native flora and fauna. The textures and colours of the collage magnificently recreate the Australian landscape.

Far right and anti-immigration politics have been on the rise worldwide. In Australia, as in many other western countries, as Ordinary People was filming, a new political force began drawing on the discontent of those who felt excluded from the promised benefits of globalisation. This revealing documentary follows One Nation candidate Colene Hughes over two years and two elections as her idealistic fervour slowly turns to disillusionment. Initially for Colene and her supporters, One Nation seems to offer true democracy and a way of knocking the country back into shape. But when Colene starts to question the control of party leaders, the gloves come off and, at the party’s annual general meeting, the two forces collide.

In the early 1970s, a theatre collective - the Australian Performing Group - based itself in a building called the Pram Factory, now synonymous with the people and events that laid the groundwork for a renaissance in Australian culture. The Pram was a ‘scene’, a 24-hour happening, a radical alternative to the mainstream. Those who lived and worked at the Pram expected the world to come to them - and for a while it did. (The building was eventually demolished to make way for a supermarket.)

A housewife feels neglected by her family and walks out to start out a new life for herself.

Cunnamulla, 800 kilometres west of Brisbane, is the end of the railway line. In the months leading up to a scorching Christmas in the bush, there's a lot more going on than the annual lizard race. Here, Aboriginal and white Australians live together but apart. Creativity struggles against indifference, eccentricity against conformity.

This animated short film traces the adventures of a young Muttaburrasaurus who gets separated from his family. He wanders through wooded and coastal areas encountering other prehistoric animals and reptiles as he tries to find his way home.

After the atomic obliteration of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, over 36,000 Australian men and women, part of the British Commonwealth Occupation Force (BCOF), marched onto Japanese soil. They were assigned the toughest and most dangerous area of Japan: Hiroshima Prefecture, which included the atom-bombed city. The Forgotten Force tells for the first time the story of Australia's role in Japan. Rare archival and private footage, photographs and eyewitness accounts from both sides vividly recreate the atmosphere of post-war Japan - the horror of Hiroshima and its aftermath; the struggle to build a new "democratic" society while under the heel of military rule; the growth from suspicion and fear to friendship and trust between foes.