The story of three brothers and their tribute to deceased clansman, Buk-Buk. Their preparations, and the performances of the 'malangan' is vividly portrayed in this superbly photographed film. For the people of the Mandak region of New Ireland, the most dramatic and complex ceremonial events…
This film is a fine example of the many films that Roger Sandall made for the Institute of Aboriginal Studies in which he recorded Aboriginal craft techniques and skills – in this case, the process by which two men, Djurkuwidi and Wangamaru, work together to make a bark canoe. Near the end of…
MAKE IT RIGHT! is a unique record of the landmark 1988 Barunga Festival of Aboriginal Sport and Culture at which Prime Minister Bob Hawke made commitments (unfulfilled) to negotiate a treaty with Aboriginal people. Barunga, in the Northern Territory, hosts an annual festival of Aboriginal sport and…
All over the world, new suburbs are being built on good agricultural soil. Global warming and suburban sprawl are causing water supply problems and a decline in soil nutrients. Feeding the world’s ever-expanding population is a growing global concern. Where is the land that once grew food? It’s…
Cinema Jenin follows an ambitious initiative to re-open a previously abandoned cinema in the West Bank city of Jenin. Founded in the 1960s, it was once the largest cinema in Palestine, today it stands as a hollow echo of its society. Re-building the cinema, Germans and Palestinians come together evoking…
Four years in the making, this animated film documents the Song-cycle of the Goolarabooloo people, along the path of the Lurujarri Heritage Trail which was established in 1987 by Goolarabooloo Elder Paddy Roe, and stretching from Broome up through the Dampier Peninsula. Embellished with live action…
Made at the request of the people of Mornington Island, this film was the first of five made by Curtis Levy for the Australian Institute of Aboriginal Studies (now AIATSIS). “Lurugu” is the name of an initiation ceremony that had almost died out on Mornington Island (in the Gulf of Carpentaria…
A film by Alec Morgan and Gerry Bostock. DIGITALLY RESTORED by the National Film and Sound Archive as part of the NFSA RESTORES program, in association with AIATSIS. In the mid-1930s, the Aboriginal people began to organise, and to fight the Aborigines Protection Board. Through old newsreels, archive…
Two seasoned Youtube vloggers bike 5000km through the weirdest and wildest back roads of southern China. Join Winston Sterzel, “The Original China Vlogger,” and his fellow Youtuber, C-Milk, on their epic southern China adventure. They tackle tough roads, witness breath-taking scenery,…
LINK-UP DIARY explores the consequences of the New South Wales government’s long-term practice of taking Aboriginal children away from their parents and raising them in “white” environments. The film takes the form of a personal journey by the filmmaker, David MacDougall, as he spends…
This superbly produced documentary, directed by Bob Weis and Catherine Reiser, celebrates the high end of Australian wine achievements through the story of the Paringa Estate Winery on the Mornington Peninsula in Victoria, a cool climate region, where according to some wine connoisseurs produces “some…
A reflection on place, history, memory and photography - the work of Australian photographer, Olive Cotton. In the 1930s and 1940s, Olive Cotton successfully ran a studio in Sydney with renowned Australian photographer Max Dupain. Her work was exhibited both in Australia and overseas. At the end of…
