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Art & Artists (4/6)
Art and artists in Australia and internationally, including studies of the work of artists including Ainslie Roberts, John Perceval, Arthur Boyd, David Boyd, Yosl Bergner, Shen Jiawei, John Russell, and photographers Tracey Moffatt and Olive Cotton. Special emphasis on Indigenous art, its commercial exploitation, its history and the work of individual artists including Gordon Bennett, Albert Namatjira and Jimmy Pike.
MY REMBETIKA BLUES (Greek version)
2021 (Classification Exempt - Ronin Recommends: G) 83 min
Rembetika music or the Greek blues is a music born of exile and the streets. The film traces the roots of this music in the mass migration of people in the early twentieth century and in particular the journey of the filmmaker's own forebears from Smyrna in Turkey to Sydney, Australia. A universal story about love, life... more
![NED WETHERED [from HAND-DRAWN HISTORIES]](/images/small/8540.jpg)
NED WETHERED [from HAND-DRAWN HISTORIES]
1984 (Classification Exempt - Ronin Recommends: G) 11 min
The first of Lee Whitmore's personal animations, recording her memory of her childhood and a visitor who often called on her family. more
NICE COLOURED GIRLS
1987 (Classification Exempt - Ronin Recommends: M) 17 min
NOW DIGITALLY RE-MASTERED! This stylistically daring film audaciously explores the history of exploitation between white men and Aboriginal women, juxtaposing the 'first encounter' between colonisers and native women with the attempts of modern urban Aboriginal women to reverse their fortunes. more
NIGHT CRIES
1990 (G) 17 min
DIGITALLY REMASTERED! NIGHT CRIES – a story of a white woman and her adopted Aboriginal daughter, told with vibrantly coloured landscapes and a richly constructed soundscape. The film is in part a response by visual artist Tracey Moffatt to Charles Chauvel's celebrated feature film, JEDDA (1955). more
OCHRE AND INK
2011 (Classification Exempt - Ronin Recommends: G) 27 min
OCHRE AND INK tells the extraordinary story of artist Zhou Xiaoping and his inspiring 23 year collaboration with Indigenous artists in the Maningrida area in the heart of Arnhem Land, Northern Territory. A film by James Bradley, with co-producer Rachel Clements. more
![ON A FULL MOON [from HAND-DRAWN HISTORIES]](/images/small/8541.jpg)
ON A FULL MOON [from HAND-DRAWN HISTORIES]
1997 (Classification Exempt - Ronin Recommends: G) 17 min
Contemplative memories of childhood and family by animator Lee Whitmore, lovingly animated frame by frame by pencil and pastel on paper. more
PAINTING THE TOWN
1986 (G) 59 min
PAINTING THE TOWN is a film about art and artists, culture and politics. Through the story of Yosl Bergner, the film reveals a community of Australian painters who sought to create an art that would reflect the great social upheavals of the 1930s and 1940s. more
PATOU: in Black and White
2022 (M) 55 min
With a career that spans over four decades and across the globe, Jamaican singer Pat Powell ("Patou") is one of Australia's most accomplished yet hidden vocal talents. A award-winning film by Fiona Cochrane. more
PETYARRE and ATNANGKERE (Our Cave) (From the CAAMA Collection)
2016-7 (Classification Exempt - Ronin Recommends: G) 40 min
Two related short documentaries by Viviana Petyarre, featuring artist Gloria Petyarre and her family's search for a cave to which they are culturally connected. For millennia, the Atnangkere Cave has been a Dreaming centrepiece for the Alyawarre people of Atneltye (Boundary Bore), Utopia, north of Alice Springs in central... more
PHOTO WALLAHS
1991 (G) 60 min
Renowned ethnographic filmmakers David and Judith MacDougall explore the many meanings of photography in this profound and penetrating documentary. The film focuses on the photographers of Mussoorie, a hill station in the Himalayan foothills of northern India whose fame has attracted tourists since the 19th century. more
PICTURING HOME
2021 (Classification Exempt - Ronin Recommends: PG) 52 min
After twenty years of homelessness one woman finds empowerment by sharing her journey through the lens of a camera. A powerful film by Annette Cohen, exploring links between mental health concerns and homelessness. more
POLES APART: The Blue Poles Controversy
2001 (Classification Exempt - Ronin Recommends: G) 52 min
POLES APART places the acquisition by the Whitlam government of Jackson Pollock's 'Blue Poles' in all the turbulence of its social and political context. more
PORTRAITS OF US
2022 (PG) 82 min
An intimate portrait of the life and work of iconoclastic New Zealand artist Geoff Dixon. See GEOFF DIXON - PORTRAITS OF US: more
QUEST OF JIMMY PIKE, THE
1989 (G) 51 min
Jimmy Pike lives an extraordinary and idyllic life hunting and painting in a harsh and primitive environment in the Great Sandy Desert. He first learnt to paint whilst in prison serving a life sentence for murder. As a young boy, he had come out of the Great Sandy Desert and saw white men for the first time. Now he wants... more
RIDDLE OF THE BRADSHAWS, THE
2002 (Classification Exempt - Ronin Recommends: G) 53 min
This story of the Bradshaw rock paintings or Gwion Gwion as they are known to the Aboriginal traditional owners, unfolds in the vast and beautiful Kimberley region of Australia's far north west. more
![SAFE HOUSE, THE [from HAND-DRAWN HISTORIES]](/images/small/8542.jpg)
SAFE HOUSE, THE [from HAND-DRAWN HISTORIES]
2006 (Classification Exempt - Ronin Recommends: G) 26 min
Lee Whitmore's careful, loving recreation of a quiet suburban street in Sydney in the 1950s and the moment when larger issues intruded in the form of the Petrovs, ASIO and the newspapers. more
SEARCHING FOR INGMAR BERGMAN
2018 (M) 99 min
In this beautifully crafted and moving memoir, Margarethe von Trotta recalls the inspiration she found in the work of Ingmar Bergman: his films triggered her decision to become a director and guided many of her creative decisions over her long career. more
SERPENT AND THE CROSS, THE
1991 (G) 55 min
In several outback Australian communities Aboriginal artists are consciously seeking an expression that builds bridges between Aboriginal spirituality (the Dreaming) and the Christian religion of their invaders. A look at these artists' thinking and dreaming which provides a rich, privileged look at the artwork, beautifully... more
SEX, DRUGS AND STRING QUARTETS
2003 (M) 27 min
The Landau String Quartet comes together to rehearse. Each player has travelled a very different path to become a musician. In this dramatised documentary, the musicians reveal the story of that journey. more
SHADOW PANIC
1989/2020 (Classification Exempt - Ronin Recommends: PG) 25 min
The feminist classic from 1989, now restored from original 16mm film materials. An innovative film by Margot Nash (director of VACANT POSSESSION and THE SILENCES) based on "the idea of structuring a film via the female gaze". more
SIGNED, THEO SCHOON
2021 (Classification Exempt - Ronin Recommends: PG) 100 min
A superb portrait of the Dutch émigré artist, Theo Schoon (1915 – 1985), raised in the East, trained in the West, and replanted in the South. He rocked the New Zealand cultural world and built a strong liaison with Māori communities and the landscape. more
SKIN OF OTHERS, THE
2020 (Classification Exempt - Ronin Recommends: PG) 91 min
A story of modern Australia told through the extraordinary life of Aboriginal WW1 soldier Douglas Grant (c.1885-1951), an intellectual, a journalist, a soldier and a bagpipe player with a fine Scottish accent. Featuring the acclaimed Indigenous actor Balang Tom E. Lewis in his final performance (as Douglas Grant) and guest... more
SOHRAB AND RUSTUM
2018 (Classification Exempt - Ronin Recommends: G) 14 min
WINNER! BEST ANIMATION, SYDNEY FILM FESTIVAL! An animated film by Lee Whitmore about a charismatic teacher who stirs the imaginations of the teenage girls in her classroom. Inspired by the epic poem by Matthew Arnold. more
![SONS OF NAMATJIRA [from the AIATSIS Collection]](/images/small/9051.jpg)
SONS OF NAMATJIRA [from the AIATSIS Collection]
1975 (Classification Exempt - Ronin Recommends: G) 47 min
A group of celebrated Aboriginal artists and their relationship with the outside world. more
STILL POINT, THE - Photography of Robert McFarlane
2017 (PG) 27 min
The Still Point explores the life's work of one of Australia's most respected and pioneering documentary photographers: for five decades, Robert McFarlane has put a mirror up to the changing face of Australia. more
TENTMAKERS OF CAIRO, THE
2015 (Classification Exempt - Ronin Recommends: PG) 93 min
Spanning three turbulent years in Egyptian life, from the 2011 revolution to the 2014 election of Abdel Fatah Al Sisi, this intimate documentary observes these events through the eyes of artisan tentmakers in a back street in Cairo. more
THESE HEATHEN DREAMS: Journey of a Cultural Bolshevik - Christopher Barnett
2014 (Classification Exempt - Ronin Recommends: PG) 53 min
Once described by the press as "one of the most controversial figures on the Australian art scene", avant-garde poet and playwright Christopher Barnett achieved a level of notoriety in the Melbourne underground theatre scene during the 70s and 80s, before self-exiling to France. more
TRAVELS ON MY DONKEY
2024 (Classification Exempt - Ronin Recommends: G) 32 min
In this hand-drawn animated film by Lee Whitmore, the filmmaker travels back in time on her donkey to meet her great-great-uncle, John Reed Hill, in Egypt in 1837. She joins him on an expedition to explore the pyramids of Gizeh. For Lee the journey is the adventure of a lifetime. more
TUPAIA'S ENDEAVOUR
2020 (Classification Exempt - Ronin Recommends: PG) 119 min
A first contact story, told from a Pacific point of view. Tupaia was a Polynesian high-priest, star-navigator, and artist who joined Cook's Endeavour expedition in Tahiti in 1769 as a navigator, and had a profound impact on Cook's journey and survival. This film cements Tupaia's role as a central figure in Pacific history. more
TWELVE CANOES
2008 (PG) 66 min
In the wake of the international success of TEN CANOES, Rolf de Heer has collaborated again with the Ramingining community of north Arnhem Land in making this series of twelve short documentaries that together paint a visual and audio portrait of the people, history, culture and place of the Yolngu people. more
UP IN THE SKY
1999 (Classification Exempt - Ronin Recommends: G) 26 min
A funny, honest and revealing look into the life and work of photographic artist and filmmaker Tracey Moffatt, whose work's were exhibited at the prestigious gallery Dia Centre for the Arts in New York City. more
![WALKING DANCING BELONGING [from the CAAMA Collection]](/images/small/3326.jpg)
WALKING DANCING BELONGING [from the CAAMA Collection]
2007 (Classification Exempt - Ronin Recommends: G) 22 min
Three women from the Kununurra area of Western Australia share their art and their experience of being "in country". more
WANDERING SOULS
2019 (Classification Exempt - Ronin Recommends: PG) 75 min
Wandering Souls follows the mounting of a new stage production, Bangsokol: A Requiem for Cambodia, to honour the nearly 2 million Cambodians who died during the Khmer Rouge regime from 1975 to 1979. more
WHAT I WROTE - Andrew Bovell
2009 (Classification Exempt - Ronin Recommends: G) 111 min
Andrew Bovell talks about his use of language, story and form, his re-writing of the plays, the rehearsal process and his collaboration with other writers, actors and artists. more
WHAT I WROTE - David Williamson
2009 (Classification Exempt - Ronin Recommends: G) 119 min
David Williamson talks about a lifetime of writing, the changing nature of Australian theatre and the rehearsal process. more
WHAT I WROTE - Debra Oswald
2009 (Classification Exempt - Ronin Recommends: G) 115 min
Oswald talks about the stories behind the plays, her stagecraft and her passion for notebooks. more
WHAT I WROTE - Hannie Rayson
2007 (Classification Exempt - Ronin Recommends: G) 60 min
Hannie Rayson engages with the national conversation and rehearses the big debates of our time. She uses family as a platform to discuss these issues. Hotel Sorrento, Inheritance, Life After George and the provocative Two Brothers make up her most influential works. She talks freely about her influences, her working methods... more
WHAT I WROTE - Joanna Murray-Smith
2009 (Classification Exempt - Ronin Recommends: G) 125 min
Joanna Murray-Smith talks about writing first drafts, her childhood influences, her overseas productions and her working relationship with directors. more
WHAT I WROTE - Katherine Thomson
2007 (Classification Exempt - Ronin Recommends: G) 60 min
The dissident walks through Katherine Thomson's plays – the whistleblower, the unionist and the activist occupy her stage. We see them in Harbour, Mavis Goes to Timor, and Wonderlands. Katherine talks about her writing process, where he research has led her and where her ideas come from. She discusses her stagecraft... more
WHAT I WROTE - Louis Nowra
2007 (Classification Exempt - Ronin Recommends: G) 60 min
A prolific writer who has changed the way we view theatre. From his evocative The Golden Age through Cosi and Radiance to the Boyce Trilogy we have come to expect the Nowra stage to show us the unexpected. A master of adaptation Nowra talks frankly about his working methods, his fascination with the fall of empires and... more
WHAT I WROTE - Matt Cameron
2007 (Classification Exempt - Ronin Recommends: G) 60 min
An Australian playwright whose influences are suburbia, politics and rock music. His Ruby Moon delighted and shocked audiences. He holds a lens up to the ordinary and shows us how disturbing, how provocative it can be. Cameron talks about his themes of love, loss and the impossible and he shares his interest in comedy,... more
WHAT I WROTE - Staging a Play
2010 (PG) 30 min
Five awarding-winning playwrights talk about the staging of their plays - MATT CAMERON, LOUIS NOWRA, DEBRA OSWALD, HANNIE RAYSON and DAVID WILLIAMSON more
WHAT I WROTE - Writing a Play
2010 (Classification Exempt - Ronin Recommends: PG) 42 min
Five award-winning playwrights talk about their writing processes - ANDREW BOVELL, MATT CAMERON, JOANNA MURRAY-SMITH, HANNIE RAYSON and DAVID WILLIAMSON. more
WOLF IN AUSTRALIAN ART, THE
2015 (Classification Exempt - Ronin Recommends: G) 42 min
Danila Vassilieff was a pivotal figure in the emergence of Modernism in Australian art. He was also a Russian - a bold cossack from South Russia, and a defender of the czar. His fascinating life and profound humanity are the subject of this compelling and wide-ranging documentary. more