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History - Australian (4/11)
Australian social, political and cultural history, including Indigenous history, stories of Australians involved in both World Wars and in other events in Asia and the Pacific region, personal domestic stories through to studies of Australian political leaders.
FOR LOVE OR MONEY: A History of Women and Work in Australia
1983 (G) 107 min
DIGITALLY RESTORED! An investigation and celebration of women's work from white settlement to the present, a story told by Aboriginal and migrant women, convict women and today's women. more
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FOUNDATION, The (NIDF series 5)
2002 (Classification Exempt - Ronin Recommends: G) 26 min
A documentary that intercuts interviews with historical footage to tell the history of The Foundation of Aboriginal Affairs, an organisation significant in the push for the 1967 referendum in which Aboriginal peoples were given the vote. more
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FREEDOM STORIES
2015 (PG) 99 min
Explores the achievements of former 'boat people' who arrived from the Middle-East around the watershed year of 2001. Locked in remote detention centres and then placed on temporary protection visas, their limbo lasted for years. Now Australian citizens, they are building secure lives and contributing to their new country. more
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FRIENDS AND ENEMIES
1988 (PG) 88 min
FRIENDS AND ENEMIES is a provocative film about one of the most vicious and protracted labour disputes in Australian history - one which saw the emergence of the New Right as a powerful force on the country's political landscape. more
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FRONTIER CONVERSATION, A
2006 (Classification Exempt - Ronin Recommends: G) 54 min
A fascinating journey through the Top End of Australia to explore what history means to the traditional landowners. more
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![FULL CIRCLE [from the AIATSIS Collection]](/images/small/8893.jpg)
FULL CIRCLE [from the AIATSIS Collection]
1987 (Classification Exempt - Ronin Recommends: G) 20 min
A story of Aboriginal stockmen at Robinson River Station on traditional Garawa land, in the Northern Territory. more
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GALLIPOLI
2005 (PG) 120 min
Through the use of surviving diaries and letters of the soldiers, GALLIPOLI shows the bravery and the suffering on both sides. An epic reconstruction of the battle that changed nations forever: a film of spectacular visual sweep and great emotional power. more
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GENOCIDE IN THE WILDFLOWER STATE
2024 (M) 58 min
An intensively researched documentary which describes a violent, state-run system of eugenics, racial absorption, and social assimilation in 20th century Western Australia. more
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GIORGIO MANGIAMELE COLLECTION, THE
(M) 282 min
Five provocative works from an Italian filmmaker in post-war Australia. This 2-DVD set includes a 28-page booklet, 70 minutes of interviews with film historians as well as the following five films: IL CONTRATTO, THE SPAG [unreleased], THE SPAG [released], NINETY NINE PER CENT and CLAY. more
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GOD'S GIRLS: Stories from an Australian Convent
1992 (PG) 49 min
GOD'S GIRLS describes life in a Sisters of Mercy convent in country New South Wales from the 1940s to the present day. This courageous and clever film investigates the subtle complexities of change within a society that has been surrounded by mystery for hundreds of years. more
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GOUGH WHITLAM: In His Own Words
2002 (Classification Exempt - Ronin Recommends: G) 84 min
Australia's reformist and controversial former Prime Minister, Gough Whitlam, shares his views on 50 years of public life, in an in-depth conversation with Senator John Faulkner. more
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GREAT STRIKE 1917, THE
2018 (Classification Exempt - Ronin Recommends: G) 69 min
To this day, the Great Strike of 1917 is still Australia's largest industrial upheaval. The story of the Strike has long been dormant in archives, and is now re-told with original film footage from the era. OFFICIAL SELECTION! Antenna Documentary Film Festival. FINALIST! ATOM AWARDS, Documentary (History). more
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GREEN TEA AND CHERRY RIPE
1989 (G) 56 min
NOW DIGITALLY REMASTERED. A fascinating portrait of Japanese women who came to Australia as war brides, and their survival in an alien land. more
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GURINDJI JOURNEY (book)
(G)
This compelling book by the young Japanese historian, Dr Minory Hokari, published in English posthumously, is a personal, philosophical, lyrical record of his journey into Indigenous Australian culture. Part memoir, part history, part theory, the book is the story of Hokari's discovery of Gurindji modes of history and historical... more
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HABITS OF NEW NORCIA, THE
2000 (Classification Exempt - Ronin Recommends: PG) 53 min
Re-release of a remarkable documentary from 2000: the story of the Benedictine Aboriginal Mission at New Norcia, in Western Australia. Now a popular tourist destination north of Perth, the Mission holds harsh memories for the former Aboriginal "inmates" who were placed there during the 1920s through to the 1960s. more
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HAND-DRAWN HISTORIES: The Films of Lee Whitmore
2011 (Classification Exempt - Ronin Recommends: G) 61 min
NED WETHERED (11 mins), ON A FULL MOON (17 mins), ADA (7 mins) and THE SAFE HOUSE (26 mins). EXTRA FEATURES: Interview (23 mins), The Making of ... (42 mins) Plus slideshow of storyboards. DVD also includes a 28-page DVD booklet - Hand-drawn Histories THE FILMS OF LEE WHITMORE: the animator talks about her... more
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HANDMAIDENS AND BATTLEAXES
1989 (PG) 55 min
This remarkable award-winning documentary by the late Rosalind Gillespie (filmmaker and Registered Nurse) traces the role of nurses from pre-industrial times to the modern era. more
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HANGING AUSTRALIA
2015 (Classification Exempt - Ronin Recommends: G) 49 min
A major exhibition at the Royal Academy of Arts in London, "Australia" was the largest collection of art ever to represent this country overseas. more
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HEPHZIBAH
1998 (Classification Exempt - Ronin Recommends: G) 75 min
A biography of the acclaimed concert pianist and human rights worker, Hephzibah Menuhin (1920–1981), using home movies, still photographs, extracts from Hephzibah's letters, film of concert performances and interviews with family and friends. more
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HERE'S MY HAND: A testimony to an Aboriginal Memorial
1988 (Classification Exempt - Ronin Recommends: G) 27 min
A film by Michael Edols. Available on DVD and Vimeo-on-Demand as part of the ASPECTS OF A LIFE collection. more
HERITAGE FIGHT
2013 (Classification Exempt - Ronin Recommends: PG) 104 min
Broome is a town in the Kimberley region, one of Australia's great wilderness areas. This is where the head of Western Australia, Colin Barnett, and Woodside, a multi billion-dollar company and Australia's largest liquid natural gas producers, decided to install the second largest liquified natural gas plant in the... more
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HILLMEN, THE - a Soccer Fable
1996 (Classification Exempt - Ronin Recommends: PG) 56 min
A story about cross-cultural relationships, the generation gap and what it's like to lose. ... A film by Steve Thomas. WINNER! BEST TV DOCUMENTARY in the AFI Awards,1996. more
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HIRED ASSASSINS
2003 (PG) 58 min
An incisive documentary about Australia's leading editorial cartoonists who grapple daily with the double-edged sword of humour and seriousness to reveal the heart of politics in Australia. more
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HISTORY BITES BACK
2021 (MA) 55 min
After the bold and brilliant Occupation: Native, Aboriginal filmmaker Trisha Morton-Thomas teams up again with Comedy Director-Writer, Craig Anderson to launch a rocket into 250 years of taboos, prejudice and ignorance. History Bites Back uses devastating satire to unpack the negative social bias of the history shared... more
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HOMELAND STORY
2019 (M) 84 min
An intimate portrait of Donydji, an Indigenous Homeland community in north-east Arnhem Land. The film charts their struggle from the 1960s to the present day to overcome the corrosive effects of government policy and pressure from mining interests, and to remain on their land. more
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HOMEMADE HISTORY
2003 (Classification Exempt - Ronin Recommends: PG) 65 min
Every day in the homes, backyards and workplaces of ordinary people, hundreds of personal stories unfold. In Homemade History, 13 of these stories have been captured by amateur cinematographers on 8mm and 16mm cameras. These slices of everyday life span the 1930s to the 1980s and are a fascinating glimpse into a private... more
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HOW THE WEST WAS LOST
1987 (G) 72 min
NOW RESTORED FROM ORIGINAL FILM NEGATIVES! The story of the 1946 Aboriginal Pastoral Workers' Strike that has never officially ended. An event more important than the Eureka Stockade but never recorded in written histories - the passive resistance by 800 Aboriginal station workers against the appalling living and working... more
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HYBRID LIFE - group 1 of 3
2000 (Classification Exempt - Ronin Recommends: PG) 104 min
A series of programs which examine the lives of the children and the grandchildren of Australian migrants. This group from the series consists of 4 episodes: ISLANDS | FROM HERE TO ITHACA | MISSING VIETNAM | COSENZA VECCHIA. more
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HYBRID LIFE - group 2 of 3
2001 (Classification Exempt - Ronin Recommends: PG) 104 min
A series of programs which examine the lives of the children and the grandchildren of Australian migrants. This group consists of 4 episodes from the series: ALWAYS A VISITOR | THE LAST PECHENIUK | WEE JIMMY | PARRA. more
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HYBRID LIFE - group 3 of 3
2001 (Classification Exempt - Ronin Recommends: PG) 104 min
A series of programs which examine the lives of the children and the grandchildren of Australian migrants. This group from the series consists of 4 episodes: THE BRIDES OF KHAN | DEAR BERT | DELIVERY DAY | SPARKY D COMES TO TOWN. more
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IMAGINARY BORDER
2017 (Classification Exempt - Ronin Recommends: PG) 105 min
A challenging and compassionate reflection on race relations in Australia and the Torres Strait Islands. A film by Iranian-born Austrian filmmaker, Alireza Ghanie. more
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![INTERVENTION 2 years on [from the CAAMA Collection]](/images/small/4894.jpg)
INTERVENTION 2 years on [from the CAAMA Collection]
2010 (Classification Exempt - Ronin Recommends: G) 22 min
An Aboriginal perspective on the effect of the Australian Government's Intervention in Aboriginal lives in the Northern Territory. more
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IN THEIR NAME
2022 (Classification Exempt - Ronin Recommends: PG) 27 min
Decades after Latvian Jewish women and children were humiliated and killed by Nazi troops and their Latvian collaborators in 1941, their descendants continue to be haunted by the massacre. A film by Peter Hegedus. more
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INTO THE SHADOWS
2009 (M) 90 min
Looking from afar, the Australian film industry appears glitzy and glamorous, robust and invincible. Into the Shadows challenges this notion and journeys beyond the glamour to meet the filmmakers, distributors and exhibitors who bring Australian films to the screen. more
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ISLAND OF LIES
1991 (G) 56 min
When Eliza Fraser was shipwrecked on Fraser Island in 1836, there were up to 3000 Aboriginal people living there — by 1905, there were perhaps a dozen left. Filmmaker Gillian Coote follows the route of early settlers north out of Sydney to Fraser Island to uncover the lies and secrets of Australia's settlement. more
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![IT'S A LONG ROAD BACK [from the AIATSIS Collection]](/images/small/7693.jpg)
IT'S A LONG ROAD BACK [from the AIATSIS Collection]
1981 (Classification Exempt - Ronin Recommends: G) 13 min
The story of one woman's struggle to regain her Aboriginality. more
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![JABIRU 0886: TRESPASS [from the CAAMA Collection]](/images/small/6588.jpg)
JABIRU 0886: TRESPASS [from the CAAMA Collection]
2002 (Classification Exempt - Ronin Recommends: PG) 26 min
The story of Yvonne Margarula and the resistance of the Mirarr people to the loss of their land and their heritage because of mining operations in the Kakadu area. more
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JAPARTA - a Journey to the Gurindji Way
2025 (G) 99 min
The story of a Japanese scholar, Minoru Hokari, who, before his death in 2004 at the age of 32, achieved work which today commands an ever-widening audience. It is a story of cross-cultural understanding, how Gurindji Elders in the Northern Territory tasked Minoru to relay stories from their culture to a wider world. A... more
JOHN FARROW: HOLLYWOOD'S MAN IN THE SHADOWS
2021 (PG) 96 min
This award-winning documentary is the first ever made about one of Hollywood's most prolific yet forgotten filmmakers, John Villiers Farrow (1904-1963). Part mystery, part biography, part film noir, the documentary follows the stranger-than-fiction story of this Australian-born, Oscar-winning filmmaker. more
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JUDITH ANDERSON - AUSTRALIAN STAR, FIRST LADY OF THE AMERICAN THEATRE
2019 (G)
A book by Desley Deacon. Paperback, 461 pages plus chronology, filmography, bibliography and index. Kerr Publishing, Melbourne, 2019. This well-researched biography tells the story of Judith Anderson's life and the full range of her work on stage and screen. more
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JUPURRURLA - MAN OF MEDIA (from the CAAMA Collection)
2019 (Classification Exempt - Ronin Recommends: G) 28 min
A portrait of Warlpiri Elder and Lawman, Francis Jupurrurla Kelly – a pioneer of Indigenous filmmaking in central Australia. more
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![KARLU KARLU: Devil's Marbles [from the CAAMA Collection]](/images/small/4895.jpg)
KARLU KARLU: Devil's Marbles [from the CAAMA Collection]
2009 (Classification Exempt - Ronin Recommends: G) 21 min
Stories of Karlu Karlu and its handback by the government to the traditional owners. more
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KEEN AS MUSTARD
1989 (Classification Exempt - Ronin Recommends: PG) 46 min
Re-release of an important documentary that explores little known experiments in chemical warfare conducted in Australia from 1942 to 1945. more
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KEEPER
2010 (Classification Exempt - Ronin Recommends: G) 26 min
Growing up in a small town divided by mining disputes isn't easy, but for Aboriginal teenager Jacinta Haseldine it's a stark contrast to her grandmother's life at the same age growing up on a mission. more
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![KEEPERS OF THE STORY - Jandamarra [from the CAAMA Collection]](/images/small/4590.jpg)
KEEPERS OF THE STORY - Jandamarra [from the CAAMA Collection]
2010 (Classification Exempt - Ronin Recommends: G) 24 min
The story of the Bunuba people's efforts to keep alive the story of Jandamarra and his war against white settlers in the 1880s in the Kimberleys, as a source of inspiration for Aboriginal people and all Australians. more
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KULKA: The Life and Times of Gordon Briscoe
2010 (Classification Exempt - Ronin Recommends: G) 52 min
The inspirational story of Dr. Gordon Briscoe's life - from his work with legendary eye doctor Fred Hollows, to his days as an activist travelling Australia and telling traditional land owners about their land rights, and everything in between. more
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LAKE OF SCARS, THE
2022 (Classification Exempt - Ronin Recommends: G) 95 min
A documentary exploring the beautiful, mysterious scarred trees, middens and stone scatters at Lake Boort and surrounds in Victoria, and the story of Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal people, who are working against the clock to preserve and promote what they can. A film presented by the late, great Uncle Jack Charles, more
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LALAI DREAMTIME
1972 (Classification Exempt - Ronin Recommends: G) 60 min
LALAI DREAMTIME takes the viewer into pre-colonial Australia to tell a story depicting the spiritual tradition of the people. A film by Michael Edols, from the story told by Sam Woolagoodja. more
LAND OF THE LITTLE KINGS
2000 (Classification Exempt - Ronin Recommends: G) 78 min
LAND OF THE LITTLE KINGS is a feature-length documentary which provides personal accounts of the forcible removal of Indigenous children from their families. Through these stories of survivors of the stolen generations, musician and performer Archie Roach reconstructs his own story. more
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LANGUAGE OF LIGHT, THE
2023 (M) 171 min
Intimate portraits of seven ground-breaking Australian photographers, each with a significant body of work and each with a different photographic style. more
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LAST OF THE NOMADS, THE
1997 (Classification Exempt - Ronin Recommends: G) 52 min
THE LAST OF THE NOMADS tells the moving story of Warri and Yatungka, the last of the Mandildjara people to be living a traditional nomadic lifestyle in the remote Gibson Desert of central Australia. more
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LAST STAND AT NYMBOIDA
2010 (Classification Exempt - Ronin Recommends: G) 56 min
The remarkable story of a worker rebellion that made international history. Bonus 35 minute extra feature includes interviews with ANDREW VICKERS, General Secretary, CFMEU Mining & Energy Chairman, Mineworkers Trust, and ALAN MURRAY, mining historian and author. more
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LAST TASMANIAN, THE
1978 (Classification Exempt - Ronin Recommends: PG) 105 min
The controversial 1978 documentary by Tom Haydon and archaeologist Rhys Jones. The story of the swiftest and most destructive genocide on record. more
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LAST VIOLIN, THE
2023 (PG) 75 min
Master violin maker, Charalambos Vatiliotis, known as Harry, is 85 and has retired. When Romano, a violinist and friend of 48 years, persuades him to make one final violin, a heart-warming story unfolds. more
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LEGEND OF FRED PATERSON, THE
1996 (Classification Exempt - Ronin Recommends: G) 58 min
The story of Fred Paterson, the only member of the Communist Party ever elected to an Australian Parliament. Idealist, divinity student, champion athlete, Rhodes scholar, war veteran and barrister, Paterson haunted the establishment until he was brought down by a police baton in 1948. more
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LIGHT YEARS
1991 (G) 47 min
NOW SUPERBLY RE-MASTERED FROM ORIGINAL FILM MATERIALS! A unique record of the life and work of eminent Australian photographer, Olive Cotton. more
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LOCKOUT
2007 (PG) 56 min
In 1929, 10,000 miners found themselves locked out of their Hunter Valley coal mines in a bitter industrial dispute over pay rates. What began as an undeclared war on industrial labour ended up overpowering a government, crippling an industry and besieging a community. more
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LOUSY LITTLE SIXPENCE
1983 (G) 54 min
DIGITALLY RESTORED! In NSW, in 1909, the Aborigines Protection Board planned to break up Aboriginal communities by forcibly removing their children and hiring them out as servants to white employers. The title of this powerful documentary comes from the wages that were to be paid to the children. Many never saw that lousy... more
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LURUJARRI DREAMING
2013 (Classification Exempt - Ronin Recommends: G) 28 min
An animated exploration of Goolarabooloo history and culture, focusing on a nine-day Lurujarri Heritage Trail walk led by Elders from the community, north from Broome along the Dampier Peninsula in north-western Australia. more
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MACDOUGALL TAPES, THE
2017 (Classification Exempt - Ronin Recommends: G) 261 min
Extended conversations with David and Judith MacDougall about their years with the Film Unit of the Australian Institute of Aboriginal Studies, Canberra, 1975-1987. During this time, the MacDougalls made a series of eleven documentary films that were acknowledged world-wide as landmark achievements in ethnographic cinema. more
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![MAKE IT RIGHT! [from the AIATSIS Collection]](/images/small/10115.jpg)
MAKE IT RIGHT! [from the AIATSIS Collection]
1988 (G) 21 min
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. more
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MAN WITHOUT PIGS
1990 (G) 59 min
MAN WITHOUT PIGS offers a rare insight into the dynamics of village life in Papua New Guinea. The film explores the antagonism aroused when conflict between traditional custom and Western values occurs in an isolated community. more
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![MARN GROOK [from the CAAMA Collection]](/images/small/723.jpg)
MARN GROOK [from the CAAMA Collection]
1996 (G) 45 min
Marn Grook is a celebration of Australian Rules and the great contribution Aboriginal players have made to the game. more
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MARY
1994 (G) 75 min
Excommunication in the 19th century, sainthood in the 20th. Mary MacKillop is one of Australia's unsung heroes. Despite excommunication and exile, Mary remained determined to bring education to the poor and underprivileged. In January 1995 Mary was beatified by Pope John Paul II as Australia's first saint. This is Mary's... more
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MESSAGE FROM MUNGO
2014 (Classification Exempt - Ronin Recommends: G) 70 min
WINNER! UNITED NATIONS ASSOCIATION OF VICTORIA MEDIA AWARDS in the Category of "Promotion of Indigenous Recognition". The story of the interaction between Scientists and the Custodians of Indigenous Heritage at Lake Mungo, one of the world's richest archaeological sites. more
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MICROBES TO MACROBES: The Story of Frank Fenner
2011 (Classification Exempt - Ronin Recommends: G) 63 min
Frank Fenner was one of Australia's greatest scientists. He helped save Australia's troops from malaria in World War II; charted the course of myxomatosis as it decimated Australia's feral rabbit population; was one of the leading figures in the global campaign which eliminated smallpox; and was a pioneering environmentalist. more
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MILLI MILLI
1994 (G) 53 min
MILLI MILLI tells the story of the Kimberley people from their point of view. Using the Kimberley people's traditions of storytelling, painting, dancing and taking into account Aboriginal law and culture, the film records a cultural revival from within. more
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MILLION ACRES A YEAR, A
2002 (Classification Exempt - Ronin Recommends: G) 52 min
The devastating story of an ecological disaster: the epic history of post-war agricultural development in Western Australia and the personal journeys of a rural vanguard who came to acknowledge that current forms of agriculture were not sustainable. The re-release of a remarkable documentary from 2002, still powerfully... more
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MISSING PRESUMED DEAD
2008 (Classification Exempt - Ronin Recommends: PG) 55 min
The mysteries of a World War One German soldier's wallet found in Adelaide, South Australia and a British airman missing in France lead to a deeply personal investigation with unexpected results. more
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![MPARNTWE - Sacred Sites [from the CAAMA Collection]](/images/small/6587.jpg)
MPARNTWE - Sacred Sites [from the CAAMA Collection]
2004 (Classification Exempt - Ronin Recommends: G) 24 min
The continuous struggle by Central Australia's Arrernte people to maintain their sacred sites in the face of property development in the Mparntwe (Alice Springs) area. more
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MR STREHLOW'S FILMS
2001 (Classification Exempt - Ronin Recommends: G) 52 min
The life and work of one of Australia's most eminent and controversial anthropologists, T.G.H. (Ted) Strehlow. more
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MURIEL MATTERS
2013 (Classification Exempt - Ronin Recommends: G) 27 min
Adelaide-born actress and elocutionist Muriel Matters has been neglected by mainstream history, but in the early 1900s was a pivotal figure in the fight for women's rights in Britain and was renowned for her daring escapades to draw attention to the cause. more
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MUSLIMS IN AUSTRALIA
2007 (Classification Exempt - Ronin Recommends: G) 76 min
Take a journey and discover how deep Muslim history runs in Australia. Discover the earliest contact that dates back to the 1600s, their connection with the indigenous population and the rich contribution they made. more
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MY HOME THE BLOCK
2007 (Classification Exempt - Ronin Recommends: PG) 52 min
An intimate view of "The Block", situated in Sydney's Redfern district as seen through the eyes of Aboriginal Elder Joyce Ingram. more
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MY NAME IS GULPILIL
2021 (M) 101 min
"I'm an actor, I'm a dancer, I'm a singer and also, a painter. This film is about me. This is my story of my story." - David Gulpilil Ridjimiraril Dalaithngu more