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Family (5/7)
Family dynamics, family problems and personal development in the context of the family, in Australia, the Philippines and South America, including families from culturally diverse backgrounds in Australia, "blended" families, parents dealing with children and vice versa, family survival in extreme conditions, and stories of Indigenous Australian families, the Stolen Generations and family reunion.
MY WORK, MY SORROW
2009 (Classification Exempt - Ronin Recommends: G) 44 min
A universal story of labour in the industrial sector. The film is built from interviews (in French with English subtitles) with assembly-line workers in the factory system, discussing their work experiences and the ethics of their employers. 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
NO BURQAS BEHIND BARS
2012 (Classification Exempt - Ronin Recommends: PG) 77 min
Inside an Afghan women's prison. Women are normally faceless in Afghanistan: outside the home, burqas cover them from head to toe. But in prison, they sometimes have more freedom and safety than outside. more
NOT JUST NUMBERS
2019 (Classification Exempt - Ronin Recommends: PG) 53 min
Not Just Numbers is an inspiring documentary about the Tangentyere Women's Family Safety Group in Alice Springs. They believe in talking straight about the violence in their communities and are working on the front line in prevention. So often reduced to statistics, these heroes have banded together to fight for their... 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
ONCE A QUEEN
2005 (Classification Exempt - Ronin Recommends: G) 50 min
A universal story of a rural community with big aspirations ... Grafton in the Northern Rivers area of New South Wales, and its inspired annual celebration of its rich history. more
ONCE MY MOTHER
2013 (PG) 75 min
Australian filmmaker Sophia Turkiewicz investigates the reasons why her Polish mother abandoned her in an orphanage as a child and uncovers the truth behind her mother's wartime escape from a Siberian gulag, leaving Sophia to confront her own capacity for forgiveness. more
ON RICHARD'S SIDE
2016 (Classification Exempt - Ronin Recommends: PG) 90 min
Filmed over three decades, On Richard's Side charts the life-story of Richard, a young man with a complex disability since birth. The film provides intimate and poignant insights into his parents' determined quest to establish a quality life for their son and for themselves. more
OVER THE EDGE
2015 (Classification Exempt - Ronin Recommends: G) 56 min
Teenagers in the series ON THE EDGE reunite 5 years later as young adults facing a turbulent world. This film explores how their choices have determined their present circumstances. Some are working, some in jail, and three are parents. Every one of them is living an extraordinary life and coming to terms with their world. more
PANTHER WITHIN, THE
2016 (Classification Exempt - Ronin Recommends: PG) 54 min
Filmmaker Edoardo Crismani and his mother Barbara embark on a search to unravel the mystery surrounding Barbara's father, Joe Murray, an Indigenous boxing champion who danced and sang in vaudeville shows, and married a blue-eyed blonde white woman in 1930s Australia. more
PASSPORT TO PARENTHOOD
2004 (Classification Exempt - Ronin Recommends: PG) 56 min
When Melbourne couple Davor Dirlic and his wife Nina decide to adopt Petra, whilst visiting their homeland Croatia, they embark on an emotional rollercoaster that will uncover a tragic past. 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
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
PIONEERS OF LOVE
2005 (Classification Exempt - Ronin Recommends: G) 110 min
An epic story of Immigrant and Indigenous experiences in far north Queensland spanning across the 20th century. more
PORTS OF DESTINY
1998 (Classification Exempt - Ronin Recommends: G) 52 min
This documentary follows a 76 year-old man from Australia to Argentina to see his 96 year-old Aunt for the first time since they were separated by war 60 years ago. The film charts the experiences of aging, migration and memory when one is towards the end of their life. more
PUTUPARRI and the Rainmakers
2015 (M) 97 min
Against the backdrop of Australia's tangled colonial and Indigenous history, Putuparri and the Rainmakers explores one man's struggle to fulfill his destiny. more
REMEMBERING COUNTRY
2000 (Classification Exempt - Ronin Recommends: G) 26 min
An intimate autobiographical film that invites the audience into Harold Furber's vivid memories of being a desert kid stolen away to a tropical island. more
![RYDIN' TIME [from the CAAMA Collection]](/images/small/2888.jpg)
RYDIN' TIME [from the CAAMA Collection]
2005 (Classification Exempt - Ronin Recommends: G) 22 min
Life on the rodeo circuit in Queensland for three teenagers who risk their lives to compete. more
SILENCES, THE
2015 (M) 73 min
A film about family secrets and the ties of love, loss and kinship between a mother and daughter. more
STOLEN GENERATIONS
2000 (Classification Exempt - Ronin Recommends: G) 52 min
The removal of Aboriginal children in Australia was a deliberate government policy and forms part of the history of dispossession of the country's original inhabitants. Every Aboriginal family in Australia has directly or indirectly been affected and the effects have lasted over generations. Many have called this genocide. more
STRANDED
2006 (M) 52 min
Claudia is trying to start a new life for herself after the loss of her mother. She lives and fights with her loving but inept father and psychotic little sister. When two children are dumped on the family, Claudia moves into her mother's abandoned car in the driveway. She plans to fix it and take off - that's if she can... more
TAGGED
2006 (Classification Exempt - Ronin Recommends: PG) 59 min
TAGGED is the story of four young people growing up in Sydney's notorious south-western suburbs. Reacting against the negative portrayal of young people from their area in the mainstream press, they talk about the things they love in their community, especially its diversity, its familiarity and its youthful energy. more
TEACH A MAN TO FISH
2018 (Classification Exempt - Ronin Recommends: PG) 80 min
Grant Leigh Saunders is an Aboriginal filmmaker, writer and musician who has secretly always wanted to be a fisherman, just like his father and grandfather before him. This fishing yarn is set against the backdrop of the beautiful Manning River in central New South Wales. more
TERRA NULLIUS
1992/2021 (G) 21 min
RE-RELEASE OF AN ACCLAIMED FILM FROM 1992, RE-MASTERED FROM THE ORIGINAL FILM NEGATIVES. "In evoking what an Aboriginal child goes through when disconnected from family and taken into foster-care, this film is ahead of its time in its treatment." - Margo Neale, Senior Indigenous Curator and historian. more
![THREE HORSEMEN [from the AIATSIS Collection]](/images/small/7834.jpg)
THREE HORSEMEN [from the AIATSIS Collection]
1982 (Classification Exempt - Ronin Recommends: G) 51 min
Three generations of Aboriginal stockmen on a cattle station in far north Queensland. more
TOMBSTONE OPENING, THE
2012 (Classification Exempt - Ronin Recommends: G) 29 min
Releasing the spirit of Ephraim Bani, a great cultural custodian, in Torres Strait's unique ritual. more
TOTEM & ORE
2019 (Classification Exempt - Ronin Recommends: PG) 98 min
In Australia, British atomic bomb testing ran from 1953 to 1963 at Emu Field and Maralinga in South Australia. Indigenous communities had to live with the impact of these tests – testing that infected many with radioactive fallout. 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
TWO HOMELANDS
2024 (Classification Exempt - Ronin Recommends: PG) 52 min
Fifty years after the Turkish invasion of Cyprus, TWO HOMELANDS is both a commemoration of war and a celebration of community as six senior Australian Greek Cypriots - aged 70 to 102 - give emotional eyewitness accounts of the cost of war and their migration to Australia. more
UPSTAIRS DOWNSTAIRS (Family Foibles)
2001 (Classification Exempt - Ronin Recommends: G) 27 min
A family separates and, for the sake of their relationship and own lives, works out a way to keep living and parenting together for the sake of their daughter. Architecture, alternatives, and a lot of planning and negotiating are central to this story. more
VACANT POSSESSION
1994 (M) 95 min
NOW RE-MASTERED FROM ORIGINAL FILM MATERIALS! A welcome re-release of the acclaimed dramatic feature film from 1994, written and directed by Margot Nash (director of The Silences, also available from Ronin). Following her mother's death, a young woman returns to the old family home, a dilapidated cottage in a coastal... more
WEATHER DIARIES, THE
2020 (Classification Exempt - Ronin Recommends: PG) 91 min
An intimate chronicle of two simultaneous histories: on the one hand the cataclysmic impacts of climate change and the extinction crisis on the forest ecosystems, and on the other, the development of the filmmaker's daughter from child to adult. more
WEDDING SARI SHOWDOWN
2006 (Classification Exempt - Ronin Recommends: G) 26 min
WEDDING SARI SHOWDOWN follows 2 young lovers, Ramona and Anu, as they struggle to maintain their relationship and their independence against the every-increasing pressure of family obligations and cultural expectations throughout their wedding preparations. more
WEDDING SARI SHOWDOWN - Part 2
2007 (Classification Exempt - Ronin Recommends: G) 25 min
Three years after they defied their families by marrying secretly in a Melbourne registry office, Sikh-Australian Ramona and her Marwari husband, Anurag are expecting their first child. While Ramona is prepared to welcome her mother-in-law into her Melbourne home prior to the birth and accept advice, there is a limit to... more
WONDER BOY
2001 (Classification Exempt - Ronin Recommends: PG) 56 min
The follow-up documentary to the highly successful 1992 documentary DRIVING WITH RICHARD, the story of Richard Rook, a boy with special needs (physical and intellectual disabilities), and his parents Deirdre and Charlie. more
WOODCUTTER'S SON, THE (Family Foibles)
2001 (Classification Exempt - Ronin Recommends: PG) 27 min
Jailed for 25 years for armed robbery, Allan Martin came out of jail 8 years ago as a published poet. He hopes to renew contact with his mother and sister after a long estrangement. more
![YELLOW FELLA [from the CAAMA Collection]](/images/small/2299.jpg)
YELLOW FELLA [from the CAAMA Collection]
2004 (Classification Exempt - Ronin Recommends: G) 25 min
A portrait of the late Balang Tom E. Lewis who as a young man in 1978 was chosen by director Fred Schepisi to star in THE CHANT OF JIMMY BLACKSMITH. The life of the character he played was hauntingly close to his own – a restless young man of mixed heritage, struggling between two cultures to find his own identity. more
![YORKY BILLY [from the AIATSIS Collection]](/images/small/10158.jpg)
YORKY BILLY [from the AIATSIS Collection]
1980 (Classification Exempt - Ronin Recommends: G) 17 min
A portrait of a disappearing way of life in the Northern Territory outback. more