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History - World (4/6)
Historical events world-wide including stories of war and peace especially in China and other Asian countries, from British colonial ventures to the Tiananmen Square massacre in Beijing.
MOHAMED ALI'S HAPPY DAY FEAST
1998 (Classification Exempt - Ronin Recommends: G) 55 min
Mohamed Ali and his wife, Halima Mubarak, are the owners of the Dhodaan Café, Flemington, a meeting place for the Somali refugee community in Melbourne. Having survived war in Ethiopia and Somalia, but suffered the loss of home and family, Mohamed and Halima arrive in Australia with a renewed optimism, and set about establishing... more
MUCH ADO ABOUT SOMETHING
2003 (Classification Exempt - Ronin Recommends: G) 93 min
Was William Shakespeare truly the greatest English author, or does that honour really belong to Christopher Marlowe, a peer of the great bard who penned a number of popular plays during the late 1500s? This documentary plunges deep into the mystery surrounding the authorship of the plays and Marlowe's supposed murder. more
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
MY REMBETIKA BLUES (English 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
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
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
OPHIR
2020 (Classification Exempt - Ronin Recommends: PG) 97 min
Voiced entirely by the Indigenous people of the Autonomous Region of Bougainville in Papua New Guinea, Ophir observes the colonisation of the land and its people, who at the end of the 1980s were left with no choice but to revolt for their right to exist. more
PEACE PILGRIMS
2021 (Classification Exempt - Ronin Recommends: G) 28 min
In September 2015, five peace activists penetrated the 'Joint Facility' Pine Gap, just outside Alice Springs to protest and lament victims of American drone strikes. They were arrested and faced 7 years jail. A documentary by John Hughes, based on Peace Crimes, Kieran Finnane (UQP 2020) 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
POZIERES
2000 (Classification Exempt - Ronin Recommends: M) 52 min
Between July and August, 1916, the small village of Pozieres in northern France became the centre of one of the bloodiest battles of the Great War. By the end of August the village had been destroyed. The battles to reclaim the territory for the French nation were to become legendary. more
RAOUL WALLENBERG: Between The Lines
1985 (Classification Exempt - Ronin Recommends: PG) 86 min
Raoul Wallenberg was an unlikely hero. A Swedish diplomat, he risked his life to challenge the Nazi forces in Hungary and to save the lives of as many as 100,000 Jews in Budapest in 1944. more
RED BOWMEN, THE
1978 (Classification Exempt - Ronin Recommends: PG) 58 min
The record of a ceremony called Ida which is performed every year by villagers of the Waina-Sowanda district of West Sepik Province of Papua New Guinea. A film by Chris Owen. more
ROAD TO HOME, THE
2015 (Classification Exempt - Ronin Recommends: G) 55 min
A portrait of the West Papuan Benny Wenda, now in exile in England, and his on-going fight for the right to self-determination for his people. more
ROBERT FORTUNE - THE TEA THIEF
2002 (Classification Exempt - Ronin Recommends: G) 52 min
Behind the story of a simple cup of tea is a tale of espionage and intrigue captured in a documentary by Melbourne filmmaker Diane Perelsztein. The cup that cheers has a complex, often dark history. The story of tea is a tale of politics, economics and spirituality, of espionage, art and the drug trade. more
ROSIE'S SECRET
1994 (G) 11 min
ROSIE'S SECRET is a fictional portrait of a forgotten heroine, Rosie Foster. We discover the pivotal role Rosie played in the construction and celebration of Australia's national icon, the Sydney Harbour Bridge. more
SENSO DAUGHTERS
1990 (PG) 55 min
During World War II, 140,000 Japanese troops died in Papua New Guinea. Considered the 'Forgotten War,' neither the war nor its veterans received public recognition in Japan. Another unacknowledged tragedy of that campaign was the army's mistreatment of New Guinean women and 'comfort girls'. Over 90,000 'comfort girls' were... more
SHOCK ROOM
2016 (M) 72 min
In the early 1960s American psychologist Stanley Milgram ran a series of controversial experiments on obedience. An authority orders you to inflict painful shocks on another person. Most us will obey, claimed Milgram. But will we? 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