Shop for a film
History - World (5/6)
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.
SLEEP OF REASON, THE
1993 (PG) 50 min
A film about the end of the world: the myth that has been with us since the beginning of civilization, and the possibility made real at Hiroshima in 1945. The journey takes us from medieval paintings to 50s sci fi movies and leaves us better able to understand and deal with our destructive urges. more
SNAKES AND LADDERS
1988 (PG) 59 min
Drawing on interviews and a striking selection of archival footage, this film reveals the expectations and achievements of women who have struggled to gain a tertiary education - and the reality of discrimination. The film employs the unusual device of a whimsical investigator, Sophia Whist, who pieces together the elements... more
SYDNEY AT WAR
2005 (Classification Exempt - Ronin Recommends: PG) 52 min
At midnight on Sun May 31, 1942, three Japanese midget submarines broke through Sydney Harbour's defences and launched a surprise attack on an ill-prepared city. During that night of confusion and violence, 21 Australian and 6 Japanese service personnel lost their lives. Sydney At War recounts the events of that fateful... 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
THOSE WHO SAID NO
2014 (Classification Exempt - Ronin Recommends: PG) 89 min
Crimes against humanity committed by the Iranian regime in the 1980s are revealed in the Iran Tribunal, an enquiry held under the auspices of the International Court of Justice in the Hague in 2012-3. A film by Iranian filmmaker, Nima Sarvestani, co-director of NO BURQAS BEHIND BARS. more
TIME TO DRAW THE LINE
2016 (Classification Exempt - Ronin Recommends: PG) 52 min
East Timor was born as a new nation in 2002 after 25 years of turmoil and war. Australia's peace-keeping force, INTERFET, helped with the peaceful transition to nationhood. Now, a darker story of Australia's relationship with this new nation is emerging. more
TOO MANY CAPTAIN COOKS
1988 (G) 18 min
In this film, Paddy Wainburranga of the Rembarrnga tribe from the centre of Arnhem Land in Northern Australia relates and paints the Rembarrnga history of Captain Cook. 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
TRIAL, THE
2009 (Classification Exempt - Ronin Recommends: PG) 52 min
In February 2008 twelve Muslim men went on trial in Melbourne on terrorism charges. The trial ran for nine months, heard hundreds of hours of secretly taped conversations and presented 66,000 pages of evidence. THE TRIAL takes us inside one of the biggest court cases in Australia's history. 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
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
UNDERCURRENTS: meditations on power
2023 (M) 19 min
A poetic essay documentary by Margot Nash, about the undercurrents of history playing out in the present: a 'song' for the dark times about repression and resistance. more
UNFORGOTTEN ISLANDS (Chagos Ou la Memoire des Iles)
2011 (Classification Exempt - Ronin Recommends: G) 83 min
In the 1970s, the people of the Chagos Islands in the Indian Ocean were evicted from their homes and forced to live in shanty towns in Mauritius and the Seychelles, so that a British and USA military base could be established on their homeland to support military operations in the Middle East. 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
WAR STORIES
1995 (PG) 88 min
In Gaylene Preston's moving documentary, seven elderly women recall their personal experiences of World War II. Their intimate, unadorned stories are filmed talking-heads style, interspersed with personal photographs and period newsreel clips. From tragic love stories to long-suppressed revelations of sex and death, War... more
WEDDING IN RAMALLAH, A
2002 (M) 90 min
A Wedding in Ramallah is an engrossing film exploring domestic life in Palestine during a time of war, and the experiences of Palestinians who manage to emigrate overseas. more
WHITE WATER, BLACK GOLD
2011 (Classification Exempt - Ronin Recommends: G) 83 min
WHITE WATER, BLACK GOLD is a riveting, multi-award-winning Canadian documentary about the controversies surrounding the Alberta Tar Sands. Martin Lukacs recently wrote in The Guardian: the Tar Sands of Alberta are "a source of oil so dirty that renowned ex-NASA climatologist James Hansen has described it as a "carbon... more
WING AND A PRAYER, A
2000 (Classification Exempt - Ronin Recommends: G) 56 min
Five women from Ethiopia, Somalia, Eritrea, and Sudan discuss how they have embraced the Australian way of life while still maintaining a close connection with their cultural heritage. more
WINNING WORLD WAR I
2008 (Classification Exempt - Ronin Recommends: PG) 92 min
A moving adaptation of the landmark book, The Western Front Diaries, written by historian Dr Jonathan King to commemorate the 90th Anniversary of the end of World War I. Dr King presents this little-known story of the role of the tough-fighting Australians in the winning of World War I. more