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Law (1/2)
Issues relating to legal history, the professional life of lawyers, and the working of judicial institutions and processes in Australia and overseas, including specific case studies involving Australian and international law.
AFTER MABO
1997 (M) 84 min
An Australian documentary classic that examines the political controversy surrounding native title and the Federal Government's proposed amendments to the Native Title Act (1993). AFTER MABO tackles many of the reconciliation issues that are still relevant today. more
ALLIES
1983 (PG) 95 min
Made at the time of Bob Hawke's unequivocal embrace of the American alliance, this film explores Australia-US relations during the Cold War: the setting up of ASIO to appease American agencies worried about Communist influence; the Petrov Affair; and the determination of Sir Robert Menzies to follow the US into Vietnam. more
BORDER POLITICS
2018 (PG) 90 min
In this film, leading Human Rights barrister, Julian Burnside AO, deconstructs harsh asylum seeker policies around the world, arguing that failure in political leadership is compromising human rights and destroying democratic principles in the West. more
BULLYING CULTURES
2017 (Classification Exempt - Ronin Recommends: G) 65 min
Professor Valerie Braithwaite, renowned internationally for her studies of work-place and school-yard bullying, examines the social and psychological dynamics that contribute to a bullying culture and what must happen to break that culture. more
BURNSIDE CONVERSATIONS, THE
2019 (Classification Exempt - Ronin Recommends: PG) 115 min
16 conversations, 1 topic: Human rights. In dynamic conversations with human rights barrister, Julian Burnside QC, key global thinkers reveal personal perspectives on current threats to human rights in the West, expanding on ideas raised in the film BORDER POLITICS (also available from Ronin Films). more
COMMON PURPOSE, A
2011 (PG) 75 min
Twenty-five people are convicted of the murder of one man, fourteen are sentenced to hang, one lawyer is assassinated and the other goes into exile. A Common Purpose is the dramatic story behind a notorious murder trial that marks South Africa's transition from apartheid to democracy. more
EXILE AND THE KINGDOM
1993 (Classification Exempt - Ronin Recommends: G) 110 min
The experiences of a community of Aboriginal people from pre-colonial times to the 1990s. The re-release of the award-winning feature documentary from 1993, made with the YINDJIBARNDI, NGARLUMA, BANYJIMA and GURRAMA people of Roebourne, Western Australia. more
FACING THE DEMONS
1999 (Classification Exempt - Ronin Recommends: PG) 57 min
A powerful documentary about restorative justice and conferencing. The story of a journey to bring the family and friends of a murdered boy together in one room with those convicted of his killing. more
FINDING PLACE [from the CAAMA Collection]
2007 (Classification Exempt - Ronin Recommends: G) 22 min
A film about manhood and the problems of living in two cultures. more
FIVE SHORT FILMS FROM THE NATIONAL INDIGENOUS DOCUMENTARY FUND
1997 (Classification Exempt - Ronin Recommends: G) 130 min
Five short films from the National Indigenous Documentary Fund - all films are touched by the past but deliver a unique contemporary Indigenous perspective. more
FOR THE DEFENCE
1999 (Classification Exempt - Ronin Recommends: PG) 55 min
Explores the Victorian criminal justice system via the experiences of three criminal defence lawyers. Their journey takes us from interview room to supreme court, and into their own lives as they strive to maintain the principles of the right to defence and the presumption of innocence in an increasingly pressurised legal... more
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
INNOCENCE BETRAYED
2014 (Classification Exempt - Ronin Recommends: PG) 52 min
In 1990 and 1991, three Aboriginal children were murdered in the rural town of Bowraville NSW - Colleen Craig, Evelyn Greenup and Clinton Speedy-Duroux. Despite two trials and a coroner's inquest, no-one was ever convicted of the murders. more
LAND BILONG ISLANDERS
1990 (G) 52 min
LAND BILONG ISLANDERS tells the story of what has become known as the 'Mabo Case'. It contains rare interviews with the late Eddie Mabo, James Rice, Father Dave Passi and others involved in this historic legal drama. Together they challenged the idea that prior to European settlement, Australia was a land belonging to no-one,... more
LONG NIGHT'S JOURNEY INTO DAY
2000 (Classification Exempt - Ronin Recommends: M) 94 min
This documentary studies South Africa's Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC), set up by the post-apartheid, democratic government to consider amnesty for perpetrators of crimes committed under apartheid's reign. more
ONE LAST CHANCE
2000 (Classification Exempt - Ronin Recommends: PG) 36 min
An award-winning film about justice and morality, by Rod Freedman (producer of ONCE MY MOTHER). 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
PLEAD GUILTY, GET A BOND
1991 (G) 30 min
A young Aboriginal woman has been charged with wounding her husband during a domestic argument. It is expected by all concerned that she will simply plead guilty and receive a good behaviour bond. The inexperienced legal aid lawyer is outraged by this expectations and persuades Amy to plead her innocence. more
PRISON SONGS
2015 (M) 56 min
The inmates of a Darwin prison are shown in a new light in Australia's first documentary musical. Incarcerated in tropical Northern Territory, over 800 inmates squeeze into the overcrowded spaces of Berrimah Prison, and share their experiences in the most extraordinary way – through song. more