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Personal Development (2/6)
The personal development of children, adolescents and adults in a broad range of social, psychological and cultural contexts, in Australia and internationally. Films include both documentaries and selected feature films and short dramas.
![BUNGALUNG [from the CAAMA Collection]](/images/small/4481.jpg)
BUNGALUNG [from the CAAMA Collection]
2007 (Classification Exempt - Ronin Recommends: PG) 22 min
An epic Dreaming story re-told by Anmatjere Elders, in which two young men challenge a clan of Demons. more
CALL ME MUM
2006 (Classification Exempt - Ronin Recommends: PG) 76 min
Set in the recent past, the AFI award-winning Call Me Mum is a series of interlinked monologues where five characters unravel a complex tale of mothering, race relations and family in Australia. more
CARNIVAL, THE
2023 (MA) 85 min
The Bells have been hauling their convoy of carnival rides and workers across Australia for six generations. Now, facing shutdowns and bushfires, and a dwindling economy – the family battles to keep their show, and ultimately their legacy, alive. more
![CASE 442 [from the CAAMA Collection]](/images/small/5538.jpg)
CASE 442 [from the CAAMA Collection]
2005 (Classification Exempt - Ronin Recommends: PG) 49 min
Frank Byrne spent most of his adult life on a personal crusade to find his mother, after being taken away from her at the age of 5. more
CHILD'S EYE, THE
2018 (G) 147 min
AVAILABLE ONLY ON DVD! Through a series of workshops across India, documentary filmmaker David MacDougall sought to empower young filmmakers to engage directly with the world around them, using cameras to interrogate and explore what they saw, from their own unique child's perspective. more
CHINESE TAKE AWAY
2002 (Classification Exempt - Ronin Recommends: G) 52 min
CHINESE TAKE AWAY is an adaptation of an acclaimed physical theatre show, uniquely blends poetic storytelling, drama and archival footage, to bring a true story to the screen. more
![COOL DRINK AND CULTURE [from the CAAMA Collection]](/images/small/3324.jpg)
COOL DRINK AND CULTURE [from the CAAMA Collection]
2006 (Classification Exempt - Ronin Recommends: G) 22 min
The links between traditional bush foods and good health, and supermarket foods and poor health. more
CROSS LIFE
2007 (Classification Exempt - Ronin Recommends: PG) 100 min
CROSS LIFE is the first feature film directed by Claire McCarthy, a rapidly emerging new star of Australian cinema. Her second feature is the acclaimed THE WAITING CITY, filmed in India and released nationally through Hopscotch Films. more
DREAM OF LOVE, THE
2005 (Classification Exempt - Ronin Recommends: PG) 26 min
An intensely personal story by filmmaker Lawrence Johnston about his parents' troubled 59-year mixed-race marriage and the effect of the relationship and domestic violence on the sons and daughters of the family. more
DRIVE
2010 (M) 55 min
In 1915 the biggest killer of young Australian males was Gallipoli. Today the biggest killer of young men aged 18-25 years is the road. Young men are dying in high speed, single vehicle crashes, crumpled in metal coffins, on lonely rural roads. Why do they die? Why do they live? Speed is hypnotic. Risk is freedom. Cars... more
DRIVING WITH RICHARD
1992 (G) 50 min
DRIVING WITH RICHARD is the story of a remarkable friendship between two women - Deirdre Croft and Carley Pukallus. Deirdre and Carley have provided support for each other for over six years as they cope with the trauma, hardship and enormous challenge of caring for their handicapped children. 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
FAMINE WITHIN, THE
1991 (G) 90 min
An exploration of the contemporary obsession with body size and shape among North American women. Under the coercive powers of consumerism and the mass media, women have come to view their bodies as marketable objects and to judge them according to the unrealistic standards of the beauty ideal. more
![FINDING PLACE [from the CAAMA Collection]](/images/small/2886.jpg)
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
FLYING BOOMERANGS, THE
2006 (Classification Exempt - Ronin Recommends: G) 26 min
24 Indigenous teenagers embark on the first Aussie Rules tour of South Africa. more
FOLLOWING THE FENCELINE
1996 (PG) 50 min
A documentary about breast cancer and an innovative approach to public awareness taken by 14 remarkable women. more
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
GANDHI'S CHILDREN
2008 (Classification Exempt - Ronin Recommends: PG) 185 min
GANDHI'S CHILDREN is an award-winning film by David MacDougall about abandoned or orphaned boys living in a charitable Home in one of the poorer quarters of New Delhi, India, building a society of their own within the institutional environment. more
GROWING CITIES
2013 (Classification Exempt - Ronin Recommends: G) 92 min
From rooftop farmers to backyard beekeepers, Americans are growing food like never before. Growing Cities tells the inspiring stories of these intrepid urban farmers, innovators, and everyday city-dwellers who are challenging the way the USA grows and distributes its food. more
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
HIGHER EDUCATION
2010 (Classification Exempt - Ronin Recommends: G) 72 min
For some students, entering university can be the result of years of personal struggle and challenge. [DVD includes EXTRA FEATURE: Interview with the director, MILES ROSTON] more
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
![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
JAMMIN' IN THE MIDDLE E
2005 (Classification Exempt - Ronin Recommends: PG) 49 min
An Arab-Australian comedy based on the true-life stories of young people growing up in the tough Western suburbs of Sydney. more
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
![JARLMADANGAH: Our Dream Our Reality [from the CAAMA Collection]](/images/small/4485.jpg)
JARLMADANGAH: Our Dream Our Reality [from the CAAMA Collection]
2007 (Classification Exempt - Ronin Recommends: G) 25 min
Welcome to Jarlmadangah – where we go well off the beaten track! Situated in the West Kimberleys, Jarlmadangah is a remote community often hailed as 'a model' for its many social and cultural achievements. more
JOURNEY WEST (BUWARRALA ARYAH)
2019 (Classification Exempt - Ronin Recommends: G) 52 min
In the Gulf of Carpentaria in northern Australia, Aboriginal Elders lead their community on a traditional walk across Country to re-connect children and youth to their culture. more
KIM & HARLEY & THE KIDS (Family Foibles)
2001 (Classification Exempt - Ronin Recommends: M) 27 min
Kim and Harley and the Kids looks at how hard family life can be when resources are limited. Kim has four children including four-year-old twins. Her partner Harley is father to the youngest three kids and his heart is in the right place. They all live below the poverty line in a Ministry of Housing home in outer Melbourne. more
KINGS OF BAXTER
2017 (M) 66 min
A rare insight into life behind bars for juvenile inmates in one of the country's largest juvenile justice centres: two actors from the Bell Shakespeare company engage with young offenders in an attempt to stage a performance of Shakespeare's Macbeth for their families and fellow inmates. more
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
LEAPING OFF THE EDGE
2001 (Classification Exempt - Ronin Recommends: G) 26 min
A documentary about Melbourne's Women's Circus, a theatrical experience that has been inspiring, exciting and empowering audiences for over a decade. more
LEAST SAID, SOONEST MENDED
1999 (Classification Exempt - Ronin Recommends: PG) 52 min
The story of the filmmaker's twin sister: despatched at the age of 15 to an institution where she was hidden away and arrangements made for the adoption of her baby. She then lived for the next 25 years without knowing where her child was or whether she was alive or dead. more
LILI (English version)
2019 (Classification Exempt - Ronin Recommends: PG) 85 min
LILI is a powerful exploration of inter-generational trauma; a mother, Lili, abandons her two-year-old daughter as she flees from Hungary in 1956 when the Soviets quash the Hungarian revolution. The trauma sparks a history of abandonment that spans four generations of Lili's family. more
LILI (Hungarian version)
2019 (Classification Exempt - Ronin Recommends: PG) 85 min
Egy anya, Lili, az '56-os forradalom közepén elmenekül Magyarországról, ezzel egy kontinenseken és generációkon átívelő elhagyás történet veszi kezdetét. more
LITTLE TOWNS, BIG VOICES
2016 (M) 28 min
Taking a stand on domestic violence in regional, rural and remote communities: in this powerful short film by Fran Dobbie, this often hidden subject is brought to light by people willing to speak out about abuse to help create social change. more
![LURUGU [from the AIATSIS Collection]](/images/small/9117.jpg)
LURUGU [from the AIATSIS Collection]
1973 (Classification Exempt - Ronin Recommends: PG) 56 min
The revival of an initiation ceremony for young men on Mornington Island in north Queensland. more
MEN DON'T CRY
2015 (Classification Exempt - Ronin Recommends: PG) 26 min
A mother's concern for her son and his abuse of alcohol takes her on a journey of her own self-discovery. The film observes the pain and hardship of alcohol abuse on families, and the internal pain of a mother feeling 'useless' as she observes the self-destruction of her child as he tries to become 'a man'. more