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Personal Development (5/5)
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.
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
SPECIAL TREATMENT- Locking Up Aboriginal Children
1991 (Classification Exempt - Ronin Recommends: G) 56 min
Australia imprisons almost as many black children as are imprisoned in South Africa. Today 45% of all juveniles in NSW jails are Aboriginal, though they form less than 2% of the population. Made by a crew of Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal Australians, this documentary asks why police are under-using alternative procedures... more
STEPPING OUT
1981 (G) 54 min
In November 1979, forty extraordinary people took to the stage. Labelled by society as mentally handicapped, isolated and hidden away in institutions since early childhood, they came to the Sydney Opera House and gave a performance that held audiences spellbound. This film tells the joyous story of that event. 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
STRONG MEN OF NGUIU
2007 (Classification Exempt - Ronin Recommends: G) 24 min
Nguiu (known as Wurrumiyanga today) is a community on Bathurst Island, Northern Territory. There the "strong men" have been striving to restore cultural traditions among the youth on the island. Leading by example, they are steering the next generation away from substance abuse and crime to become leaders of tomorrow. more
![SUNSET TO SUNRISE [from the CAAMA Collection]](/images/small/4484.jpg)
SUNSET TO SUNRISE [from the CAAMA Collection]
2006 (Classification Exempt - Ronin Recommends: G) 24 min
By the light of a comforting campfire, Rupert Max Stuart, a 77-year old Arrernte Mat-utjarra Elder and a custodian of the Alice Springs area, offers poignant words of wisdom to a younger generation. 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
TENDER HOOKS
1988 (M) 95 min
A bold debut feature by Wollongong filmmaker, Mary Callaghan: a new wave, pop cult, love story set in Sydney, starring Jo Kennedy and Nique Needles. When two young lovers discover their love has become an obsession, contact becomes a matter of survival. 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
VISIONS OF PARADISE
2009 (Classification Exempt - Ronin Recommends: PG) 44 min
The story of four young idealists who thought they had found paradise on earth only to discover they were actually in mind control cults. 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
![WHO WE ARE - Brave New Clan [from the CAAMA Collection]](/images/small/11889.jpg)
WHO WE ARE - Brave New Clan [from the CAAMA Collection]
2015 (Classification Exempt - Ronin Recommends: G) 47 min
Six young Australians share what Indigenous culture means to them today in contemporary urban Australia. From the bustling streets of Sydney to the aquamarine vistas of the Torres Strait, their stories span a diverse population across the country and yet share common themes of resilience, courage, optimism and success. 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
![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