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Industrial Relations
Trade unions, labour history, and industrial relations in Australia and internationally, including landmark events such as the trial of Saccho and Vanzetti in the USA, and the history of specific Australian labour organisations.
BLACKBIRD
2016 (PG) 13 min
Blackbird is a short narrative drama which sheds light on a little known part of history - Australia's notorious "blackbirding" era when some 60,000 Pacific Islanders were brought to Australia, often by force and kidnapping, between 1863 and 1904 to work on sugar cane farms of Queensland. more
BLOOD ON THE COAL
2015 (PG) 103 min
Stories from the Queensland coalfields over the last 150 years, as told by mineworkers and their families: a rare and valuable contribution to the history of both Australian labour and the nation's mining industry. more
BREAD AND DRIPPING
1981 (Classification Exempt - Ronin Recommends: G) 17 min
Restored from original film materials: a classic documentary from 1981, telling women's stories of the Great Depression in the 1930s in Australia. more
CHIFLEYS OF BUSBY STREET, THE
2008 (G) 72 min
The Chifleys of Busby Street is an eloquent portrait of Australia's best-loved Prime Minister Ben Chifley, his wife Elizabeth, and their cherished spirit kept alive in Bathurst for the five decades since his death. Friends and colleagues share anecdotes and memories of the Chifleys in this charming documentary. more
FOR LOVE OR MONEY: A History of Women and Work in Australia
1983 (G) 107 min
DIGITALLY RESTORED! An investigation and celebration of women's work from white settlement to the present, a story told by Aboriginal and migrant women, convict women and today's women. more
FRIENDS AND ENEMIES
1988 (PG) 88 min
FRIENDS AND ENEMIES is a provocative film about one of the most vicious and protracted labour disputes in Australian history - one which saw the emergence of the New Right as a powerful force on the country's political landscape. 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
HOW THE WEST WAS LOST
1987 (G) 72 min
NOW RESTORED FROM ORIGINAL FILM NEGATIVES! The story of the 1946 Aboriginal Pastoral Workers' Strike that has never officially ended. An event more important than the Eureka Stockade but never recorded in written histories - the passive resistance by 800 Aboriginal station workers against the appalling living and working... more
LAST STAND AT NYMBOIDA
2010 (Classification Exempt - Ronin Recommends: G) 56 min
The remarkable story of a worker rebellion that made international history. Bonus 35 minute extra feature includes interviews with ANDREW VICKERS, General Secretary, CFMEU Mining & Energy Chairman, Mineworkers Trust, and ALAN MURRAY, mining historian and author. more
LEGEND OF FRED PATERSON, THE
1996 (Classification Exempt - Ronin Recommends: G) 58 min
The story of Fred Paterson, the only member of the Communist Party ever elected to an Australian Parliament. Idealist, divinity student, champion athlete, Rhodes scholar, war veteran and barrister, Paterson haunted the establishment until he was brought down by a police baton in 1948. more
MY WORK, MY SORROW
2009 (Classification Exempt - Ronin Recommends: G) 44 min
A universal story of labour in the industrial sector. The film is built from interviews (in French with English subtitles) with assembly-line workers in the factory system, discussing their work experiences and the ethics of their employers. more
ROCKING THE FOUNDATIONS
1985 (PG) 92 min
DIGITALLY RESTORED! A riveting documentary about the New South Wales Builders Labourers Federation (BLF). Filmmaker Pat Fiske, herself one of the first women members of the BLF, develops a portrait of this once-powerful union through interviews with former union members and officials, archival film, and television news... more