The Australian Dream

The Musicians' Green Book: An Enduring Legacy

November 2022 •English

Stories and music of Black artists who relied on an underground travel guide to navigate the injustices of racial segregation while on the road. The Negro Travelers’ Green Book was a directory of lodgings, restaurants, and entertainment venues where African Americans were welcomed. Features performances and interviews with vocalists, musicians, activists, historians, and others.

Nothing Can Stop The Radiance

January 2024 •English

Filmmakers Sam and Amy journey into rural Australia to explore how the legacy of an American legend has transmitted and warped itself over time, and across the globe, resulting in the 30th annual Parkes Elvis Festival.

13th

October 2016 •English

An in-depth look at the prison system in the United States and how it reveals the nation's history of racial inequality.

Black and White: Uptight

January 1969 •English

Narrated by Robert Culp, this special examines racism in the sixties

Crossfire

December 2020 •English

Crossfire is Lauren Southern's third documentary film project focusing on the issues surrounding policing, brutality, race, law and order. A heated debate today which has led to a massive political divide between those supporting officers, those defending reform and even many rioting violently in the streets.

PHOENIX

February 2020 •German

Packed Lunch

January 2005 •English

What is it about Speedos? Well here Australian director Tim Hunter is on a mission to find the answer to the question of why so many gay men can't seem to get enough of hunks in tight fitting trunks? Although somehow I think the answer can be found in the question! Anyway in a bid to discover the truth, Hunter has carried out a series of interviews with men who have more than a passing interest in this briefest of garment, including that of Speedo designer Peter Travis, who here relates his part in the history of 'the male equivalent of the Wonder Bra.'

Je ne suis pas un singe

January 2019 •French

The Forgotten Battle of Fort Pillow

Invalid date •English

On April 12th, 1864, at an insignificant little fort, several hundred black Union soldiers fought a hopeless battle against a Confederate general who was destined to become the first Grand Wizard of the KKK. This battle had a domino effect, trickling down the long road of history. Today, it is just a footnote in most history books; however, no other event of the Civil War has had such a profound impact on the twentieth century, especially on American culture.

The Shadow of Hate: A History of Intolerance in America

June 1995 •English

The film expresses the history of oppression, discrimination, violence and hate in America. It was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Documentary Short.

The Building and Burning of a Refugee Camp

January 2024 •English

Three men seeking asylum in Ireland find themselves on the streets, caught between restrictive migration policies and an increasingly aggressive far-right movement. Dennis Harvey captures an explosive sequence of events on the streets of Dublin.

Servant or Slave

August 2016 •English

During the time of the Stolen Generations, thousands upon thousands of Aboriginal girls were taken from their families and pressed into domestic servitude by the Australian Government. They were supposedly employed as servants, but with total control over their movements, wages and living conditions, their lives all too frequently became an inescapable cycle of abuse, rape and enslavement, with consequences that echo powerfully to this day. Recounting the stories of five of these women – Rita, Violet and the three Wenberg sisters – Servant or Slave is a commanding piece of first-person testimony to a dark and unacknowledged corner of Australian history. Shot with admirable craft and humanity by documentarian Steven McGregor (Croker Island Exodus, MIFF 2012), Servant or Slave is a work of great sadness and urgency, bringing to forceful life the human tragedy of Australia's Indigenous history in the unadorned words of those who lived it.

100 Per Cent White

July 2000 •English

A decade after taking a series of photographs of skinhead members of a far-right group for his book Public Enemies, Leo Regan returns to three members of the gang to see what has happened to them in the intervening years.

Pauline Hanson: Please Explain!

July 2016 •English

Director Anna Broinowski explores how Pauline Hanson's speech in 1996 and the decades of debate that followed has influenced Australia today; the impact of her political career on modern multicultural Australia, and the people who have helped her transition from local fish shop owner to Member for Oxley. Featuring many of Hanson's critics, opponents, advisors and commentators, from former Prime Minister John Howard, to current members of the media, including Margo Kingston and Alan Jones; and leading Indigenous commentator, Professor Marcia Langton.

Utopia

November 2013 •English

Documentary by John Pilger looks at the awful truth behind white Australia's dysfunctional relationship with Indigenous Australians

The Scary Guy

February 2007 •English

Earl Kenneth Kaufmann is the Scary Guy. Banned and kicked out here and there. Because of his looks. A motivation trainer and speaker who campaigns worldwide to eliminate hate, violence, prejudice, and bullying in schools and corporations. In addition to being a tattoo shop owner, comic, entertainer, inspirational speaker, and performance artist.

Looking for Modern Art: Rethinking Art History

November 2018 •German

Many twentieth century European artists, such as Paul Gauguin or Pablo Picasso, were influenced by art brought to Europe from African and Asian colonies. How to frame these Modernist works today when the idea of the primitive in art is problematic?

The Family

July 2016 •English

Anne Hamilton-Byrne was beautiful, charismatic and delusional. She was also incredibly dangerous. Convinced she was the reincarnation of Jesus Christ, Hamilton-Byrne headed an apocalyptic sect called The Family, which was prominent in Melbourne from the 1960s through to the 1990s. With her husband Bill, she acquired numerous children – some through adoption scams, some born to cult members – and raised them as her own. Isolated from the outside world, the children were dressed in matching outfits, had identical dyed blonde hair, and were allegedly beaten, starved and injected with LSD. Taught that Hamilton-Byrne was both their mother and the messiah, the children were eventually rescued during a police raid in 1987, but their trauma had only just begun.

The World of the Seekers

April 1968 •English

While flying to the first stop on their latest tour, the four members of the Australian music group The Seekers recall in flashback the origins of the group and their rise to success.

The Blues: Another Story of France

September 2016 •French

This documentary charts 20 years of the French national soccer team, Les Bleus, whose ups and downs have mirrored those of French society.