THE PRODIGAL SON
Prodigal Son is the moving story of a traditional Macedonian family’s ‘dilemma’ with having a queer son, now in his 40’s.
When Ted came out gay to his parents, his mother Ljubica insisted it was a passing phase, but his father Alexo went further and refused to speak to him. Fifteen years passed, with no communication between father and son. But now that serious illness has struck Alexo, his guard has begun to drop. Ted knows that this is his only chance to bring himself back into the family again. Alexo’s emotional vulnerability and physical deterioration has forced him to come to the realisation that time for him could be running out.
MAD MORRO
Debbie Morris has waited 13 years for her family to finally be reunited. Her son James has been behind bars for his entire adult life. In prison he has become a hardened survivor of the system, strong of mind and quick with his fists - earning himself the nickname Mad Morro.
James aim is to return to some type of normal life – a career, a good woman, a family of his own, and to find peace. However he knows no other life aside from that behind bars. Mad Morro’s search sees attempted love, a battle with his own personal demons, and both the help and hindrance of his own family.
MOLLY & MOBARAK
A young refugee from Afghanistan Mobarak Tahiri finds work in a small Australian country town and falls in love with local girl Molly.
Mobarak is one of 3,500 illegal boat people from the Hazara ethnic minority who arrived on the coast of Northern Australia between 1999 and 2001 fleeing persecution from the Taliban.
GULPILIL - One Red Blood
Gulpilil - One Red Blood is a portrait of a unique and fascinating Australian actor. David Gulpilil lives a spartan and demanding life in tribal Arnhem land. The film shows David at home in Ramingining in Australia’s Northern Territory and in his other life as a respected film actor.
MAKING VENUS
Two cousins Jason and Julian decide it's time to change their lives and make a feature film The Venus Factory.
Making Venus documents their journey through pre-production, trouble with the unions, a script being rewritten only days before the shoot, and escalating costs. One disaster follows another. Creditors swarm in wanting their pound of flesh. Will the producers be able to attract a buyer for the film before it's too late?
THE SECRET SAFARI
The Secret Safari tells the story of one of the most audacious military operations in the armed fight against apartheid in South Africa. A character-driven journey of courage and suspense with reconstructions of events using the original participants.
THE DIPLOMAT
The Diplomat follows freedom fighter and Nobel Prize winner Jose Ramos Horta in the final tumultuous year of his 24 year campaign to secure independence for his country of East Timor.
DR. JAZZ
A Documentary about contemporary jazz in Sydney filtered through the personal perspective of the film’s director David Perry. It featured live performances from Bernie McGann Trio, Mike Nock Quartet and Clarion Fracture Zone - all recorded at the Strawberry Hills Hotel in Surry Hills. The film is also a meditation about jazz, art, and filmmaking.
WHITEYS LIKE US
An observational account of what happens when 15 white Australian strangers undertake a course of 8 weekly meetings to discuss, argue and hopefully learn about Aboriginal reconciliation. What goes on in a bland high school class room represents a fascinating microcosm of how white Australians are dealing (or not dealing) with the country’s indigenous past and present.
BILLAL
The dramatic repercussions of a serious act of racially-motivated violence. The victims are a Lebanese family living in an outer-Sydney suburb. Their teenage son, Billal is run-down by a car sustaining massive brain injury. The film, shot over a period of 15 months, follows the dramatic twists and turns in the life of the family as they slowly come to terms with this traumatic event.
EXILE IN SARAJEVO
Bosnian-Australian Tahir Cambis travelled to the city of Sarajevo in 1995 three years into its siege by Bosnian Serb forces. This poignant and moving observational documentary covers the last six months of conflict, and focuses on the impact of the war on the civilian population in Sarajevo, particularly its children. Cambis is both insider and outsider in this story and the film unfolds like a visual diary as he meets the city’s people, learns of the personal impacts of the war and comes to terms with his own cultural history.
HOMELANDS
HOMELANDS is a portrait of a marriage, the story of Maria and Carlos, refugees from the war in El Salvador who have settled in suburban Melbourne.
BRAN NUE DAE
BRAN NUE DAE is a documentary about the musical of the same name. The film is structured around two main elements: the production of the musical and the life of its creator Jimmy Chi. Both elements are interwoven with key participants in the musical, people important in Jimmy's life, and archival footage.
LORD OF THE BUSH
In the 1980s, Lord Alistair McAlpine, a larger-than-life romantic, arrived from England creating a whole new civilisation in Australia's North beginning with Broome. ls he to be regarded as the clever hunter mesmerising his prey, or should he be welcomed as the most sensitive and intelligent developer this country has yet encountered?
AMONGST EQUALS
A feature documentary about the history of the trade union movement in Australia released in controversial circumstances by the filmmaker. The film takes an oral history approach and includes interviews with unionists and historians.
FRIENDS & ENEMIES
The emergence of the New Right as a force to be reckoned with in Australian politics had its origins in one of the most bitter and protracted disputes in Australian labor history - the 1985 Queensland Power Dispute.
KEMIRA - DIARY OF A STRIKE
The film deals with one of the most determined attempts by workers to challenge the right of companies to make mass dismissals of workers on solely economic pretexts. In September 1982, at the height of the economic recession, Australian Iron and Steel, a subsidiary of Australia's largest company BHP, announced its intention to retrench 400 miners from six coal pits which supplied the company's Wollongong steelworks.
WATERLOO
Waterloo - a 50 minute documentary completed in 1981, is an historical account of the 1970’s battle by residents of this inner Sydney suburb to save the area from slum clearance and redevelopment by public housing authorities. In the early 70’s the state government initiated a massive scheme to pull down inner city terraces (‘slums’) to build new high rise public housing estates.
PORT BOTANY: A PLANNING DILEMMA
A documentary that examines the environmental and community impacts of the Botany Bay port development and the conflicts between the different parties involved.
ADDISON ROAD DROP-IN
A ‘process video’ by Tom Zubrycki that looks at some of the marginalised young people who come to the Addison Road Drop-In Centre in Marrickville.