Australian Screen

Australia’s audiovisual heritage online

All titles in the ‘Health’ genre

27 titles - sorted alphabetically or by year

A

Alicia documentary – 1996

Alicia and her parents believe the family’s collective faith aided her recovery from a brain injury sustained in a car accident.

Australian Story – With This Ring television program – 2005

Australian Story revisits remarkable couple the Shanns, two years after Gayle became entangled in a drilling machine on their property.

B

Backs to the Blast, an Australian Nuclear Story documentary – 1981

Made 25 years after nuclear tests were conducted in SA in the 1950s, this documentary stirred up a political hornet’s nest.

Betelnut Bisnis documentary – 2004

Betelnut is the fourth most consumed legal substance in the world after tobacco, alcohol and caffeine.

Big Girls Don’t Cry documentary – 2002

This is about Indigenous women living with renal disease, and their strength pulls at the heart strings.

Billal documentary – 1996

Skilled documentarian, Tom Zubrycki, set out to make a film about young Lebanese-Australians in Sydney but had to change tack.

The Bones of Building sponsored film – 1956

This Waterside Workers’ Federation Film Unit production is a safety film for building workers, commissioned by the Building Workers’ Industrial Union.

F

Final Insult documentary – 1997

When some people are 'allergic to the 20th century’ they become captives in their own homes.

G

Good Girls Do Swallow documentary – 2000

Dumb Idiotic Eating Trauma – Rachael Oakes-Ash takes a witty look at widespread dieting and its sometimes deadly consequences.

The Growing Child sponsored film – 1938

What has changed in the last 70 years is how the public health message is delivered. Rather than highlight dire consequences, this short film positively reinforces correct behaviour.

H

A Hard Rain documentary – 2007

A Hard Rain came out of David Bradbury’s concern that Australia was about to embark on the biggest environmental disaster since white settlement.

Helen’s War: Portrait of a Dissident documentary – 2003

Filmmaker Anna Brionowski follows her aunt, anti-nuclear activist Dr Helen Caldicott, for a year to capture the feelings of frustration and urgency of a 30-year campaign.

L

Least Said, Soonest Mended documentary – 1999

As a 15 year-old, Val had a daughter out of wedlock and was labelled 'a slut’ by her parents. After 25 years, Val contacts her daughter.

M

Midwives … Lullabies … and Mother Earth documentary – 1993

In Europe from the late 14th to the 17th centuries, many midwives were accused of being witches and burnt at the stake.

N

Narbalek documentary – 2001

Narbalek is one of more than 100 documentaries made in the Nganampa Anwernekenhe Series, designed primarily for Indigenous audiences.

No More Needles Please documentary – 1997

Since the age of two, James has required two daily injections of insulin to keep him alive. Now 12, he explores options for people with diabetes.

P

Poisoned Daggers sponsored film – c1941

The evocative title lends a sense of drama to the message being conveyed: that the mosquito’s bite is a threat not just to the health of the community, but also the war effort.

R

Rachel: A Perfect Life documentary – 2007

An intimate, observational documentary following a young woman as she goes through brain surgery to control her epilepsy.

S

Selling Sickness documentary – 2004

Direct-to-consumer advertising and newly created diseases such as ‘premenstrual dysphoric disorder’ have led to overuse of antidepressant drugs.

Sewerage of a Great City: Melbourne sponsored film – c1922

By the time this sponsored documentary was made, over 166,000 homes and 70,000 people were, according to its intertitles, 'enjoying the benefits of sewerage’ in Melbourne.

Size 10 documentary – 1978

Size 10 is about how four young women break free of the pressure to conform to beauty and fashion norms.

Super Flu: Race Against a Killer documentary – 2005

In 1997, Avian flu erupted in Hong Kong and crossed over into the human population. This is a report on the world’s preparedness for an airborne pandemic.

T

Think Twice sponsored film – 1958

This occupational safety film for metalworkers highlights three main sources of injury – heat, rays and fumes – and illustrates safe and unsafe ways to operate in the workplace.

Time Bomb documentary – 2003

A time bomb’ is how Frank Djara, a diabetic and the first male health worker in Areyonga, refers to living with diabetes.

The Trouble With Medicine: Conceiving the Future television program – 1993

This is a thought-provoking program about advances in medicine, which we leave in the hands of doctors at our peril.

W

Was That Really Me? documentary – 1997

Tracey’s response to her baby’s crying led her to realise that there was something wrong. An insight into postnatal depression.

Where Angels Fear To Tread documentary – 1997

Explores the political situation relating to voluntary euthanasia in the Northern Territory through the point of view of controversial figure Dr Philip Nitschke.