Filmmaker Ken G Hall tells how he was convinced by comedian Bert Bailey to make the feature film, On Our Selection (1932). He discusses the difficulties of production on a very limited budget, and recalls …

Marg’s first placement with Médecins Sans Frontières (Doctors Without Borders) was in South Sudan where a terrible civil war had been raging for over 20 years. She was thrown into the work from the …

Babe (voiced by Christine Cavanaugh) is humiliated in his first attempt to control a pen of sheep. Fly (voiced by Miriam Margolyes) tells him that pigs are inferior, which he doesn’t believe. Rex (voiced …

Lena (Dannielle Hall) is sitting in a bus shelter. Her brother Liam (Mundurra Weldon) skids to a halt on his bike. Liam asks for money. A police car drives by. All eyes are on the …

Young Anglo-Australian Linc talks about how he was escaping from a potential attack when he accidentally ran down a young Australian-Lebanese man. He describes how, although he fears for his life, he sympathises with the …

Brett (David Wenham) provokes a fight with Jackie (Jeanette Cronin), Glenn’s girlfriend, as the police arrive at the front door. Sandra (Lynette Curran) tries to jolly her son along, then defends him against the …

Kamimura (Kuni Hashimoto), the Japanese prisoner leading the outbreak, addresses his fellow prisoners and prepares them for the glory of imminent death. The men then begin their breakout in a brief sequence that quickly segues …

In this flashback to the First World War, Jack (Jai Koutrae) cowers in his trench as a shell explodes, showering him with debris and dust and temporarily deafening him.

After she recovers from the car accident, an eye specialist tells Colo (Isabelle Huppert) that her left eye must be surgically removed if she is to retain any sight. She refuses the choice. At home …

In reconstruction, in an overgrown field, an Aboriginal woman staggers through the lofty vegetation before falling to the ground. Frank, in voice-over narration, tells us that his mother’s heart and spirit were broken, and …

An ethnic young man outlines his wishes for life: money, success in business and community respect.

Australian artist Brett Whiteley says that he was born with a 'powerful gift’. Whiteley points out that many 'gifted people shipwreck’. He talks of his addiction to drugs and says it is a way of …

In the panic and confusion of the Labor government’s sacking and the packing up and the frenzied shredding of documents, Gough Whitlam stands alone, a tragic figure, before all his friends and colleagues. He …

Ralph (Matt Day) is nervous as he prepares to leave his parents’ property in western Queensland, bound for Nashville. His father (Roy Billings) has to stiffen his resolve, and give him some good advice about …

Mr Baum (Warren Mitchell) has become unhinged by the injustice of his internment. He’s harmless enough but he has made himself the camp spokesman and has approached the soldiers on duty in the tower …

Luc (Anh Do) and his sister Anne (Lisa Saggers) discuss football as they wait for the team’s first practice to start. Anne holds her pet tortoise, Britney, a gift from her brother. Luc gives …

In interviews, two Jordanians – journalist Rana Husseini and Dr Amal A Sabbagh (experts on honour killings) – both dispute Khouri’s claims in the book and enumerate factual errors. Interwoven with these interviews are re-enactments, animations …

Lost in the desert, on their way to join up, Archy (Mark Lee) and Frank (Mel Gibson) discuss politics, patriotism and the reasons for war.

Detective Sergeant Ray Birch (Bruno Lawrence) calls journalist Tom Stewart (Colin Friels) forward at the site of an armed siege. A three-time rapist called Les (Richard Carter) has a woman tied up in a warehouse …

After a long winter, Memphis (voiced by Hugh Jackman) prays for the return of the sun. As the thaw begins, the Emperor penguin eggs hatch all over the colony – except for Memphis’s egg. Newborn …

The great granddaughter of Biddy O’Shea has flown to the Northern Territory station run by Frank Morrison, great grandson of James, to talk about their future together, but they disagree about his ‘prehistoric’ views …

Large newly felled logs are transported to the timber mills where they are converted into useable wood to furnish the modern home. This is explained through a voice-over by the narrator of the film, a …

Soon after Rose (Joan Chen) returns to live with ‘Uncle Bill’ in Melbourne, Bill goes back to sea for four months, leaving her in the house with his disapproving mother (Kerry Walker). Rose decides to …

The four friends have secured the body in the river, to stop it floating away. The next day they catch more fish than they have ever caught on one of their fishing trips. The youngest …

Kim (Gina Riley), aka 'Hornbag,’ visits Brett (Peter Rowsthorn) at work in order to buy a modem from him. Back home, she fights with Sharon (Magda Szubanski) when Sharon wants a turn on the computer …

Kenny (Shane Jacobson) takes his son Jesse (Jesse Jacobson) to see his grandfather (Ronald Jacobson), at a trailer park outside Melbourne. On the way, Kenny explains to his son why he doesn’t believe in …

Upset by a patient, psychiatrist Dr Valerie Somers (Barbara Hershey) attacks a stranger in the street, imagining she heard a remark. The stranger, Pete O’May (Glenn Robbins) seeks refuge in a pub, where he …

Valerie has disappeared. Detective Zat (Anthony LaPaglia) suspects her husband John (Geoffrey Rush) of having an affair with one of her male patients, Patrick Phelan. John and Zat discuss marriage in a moment of truth.

An official visiting the orphanage in Liverpool invites the children to do their bit for the British Empire by putting themselves forward to begin a new life in Rhodesia, Australia or Canada.

With his heroin supply dried up, Lionel goes into severe withdrawal and begs Tracy (Cate Blanchett) to buy him some heroin. She is appalled, but she does it, buying heroin on the street for the …

Tracy (Cate Blanchett), her brother Ray (Martin Henderson) and her boyfriend Jonny (Dustin Nguyen) have driven from Sydney to an isolated farm, to buy a large amount of amphetamines. At the farm, they find Lionel …

An octopus discovers lobsters trapped in a lobster pot. When the fishers pull up the pot they discover a lobster has been eaten by the octopus.

Returning from her father’s funeral, Meryl (Justine Clarke) daydreams a series of disasters that might happen to the train she’s riding. In one, the train runs into a tunnel that collapses on top …

Josie (Pia Miranda) laments the lack of privacy in her life. Every afternoon she must visit her grandmother, Nonna Katia (Elena Cotta), where everything she does is already known, courtesy of Nonna’s network of …

Ken Sherry (George Shevtsov) gets personal with his listeners in Sunray, a small town on the Murray River. Dimity Hurley (Miranda Otto) stops under a roadside speaker to listen, trying to ignore a ute full …

The six Iraqis and six Cambodians have swum ashore from the Indonesian fishing boat. The captain Muluk (Sawung Jabo) tells them to climb a sand dune and wait for a bus, but he knows there …

Archival images of long-grassers are juxtaposed with contemporary images of homeless Aboriginal people. We also meet an Aboriginal man from Bathurst Island who, for his own reasons, lives as a long-grasser in Darwin.

John (Mark Constable) believes he has seen Tom (Don Barker), his dead uncle. He hides his thoughts from wife Emily (Victoria Hill), who begins to suspect something is wrong.

Mrs Williams (Rhondda Findleton) tells her other boarders and her children, Cherry (Rebecca Smart) and Sam (Steven Scott-Young) that a new boarder is moving into the house. Later in the evening as Cherry is wearing …

Satine (Nicole Kidman) tells Christian (Ewan McGregor) she cannot afford to fall in love. Christian believes that love is everything.

Muriel (Toni Collette) has run away to Sydney, where she shares a flat with Rhonda (Rachel Griffiths), her new best friend. A shy young man called Bruce (Matt Day) asks Muriel on a date, which …

Sybylla Melvyn (Judy Davis) tells younger sister Gertie (Marion Shad) of her desire to escape a life of rural drudgery. Her frustrations increase when she’s sent to drag her father out of the pub.

While staying with her well-to-do grandmother, Sybylla (Judy Davis) has a crisis about her looks. Her Aunt Helen (Wendy Hughes) tells her to stop looking in mirrors and tries to make her more feminine. Suitor …

Harry Beecham (Sam Neill) has waited two years for Sybylla (Judy Davis) to agree to marry. As drought grips the land again, he comes for an answer, but Sybylla explains why she cannot.

Liz affirms her commitment to love, but vows never to repeat (or at least try never to repeat) the experience of loss she has felt after the end of the relationship with Steve. She quotes …

Nicaragua is attacked at its borders by the Contras. They are backed by the USA, which claims that Nicaragua is supplying arms to leftist guerrillas in El Salvador. Tomás Borge, the Nicaraguan Minister for the …

Neri (Marzena Godecki) is stunned when a hologram of her long-dead father (Robert Cooper) appears. He explains some of her history and how their mission was to watch over human colonisation of the sea. He …

Alex (Elena Mandalis) comes to pick up Vicki (Dora Kaskanis) from home, after a big party the night before. Vicki’s father (George Harlem) tells his daughter to tie her hair back and close her …

Mrs Rudd (Alfreda Bevan) tries to welcome Mrs White (Dorothy Dunkley) to her humble home, but Dad Rudd (Bert Bailey) scares her away when he appears in his nightshirt. He is driven mad by toothache …

Over a ballad recounting the main events in the Painters and Dockers dispute, a montage of images sets the scene at the Garden Island docks. People with placards and signs enter an inner-city building.

In …

Marion (Jane Vallis) tries to make sense of her changed perspective, as she looks down on the sleeping picnickers. Miranda (Anne Lambert) leads the girls higher, to the foot of a series of strange monoliths …

Andy (Russell Crowe) meets Celia (Geneviève Picot) at Martin’s house. She has not known of his existence in Martin’s life until just before this scene. She tells him that Martin is in the …

A TV news reporter describes a bitter rivalry in the city of Verona Beach. Engaged in the deadly feud are Romeo’s Montague family and the Capulet family of Juliet.

On the eve of her marriage to Dave Paris, Juliet (Claire Danes) becomes suicidal. Father Laurence (Pete Postlethwaite) proposes a radical solution that will allow her to avoid the marriage and reunite with Romeo.

Raimond (Kodi Smit-McPhee) discovers that his mother Christina (Franka Potente) has taken an overdose. While his father Romulus (Eric Bana) rushes to get help, Raimond must try to keep his mother awake, so he tells …

Kerry’s hard bitten mother, played superbly by Jacqy Phillips, doles out some advice born of bitter experience as she washes her daughter Kerry’s (Belinda McClory) hair. She is determined Kerry won’t have …

Roger Pascoe (Colin Friels) is directing his wife (Elizabeth Alexander) and their actor friend and drama teacher (Linden Wilkinson) in the play by Strindberg The Stronger.

David’s music teacher Mr Rosen (Nicholas Bell) pleads with Mr Helfgott (Armin Mueller-Stahl) to let David take up an offer of a music scholarship in America. Mr Helfgott has no money and does not …

David (Noah Taylor) is now a star student at the Royal College of Music in London, and one of the candidates for the Concerto Medal. He proposes performing Rachmaninoff’s 3rd Concerto for Piano for …

After an unhappy first night in Jindabyne Heidi (Abbie Cornish) returns to the pub during the day. Joe (Sam Worthington), who has seen her the night before, buys her a drink. That night, they begin …

Mr Wallace (Anthony Hopkins) takes Carey (Ben Mendelsohn) on as his offsider, in a study of employee efficiency. Carey jumps at the chance, because it means sharing a desk with the gorgeous Cheryl (Rebecca Rigg …

Mr Wallace (Anthony Hopkins) has told Mr Ball (Alwyn Kurts) that 60% of the workforce must be sacked, and his factory can’t compete with cheap Asian imports. Mr Ball offers a different view of …

Scott (Paul Mercurio) dances alone while Fran (Tara Morice) watches from a hidden vantage point. She tells him that she likes his rule-breaking style and wants to partner him at the Pan Pacific championships.

At the Pan Pacific championships, Doug Hastings (Barry Otto) starts a handclap in support of son Scott (Paul Mercurio) and his partner Fran (Tara Morice). Scott and Fran give a thrilling exhibition of their rule-breaking …

Commanding officer Steve Hussey conducts training exercises on board the Collins-class submarine HMAS Rankin. During these exercises, a real emergency engulfs the crew when a leaky exhaust valve fills the area with smoke.

After his wife has walked out, Gordon (Jon Darling) arrives at Kay’s door, looking for help from his daughters. Sweetie (Geneviève Lemon) becomes anxious and self-conscious at the sight of him. Gordon later defends …

Kate visits a volunteer organisation to get help to locate her birth parents. Barry (Nick Enright) explains why there is so much secrecy around the details of adoption.

Penny (Briony Behets) and Dee (Judy Morris) have gone to a house by the sea for a weekend alone but a succession of men passes through, including two men whose car has broken down. When …

Richard (John Derum) has arrived unannounced, and uninvited, at the house by the sea. He has not known until then of his wife’s new friendship with his lover. Neither woman gives him a warm …

Desperate for a swim, Jimmy (Heath Ledger) buries an envelope containing $10,000 in the sand at Bondi beach. While he’s in the water, street kids Helen (Mariel McClorey) and Pete (Evan Sheaves) steal …

Cockroaches have been on earth for 300 million years. Humankind may seem like a passing evolutionary novelty by comparison. Cockroaches are remarkable survivors being highly sensitive to smell and air movement.

The travellers stop for petrol at Emu Creek, after a long day’s drive from Broome. Ben (Nathan Phillips) records the events on video as the others freshen up. Kristy (Kestie Morassi) tells Ben that …