6482 results prev 1 2 ... 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 ... 324 325 next
Gramophone (1983)
Michael Leahy’s photographs and footage show the highlanders surrounding and looking at a gramophone (with a 1930s recording of ‘Looking on the Bright Side of Life’ playing on the soundtrack). In an interview, later on in the film, one of ... [read more]
‘Our first days at the beach’ (1941)
It is Spring 1941. An intertitle introduces this segment as ‘our first days at the beach’. Three children, the two eldest with model boats, come out of the backyard and walk down to the beach. On the beach, a woman ... [read more]
The breakout (2008)
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 into a flashback set in ... [read more]
The Ferals – An Explosion of Talent (1994)
The Ferals is an irreverent situation comedy starring a mangy group of animals living in the backyard shed of an inner-city home. In this first episode, a wannabe musical promoter (Miguel Ayesa) moves in and attempts to evict the Ferals ... [read more]
The Beach (2000)
Inspired by Geoffrey Dutton’s book Sun, Sea, Surf, and Sand: The Myth of the Beach (1985), this film looks at how Australia came to be the most beach-conscious nation on Earth. This is reflected in the way the beach has ... [read more]
‘Dead landscape’ (2000)
Out in the bush, ecologist Wyn Jones says that Australian bushland is not necessarily devoid of life if no mammals are visible. He points out that many animals are nocturnal and that other species like birds and insects can flourish ... [read more]
A Big Country – On the Hook (1976)
In the mid-1970s, when this program was made, the waterside workers were in well paid, full-time jobs. Few viewers would have known of their traumatic history and the growth of the union that protects the rights of workers on the ... [read more]
‘First flight trials’ (1963)
This clip shows the first testing of a scaled down version of the newly developed Ikara missile, conducted at Woomera and Port Wakefield from about February 1961. [read more]
Dick Smith Explorer (1983)
Australian electronics businessman Dick Smith was the first person to fly solo around the world in a helicopter in 1982. The voyage is around the world, travelling east, starting and ending in Fort Worth USA. The journey is recorded ... [read more]
Paper Trail, the Life and Times of a Woodchip (1991)
A documentary by Trevor Graham that reports on the international business of woodchipping and its role in the supply of pulp to support the world’s paper industries. It specifically focuses on the relationship between Japan and Australia and Australia’s role ... [read more]
The Eye of the Storm (2011)
Washed-up, UK-based thespian Sir Basil (Geoffrey Rush) and Dorothy (Judy Davis), an impoverished minor European princess, return to their Sydney family home as their eccentric, wealthy mother, Elizabeth Hunter (Charlotte Rampling), recovers from a stroke. The siblings are more interested ... [read more]
Australia (2008)
In 1939 English aristocrat Lady Sarah Ashley (Nicole Kidman) travels to Faraway Downs, a cattle station in the Northern Territory owned by her husband, Maitland (Anton Monsted). When she arrives, Maitland is dead. Blamed for his murder is King George ... [read more]
The Money or the Gun – Heroin (1989)
In this episode of his variety-chat show, host Andrew Denton explores the subject of heroin and heroin addiction. [read more]
The Pearl Fishers (1963)
A televised performance of The Pearl Fishers, an opera by Bizet with an improbable storyline but incomparable music. Zurga, chief of the pearl fishermen, and his great friend Nadir once vied for the hand of the beautiful priestess Leila. They ... [read more]
The Safe House (2006)
In the summer of 1954, Lee Whitmore (voiced as a child by Alycia Debnam-Carey and as an adult by Noni Hazlehurst) and her friends pass the time playing in a make-shift children’s swimming pool in the backyard and gazing out ... [read more]
‘Without a care in the world’ (2006)
Zef (voiced by Jono Wood) and his little elephant brother Tutu (voiced by Emily Hunt) laughingly recount their latest adventures with playmate zebras while cooling off in a waterhole. The narrators, a pair of cheetahs (voiced by Len Firth and ... [read more]
‘The gentleman’s war is over’ (1979)
In a lonely, windswept hill camp, far out in the veldt, Captain Hunt (Terence Donovan) instructs Captain Taylor (John Waters) to execute Boer prisoners brought in by Morant (Edward Woodward). When Morant queries the order to shoot prisoners, Hunt tells ... [read more]
Where Death Wears a Smile (1985)
Where Death Wears a Smile explores the experiences of two Australian soldiers, Walter Steilberg and Alex McClelland, who were thrown into Theresienstadt concentration camp near Prague in Czechoslovakia. This Nazi camp had a prison nearby known as the the 'Small ... [read more]
Smithy (1946)
A young Australian pilot in the Royal Flying Corps is shot in the foot while flying over the Western Front in 1917. Charles Kingsford Smith (Ron Randell) finishes the war with a Military Cross and a burning desire to do ... [read more]
‘We are at war’ (1985)
On 8 December 1941 John Curtin announces Australia is at war with Japan. He declares Australia must look to the United States rather than the United Kingdom for security. [read more]
