Australian
Screen

an NFSA website

1983 titles prev 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 ... 99 100 next

Rats in the Ranks (1996)

In fly-on-the-wall style, Rats in the Ranks exposes the machinations behind the political process as Leichhardt Mayor Larry Hand tries to get the numbers to win his fourth term as mayor. As the main character, Hand is driven, charismatic and ... [read more]

The SBF Story (2007)

This is a four-part chronological documentary made by Frank Straford on the history of SBF (Straford Brothers Films) – an amateur production company formed by Frank and his brother John in the 1950s. It features excerpts (both mute and ... [read more]

The Mighty Conqueror (1931)

This short documentary made by the McDonagh sisters (Paulette, Isobel and Phyllis) shows Phar Lap on and off the track. It includes footage of the gelding in his stables, at play with strapper and trainer Tommy Woodcock, and competing for ... [read more]

The Phantom Stockman (1953)

Kim Marsden (Jeanette Elphick) inherits a cattle station near Alice Springs. Convinced that her father was murdered, Kim asks local Aborigines to send a message to ‘the Sundowner’, a legendary bushman who roams the outback. Adopting the name Ted Simpson, ... [read more]

Cartoons of the Moment – The War Zoo (c1915)

A segment from an animated political series created by cartoonist Harry Julius for wartime editions of the Australasian Gazette newsreel. In this edition, zoo animals are used to depict the major warring countries including: a lion (Britain), an eagle (the ... [read more]

A Big Country – The Drover (1981)

Jack Tawney has been a drover most of his life. He left school at age 13 and has been moving sheep along the ‘long paddock’ ever since. A Big Country captures a day in the life of this iconic Australian ... [read more]

The Constant Threat (1946)

This short community service announcement raises awareness about tuberculosis and encourages people to have a free chest x-ray provided by the NSW Department of Public Health. A man on his way home from work approaches an x-ray caravan stationed ... [read more]

The Archive Project (2006)

An old suitcase filled with film remnants sparks a search for the history of Melbourne’s Realist Film Unit. Filmmaker John Hughes tracks down surviving members of the group to piece together their story and find missing films. We learn that ... [read more]

The Happy Years (c1958)

This short film, shot in black-and-white, promotes the operations of the School Medical Service within NSW state schools in the 1950s. The film describes how the service aims to provide a holistic approach to child health, covering physical and ... [read more]

The Waiting City (2009)

An Australian couple, lawyer Fiona (Radha Mitchell) and musician Ben (Joel Edgerton), arrive in the heady atmosphere of Kolkata to finalise the adoption of an Indian baby. In this overcrowded city, the culture clash, a frustratingly inefficient adoption bureaucracy and ... [read more]

The Australians’ Final Campaign in 1918 (c1919)

The footage spans from September 1917, after the Third Battle of Ypres, to almost the end of the war a year later. Soldiers dig and revet trenches, laying duckboards to bring the trench floor above the mud. Railway crews build ... [read more]

The Hungry Miles (1955)

The Hungry Miles is a documentary made by the Waterside Workers’ Federation Film Unit. It documents industrial relations on the waterfront since the 1930s and includes dramatised scenes of working conditions during the Depression. It also recounts the background to ... [read more]

Women in the Surf (1986)

Women in the Surf is a film of its time – a reminder that the Australian surf was not always enjoyed equally by both men and women. It combines a look at the sexism in the sport and the perseverance ... [read more]

The Hero of the Dardanelles (1915)

Will Brown (Guy Hastings) enlists in the Australian Army, soon after the outbreak of the First World War. He puts away his sporting equipment, in favour of more serious duties. He joins hundreds of other men in a training camp ... [read more]

End of the Rainbow (2007)

End of the Rainbow is an Australian-French co-production that tracks an industrial gold mine being dismantled piece by piece in Kalimantan, Borneo in Indonesia and reconstructed in a remote part of Guinea, West Africa. To make way for the mine, ... [read more]

Cartoons of the Moment – The Kaiser War (c1918)

Cartoons of the Moment was an animated segment by Harry Julius that appeared in wartime editions of the Australasian Gazette newsreel. This edition comments on events at the end of the First World War in Germany and on Australia’s wartime ... [read more]

The Flying Doctor (1941)

Far from medical facilities on an outback station, a station worker is struck down with an attack of acute appendicitis. In a re-enactment of an actual event, the coordinated efforts of the Flying Doctor, the Australian Aerial Medical Service (read more]

Sanitation and the City (c1957)

A documentary produced for the Melbourne and Metropolitan Board of Works which provides an overview of Melbourne’s development and expansion since the 1880s, the history of the city’s sewerage system and the work of the read more]

Homicide – The Superintendent (1970)

A young girl, Alice (Jessica Ball), is heartbroken when homicide detectives take away ‘Jennifer’, her new favorite toy. Jennifer is a human skull with a bullet rattling around inside. Senior Detective Patterson (Norman Yemm) needs Alice to tell him where ... [read more]

Service in the Sun (1957)

In 1956, after Australians have enjoyed the Melbourne Olympics, members of the American and Hawaiian surf lifesaving teams come to Sydney to show the latest surfing techniques, on their new lightweight balsawood boards. Young Australian boys meet the great Hawaiian ... [read more]

prev 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 ... 99 100 next