Titles from the 1970s
176 titles - sorted alphabetically or by year prev 1 2 3 4 next
1976 (continued)
The Devil’s Playground feature film – 1976
Both writer Thomas Keneally and director Fred Schepisi spent time in a Catholic seminary, the world explored in this drama.
Don’s Party feature film – 1976
The off-stage bedroom scenes in the original play became on-screen sex in this film, and the male characters got naked not just drunk.
General Motors Holden – Football, Meat Pies, Kangaroos and Holden Cars advertisement – c1976
This memorable advertising jingle from the 1970s was adapted from the American Chevrolet campaign, 'baseball, hot dogs, apple pie and Chevrolet’.
In the Wild with Harry Butler – Lake Argyle television program – 1976
Harry Butler CBE, naturalist and environmentalist, explains how man-made Lake Argyle has changed the ecology of the Kimberley region forever.
In the Wild with Harry Butler – Scars on the Landscape television program – 1976
Harry Butler seems the archetypal bushie, with his khaki shorts and battered bushman’s hat. He doesn’t work to a script, but moves around the bush with a keen eye.
Mad Dog Morgan feature film – 1976
Mad Dog Morgan updates the bushranging movie conventions, by seeing Morgan as a modern media phenomenon.
No Fences, No Boundaries – Walter Burley Griffin documentary – c1976
Walter Burley Griffin believed that 'buildings convey the most truth of the mental and spiritual states of various people and times’.
Number 96 – Episodes 1003 and 1004 television program – 1976
Melodrama thrives in the lives of the residents of a Sydney apartment block in the swinging seventies.
Oz – A Rock ‘n’ Roll Road Movie feature film – 1976
Director Chris Löfvén was heavily involved in the rock music scene. Oz was his attempt to rework The Wizard of Oz for a mid-1970s youth audience.
The Painters and Dockers Strike documentary – 1976
In the 1950s the Waterside Workers’ Federation of Australia had its own film unit to counter government policies of the day.
Peach’s Australia – Darling River television program – 1976
Bill Peach was a household name in Australia at the time he gave up being the presenter of This Day Tonight to return to his first love, travel journalism.
Peach’s Australia – Flinders Ranges television program – 1976
Peach’s meanders around the country he’s describing, offering tantalising snippets of history, spiced with art history and Aboriginal Dreaming stories.
Storm Boy feature film – 1976
Seamlessly woven into this story about one boy’s love of a pelican, are such themes as race relations, ecology, and family breakdown.
The Sullivans – On the Brink of War television program – 1976
The first four episodes of the long-running hit series cover the period leading up to the declaration of the Second World War in Australia on 3 September 1939.
The Trespassers feature film – 1976
Many films reflected the sexual revolution of the 1970s but few male directors explored what women wanted from it. This one does.
Trobriand Cricket: An Ingenious Response to Colonialism documentary – 1976
This anthropological documentary covers the unique innovations made by the Trobriand Islanders of Papua New Guinea to the game of cricket.
We Aim to Please short film – 1976
We Aim to Please incorporated experimental and feminist ideas and was a bold break away from the narrative films and factual documentaries of the time.
1977
Addison Road Drop-In documentary – 1977
The Sydney suburb of Marrickville has Australia’s ‘first, largest and longest-surviving community centre’; it is shown here in the 1970s.
Backroads short feature – 1977
Backroads (1977) is the first feature (albeit, a short one) by Phillip Noyce, who would go on to make Newsfront (1978) and Rabbit-Proof Fence.
Beyond Reasonable Doubt – Alexander McLeod Lindsey television program – 1977
Criminologist Hawkins presents the case of Alexander McLeod Lindsey, jailed for the brutal bashing of his wife. A series on possible miscarriages of justice.
Beyond Reasonable Doubt – The Case of Ronald Ryan television program – 1977
In 1967 Ronald Ryan was the last man to be hanged in Australia. With the public outrage about his execution, Australia ended capital punishment.
Cine Safari home movie – c1977
Cine Safari was made during a month-long trip by approximately 30 members of the Cine Society in the spring of 1977.
Dot and the Kangaroo feature film – 1977
A generation of Australian school children grew up on Dot and the Kangaroo and the six other Dot films that followed it. Really.
The FJ Holden feature film – 1977
When The FJ Holden premiered at the Chullora Drive-in in 1977, anyone driving an FJ or FX Holden got in free.
Hot to Trot short film – 1977
A cartoon adventure featuring Captain Goodvibes, the pig of steel, and his sidekick Astro.
Journey among Women feature film – 1977
Making this film in the 1970s became politically charged: should and could a male director make a meaningful film about women?
Jubilee and Beyond documentary – 1977
Eighteen thousand schoolchildren greet Her Majesty the Queen in 1977, giving a sense of the relationship between Australia and the UK at this time.
The Last Wave feature film – 1977
As the weather gets worse, tax lawyer David Burton has a premonition of disaster, in which he is to play a key role.
Life at the Top: A Week with Prime Minister Malcolm Fraser documentary – 1977
Tracks Malcolm Fraser for one week in 1977 as he goes about his prime ministerial duties in Canberra and takes trips to Kalgoorlie and Wollongong.
Love Letters from Teralba Road short feature – 1977
Based on letters found in a flat in Sydney, Love Letters from Teralba Road examines love among the working classes in the western suburbs.
The Picture Show Man feature film – 1977
The comic performances from John Meillon and John Ewart as the last of the itinerant vaudevillians are superb.
The Singer and the Dancer short feature – 1977
Ambitious and confidently made, The Singer and the Dancer was Gillian Armstrong’s first attempt at a longer form drama after making a couple of shorts.
Summer City feature film – 1977
Best known as Mel Gibson’s first movie, Summer City is a laid-back road movie that emerges as more than just a throwaway, thanks to strong performances.
1978
Action Loop sponsored film – 1978
The Melbourne Underground Rail Loop Authority projects a positive vision of the new underground railway loop as an investment in the city’s future.
A Big Country – The Challenge of Lake Eyre television program – 1978
Roma and John Dulhunty, explorers of the great outback, come to Lake Eyre to conduct their geological survey.
Black Beauty television program – 1978
Poignantly told from the horse’s point of view, this 1978 animated film from the classic novel tells of the heartbreaking consequences of unrestricted exploitation of animals.
The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith feature film – 1978
This is one of the key Australian films of the 1970s, because it speaks about the unspeakable with a depth of rage that was absolutely unprecedented and has never been repeated.
Conrad Martens documentary – 1978
Conrad Martens, whose watercolours are a valuable record of colonial Sydney, is reputed to be its first successful artist.
Cop Shop – Episode 109 television program – 1978
This episode of Cop Shop is notable for bringing together Mel Gibson, Steve Bisley and Joanne Samuel a short time before they all starred in George Miller’s landmark Mad Max (1979).
The Getting of Wisdom feature film – 1978
The affair between two school girls was only hinted at in Henry Handel Richardson’s 1910 novel, but lesbian overtones are obvious in the film.
In Search of Anna feature film – 1978
This film has a restless energy and is part of a pre-professional maverick tradition that grew out of the experimental cinema of the 1970s.
Letters From Poland short film – 1978
While the plight of migrant women was a pillar issue for 1970s and 1980s Australian feminism, this film’s approach to the issue is very much focused on the individual.
Long Weekend feature film – 1978
On a long weekend camping trip to a lonely beach, Peter and Marcia confront the despair of their marriage, as nature takes revenge on them.
Maidens documentary – 1978
Almost four years in the making, Maidens sparked impassioned debate and became compulsory viewing in women and film courses around the country.
My Survival as an Aboriginal documentary – 1978
The first documentary directed by an Indigenous woman offers a solution by way of continuing cultural practice.
The Naked Vicar Show – Series 2 Episode 2 television program – 1978
The Naked Vicar Show is a sketch comedy series that lampoons suburban Australian society.
Newsfront feature film – 1978
Some believe that Newsfront, set in the late 1940s and incorporating extensive newsreel footage, is Australia’s best film.
The Night the Prowler feature film – 1978
This savage satire on the neuroses of the privileged of Sydney’s eastern suburbs was written by the great novelist Patrick White.
Patrick feature film – 1978
Patrick proved that Australia had the capacity to produce exportable exploitation movies and is better regarded now than it was in 1978.
