Film & Television with Indigenous content
192 titles - sorted alphabetically or by year prev 1 2 3 4 next
Film and television titles written and/or directed by a non-Indigenous person.
1970s (continued)
Picnic at Hanging Rock feature film – 1975
On St Valentine’s Day 1900, three schoolgirls from an exclusive English-style boarding school go missing, along with a teacher, at Hanging Rock, in central Victoria.
Ask the Leyland Brothers – Episode 23 television program – 1976
The Leyland Brothers answer viewer requests and visit Broken Hill and Uluru.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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?
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.
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.
Just Out of Reach short feature – 1979
Brilliantly acted and shot, Just Out of Reach sits comfortably alongside other films produced during this rich and creative period of the Australian film industry.
North to Niugini documentary – 1979
Malcolm Douglas travels in a five-metre boat north along the coast of Australia, through the Torres Strait to New Guinea.
1980s
Manganinnie feature film – 1980
Tasmania, 1830. Joanna, a little white girl, is adopted by Manganinnie, an Aborigine who has survived a slaughter.
Morning Star Painter documentary – 1980
A portrait of Djiwul (Jack) Wunuwun, the Morning Star Painter, set in his homeland community of Gamedi in Arnhem Land.
Two Laws documentary – 1981
The concept of two laws – colonial and Indigenous law – can also be spoken about as two ways of storytelling or filmmaking.
Wrong Side of the Road feature film – 1981
Most black bands before this were playing country and western – Us Mob, Coloured Stone and No Fixed Address were among the first to play rock or reggae.
The Blainey View – Footprints television program – 1982
Geoffrey Blainey, one of Australia’s foremost and most controversial historians, later coined the term 'black armband view of history’.
Heatwave feature film – 1982
An architect and an activist from opposing sides unite against a crooked developer.
A Shifting Dreaming documentary – 1982
Ray Barrett stars in this story of Indigenous and non-Indigenous relations spanning from the 1928 Coniston massacre to Land Rights hearings in 1982.
We of the Never Never feature film – 1982
Race relations is the theme that is constantly lurking in this story about one woman’s life on an outback station.
Women of the Sun television program – 1982
The colonisation of Aboriginal peoples, and their lands and resources, as seen through the eyes of four generations of Aboriginal women.
For Love or Money documentary – 1983
Using almost totally historical material, For Love or Money encompasses the role of Australian women in both paid and unpaid work, over a 200 year period.
Going Down feature film – 1983
Four women friends leave behind the feral days of youth after a night of uncontrolled excess in inner-city Sydney during the early 1980s.
Lousy Little Sixpence documentary – 1983
Lousy Little Sixpence highlights the injustice of withheld wages, and the fight for rightful payment to be made to Indigenous peoples.
Peach’s Gold – Land of Gold television program – 1983
This Bill Peach documentary is full of events, larger-than-life characters and all the madness and colour of this most extraordinary chapter in Australia’s history.
Couldn’t Be Fairer documentary – 1984
This film, to some degree, is a tribute to Mick Miller, who was committed to fighting for the rights of Indigenous peoples.
The Flying Vet documentary – 1984
The bonus for the viewer is that the vet, and his wife, provide a real sense of what it’s like to live in remote Australia.
Mail Order Bride television program – 1984
A hard-hitting drama about racism, sexism and xenophobia in a small country town.
Peach’s Explorers – East to West television program – 1984
Bill Peach loves Australian history and tells us explorers’ stories by using their words, cleverly recreated from diaries and notebooks, and journeying through the same arid interior.
Peach’s Explorers – South to North television program – 1984
There’s a strong sense that each of these men is very much of his time, imbued with a duty to expand knowledge and a ruthless craving for fame and fortune.
Burke & Wills feature film – 1985
The epic and tragic story of the first expedition to cross Australia from south to north, in 1860–61.
The Coca-Cola Kid feature film – 1985
The Coca–Cola company sends its top trouble shooter to boost sales in Australia. He plans to win customers away from a much loved, old-style soft-drink maker.
Crocodile Dundee feature film – 1985
This is not just the most commercially successful Australian film ever made, but also one of the most successful non-Hollywood films.
Desert Walker: Gulf to Gulf documentary – 1985
The Flying Doctor base helped Denis Bartell when he became the first white man to walk across Australia from north to south.
A Fortunate Life television program – 1985
While most viewers will be aware of a strong note of irony underlying the story, there is no doubt that in the final analysis it is one of hope, endurance and faith in humanity.
Robbery Under Arms television program – 1985
Before this 1985 version there had been five attempts to tell this story, the best known being the Australian–British feature film of 1957 starring Peter Finch as Captain Starlight.
Short Changed feature film – 1985
The script is beautifully weighted so that the political context of the film does not inhibit the personal journey of the characters.
Babakiueria short film – 1986
A mockumentary surveying the culture and customs of the white native people of the land of ‘Babakiueria’, from the perspective of the country’s black colonisers.
Backlash feature film – 1986
Much of the dialogue in Bill Bennett’s film, about two police officers and a young indigenous woman, was improvised on location.
Cactus feature film – 1986
Cactus explores both the horror of not being able to see and the notion that blindness can sharpen the senses and lift the spirits.
Cyclone Tracy television program – 1986
A fictional account of one of Australia’s worst natural disasters – a major turning point in the history of Darwin.
The Fringe Dwellers feature film – 1986
This film has an Aboriginal ensemble cast, but a narrative based on a Western woman’s experience of an Aboriginal community.
Harp in the South television program – 1986
The ‘harp in the south’ refers to Irish immigrants in Australia. A mini-series, based on Ruth Park’s book, follows the Darcys in the aftermath of the Second World War.
Dreamtime, Machinetime documentary – 1987
There are strict rules about who can and can’t tell certain stories in indigenous culture, these distinguished artists reveal.
How the West was Lost documentary – 1987
The strike of 1 May 1946 was the first major strike by Indigenous peoples. It took a significant organisational effort to bring unified opposition against the powerful pastoral industry.
Painting the Town: A Film About Yosl Bergner documentary – 1987
Bergner was one of the first contemporary artists to depict the plight of urban Aboriginal people and parallel their dispossession with that of European Jews.
Pleasure Domes short film – 1987
The first Australian animation to compete at Cannes, Pleasure Domes is a reflection on the inevitability of attaching associations to perceptions of landscape.
The Shiralee television program – 1987
This miniseries was made during the golden decade of television drama. Its magic lies in the chemistry of Bryan Brown and Rebecca Smart.
