Titles tagged with ‘desert’
32 titles - sorted alphabetically or by year
A
An AIM Patrol documentary – 1927
This film documented outback life in the 1920s and may have been made to accompany a written report.
B
The Back of Beyond documentary – 1954
Battling heat, dust and flood, Tom Kruse delivers mail, stores and supplies along the 517 kilometre Birdsville Track in central Australia.
Black and Dusty documentary – 2005
This is a film for those addicted to speed and dust. Filmmaker Warwick Thornton is one of the Indigenous participants in the 2005 Finke Desert Race from Alice Springs.
Bungalung: A Dreaming of Cannibals documentary – 2007
A dramatised documentary about an ancient ghost story told by two Anmatjere elders to a group of children.
Burke & Wills feature film – 1985
The epic and tragic story of the first expedition to cross Australia from south to north, in 1860–61.
C
Cactus feature film – 2007
Cactus, while full of thrills and suspense, gradually reveals a more humanistic agenda as it employs genre conventions to explore notions of masculinity, class and power.
Central Australia: The Eighth Wonder television program – 1989
Bushie explorer Ted Egan tours places of wonder in Central Australia.
Children of the Silk Road feature film – 2007
A love story set against the backdrop of the Japanese occupation of China prior to the Second World War.
D
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.
Double Trouble – Episode 7 television program – 2007
Double Trouble has entertaining and likeable characters and boasts an experienced cast. It also wonderfully captures an Indigenous sensibility and humour.
The Dream and the Dreaming documentary – 2003
When Lutheran missionaries arrived in Central Australia, the strength of the existing culture made it challenging to make converts.
E
Epsilon feature film – 1995
Rolf de Heer combines extraordinary time lapse photography with a drama that argues that the human race is killing the planet.
G
The Golden West documentary – 1940
This film was made by William George Alma, a member of the Victorian Amateur Cine Society who was predominantly a magician and collector of material about magic.
J
Japanese Story feature film – 2003
An unexpected plot development in the middle of Japanese Story left audiences stunned and disbelieving — and occasionally hostile.
Journey Out of Darkness feature film – 1967
In 1901 Constable Peterson arrives in Central Australia to arrest an Arrernte man who has committed a ritual killing.
K
Kiss or Kill feature film – 1997
This Australian film stood out from others of the time because of its fresh mixture of genre thrills, narrative intrigue and black humour.
L
The Last of the Knucklemen feature film – 1979
Near the remote town of Andamooka a group of opal miners work for Tarzan, a tough foreman known as ‘the last of the knucklemen’ for his fighting abilities.
The Last of the Nomads documentary – 1997
A feature-length documentary about an expedition to find the last suriving nomadic couple, who broke tribal marriage laws and fled into the Gibson desert.
Letters to Ali documentary – 2004
One family’s willingness to embrace 15-year-old Ali stands in contrast to the media’s portrayal of asylum seekers as ‘terrorists’ or ‘people smugglers’.
Lucky Miles feature film – 2007
Few Australian films have dealt with illegal immigration and refugees. Lucky Miles does so through comedy, but without losing its sense of compassion.
M
Masterpiece Special – Robyn Davidson television program – 1996
Masterpiece specials rely on the strength of the interviews, which can hold an audience especially if the interviewer is someone of the calibre of Andrea Stretton.
Message Stick – Kurtal: Snake Spirit television program – 2002
A beautiful story about Kurtal, an ancestor and Dreaming song, and the Elder Spider, whose responsibility it is to perform the dance as well as pass it on.
N
Nature of Australia – A Separate Creation television program – 1989
This first episode of the most expensive wildlife program ever made in Australia boasts magnificent photography and a great script.
Nature of Australia – The Sunburnt Country television program – 1989
At the time this series was made, the program makers felt they were showing Australian flora and fauna to many Australians for the first time.
P
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.
Plains Empty short film – 2005
Plains Empty functions as a metaphor for the whole Australian landscape, where the living characters are beset by the spirits of the past, and at no time is the past truly absent.
R
The Rats of Tobruk feature film – 1944
The Rats of Tobruk may not be Charles Chauvel’s best movie, but it deserves serious consideration as his best movie about war.
T
Tim Storrier, ‘Lighting Fires’ documentary – 1993
Painter Tim Storrier journeys to the outback accompanied by his father and his son, and talks about his love of the desert and bush upbringing.
W
Walkabout feature film – 1970
A 16-year-old English girl and her 8-year-old brother are stranded in the desert, after their father shoots himself. They are rescued by a young tribal Aborigine.
Warren H Williams, the stories, the songs documentary – 2004
Inspired by his musical family, Arrernte musician Warren H Williams became a singer-songwriter himself.
Winging It short film – 1998
A short animation about a young man who recalls a piece of family lore which helps him out of a potentially tricky situation.
