Titles tagged with ‘drugs’
33 titles - sorted alphabetically or by year
1930s
Uncivilised feature film – 1936
Uncivilised is basically an Australian Tarzan, but with an English singer, Dennis Hoey, playing the king of the jungle.
1950s
Smiley feature film – 1956
A mischievous boy in a small town tries to reform himself, in order to earn a bicycle.
1970s
Pure S feature film – 1975
Pure S was originally banned from release and remains one of the most unusual and frank films about drug use ever made in Australia.
Hot to Trot short film – 1977
A cartoon adventure featuring Captain Goodvibes, the pig of steel, and his sidekick Astro.
Palm Beach feature film – 1979
The underrated Palm Beach, set on Sydney’s northern beaches, is very daring in its use of sound.
1980s
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.
Scales of Justice television program – 1983
The quasi-documentary style of this series adds a gritty reality to the typical car patrol of a police crew on any evening shift around Sydney streets.
Dogs in Space feature film – 1986
Inner-city Melbourne, 1978. Aspiring rock singer Sam and his girlfriend Anna live in a crowded share house. The party atmosphere is shattered by tragedy.
Rebetika: Songs of Greece music – 1986
Rebetika music evolved in the 1920s, combining jail songs and hashish-smoking songs of the Greek underworld with music brought to Greece by refugees from the Greek-Turkish War.
The Money or the Gun – Heroin television program – 1989
Denton defends comedy as a means of being serious as he tackles the topic of heroin.
The Tightrope Dancer documentary – 1989
A portrait of flamboyant Australian artist and dancer Vali Myers.
1990s
Correlli – Rat Tamer television program – 1995
Hugh Jackman and Deborra-Lee Furness star in a drama about a psychologist and her relationships with the staff and inmates of an all-male prison.
Love and Other Catastrophes feature film – 1996
A light-hearted comedy that follows five Melbourne university students encountering love, study and house-share problems in the mid-‘90s.
Doing Time for Patsy Cline feature film – 1997
In Doing Time for Patsy Cline, Ralph (Matt Day) believes at the start that he wants to be a country singer, but he’s not so sure by the end.
Rachel’s Story documentary – 1997
At 16, Rachel was a prostitute and heroin addict in Kings Cross. Years later, she helps a prostitute reform.
What’s Your Poison? – Ecstasy television program – 1997
For young people of an age where drugs and alcohol are likely to be on offer, this is a no-nonsense examination of the pros and cons of taking ecstasy.
Wildside – Series 1 Episode 1 television program – 1997
The raw style of Wildside is characterised by intense, semi-improvised performances, observational camerawork and sometimes frenetic editing.
In the Winter Dark feature film – 1998
There have been genre films that explored this kind of rural paranoia, but not so many that take the loneliness of the bush seriously as a cause of real mental trauma.
Praise feature film – 1998
Praise has alcohol and tobacco, acid and heroin, sex and oblivion and is like a grungy version of Last Tango in Paris.
Soft Fruit feature film – 1999
This comedy, drenched in grief and family conflict, would be a tragedy if it were not so funny and affectionate.
2000s
Chopper feature film – 2000
The killer who feels no remorse is a movie cliché, but Chopper is about a killer whose remorse is as strong as his desire to wound.
The Summer of 77 short film – 2001
In this live action-animated short, a newly single woman runs into a former teenage crush and relives the summer they met.
A Cold Summer feature film – 2003
Three damaged individuals struggle to deal with pain and grief in different ways as their lives become entangled.
The Finished People feature film – 2003
This ultra-low budget feature cuts between three stories of disadvantaged young people struggling to survive on the streets of Cabramatta.
Betelnut Bisnis documentary – 2004
Betelnut is the fourth most consumed legal substance in the world after tobacco, alcohol and caffeine.
Deck Dogz feature film – 2005
Three teenage friends cross Sydney by skateboard to reach the Beachbowl skater competition, chased by two drug dealers and the police.
Boxing Day feature film – 2007
The unconventional production method helped give Boxing Day an unusually intense sense of foreboding, danger and unpredictability.
Summer Heights High – Episode 5 television program – 2007
Summer Heights High walks an interesting tightrope between observation and comedy, often seeming quite real and quite ridiculous at the same time.
West feature film – 2007
Pete and Jerry are like the ‘dole-bludgers’ and ‘welfare cheats’ found in current affairs programs; West makes them human.
Cedar Boys feature film – 2008
Three young Lebanese Australians get into deep water by stealing drugs from a dealer.
The Oasis documentary – 2008
Father figure, counsellor, saviour Paul Moulds works tirelessly to salvage lost children. Along the way, he reflects on his own past.
The Combination feature film – 2009
After serving a jail term a young Lebanese Australian man struggles to stop his wild younger brother from making the mistakes that he made.
2010s
Animal Kingdom feature film – 2010
A nervous 17-year-old boy struggles to survive his scary new criminal family after the death of his mother.
