The Ripple Effect (2021)

Morning of the Earth

In the early ‘70s, founding member of Australian surf magazine Tracks, Albert Falzon, began filming off the North Coast of New South Wales, Hawaii, and Indonesia. He set out to make a film “that was a reflection of the spirit of surfing at the time” and the end result, Morning of the Earth, proved its worth as a vital document of surf culture and a powerful nature film.

AC/DC: Dirty Deeds

Formed in Australia in 1973 by brothers Angus and Malcolm Young, AC/DC are considered pioneers of heavy metal. They are one of the highest grossing bands of all time. Using archive footage and interviews with Angus Young and former manager Michael Browning this fascinating programme takes you on a journey from their early days in Australia with Bon Scott to Brian Johnson joining the band and beyond.

Frantz Fanon: His Life, His Struggle, His Work

It is the evocation of a life as brief as it is dense. An encounter with a dazzling thought, that of Frantz Fanon, a psychiatrist of West Indian origin, who will reflect on the alienation of black people. It is the evocation of a man of reflection who refuses to close his eyes, of the man of action who devoted himself body and soul to the liberation struggle of the Algerian people and who will become, through his political commitment, his fight, and his writings, one of the figures of the anti-colonialist struggle. Before being killed at the age of 36 by leukemia, on December 6, 1961. His body was buried by Chadli Bendjedid, who later became Algerian president, in Algeria, at the Chouhadas cemetery (cemetery of war martyrs ). With him, three of his works are buried: “Black Skin, White Masks”, “L’An V De La Révolution Algérien” and “The Wretched of the Earth”.

Australia: Land Beyond Time

Australia: Land Beyond Time takes viewers on a breathtaking journey back in time to witness the birth and evolution of a mysterious land that harbors remnants of Earth's earliest life and many of it's strangest creatures that exist nowhere else on the planet.

The Platypus Guardian

In a time of hardship, Hobart resident Peter Walsh turns to the secretive platypus for solace, only to discover it is the platypus that need his help to survive in a habitat under threat.

The Search for the Ocean's Super Predator

There's a mysterious predator lurking in the depths of Australia's wild Southern Ocean, a beast that savagely devoured a great white shark in front of cinematographer David Riggs 11 years ago. Riggs's obsession to find the killer leads him to an aquatic battle zone that's remained hidden until now. Here, killer whales, colossal squid and great white sharks face off in an underwater coliseum where only the fiercest creatures of the marine world survive.

Becoming Bond

The stranger-than-fiction true story of George Lazenby, a poor Australian car mechanic who, through an unbelievable set of circumstances, landed the role of James Bond despite having never acted a day in his life.

Under the Sea 3D

Imagine a world of incredible color and beauty. Of crabs wearing jellyfish for hats. Of fish disguised as frogs, stones and shag carpets. Of a kaleidoscope of life dancing and weaving, floating and darting in an underwater wonderland. Now, go explore it! Howard Hall and his filmmaking team, who brought you Deep Sea and Into the Deep, take you into tropical waters alive with adventure: the Great Barrier Reef and other South Pacific realms. Narrated by Jim Carrey and featuring astonishing camerawork, this amazing film brings you face to fin with Nature's marvels, from the terrible grandeur (and terrible teeth) of a Great White to the comic antics of a lovestruck cuttlefish. Excitement and fun run deep Under the Sea!

Kick Like Tayla

Kick Like Tayla shares a raw and unfiltered look into the life of AFLW player and boxing champion, Tayla Harris, as she confronts public and personal challenges, and channels her platform for good.

White Riot

Exploring how punk influenced politics in late-1970s Britain, when a group of artists united to take on the National Front, armed only with a fanzine and a love of music.

Deep Water: The Real Story

In the 1980s and 1990s a wave of murders bloodied the idyllic coastline of Sydney’s eastern suburbs. The victims: young gay men. Disturbing gang assaults were being carried out on coastal cliffs around Sydney, and mysterious deaths officially recorded as "suicide", "disappearance" and "misadventure". Individual stories are woven together by first person interviews and detailed re-enactments, piecing together the facts of these unsolved cases, decades later.

In My Blood It Runs

The story of Dujuan, a 10-year-old Aboriginal boy living in Alice Springs, Australia, who is struggling to balance his traditional Arrernte/Garrwa upbringing with a state education.

The MacArthur Facade

An amateur documentary crew dive into a growing opioid epidemic within Australia's Capital only to discover horrifying truths.

When We Were Kings

It's 1974. Muhammad Ali is 32 and thought by many to be past his prime. George Foreman is ten years younger and the heavyweight champion of the world. Promoter Don King wants to make a name for himself and offers both fighters five million dollars apiece to fight one another, and when they accept, King has only to come up with the money. He finds a willing backer in Mobutu Sese Suko, the dictator of Zaire, and the "Rumble in the Jungle" is set, including a musical festival featuring some of America's top black performers, like James Brown and B.B. King.

The Price of Protest

United States, September 1st, 2016. American football player Colin Kaepernick kneels during the national anthem, protesting police brutality against black people. Part of the population regards the gesture as an unacceptable affront to the flag. Later, he loses his place on his team. Today, however, he is considered by many as a true hero.

Namatjira Project

From the remote Australian desert to the opulence of Buckingham Palace - Namatjira Project is the iconic story of the Namatjira family, tracing their quest for justice.

Dominion

Exposing the dark underbelly of modern animal agriculture through drones, hidden & handheld cameras, the feature-length film explores the morality and validity of our dominion over the animal kingdom.

Antifa: Skinhead Hunters

A French documentary on how groups of youth in Paris generated a backlash against the NeoNazi skinhead subculture, and by doing so earned themselves the nickname Chasseurs de Skins or 'Skinhead Hunters'.

Mega Predators of Oz

In Australia, sharks have recently been recorded with unusual prey-including other sharks. In order to figure out what has caused this shift in diet, Dr. Charlie Huvaneers and team head to shark infested waters to find out what's in the stomach of a great white - and why.

Kids On Ice

Quiet towns across rural Australia are in the grip of an Ice epidemic. Major international drug cartels are working with local outlawed motorcycle gangs to push crystal meth to a captive market of children.

Ablaze

A feature documentary about opera singer Tiriki Onus who finds a 70-year-old silent film believed to be made by his grandfather, Aboriginal leader and filmmaker Bill Onus. As Tiriki travels across the continent and pieces together clues to the film’s origins, he discovers more about Bill, his fight for Aboriginal rights and the price he paid for speaking out.

Totems and Taboos

In Brussels, Belgium, the Royal Museum of Central Africa is undertaking a radical renovation, both physical and ethical, to show with sincerity, crudeness and open-mindedness the reality of the atrocities perpetrated against the inhabitants of the Belgian colonies in Africa, still haunted and traumatized by the ghost of King Leopold II of Belgium, a racist and genocidal tyrant.

The Australian Dream

AFL legend Adam Goodes shares the story of his life and career to offer a deeper insight into race, identity, and belonging.

Burning

Follows the deadly Australian bushfires of 2019-2020, known as ‘Black Summer’. Burning is an exploration of what happened as told from the perspective of victims of the fires, activists and scientists.

Finke: There & Back

The iconic Finke Desert Race, the largest off-road motorsport event in the southern hemisphere and Australia's fastest, deadliest, toughest and certainly dustiest race. Filmed over three years, Finke explores the race from within – competitors, organisers, paramedics, and the drive to win against the desert at all costs. Finke is a visual adventure of inspiration and danger, excitement and spills.

Nothing Can Stop The Radiance

Filmmakers Sam and Amy journey into rural Australia to explore how the legacy of an American legend has transmitted and warped itself over time, and across the globe, resulting in the 30th annual Parkes Elvis Festival.

Pearl Jam: Sponsored By No One

The Pearl Jam Movie!! That’s right. Made in 1995 by the band when Jack Irons was drummer and filmed over the course of their 1995 Far-East tour in Japan, Taiwan, Australia and New Zealand…it’s half tour documentary and half movie. This movie was apparently scrapped by the band at the final mixing stage for some unknown reason, seems completely unedited/uncut. It full of really wild and weird little skits by the band (like Ed and Jack acting out some strange Godzilla attack on the beach, Mike McCready's stage strip-tease), airplane, backstage & soundcheck footage of all the band members, the band on the streets & taking in the culture of the countries they’re visiting.

Martin Luther King at Newcastle University

A remarkable event the great American civil rights leader, Martin Luther King makes a powerful speech on a unique visit to Newcastle University.

Island of the Hungry Ghosts

Christmas Island, Australia is home to one of the largest land migrations on earth—that of forty million crabs journeying from jungle to sea. But the jungle holds another secret: a high-security facility that indefinitely detains individuals seeking asylum.

The Coming Back Out Ball Movie

In the middle of Australia’s divisive marriage equality vote, Melbourne hosted a gala event to honour and celebrate its LGBTIQ elders. These are their stories.

Firestarter: The Story of Bangarra

Taking us through Bangarra Dance Theatre’s spectacular growth, we follow the story of how three young Aboriginal brothers — Stephen, David and Russell Page — turned the newly born dance group into a First Nations cultural powerhouse.

A Propos D'Un Crime

In 1967, Visconti came to Algiers for the filming of The Stranger with Mastroianni and Anna Karina. Camus, during his lifetime, had always refused to allow one of his novels to be brought to the screen. His family made another decision. The filming of the film was experienced in Algiers, like a posthumous return of the writer to Algiers. During filming, a young filmmaker specializing in documentaries Gérard Patris attempts a report on the impact of the filming of The Stranger on the Algerians. Interspersed with sequences from the shooting of Visconti's film, he films Poncet, Maisonseul, Bénisti and Sénac, friends of Camus, in full discussions to situate Camus and his work in a sociological and historical context. “The idea is for us to show people, others, ourselves as if they could all be Meursault, or at least the witnesses concerned to his drama.”

Dangerous Lies: Unmasking Belle Gibson

The real story of wellness campaigner Belle Gibson's massive worldwide fraud and the famous interview that brought the con artist down.

Carlos Sainz: The Operator

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Sydney Castells: Spirit of Catalunya

'Sydney Castells: Spirit of Catalunya' is a documentary exploring Catalan climbing and culture. Bringing light to a relatively unknown community based in Sydney, NSW. Viewing insights into the personal lives of individuals who partake in this thrilling sport.

Servant or Slave

During the time of the Stolen Generations, thousands upon thousands of Aboriginal girls were taken from their families and pressed into domestic servitude by the Australian Government. They were supposedly employed as servants, but with total control over their movements, wages and living conditions, their lives all too frequently became an inescapable cycle of abuse, rape and enslavement, with consequences that echo powerfully to this day. Recounting the stories of five of these women – Rita, Violet and the three Wenberg sisters – Servant or Slave is a commanding piece of first-person testimony to a dark and unacknowledged corner of Australian history. Shot with admirable craft and humanity by documentarian Steven McGregor (Croker Island Exodus, MIFF 2012), Servant or Slave is a work of great sadness and urgency, bringing to forceful life the human tragedy of Australia's Indigenous history in the unadorned words of those who lived it.

Utopia

Documentary by John Pilger looks at the awful truth behind white Australia's dysfunctional relationship with Indigenous Australians

John Ford: The Man Who Invented America

Over a 50-year career and more than a hundred movies, filmmaker John Ford (1894-1973) forged the legend of the Far West. By giving a face to the underprivileged, from humble cowboys to persecuted minorities, he revealed like no one else the great social divisions that existed and still exist in the United States. More than four decades after his death, what remains of his legacy and humanistic values in the memory of those who love his work?

Fatbelly: Chopper...Unchopped

"I’ve done 23 years 9 months in Jail. I’ve done 10 ½ years in H Division. I’ve been stabbed 13 times in 7 difference episodes. I’ve been hit on the head with iron bars. I’ve been hit on the head with claw hammers, shot once, I’ve been run over. I’ve survived 60 serves of shock treatment in 6 months, 1 serve 3 days… I’ve had everything done to me… I wouldn’t recommend it to anybody." Fatbelly is a raw, unique and gritty portrait of Mark ‘Chopper’ Read’s life in his own words. Fatbelly recounts the most graphic and brutal stories of violence, blood, love and survival from Australia’s most notorious gangster. From mental hospitals to the infamous Pentridge division, this jaw dropping film will leave you with a different understanding of the man that is ‘Chopper’.

Rats in the Ranks

Every September Sydney's inner-suburban Leichhardt Council re-elects it mayor. Incumbent Larry Hand was popular with the citizenry but they don't vote for mayor - the 12 councillors do - and after three years of Larry, at least four councillors were after his job. When film-makers Bob Connolly and Robin Anderson settled in at Leichhardt Council in early 1994 the knives were already being sharpened. A battle royal was in the making, and so it came to pass. By the end of September Larry had fought the fight of his life, with Connolly and Anderson documenting every bit of it on film. Ambition, courage, envy, hatred, loyalty, betrayal, disaster, triumph... in other words, a classic study in politics.