Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert. (1994)
Directed by Stephan Elliott. Bernadette, a drag queen, relives her theatrical glory days with two young friends on one wild road trip through rural Australia. 102 min. DVD 2204
Directed by Rolf de Heer. Cast: Gary Sweet, Helen Buday, Bodgan Koca. Alexandra's project: It's Steve's birthday, and things can't seem to get better. After receiving a much awaited promotion, Steve returns home expecting to find his wife Alexandra and his two children waiting to surprise him. Instead, he discovers an abandoned house and a mysterious video tape that he is forced to watch. 103 min. DVD 6311
Directed by Tracey Moffat. Three short films from Australia concerning spirits, ghosts and unexplained happenings. Mr. Chuck concerns an island community that still feels the malevolent presence of an American GI who died in the swamps nearby. Choo choo choo choo tells the story of a family who is haunted by invisible trains which run on the tracks next to their home. The final story "Lovin' the spin I'm in" tells of a woman's sense of loss when her son and his lover leave their community to escape opposition to their marriage. The couple dies, but as a young boy discovers, their spirits will never find peace. Video/C 999:3752
Senzani, Alessadra. "Dreaming Back: Tracey Moffatt's Bedeviling Films." Post Script, Fall2007, Vol. 27 Issue 1, p50-71, 22p, UC users only
Summerhayes, Catherine. "Haunting Secrets: Tracey Moffatt's "beDevil"." Film Quarterly, No. 4, Summer, 2004, pp. 1-72 UC users only
Breaker Morant (Australia, 1979)
Directed by Bruce Beresford. Cast: Edward Woodward, Jack Thompson, John Waters, Bryan Brown. Following the brutal death of a British captain in the Boer War in South Africa in 1901, Lt. Harry Morant leads his unit in pursuit of the Boers, attacks their camp, and has a captive executed. Other executions and deaths lead to the arrest and trial of Morant and two other lieutenants in this dramatization based on true events. 102 min. 999:1951
Bryant, Hallman B. "'Breaker' Morant In Fact, Fiction, and Film." Literature Film Quarterly, 1987, Vol. 15 Issue 3, p138, 8pUC users only
Heung, Marina. "Breaker Morant and the Melodramatic Treatment of History." Film Criticism, vol. 8, no. 2, pp. 3-13, January 1984
Jolly, Roslyn. "'Frontier Behaviour' and Imperial Power in Breaker Morant." Journal of Commonwealth Literature, vol. 32, no. 2, pp. 125-39, 1997
Mortimer, Lorraine
"The soldier, the shearer and the mad man: Horizons of community in some Australian films." Literature Film Quarterly, 1993, Vol. 21 Issue 2, p139, 18p UC users only
Broken English (New Zealand 1997)
Directed by Gregor Nicholas. Cast: Aleksandra Vujcic, Julian Arahanga, Rade Serbedzua. Free-spirited Nina is a Bosnian refugee living with her family in suburban New Zealand. When she begins an intensely passionate affair with a Maori co-worker it sends shock waves through the tightly-knit migrant communities. But the explosive violence of her tyrannical father drives the couple apart and threatens to destroy the family he desperately struggles to control. 92 min. 999:1914
Directed by Fred Schepisi. Based on a true story focusing on the racism and hypocricy of a small Australian town at the turn of the century. Jimmie Blacksmith, a young Aborigine, is shunned by the town's white population despite his Christian education. He marries a white girl but when she gives birth to a "white" child, she is encouraged to leave her husband. When his employer refuses him food and payment, this final act of injustice pushes Jimmie over the edge. Driven by hate, and demanding retribution, he enters his employers house wielding an axe. Based on the novel by Thomas Keneally (MAIN: PR9619.3.K46 .C4) PAL format. 114 min. 999:2201
Directed by Peter Duncan. Cast: Judy Davis, Sam Neill, Richard Roxburgh, Rachel Griffiths, Geoffrey Rush, F. Murray Abraham.
After a mad, passionate fling on a whirlwind trip to Moscow, party girl Joan Fraser returns home pregnant. And when little Joe is born, everyone wonders who "Daddy" is! Soon, the ball starts rolling on a hilarious sequence of events that includes a clueless husband, a lovesick double agent and even Joseph Stalin himself. 100 min. DVD 8533
A personal journey by Sam Neill to the landscape of his native New Zealand where he examines the emerging national film culture and pays tribute to film pioneers Rudall Hayward and John O'Shea, while focusing on the extraordinary growth of New Zealand cinema in the last two decades. 1997. Video/C MM443
The Coca-Cola Kid (1985)
Directed by Dusan Makavejev. Cast: Eric Roberts, Greta Scacchi, Bill Kerr. Becker, a wiz-kid marketing man, is sent to Australia to boost the famous soft drink's wavering sales. T. George McDowell is the ruling soda czar in this mini "pop monopoly." When Becker's offer to merge in the hope of tripling profits is rejected, an unlikely chain of events ignites and leads to an amusing solution to the cola war. 94 min. 999:942
Directed by Peter Jackson. Cast: Timothy Balme, Diana Penalver, Elizabeth Moody.
A hapless young man's overbearing mother gets him into a heap of trouble when she catches a bizarre zombie virus and starts turning innocent passersby into walking corpses. 97 min. DVD 7576
Directed by Bruce Beresford. Cast: Sam Neill, Nicole Kidman, Billy Zane. John and Rae Ingram rescue the only surviving crew member of a crippled schooner only to find themselves the targets of a deranged killer. 96 min. 999:2449
Directed by Nick Parsons. Cast: Bryan Brown, Ernie Dingo, Angie Milliken, David Gulpilil. In this drama Lorkin, a local lawman in Australia, tries to reconcile the aboriginal tradition requiring revenge for murder vs. Australian law. The trouble begins when an Aboriginal prisoner is discovered dead in the town jail. More trouble brews when an Aborigine bootlegger takes the schoolteacher's bored wife out to a sacred area for an illicit tryst. Later he is found dead. Despite the lacking evidence, Lorkin suspects a murder and demands justice. His investigation leads him down a dangerous path culminating in a tense and unexpected climax. 106 min. DVD 930
Directed by Mark Joffe. Cast: Anthony Hopkins, Ben Mendelsohn, Alwyn Kurtz, John Walton, Tony Collete, Russell Crowe, Daniel Willie. The Ball's Moccasins company is cash poor, but efficiency expert Erroll Wallace has come to rescue the eccentric family-run enterprise. With his charts, stopwatch and clipboard at the ready, Wallace aimes to streamline this, and maximize that, but can a bunch of cuckoos run a factory like clockwork? 97 min. 999:3167
Director, Jane Campion. A father along with his son and sister is driving back home in his car. The son continiously is throwing orange peels onto the road when suddenly the father stops the car and tells his son to pick the peels. His son disagrees on that and the sister is getting nervous, because she will be going to miss her favourite TV series. Finally everyone is getting pretty angry. 9 min. 999:1330
Director, Clara Law. Cast: Annette Shun Wah, Annie Yip, Anthony Wong, Edwin Pang, Cecilia Lee. An aging Hong Kong couple move to Australia with their two youngest sons to live with a daughter who has already begun a successful career. Meanwhile their eldest daughter lives in Germany and their eldest son remains in Hong Kong. The film explores the different ways the family members cope with isolation and alienation. In Cantonese with English subtitles. 93 min. 999:3236
Written and directed by Peter Jackson & Costa Botes. A "mockumentary" which documents the fictitious "lost" life of Colin McKenzie, a New Zealand film pioneer and inventor extraordinaire. Through archive photos, rare film footage and interviews with such experts as critic Leonard Maltin, producer Harvey Weinstein and actor Sam Neill uncover the trials, triumphs, and tragedies behind the supergenius filmmaker. Special features: Audio commentary with co-director Costa Botes ; "Behind-the-bull: forgotten silver," a 21 min. documentary featuring interviews with directors Peter Jackson and Costa Botes ; deleted scenes. 55 min. 1997. DVD 3800
Directed by Stuart Gordon. Cast: Christopher Lambert, Kurtwood Smith, Loryn Locklin, Lincoln Kilpatrick.
Set in the year 2017, elements of Orwellian science-fiction and old-fashioned prison dramas are combined in this futuristic action film, as an unjustly imprisoned couple attempts to escape from a high-tech jail known as The Fortress. 110 min. DVD 7603
40,000 Years of Dreaming, A Century of Australian Cinema
George Miller's vivid study of Australian cinema forges a link between the high-tech narratives of filmmaking and the ancient Aboriginal creation myth of "The dreaming." The film explores an extraordinary national cinema, born at the outset of the century, but barely noticed internationally until the 1970s. 1997. Video/C MM443
Gallipoli (1981)
Director: Peter Weir. Cast: Mel Gibson, Mark Lee, Bill Kerr, Harold Hopkins, Charles Yunipingli, Ron Graham. Two young men in the Australia army in 1915 become part of the legendary World War I confrontation between the German allied Turks and Australia. 111 min. DVD 4839; vhs 999:522
Director: Jane Campion. A look at three girls, young teens, in the era of the Beatles. Pam lives with parents who haven't spoken directly to each other in two years, using their daughters to talk across the table to each other. Gloria wants to play games with her boyfriend Graeme and ends up pregnant after a kissless, passionless introduction to sex. Stella becomes popular and puts her friendship with Pam on hold. Meanwhile, Pam's father and other predatory men lurk in the shadows around the girls. 27 min. 999:1330; DVD 6:1:2
Directed by Richard Lowenstein. Cast: Noah Taylor, Emily Hamilton, Romane Bohringer, Sophie Lee. Danny has just moved into his 47th shared house, this time in Brisbane, and the flatmates have not improved. One lives in a closet, another in a tent in the living room and, before Danny takes off for shared house no. 48 in Melbourne, he will have endured satanic worshipers, skinheads and the perennially ubiquitous cane toad. No wonder he is on the verge of a nervous breakdown. 107 min. DVD 6330
Heavenly Creatures(UK / Germany / New Zealand, 1994)
Directed by Peter Jackson. Cast: Melanie Lynskey, Kate Winslet, Sarah Peirse, Diana Kent, Clive Merrison, Simon O'Connor. Based on an actual crime, this is the true-life case of two teenage girls, Pauline Parker and Juliet Hulme, who were charged with clubbing to death Pauline's mother in Christchurch New Zealand in 1954. The film opens two years before the murder, and follows the friendship as the two become obsessed with each other, retreating into a fantasy life which leads to shocking consequences. 99 min. DVD 9177; vhs 999:1994
Directed by Jane Campion. Cast: Kate Winslet, Harvey Keitel, Pam Grier, Julie Hamilton, Tim Robertson, Sophie Lee. While on a journey of discovery in exotic India, young Ruth Barron falls under the influence of a charismatic religious guru. Her desperate parents then hire P.J. Waters, a macho cult deprogrammer, who confronts Ruth in a remote desert hideaway. However, P.J. quickly learns that he has quite possibly met his match in the intelligent and iron-willed Ruth. 114 min. DVD 2758
Directed by Jane Campion. Cast: Meg Ryan, Mark Ruffalo, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Nick Damici, Sharrieff Pugh. A lonely young English professor living in New York City gets tangled up in a murder investigation when a severed head is found in her garden. When she becomes involved with the homicide detective on the case, she realizes that the prime suspect may be closer than she likes to think. 118 min. DVD 4041
Directed by Peter Jackson. Cast: Naomi Watts, Jack Black, Adrien Brody, Thomas Kretschmann, Colin Hanks, Andy Serkis, Evan Parke, Jamie Bell. In the 1930s, a down-on-her-luck actress accompanies an over-ambitious filmmaker on an expedition to a remote island. There they encounter a terrifying giant ape who forms an attachment to the beautiful actress. Hoping to win fame and fortune, the filmmaker brings the ape back to New York City for public exhibition, with catastrophic results.
Special features: Disc 1: The Volkswagen Toureg & King Kong; "Wish you were here" film trailer ; Disc 2: Special introduction by Peter Jackson; post-production diaries: director Peter Jackson reveales virtually every aspect of post-production with nearly three hours of exclusive behind the scenes footage; "Kong's New York, 1933" - explores vaudeville, the skyscraper boom, the construction of the Empire State building and more; "Skull Island: a natural history": travel to treacherous Skull Island with Peter Jackson and his crew. 188 min. DVD 5347
Directed by Peter Weir. Cast: Richard Chamberlain, Olivia Hamnett, Gulpilil, Frederick Parslow, Vivean Gray. The story of a lawyer defending a group of Australian aboriginals accused of killing one of their own. He suspects the victim has been killed for violating a tribal taboo, but the defendants deny any tribal association. Plagued by apocalyptic visions, he slowly realizes his own involvement with the aborigines... and their prophecies. 104 min. DVD 2758
Director: Geoffrey Wright. Cast: Sam Worthington, Victoria Hill, Lachy Hulme, Gary Sweet, Steve Bastoni.
Shakespeare's tale of greed and ambition is set amidst the hyper-violent drug gangs of modern Australia. Macbeth is a drug baron and pimp, his Lady Macbeth a Valium-addicted, narcoleptic burnout and manipulator, his Duncan the head of Melbourne's criminal underground. Macbeth and Lady Macbeth murder Duncan in cold blood (framing the servants as responsible), but soon after Macbeth takes the throne, he is undone - and beheaded - by usurper Macduff. 96 min. DVD 8786
Directed by George Miller. Cast: Mel Gibson, Joanne Samuel, Roger Ward, Steve Bisley, Tim Burns, Hugh Keays-Byrne. This first of the Road Warrior films is set in the desolate near future in Australia where motorcycle gangs combat the police. Max is a gung-ho cop, the best of his squad, but when his best friend is killed Max hangs up his guns, taking his wife and young child across the country on vacation. But when the renegade gang kills his family Max climbs into a souped-up racing machine to seek his bloody revenge. 93 min. DVD 6077; vhs 999:1952
Director, Baz Luhrmann. Cast: Nicole Kidman, Ewan McGregor, John Leguizamo, Jim Broadbent, Richard Roxburgh, Garry McDonald, Jacek Koman, Matthew Whittet, Kerry Walker. Christian, an idealistic and impoverished young writer newly arrived in Montmartre, is haphazardly inducted into a circle of young bohemians led by Toulouse-Lautrec. A comedy of mistaken identities ensues, quickly enmeshing the young poet in a love triangle involving the unobtainable and consumptive Satine, queen courtesan of the Moulin Rouge, and the foppish Duke of Roxbury, his villainous rival for her affections. 128 min. DVD 976
Directed by Gillian Armstrong. Cast: Judy Davis, Sam Neill, Wendy Hughes, Robert Grubb, Max Cullen, Aileen Britton, Peter Whitford, Patricia Kennedy. Sybylla Melvyn struggles with the conflicts that we all have between ambition, family, love, and guilt in a most remarkable manner. Sybylla grows to understand that life is a series of trade-offs, and that no one can have it all, and that no one can please everyone. Simple yet universal themes told with charm, wit, and vulnerability. 100 min. DVD 4025
The Navigator: A Medieval Odyssey (Australia / New Zealand, 1988)
Directed by Vincent Ward. Cast: Hamish McFarlane, Bruce Lyons, Chris Haywood, Marshall Napier, Noel Appleby, Paul Livingston, Sarah Peirse, Desmond Kelly. Nine year old Griffin is haunted by fragments of a dream .... It is Cumbria 1348, the year of the Black Death. A medieval mining town lives in fear of the advancing plague. Griffin's older brother Connor returns from the outside world in a state of despair, until Griffin tells of his dream and reveals their only source of survival. Make tribute to God. Place a spire on a distant cathedral. Do it before dawn or the village will be lost. Griffin sets out on a bizarre journey with Connor, Searle the pragmatist, Searle's naive brother Ulf, Martin the philosopher, and Arno the one-handed ferryman. Together they tunnel through the earth to a new world-- New Zealand, the antipodes, 1988. But Griffin has a chilling new premonition-- one of them will die at the cathedral. 89 min. DVD 4483
Directed by Phillip Noyce. Cast: Bill Hunter, Wendy Hughes, Gerard Kennedy, John Ewart, Chris Haywood. The newsreel cameramen were unsung heroes who raced to beat headlines and defied dangers to capture moments on film for moviegoers. They captured historic moments but when a new technology called television arrived, their days were numbered. Tells the story of two such Australian journalists who filmed the historical events of two turbulent decades. 110 min. DVD 4984
Directed by Lee Tamahori. Cast: Rena Owen, Temuera Morrison, Mamaengaroa Kerr-Bell. In a poor suburb of Auckland, Jake and Beth Heke live a life defined by drunken parties, unstable friendships, and confrontations with authorities. Jake, a complex man with a rascal's charm, is weighted down by a quick temper, alcoholism, and an evil streak of male entitlement. Beth's beauty has been scarred by broken dreams and Jake's beefy fists. Yet her inner strength and desire to save her family make her the solid center around which this story of tragedy and hope is constructed. 102 min. DVD 7341; vhs 999:3244
Director, Jane Campion. A voice says, "There are 1,000,000 moments in your neighborhood; each has a fragile presence which fades almost as it forms." Ten such moments are dramatized, from a chubby man exercising and realizing that "sex" and "thing" go together to an ill, bored child discovering that most pieces of paper fit on top of a Scotties box. Along the way, a child races time, a matron thinks she hears a woodpecker, an unfaithful gay man wonders why his eyes can't focus on two depths simultaneously, Angela thinks about her uncle's pet pig as she eats pork, beer-drinking Ed recalls his school football days and vows to get back in shape, and a bachelor remembers his mother. 13 min. 999:1330
The Piano (Australia / New Zealand / France, 1993)
Directed by Jane Campion. Cast: Holly Hunter, Sam Neill, Harvey Keitel, Anna Paquin. A young mute woman and her child travel to New Zealand in the 1800's for an arranged marriage to a farmer there. After the marriage she meets another man, and the competition for her love begins. Only one of the men realizes that her affections can only be won through her beloved piano. 93 min. DVD 1167; vhs 999:1326
Directed by Peter Weir. Cast: Rachel Roberts, Dominic Guard, Helen Morse, Jacki Weaver, Anne Lambert, John Jarrett. In 1900, a group of Australian schoolgirls prepare for a Valentine's Day picnic at Hanging Rock. They depart for their outing, and four of them disappear and are never found. 107 min. DVD 941
Director: Phillip Noyce. Cast: Michael Caine, Brendan Fraser, Do Thi Hai Yen, Tzi Ma, Robert Stanton, Holmes Osborne, Pham Thi Mai Hoa, Quang Hai, Rade Sherbedgia. A story that led to the events of the United States military involvement in Vietnam. Here, a love triangle between a British journalist, his mistress, and a mysterious CIA operative evolves into a much greater mystery that eventually leads to murder and deception. Based on the novel by Graham Greene (MAIN: PR6013.R44 Q5 1996; MOFF: PR6013.R44 Q5 1996) 101 min. DVD 1795
Directed by Geoff Murphy. Cast: Bruno Lawrence, Alison Routledge, Peter Smith.
At exactly 6:12 a.m., government research scientist Zac Hubson awakens to discover that he may be the last man on Earth. Homes, highways and entire cities are deserted. He soon learns down the road that he isn't alone, one woman and a Maori trucker are still there. 91 min. DVD 7677
Directed by Phillip Noyce. Cast: Everlyn Sampi, Tianna Sansbury, Laura Monaghan, David Gulpilil, Ningali Lawford, Myarn Lawford, Deborah Mailman, Jason Clarke, Kenneth Branagh. Based on true events tells the story of three half-caste children from Western Australia who were taken from their parents under government edict in 1931 and sent to an institution, where they were taught to forget their families, their culture, and re-invent themselves as members of "white" Australian society. The three girls escaped and began an epic journey back to Western Australia, travelling 1,500 miles on foot with no food or water, and navigating by following the fence that had been built across the nation to stem an over-population of rabbits. 93 min. DVD 1606
Directed by Tony McNamara. Cast: Ben Lee, Rose Byrne, Garry McDonald, Christopher Stollery, Nicholas Hammond, Francis McMahon, Saskia Smith, Miranda Richardson. Rage in Placid Lake: A comedy drama about two parentally neglected teenagers, Placid Lake and Gemma, who find the courage to believe in themselves. 89 min. DVD 6349
Directed by George Miller. Cast: Mel Gibson, Bruce Spence, Michael Preston, Max Phipps, Vernon Wells. A former police officer is now a lone wanderer, travelling through a post-apocalyptic Australia looking for the now-priceless fuel of petrol. He lives to survive and is none too pleased when he finds himself the only hope of a small group of honest people running a remote oil refinery. He must protect them from the bike gang that is terrorizing them, while transporting their entire fuel supply to safety. 94 min. DVD 323; VHS 999:2533
Directed by Geoffrey Wright. Cast: Russell Crowe, Daniel Pollock, Jacqueline McKenzie, Alex Scott. Hondo leads a gang of skinheads that terrorize Vietnamese immigrants in their Melbourne neighborhood. He soon meets Gabe, a teenage girl from a broken home. Looking for adventure, she falls in love with Hondo and leaps into the careless and dangerous lifestyle of this band of racist punks. But when Gabe swaps partners for Hondo's right-hand man, Davey, she pits the two against each other leading to a shocking conclusion. 93 min. DVD 930; VHS 999:1107
Directed by Scott Hicks. Cast: Geoffrey Rush, Armin Mueller-Stahl, Noah Taylor, Lynn Redgrave, John Gielgud. A dramatization of the true story of gifted Australian piano prodigy, David Helfgott who experiences a nervous breakdown and is hospitalized, but later returns to the concert hall. 105 min. DVD 2397
Directed by Baz Luhrmann. Cast: Paul Mercurio, Tara Morice, Bill Hunter, Pat Thomson, Gia Carides, Peter Whitford, Barry Otto.
Scott Hastings is a champion caliber ballroom dancer, but much to the chagrin of the Australian ballroom dance community, Scott believes in dancing "his own steps." Fran is a beginning dancer and a bit of an ugly duckling who has the audacity to ask to be Scott's partner after his unorthodox style causes his regular partner to dance out of his life. Together, these two misfits try to win the Australian Pan Pacific Championships and show the Ballroom Confederation that they are wrong when they say, "there are no new steps!" Special features: Samba to slow Fox dance featurette; 3D gallery; audio commentary with Bas Luhrmann, Catherine Martin and John O'Connell. 94 min. DVD 7286
Directed by Fred Zinnemann. Cast: Deborah Kerr, Robert Mitchum, Peter Ustinov, Glynis Johns, Dina Merrill, Chips Rafferty, Michael Anderson.
Sheep drovers, Paddy, Ida, and their son Sean are always on the move. Ida and Sean want to settle down on a farm, but Paddy who can't bear being "tied down" wants to keep moving. A sheep-shearing contest, child birth, drinking, and a race horse all play a part in the final decision. Based on the novel by Jon Cleary. 133 min. DVD 6476
Directed by Jane Campion. Cast: Genevieve Lemon, Karen Colston, Tom Lycos, Dorothy Barry, Jon Darling, Michael Lake. Dark comedy about the hazardous relationship between two sisters; button-down, superstitious Kay, and her rampaging sister, 'Sweetie.' Special features: New transfer supervised by cinematographer Sally Bongers and approved by director Jane Campion; audio commentary featuring Campion, Bongers and screenwriter Gerard Lee; Making "Sweetie," a new video conversation between stars Genevieve Lemon and Karen Colston; Campion's early short films: An exercise in discipline: peel, Passionless moments and A girl's own story; Jane Campion: the film school years: a 1989 interview with Campion and critic Peter Thompson; gallery of behind-the-scenes photos and production stills; original theatrical trailer; a new essay by film scholar Dana Polan. 99 min. DVD 6476
Directed by Rolf de Heer. Cast: Storyteller, David Gulpilil Ridjimiraril Dalaithngu.
Crusoe Kurddal, Jamie Dayindi Gulpilil Dalaithngu, Richard Birrinbirrin, Peter Minygululu, Frances Djulibing.
In the distant past, Dayindi covets his older brother's wife. To teach him the proper way, he is told a parable of forbidden love from the mythical past, a story of wrong love, kidnapping, sorcery, and revenge gone wrong. Narrated by Australian icon David Gulpilil and starring his son Jamie as the covetous youth Dayindi, Ten Canoes is a ground-breaking glimpse into aboriginal life centuries before European settlement. Shot in and around the Arafura Wetlands of Central Arnhem Land, Rolf de Heer and the People of Ramingining have created a pioneering and timeless tale for all cultures. Special features: "The Balanda and the bark canoes: the making of Ten Canoes" featurette (55 min.); aerial map of Arnhem Land; interview with Peter Djigirr; interview with director Rolf de Heer; photo gallery: Thomson photographs revisited; US theatrical trailer. 88 min. DVD 8778
Davis, Therese. "Remembering Our Ancestors: Cross-Cultural Collaboration and the Mediation of Aboriginal Culture and History in Ten Canoes (Rolf de Heer, 2006)." Studies in Australasian Cinema, vol. 1, no. 1, pp. 5-14, 2007
Directed by Rolf de Heer. Cast: David Gulpilil, Gary Sweet, Damon Gameau, Grant Page, Noel Wilton. Set in 1922 in the outback, the story follows three mounted policemen and an Aboriginal tracker on a mission to bring to justice a black man accused of murdering a white woman. The party's leader is a sadistic racist known simply as the Fanatic. Their guide, the Tracker, is a resourceful and complex character, who keeps everyone guessing until the end. They are constantly half a day behind the Fugitive. Frustrations spill over as the tension mounts. Relationships among the pursuers are put to the test, and alliances shift among the men. Brutal acts are repaid. Law and justice are explored. 95 min. DVD 4447
Director, Jane Campion. Cast: Kris Bidenko, Emma Coles, Kris McQuade, Peter Hehir, Alison Kerry Dwyer. Two teenage friends become estranged when the once conventional Kelly becomes a mohawk-wearing punker who experiments with drugs and casual sex. This debut feature film of producer/director Jane Campion, remains one of her finest films. 79 min. DVD 1139
Directed by Geoff Murphy. Cast: Anzac Wallace, Bruno Lawrence, Wi Kuki Kaa, Kelly Johnson, Tim Elliot. Set in New Zealand against the bloody Maori Indian uprisings of 1870, Geoff Murphy's Utu is both a visceral adventure film and a devastating critique of British colonialism. The film centers around a Maori tribesman, who vows "utu"--the ritualistic revenge demanded by his culture, when his family and village are destroyed in a raid by the British Army. 122 min. 999:1711
Directed by Nicolas Roeg. Cast: Jenny Agutter, Lucien John [i.e, Luc Roeg], David Gumpilil [i.e., Gulpilil], John Meillon. Stranded in the Australian desert two city children, an English girl and her small brother, are rescued by an Aborigine boy who has journeyed into the outback on his "walkabout"--a tribal initiation into manhood. Based on the novel by James Vance Marshall [i.e., Ian Cameron]. 93 min. DVD 930; VHS 999:1107
Directed by Niki Caro. Cast: Keisha Castle-Hughes, Rawiri Paratene, Vicky Haughton, Cliff Curtis, Grant Roa, Mana Taumaunu, Rachel House. The Whangara people believe their ancestor Paikea was saved from drowning by riding home on the back of a whale. The tribal group has since granted leadership positions to the first-born males, believing them to be descendants of Paikea. But then a young mother dies in childbirth along with her newborn male son. His twin sister survives and the little girl, Pai, is brought up by her grandparents. Learning the skills of chiefdom from her uncle, Pai shows that she has natural leadership ability. 101 min. DVD 2127
Where the Green Ants Dream (Wo die grünen Ameisen träumen) (West Germany / Australia, 1984)
Directed by Werner Herzog. Cast: Bruce Spence, Wandjuk Marika, Ray Marika, Ray Barrett, Norman Kaye, Colleen Clifford. A sympathetic geologist for a uranium mining company must confront the passive resistance of the Aborigine tribes in Southern Australia. The spots where the deposits are richest is sacred ground, the place "where the green ants dream," for them the origin of all life. 99 min. DVD 6000; vhs 999:3657
Directed by John Duigan. Cast: Karina Lombard, Nathaniel Parker, Claudia Robinson, Michael York, Rachel Ward. On a plantation in the lush Blue Mountains of Jamaica, young lovers are swept into a menage of black magic and erotic obsession that spirals into a climax of seduction, betrayal, and ultimately revenge. Based on the novel by Jean Rhys (MAIN: PR6035.H96 W5 1999; MOFF: PR6035.H96 W5 1999) 100 min. 999:1642
Directed by Peter Weir. Cast: Mel Gibson, Sigourney Weaver, Bill Kerr, Michael Murphy, Linda Hunt, Noel Ferrier. Guy Hamilton, an ambitious Australian reporter on his first overseas assignment, is befriended by a short Eurasian cameraman, Billy Kwan, who has connections in high places. Hamilton soon gains an entree to Indonesian Communist Party leaders, as well as insight into Jakarta's grim realities on the eve of a major political upheaval. 93 min. 999:782
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