Best Australian Indigeneous Films
All titles below are from my Australian collection...
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49 titles
- DirectorClifton ChildsPaul WithingtonStarsClifton ChildsLowell ThomasPaul WithingtonAn expedition is sent into the rugged Australian outback to search for a lost white woman.
- DirectorCharles ChauvelStarsRosalie Kunoth-MonksRobert TudawaliBetty SuttorSet against the harsh natural surrounds of outback Northern Territory, Jedda captures a rare and honest glimpse into the heart and history of indigenous Australia. Young Jedda is caught between two cultures forbidden from learning about her indigenous heritage and never fully accepted by the other.
- DirectorNicolas RoegStarsJenny AgutterDavid GulpililLuc RoegTwo city-bred siblings are stranded in the Australian Outback, where they learn to survive with the aid of an Aboriginal boy on his "walkabout": a ritual separation from his tribe.
- DirectorHenri SafranIan GoddardStarsGreg RowePeter CumminsDavid GulpililMike is a lonely Australian boy living in a coastal wilderness with his reclusive father. In search of friendship he encounters an Aboriginal native loner and the two form a bond in the care of orphaned pelicans.
- DirectorPeter WeirStarsRichard ChamberlainOlivia HamnettDavid GulpililA Sydney lawyer defends five Aboriginal Persons in a ritualized taboo murder and in the process learns disturbing things about himself and premonitions.
- DirectorTrevor GrahamOn June 3rd 1992, six months after Eddie 'Koiki' Mabo's tragic death, the High Court upheld his claim that Murray Islanders held native title to land in the Torres Strait. The legal fiction that Australia was empty when first occupied by white people had been laid to rest. This documentary tells the private and public stories of a man so passionate about family and home that he fought an entire nation and its legal system.
- DirectorJohn HoneyStarsMawuyul YanthalawuyAnna RalphPhillip HintonAboriginal woman Manganinnie survives a Black Line raid which claims the life of her husband, Meenopeekameena.
- DirectorIgor AuzinsStarsAngela Punch McGregorArthur DignamMartin VaughanJeannie Gunn faced being the only civilised woman in an uncivilised land. A story of personal triumph about one woman who reached out in a hard, hostile, prejudiced world and managed to find love.
- DirectorGerald BostockAlec MorganStarsGeraldine BriggsFlo CaldwellChicka DixonTells of Aborigines' removal from their families to be sent to work as servants for white people and the rise of the first Aboriginal organisations in the 1930's, in particular the Aborigines Progressive Association.
- DirectorWerner HerzogStarsBruce SpenceWandjuk MarikaRoy MarikaA geologist employed by an Australian mining company finds himself disputing the rights of some aborigines who believe their land to be sacred.
- DirectorTim BurstallStarsJohn StantonRebecca GillingIvar KantsA rancher comes in conflict with a gang of renegade Aborigines on the run from their tribe's posse. They try to kill him, but he gets away and hides in the woods. His posh wife and her lover, a local alcoholic cop, go to rescue him.
- DirectorDon FeatherstoneStarsMichelle TorresBob MazaKevin SmithRole reversal study of the historically inaccurate "plight" of Australian Aborigines in modern Anglo-Saxon society. Indigenous "whities" [sic] are being persecuted by racist black people who invaded the fictitious country of BabaKiueria. Politically incorrect and inconvenient facts about infant mortality rates are ignored by a "reporter" who lives with a typical white family in a white "ghetto" for six months.
- DirectorGeorge OgilvieStarsDavid KennedySusan LeithJamie AgiusIn Australia, an aborigine and a white woman battle for custody of the child they had together.
- DirectorBruce BeresfordStarsKristina NehmJustine SaundersBob MazaStory of an aboriginal family who tries to move out of the fringe into the main white community.
- DirectorTracey MoffattStarsGayle MaboCheryl PittJanelle CourtNice Coloured Girls is a short film classic by Tracey Moffatt, one of Australia's foremost visual artists. Three Aboriginal women cruise through Kings Cross and pick up a 'captain' (a drunken white man). They encourage him to spend his money on them and to drink until incapacitated while they steal his wallet and race off to catch a cab, self-satisfied. Nice Coloured Girls contrasts the relationship between Aboriginal women and white men in the past and present. The film juxtaposes contemporary images of black women taking advantage of a white man with a voice over of journal extracts from early white settlers and sailors, in order to question the validity of conventional white history and to deny the image of Aborigines as passive and powerless. Through counterpoint of sound, image, and printed text, the film conveys the perspective of Aboriginal women while acknowledging that oppression and enforced silence still shape their consciousness. The soundscape recalls a rural environment, while the voice-over of extracts from the diary of colonist Lieutenant William Bradley recalls the first settlement.
- DirectorSteve JodrellStarsErnie DingoPeter FisherCharles 'Bud' TingwellBiopic that traces the life of Robert Tudawali, the first Aboriginal film star, whose lead role in Jedda the Uncivilized (1955) is iconic in Australian cinema.
- DirectorTracey MoffattStarsMarcia LangtonAgnes HardwickJimmy LittleA middle aged Aboriginal woman nurses her dying old white mother till the mother dies.
- DirectorJames RicketsonStarsJohn MooreDavid NgoombujarraJaylene RileyAn Aboriginal man is caught between his allegiance to his people and his aspirations to escape the cycle of self-destructive behaviour.
- DirectorAleksi VellisStarsJohn MooreNicholas HopeTommy LewisHarry Dare (John Moore) is a shambolic Adelaide private investigator. He's still not certain why he's in the business; perhaps to understand his father's disappearance, 20 years earlier? But now Harry's got a real case: who stole his father's old Kombi van, nicked (oddly) just after Harry finished restoring it? Director Vellis's detective yarn both delights in the idea of a Kaurna Aboriginal man making ends meet as a private eye and in how Harry's crime-solving smarts seem to grow directly from his resilience as an Indigenous Australian.
- DirectorDarlene JohnsonStarsCarrie ProsserTessa LeahyJie Pitman
- DirectorNick ParsonsStarsBryan BrownErnie DingoAngie MillikenA no holds barred look into the gaping divisions which exist within an Aboriginal settlement in outback Australia. These separations split the inhabitants, straining relationships until something has to give.
- DirectorRachel PerkinsStarsDeborah MailmanTrisha Morton-ThomasRachael MazaThree sisters reunite after some years apart, for their mother's funeral. Cressy (Maza), the eldest of the three, is a diva - an opera singer who is reluctant to visit the past and definitely doesn't want to share it with her sisters. Mae (Morton-Thomas), has stayed behind looking after mum, and believes that Cressy hasn't shared enough. Nona (Mailman), the youngest and the party girl, just wants them to all be one happy family.
- DirectorStephen JohnsonStarsJohn Sebastian PilakuiNathan DanielsSean MununggurrAn Indigenous teen and his friends embark on a challenging journey to Darwin from Arnhem Land to meet a tribal leader with the aim of creating a better future after troubles take them away from their dreams.
- DirectorPaul GoldmanStarsNathan PhillipsLuke CarrollLisa FlanaganIn Prospect Bay, a remote outpost on the South Australian coast, two communities, the Goonyas and the Nungas, come together on the one field they have in common, the football field. But the underlying racism and class warfare threatens to make the team's greatest victories irrelevant. This holds particularly true for Blacky, a white teen who is more interested in books than sport, and his best friend, Dumby, the Aboriginal star of the team.
- DirectorIvan SenStarsDannielle HallDamian PittJenna Lee ConnorsLena is the daughter of an Aboriginal mother and Irish father and Vaughn is a Murri boy doing time in a minimum security prison in North West NSW. Dramatic events throw them together on a journey with no money and no transport.
- DirectorCraig LahiffStarsRobert CarlyleCharles DanceKerry FoxRecreation of the landmark 1958 South Australian Court trial of young aboriginal Max Stuart.
- DirectorDarlene JohnsonStarsDavid GulpililRonnie BarramalaJohn CannLegendary Aboriginal Australian actor and dancer David Gulpilil discusses his life and career from his home in Yolngu country in Arnhem Land, NT.
- DirectorPhillip NoyceStarsEverlyn SampiTianna SansburyKenneth BranaghIn 1931, three half-white, half-Aboriginal girls escape after being plucked from their houses to be trained as domestic staff, and set off on a journey across the Outback.
- DirectorRolf de HeerStarsDavid GulpililGary SweetDamon GameauFanatic is a government trooper who is heading an expedition to find an Aboriginal man accused of murdering a white woman. Others in the expedition are the Follower, a greenhorn trooper, the Veteran, and the Tracker.
- DirectorRolf de HeerPeter DjigirrStarsCrusoe KurddalJamie GulpililRichard BirrinbirrinIn Australia's Northern Territory, a man tells us a story of his people and his land. It's about an older man, Minygululu, who has three wives and realizes that his younger brother Dayindi may try to steal away the youngest wife.
- DirectorMelanie HoganStarsBob RandallAustralian Aborigine Bob Randall presents his spiritual philosophy.
- DirectorAmiel Courtin-WilsonStarsJack CharlesAn intimate documentary of Jack Charles, a.k.a. "Jackie", the legendary Australian aboriginal actor who co-founded Australia's first indigenous theatre company and struggled with his identity later in life.
- StarsAaron PedersenErnie DingoUrsula YovichFirst Australians chronicles the birth of contemporary Australia as never told before, from the perspective of its first people. First Australians explores what unfolds when the oldest living culture in the world is overrun by the world's greatest empire. Over seven episodes, First Australians depicts the true stories of individuals - both black and white - caught in an epic drama of friendship, revenge, loss and victory in Australia's most transformative period of history. The story begins in 1788 in Sydney, with the friendship between an Englishmen (Governor Phillip) and a warrior (Bennelong) and ends in 1992 with Koiki Mabo's legal challenge to the foundation of Australia. First Australians chronicles the collision of two worlds and the genesis of a new nation.
- DirectorRachel PerkinsStarsRocky McKenzieJessica MauboyErnie DingoAn Aboriginal student on the west coast of Australia in the late '60s runs away from a Catholic boarding school with his cruel headmaster in hot pursuit, meeting eccentric characters along the journey back to his hometown.
- DirectorWarwick ThorntonStarsRowan McNamaraMarissa GibsonMitjili Napanangka GibsonA glue-sniffing boy and his girlfriend escape the government-controlled no-hope Aboriginal community they live in and go to the city, Alice Springs, looking for a better life.
- DirectorBeck ColeStarsShai PittmanMarcia LangtonQuinaiha Scott'Here I Am' is driven by three generations of Aboriginal women - Karen Lee Burden, her mother Lois and her daughter Rosie. When Karen is released from prison, through a series of chance encounters the women learn that freedom is hard to find when hearts are still broken.
- DirectorBrendan FletcherStarsDean Daley-JonesLucas YeedaGreg TaitTJ's quest to find the son he's never known, takes him on a journey across the remote and stunning Kimberley landscape. On the road, TJ questions his life of violence... he meets a host of amazing characters who open up a way of life infused with music and hunting and community
- DirectorSinem SabanDamien CurtisStarsJonny BurrmulaJudy DjanunbeDjiniyini GondarraA documentary on the Australian Aboriginal struggle for their land, culture and freedom - a story that has been silenced by the Government and mainstream media. Featuring the stories of the remote Yolngu of Northeast Arnhem Land, one of the last strongholds of traditional Aboriginal culture in Australia, as well as the voices of national indigenous leaders, historians and human rights activists, the film explores the ongoing clash of cultures that is threatening to wipe out the oldest living culture in the world.
- DirectorMitch TorresStarsErnie DingoDarcy AndersonDavid BeurteauxIn Jandamarra's War, we learn how in the 1890's the European colonialists arrive in the Kimberley with vast herds of sheep and cattle, determined to make their fortune by feeding a rapidly growing population in the South. But the settlers soon discover they are in land populated with indigenous tribes, ready to fight the red-faced invaders. Jandamarra is born into this turmoil in 1873. His spirit country, on his father's side, is a land called Djumbud. His mother Jinny, a powerful and independent woman, belongs to the Lennard River flat lands. At the age of six, Jinny takes Jandamarra onto William Lukin's million-acre cattle station at Lennard River Flats. Jandamarra quickly excels in all pastoral skills - much to the pride of Lukin who, like other settlers, boasts about his stockmen's abilities as tribute to his own skills of tutelage and management. Jandamarra remains at Lennard River Flats until it is time for him to be initiated into Bunuba law. His uncle Ellemarra is a very powerful influence during this period of intense education and rapid personal growth. But Jandamarra's passage into manhood is interrupted when they are both arrested and jailed for spearing a sheep. When he is released from custody, Jandamarra is banished from Bunuba society because sexual relationships he has had with various women, have broken strict kinship rules. With nowhere else to go, Jandamarra is assimilated into settler culture and ends up working with Constable Richardson who is, himself, an outsider in his own community. Their relationship is a strange one and oddly close - until that fateful night when Jandamarra kills Richardson, and returns to his people. Now fugitives, Jandamarra, Ellemarra and others attack a party of stockmen who are driving a large herd of cattle into the heart of Bunuba land. Two of the white men, Burke and Gibbs, are killed. This is the first time that guns are used by Aboriginals against European settlers in an organised fashion. Across Western Australia, enraged white colonialists bay for vengeance. A posse of 30 heavily armed police and settlers attack Jandamarra, Ellemarra and their followers at Windjana Gorge. In the ensuing battle, Ellemarra is killed and Jandamarra is seriously wounded, but escapes through a labyrinth of caves. Jandamarra recovers and leads a guerilla war against the settlers from hideouts in the caves and surrounding ranges of Windjana Gorge and Tunnel Creek. But the rebellion comes at a very high price as police and station owners embark on a military-style operation against Aboriginal camps throughout the region. Many Aboriginal people are killed in the massacres that ensue. Jandamarra responds by modifying his tactics. He doesn't kill any more settlers but embarks on a three year terror campaign - killing stock and stealing provisions from under the settlers' noses at night - deliberately leaving behind footmarks and other traces that tell the settlers that he's been there and could have killed them very easily, if he had wanted to. The police try to pursue Jandamarra after his raids but he always seems to find a way to elude capture.
- DirectorNatasha GaddRhys GrahamStarsThe Black Arm Band ArtistsBart WilloughbyA documentary following the Black Arm Band, a gathering of Australia's finest Aboriginal musicians, as they take to the road with their songs of struggle, resistance and freedom.
- DirectorTony KrawitzDocumentary about the events on Palm Island that follow the death of local indigenous man Cameron Doomadgee on November 19, 2004.
- DirectorIvan SenStarsDaniel ConnorsChristopher EdwardsMichael ConnorsIn a remote Aboriginal community, 10 year old Daniel yearns to be a gangster, like the male role models in his life. Skipping school, getting into fights and running drugs for Linden, who leads the main gang in town.
- DirectorNicholas ClearyStarsJermaine HamptonGemma Theatre-RileyRonald LennonA young Aboriginal man heads north in search of a girl, but discovers much more than he ever expected.
- DirectorRachel PerkinsStarsJimi BaniDeborah MailmanEwen LeslieMabo tells the story of one of Australia's national heroes - Eddie Koiki Mabo, the Torres Strait Islander who left school at age 15, yet spearheaded the High Court challenge that overthrew the fiction of terra nullius.
- DirectorRolf de HeerStarsDavid GulpililPeter DjigirrLuke FordDispleased with the intervention of whitefella laws, Charlie takes off to live the old way and sets off a chain reaction of enlightening difficulties.
- DirectorIvan SenStarsAaron PedersenHugo WeavingRyan KwantenAn indigenous detective returns to the Outback to investigate the murder of a young girl.
- DirectorCatriona McKenzieStarsDavid GulpililCameron WallabyJoseph PedleyTen-year-old Pete lives with his grandfather in an old abandoned outdoor cinema in the desert. When the old drive-in is threatened with demolition by developers, Pete and a friend set off on an epic journey in the hopes of saving his home.
- DirectorAlan LoweryJohn PilgerStarsJohn PilgerJon AltmanPat AndersonExploring offenses practiced by popular media, big business, police forces and Governments helping the Australian 225 year campaign of genocide continue against Aboriginal Australians.
- DirectorSarah SpillaneStarsHunter Page-LochardChristina RicciAaron L. McGrathAn Aboriginal boy is torn between his unexpected love of acting and the disintegration of his family.