Martha Ansara

Every morning Betty tramps alone through the big city to join her fellow buskers in the pedestrian tunnel below, trying to earn a living. But her earnings are meager, and to make things worse, the new security guard, Joe, is trying to confiscate her fiddle. While Betty dreams of fame and fortune, Joe dreams of earplugs – something’s got to give!

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This is the account of the Aboriginal People of Perth on protest to protect the Ancestral First Grandmothers' and Grandfathers' Beliefs of the Sacred Ground of the Waugul at the old Swan Brewery on the Swan River in Perth, W.A.

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A drama with strong documentary elements, set in the port city of Fremantle, WA, at a time of American nuclear fleet visits. The film traces the conflicts Anna faces within her family and within a divided town. It explores and connects the critical issues of self-determination and self-reliance, both in personal and in international relationships.

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A quarter of a million drug addicts —one of the most serious consequences of the Vietnam War. These addicts were the citizens of the South, and of Ho Chi Minh City, the former Saigon. Shot in 1981 by three Australian women, Changing the Needle was the first in-depth film to be made about Vietnam’s unique approach to drug rehabilitation at a time when few foreign film crews had access to Vietnam at all.

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A docu-drama shot in 1970, but not completed until 1973, the film sought to encapsulate in an experimental form issues that were under discussion within the Women’s Liberation Movement at this time and to thus contribute to action for change. In its numerous community screenings, active debate was encouraged as part of the viewing experience.

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As notions of civil rights transformed across the world, so was the screen landscape reformed by the ascension of grassroots film movements seeking to challenge the mainstream. Some aspired to push form to its limit; others worked to destabilise what they saw as a homogenous industry, or to provoke questions around gender, sexuality, migration and race.

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Reveals a revolutionary chapter in Australian history, the Women’s Liberation Movement (1965 -1975). Interweaves fresh archival footage, personal photographs, memorabilia, and personal accounts from activists all around Australia to show how a daring and diverse group of women joined forces to defy the status quo, demand equality, and create profound social change. These women defined one of the greatest social movements of the 20th century, sometimes at great personal cost.

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Set against the backdrop of modern-day Sydney, this heist-style thriller involves four politicised women from varying backgrounds, who conspire to sabotage the research programme of a multi-national firm, Utero, which is engaged in reproductive engineering. One of the women loses her diary which contains information and diagrams about the raid only a few days to count down. Will the diary fall into the wrong hands leading to the detection of the women before they have a chance to complete their mission? As the tension mounts, so the wider context of the women's lives as mothers, lovers and providers is also shown under strain indicating the many other considerations women have to take into account when embarking on any form of public activity.

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Four young people get to know each other by spending weekends on a yacht stationed in Sydney's Pittwater area.

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Every morning Betty tramps alone through the big city to join her fellow buskers in the pedestrian tunnel below, trying to earn a living. But her earnings are meager, and to make things worse, the new security guard, Joe, is trying to confiscate her fiddle. While Betty dreams of fame and fortune, Joe dreams of earplugs – something’s got to give!

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Speaking in Arabic and English, Soliman Al-Halawani, Dr. Mahmoud Hourani, Fouad Charida, Dib El Chami and Rafica El Chami Batach tell of their life in Palestine before 1948 and give eye-witness accounts of the tumultuous days of 'Al Nakba' (the catastrophe), May 15th, and its aftermath. As children and young adults, they and their families were among 750,000 Palestinians fleeing for their lives, as Zionist terror gangs began seizing villages to enlarge the recently created State of Israel. The stories told by these speakers are poignant, unexpected and sometimes surprising, expressing not only the tragedies but also the small miracles which occur in a human catastrophe of such dimensions. Prevented from returning to their homes, the speakers lived as refugees, eventually making their way to Australia. Their continued longing to see their homeland eloquently expresses the feelings of the dispossessed everywhere, and gives this film a universal dimension.

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Far right and anti-immigration politics have been on the rise worldwide. In Australia, as in many other western countries, as Ordinary People was filming, a new political force began drawing on the discontent of those who felt excluded from the promised benefits of globalisation. This revealing documentary follows One Nation candidate Colene Hughes over two years and two elections as her idealistic fervour slowly turns to disillusionment. Initially for Colene and her supporters, One Nation seems to offer true democracy and a way of knocking the country back into shape. But when Colene starts to question the control of party leaders, the gloves come off and, at the party’s annual general meeting, the two forces collide.

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