Titles tagged with ‘history’
81 titles - sorted by title / by year
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Allies (1983)
The documentary looks at diplomatic relations between Australia and the USA since the Second World War. Using interviews and archival footage, the documentary leads the viewer to question ...
Angst (1993)
The film looks at the lives of three Jewish comedians who are the children of Holocaust survivors. Deb Filler is from New Zealand, Sandy Gutman (Austen Tayshus) from ...
Anzac Day Promotional (c1916)
This silent, black-and-white cinema advertisement was used to encourage Australians to commemorate Anzac Day. It shows a re-enactment of soldiers wearing gas masks walking through some trenches with ...
Archibald Family: Family Scenes and Outings in Sydney: Home Movie (c1932)
This home movie produced by the Archibald family in approximately 1932, features a variety of scenes illustrating their family life. These include beach scenes, a young girl’s birthday ...
Australasian Gazette – Armistice Day, Melbourne (c1925)
This newsreel clip from about 1925 shows a large crowd of people gathered on the steps of Parliament House, Melbourne for an Armistice Day ceremony. The crowd stands ...
Australia Post – Joint Stamp Issue (1988)
This program records Australia Post’s release of a special joint Australian and United States bicentennial stamp and a commemorative bicentenary book of stamps.
Australia Post – News Release E-Post Electronic Mail (1985)
This 1985 video press release explains E-Post, a new service offered by Australia Post.
Australia Post – Onward Speed (1970)
Produced by The Film House for the Australian Post Office, this is an amusing instructional film on maximising the effectiveness of business mail procedures.
Australia Post – Post Office Film (1942)
This is an unedited mute, black-and-white film record of the dismantling of the Sydney General Post Office (GPO) clock tower, as well as street scenes near and around ...
Australia Post – Post Office Speeds the Mail (1970)
This is a short program produced by Bennett Honda for the Australian Post Office to introduce and promote the new use of motorcycles by postal delivery officers.
Australia Post – Post Office Spruce Up (1987)
This program, produced for in-house use aimed at individual post office managers, details the Australia Post ‘Spruce Up’ campaign.
Australia Post – Royal Tour (1954)
This program was produced by the Public Relations Division of the Postmaster-General’s Department (PMG) to celebrate its role in the newly crowned Queen Elizabeth II’s visit to Australia. ...
Australia Post – This is the Mail (1966)
This is a black-and-white film, showcasing what was then the newly opened Redfern Mail Exchange. It looks at Redfern’s centralised system of mail collection and distribution. While detailing ...
Australia to England via Tobruk and Benghazi: Menzies Wartime Tour (1941)
This home movie, filmed by Australian Prime Minister the Right Honourable, Sir Robert Menzies, was taken during his 1941 wartime tour of Tobruk, Benghazi, Cairo, Khartoum, Libya and ...
The Battle for Byron (1996)
The documentary looks at the history of Byron Bay, a seaside town in Northern NSW. Waves of development have influenced the culture of the town. The first settlers ...
The Battleships (2000)
A four-hour documentary miniseries examining the rise in importance of the battleship from the wooden sailing ships of the Elizabethan age to the dreadnoughts of modern history.
Belsen For Example (1985)
A German film crew interviews survivors, now living in Australia, of the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp. The recollections of the victims and members of the rescue teams are a ...
The Black Road: on the front line of Aceh’s war (2005)
American journalist William Nessen visits Aceh, the Northern Province of Indonesia, to report on Aceh’s struggle for independence from the Indonesian Government. Nessen makes friends with the Indonesian ...
Bread and Dripping (1981)
Four women recall raising families during the Great Depression of the late 1920s and 1930s. The interviews are intercut with historical footage of the living conditions of both ...
The Breaker (c1973)
A documentary of Henry ‘Breaker’ Morant’s life. It covers his disputed parentage, his variety of names, and his adventures as a bushman in Queensland and New South Wales. ...
Canberra Files, The (2006)
The Canberra Files takes a chronological look at the way moving images of Australia’s political leaders have influenced the nation over 105 years. It features a special on ...
Cenotaph (1993)
The documentary looks at the effect of the First World War on the New South Wales country town of Hay. Seven women and 641 men went to the ...
The Changing Face of Australia (1970)
This documentary made by the Shell Company of Australia provides a geological view of Australia’s natural history and development.
Chequerboard Revisited – Episode 5: You Can’t Have A Child That’s Ugly (2000)
In 1969, the ABC documentary program Chequerboard, made a program about child performers. Thirty-one years later, two of them agreed to be filmed for Chequerboard Revisited.
Chile: Hasta Cuando? (1986)
The documentary examines aspects of life in Chile under the dictatorship of General Pinochet. The film records songs of protest by the Chileans and the director interviews dissidents ...
Commuting by Cable (1988)
Using historical footage this documentary records the story of cable trams in Melbourne from 1885 to 1940. Enthusiasts have recorded the tram routes and operation of the cable ...
Compass – Buddha Realms, Part 1 (2001)
Buddhism is one of the world’s oldest religions; it’s older than both Christianity and Islam and, like those faiths, its influence has spread throughout the world. This program ...
Compass – Embracing the Enemy (2005)
Turkish immigrants to Australia in the 1970s immediately felt connected through the Anzac Day marches but found they were forbidden to march with the Australians. Thus began a ...
Compass – Gallipoli Pilgrimage (2006)
Australians are making their way in increasing numbers to Anzac Cove in Turkey each year to commemorate the ANZAC landing there on April 25th, 1915. This is the ...
Construction of Sydney Harbour Bridge (1931)
A comprehensive pictorial record that chronicles the construction of the Sydney Harbour Bridge between 1925 and 1931, filmed by the Paramount Film Service, Sydney.
Couldn’t Be Fairer (1984)
A documentary that intercuts historical footage with live interview material, Couldn’t Be Fairer borrows its title from a statement made by Joh Bjelke Peterson, and explores the injustice ...
The Digger Carries On: Repatriation Illustrated (1919)
This public information film from 1919 shows the facilities for injured and psychologically affected returned servicemen from the First World War and the various vocational training schemes available.
Endurance (1933)
The documentary footage taken by Frank Hurley during the Antarctic expedition led by Ernest Shackleton on a ship called Endurance in 1914–16 is bookended with a simple plot ...
Farey: Opening of Sydney Harbour Bridge: Home Movie (1932)
This home movie includes a diverse range of footage taken by Leslie Francis Farey and features a trip taken by his family who travelled from Melbourne, Victoria to ...
For Love or Money (1983)
Using a vast array of historical footage, the film proposes a history of women and work in Australia, from 1788 to 1983.
Friends and Enemies (1987)
Friends and Enemies follows the bitter fight between the Queensland Coalition Government and members of the Electrical Trades Union from the start of the Union’s strike to the ...
From England to the USA: Menzies Wartime Tour (c1941)
This home movie, filmed by the then Australian prime minister Sir Robert Menzies, records his trip from England to the USA via Lisbon and Canada. It begins with ...
From the Bush to the Bungalow (1920)
This industrial documentary presents the timber production process in the 1920s and briefly describes the living conditions of its workers.
Gallipoli (1981)
In Western Australia in 1915 two young men join up to fight in the First World War. Archy Hamilton (Mark Lee) is the patriotic son of a grazier. ...
Glued to the Telly (1995)
Tracing 40 years of television broadcasting in Australia, this documentary uses dramatised segments, historical footage and interviews to give the viewer a cross-section of opinions about the advantages ...
Grave of the President (1984)
The film follows a series of dives to one of the world’s biggest and most accessible shipwrecks, in Espiritu Santo, Vanuatu. It is a popular dive for scuba ...
Half Life: A Parable for the Nuclear Age (1985)
From 1946 to 1958 the US used the Marshall Islands south of Hawaii to test nuclear weapons above ground. Early atom bomb tests were conducted with some caution, ...
Historic Beechworth (1971)
This home movie filmed by Alan Bresnahan shows scenery of the town and surrounding countryside at Beechworth. The main street is shown, featuring the Tanswell’s Commercial Hotel. This ...
I Can Jump Puddles (1981)
This is the inspirational boyhood story of the author Alan Marshall, a victim of polio. Born in rural Victoria in the early 1900s, young Alan Marshall contracted the ...
In the Mind of the Architect – Episode One: Keeping the Faith (2000)
Keeping the Faith is the first in a series of three programs showcasing contemporary Australian architecture. In this program, some of Australia’s best-known and finest architects talk about ...
The Life and Times of Margaret Whitlam (1993)
Maxine McKew interviews Margaret Whitlam in 1993. Margaret Whitlam talks about her childhood, career choices and her life married to Gough Whitlam (Prime Minister of Australia 1972–1975). She ...
Maidens (1978)
Maidens is a biographical chronicle. It uses personal archives, made up of still and moving image, from both domestic and vocational sources, lyrical narration and emotive music to ...
Marvellous Melbourne: Queen City of the South (c1910)
This silent documentary with intertitles was compiled by producer Charles Cozens Spencer and cinematographer Ernest Higgins. It documents architecture, transport, and recreation in Melbourne in the early part ...
Menzies 1948 Journey, Reel 1 (1948)
This home movie is the first reel of a four-part travelogue, filmed by Australian Prime Minister, Sir Robert Menzies, on a journey from Australia to England by the ...
Menzies 1948 Journey, Reel 2 (1948)
This home movie filmed by Australian Prime Minister, Sir Robert Menzies, during a family journey through Europe in 1948, begins with a title card that says ‘I didn’t ...
Menzies 1948 Journey, Reel 3 (1948)
This home movie is the third reel of a four-part travelogue filmed by Australian Prime Minister, Sir Robert Menzies, on a journey he made with his family from ...
Menzies’ Wartime Tour – England (1941)
This home movie filmed by Australia’s longest serving prime minister, Sir Robert Menzies, captures England during the Blitz in 1941. It features footage of the Churchills in their ...
Metric Motoring (1974)
This title consists of two 60-second television advertisements explaining to motorists the national changeover from imperial to metric measurement.
More Winners – Boy Soldiers (1990)
In 1910, the Australian government passed a law requiring all boys aged between 14 and 17 years to register for compulsory military training. Between 1911 and 1915 more ...
A Nation is Built (1938)
This sprawling and patriotic documentary uses actuality footage, historical re-enactments, fictionalised scenes and propaganda to chronicle Australia’s development and progress as a nation. It was sponsored by the ...
Nazi Supergrass (1993)
The Australian Nationalist Movement conducted a campaign of racial hatred on Perth for three years from 1986. They were opposed to Asians, Jews and Blacks. They bombed Asian ...
Official Opening of Canberra by His Royal Highness the Duke of York (1927)
The Duke of York, who later became King George VI, officially opens Old Parliament House, Canberra on 19 May 1927. Prime Minister Stanley Melbourne Bruce is also present ...
Opal Mining Lightning Ridge (c1925)
This silent footage with intertitles from around 1925 shows scenes of the opal mining community of Lightning Ridge in New South Wales. It includes miners’ shanty houses, the ...
The Opening of the Sydney Harbour Bridge (1932)
On Saturday 19 March 1932, a large crowd gathered around Sydney’s Harbour Bridge for the official opening ceremony. This newsreel footage with on-the-spot commentary contains unique coverage of ...
Operation Blowdown (1963)
Produced by the Department of Supply Film Unit at Movietone, this is the official film of Operation Blowdown, the classified project that aimed to replicate the effects of ...
Operation Buffalo – Colour Record (1956)
Operation Buffalo was the testing of four nuclear fission bombs at Maralinga in South Australia on 27 September 1956. This film is the official recording of the operation. ...
Polska (1991)
The documentary looks at Poland in 1991 through the eyes of journalist national, Beata Ligman. She visits different areas of her country talking to the ordinary people about ...
The Rocks: Sydney, Australia (1983)
This sponsored documentary traces the beginning of The Rocks in Sydney Cove to its present redevelopment as a tourist precinct. A young female tourist appears throughout the film ...
Rosie (2004)
A docu-drama stylistically using both interview and dramatic re-enactment to depict the childhood of Rosalie Fraser, an Aboriginal woman who as one of the Stolen Generation, fostered out ...
Seven Little Australians (1973)
This is the story of the Woolcot family – Captain John Woolcot (Leonard Teale) from the NSW Regiment, his young second wife Esther (Elizabeth Alexander), and his seven ...
Shadow Play (2001)
In Indonesia, on 30 September 1965 a group of President Sukarno’s guards murdered six generals who were anti-Communist. General Suharto blamed the Communist Party of Indonesia (PKI). Suharto ...
Snakes and Ladders (1987)
Combining interviews, historical footage, quirky dramatisations and short animations, Snakes and Ladders gives an account of the achievements and setbacks of Australian women attempting to gain education equality ...
Snowy Hydro – Snowy 69 (1969)
In 1969 the Snowy Mountains Hydro Electricity Authority (SMHEA) was entering the final stages of its twenty five year construction period. Produced by the Scheme’s own photographic unit ...
Snowy Hydro – Sound and Safe (1963)
Produced in 1963 by the Snowy Mountains Hydro-Electricity Authority (SMHEA) photographic unit (Harry Malcolm et al.), the film lays out safety procedures for hard rock tunnelling.
Snowy Hydro – The Best of the Years (1974)
A documentary record of the construction and completion of the Snowy Mountains Scheme from 1949 to 1974. The film examines the multicultural work force and its achievement in ...
Snowy Hydro – The Jindabyne Story (c1965)
Produced in 1964–5 by the SMHEA photographic unit (Harry Malcolm et al.), the film tells the story of the moving of the town of Jindabyne to make way ...
Snowy Hydro – Where Giants Meet (1948)
Produced in 1948 by Cambridge Film Productions for Industrial Sales and Service (ISAS) and the SMHEA, the film is both a domestic recruitment promotion for the Snowy Mountains ...
South of the Border (1987)
South of the Border looks at the role of music in the grass roots political protest movement in Central America. David Bradbury films various bands singing protest songs ...
Stolen Generations (2000)
A documentary using historical and interview footage to tell the story of three people removed as children from their families, who are now one of the many referred ...
The Sydney Morning Herald (1911)
This Pathé documentary short produced for the Commonwealth Government in April 1911 shows the newspaper printing process of the Sydney Morning Herald. The film begins with the unloading ...
Touch the Sun – Devil’s Hill (c1988)
It is 1950. Badge (Alexander ‘Mathew’ Jacobs) lives on a remote farm in Tasmania’s rugged southwest, with his parents Dave (Peter Hehir) and Jessie (Mary Haire). It is ...
Touch the Sun – Peter & Pompey (1988)
In a cave, near a small coastal town in Queensland, Peter (Clayton Williamson) finds the manuscript of Pompey (Aaron Ferguson), a young Roman boy from the past. Peter ...
Track Record: The Story of Australia’s Railways - Tethered to the World (1991)
This is one episode from a four-part series that looks at the history of the railway network in Australia. This episode outlines the surviving tourist railways of Australia. ...
Weapons Research Establishment Project WRESAT (1967)
Produced by the Weapons Research Establishment (WRE) Film Unit, Department of Supply, this is a documentary record of the WRESAT Project – the launch of the first Australian ...
Winners – The Paper Boy (1985)
It is 1932 and Joe (Christopher Schlusser) is 11 years old. When his father John Riordan (Tony Llewellyn Jones) loses his factory job, Joe gets a job as ...
The Wreck of the Batavia (1973)
A dramatised documentary tracing the story of the Dutch ship Batavia. The ship was sailing from Holland to Batavia (Jakarta) when it was shipwrecked 50 miles off the ...
