Kanopy (Firm)

For 60 years, Australian photographer Jeff Carter traversed this country in search of stories. He wrote books and articles for the magazines of the time like People and Pix. And he never travelled without a camera. From the outset, Carter was drawn to document and celebrate the lives of working folk in the bush. From charcoal cutters and kangaroo shooters to dog trappers and drovers, his archive of wonderful images records a way of life that in many...

A companion to Nat Youngs legendary History of Surfing - the biggest-selling surfing book ever - this groundbreaking documentary presents the history of surfing in Australia from its origins in 1915, through its development with wooden boards, the Malibu revolution of the 50s and 60s, the shortboard revolution of the 70s and into the radical 80s. Written, directed and narrated by Nat Young, a four-time World Champion who was integral to surfings evolution...

China Dolls is a stylish and moving portrayal of gay Asian-Australians and their often difficult journeys to self-acceptance. Filmmaker Tony Ayres explores the relationship between race and sexuality, taking us into the unfamiliar world of “rice queens”, “potato queens”, “bananas” and “sticky rice”. In the gay scene, the young and beautiful possess the greatest social power. But what is considered desirable is also influenced by race....

Allies is a landmark documentary from 1983, made at the time of Bob Hawke’s unequivocal embrace of the American alliance. The film explores Australia-US relations during the Cold War: the setting up of ASIO to appease American agencies worried about Communist influence; the Petrov Affair and disunity in the Labor Party; and the determination of Sir Robert Menzies to follow the US into Vietnam. It’s the story also of the “covert wars” in South-East...

In part two, award-winning journalist Sarah Ferguson examines how an abusive relationship escalates to violence, even to murder. What are the warning signs? What can be done to intervene?

Opened in 2008, the Arlpwe Arts Centre and Gallery, in the town of Ali Curung, 350 km north of Alice Springs, provides a focus for the work of a diverse range of Indigenous artists. Artists such as Anita Dickson, May Nampijinpa Wilson, Judy Nampijinpa Long, Valerie Nakamarra Nelson and artefact maker Joe Bird, talk about their work as an expression of their link to their Country. Their art also represents a means whereby they can teach younger people...

When Geraldine Kawanka's husband died, she and her children moved out of their house. In earlier times, their bark house would have been burnt, but today a "house-opening" ceremony has evolved, creatively mingling Aboriginal, Torres Strait, and European traditions in order to deal with death in the context of new living patterns in the Aboriginal community of Aurukun, on the Cape York Peninsula, north Queensland. This beautifully observed documentary...

Tnorala is the Aboriginal name for Gosse's Bluff, a dramatic meteorite impact crater set in a vast plain 175km west of Alice Springs. This significant dreaming site for Western Arrernte people is steeped in mystery and tragedy. The story of its creation and the events that occurred there are narrated to the camera by Aunty Mavis Malbunka, one of the traditional story-tellers for the place. Legend says that while stars danced in the Milky Way, a child...

In the heart of central Australia, the town of Alice Springs has become something of a haven for Lesbians – a place where black and white women mix and mingle, confronting the challenges of loving across racial and cultural gaps. In a delightful parody of a famed TV naturalist, Destiny Attenborough (played by filmmaker Trisha Morton-Thomas) guides us through the habitat and customs of the women who love women in Alice Springs. The origins of the...

A lot of people talk about what could be done to make the world a better place. Moira Kelly doesn’t just talk, she acts. She’s run an AIDS clinic for children in Romania, been house mother at an Aboriginal mission, worked in India with Mother Teresa, nursed crack babies in the Bronx, rescued kids from the firing lines in the brutal Balkans conflict and set up schools for the disadvantaged in Bosnia. She brings those in need of surgery from war...