Drop-In Docos

Winter Program – Art, Music and Film 

Our Winter Program is bursting with rich stories about Australian art, film and music. Dreamings – The Art of Aboriginal Australia explores the oldest continuous art tradition in the world, while Boomalli – Five Koori Artists celebrates five First Nations artists of the 1980s. Discover the origins of filmmaking in Australia in The Celluloid Heroes: The Pioneers (1894–1927). Pop icon Kate Ceberano traces her mother’s family in Who Do You Think You Are? Protest and rock collide in 88.9 Radio Redfern; Buried Country looks at First Nations storytelling through country music; and Sounds Like Australia offers an innovative marriage of music and Australian landscape. Finally, Vietnam Symphony tells the extraordinary story of the students who moved underground to keep making music during the Vietnam War. 

Sounds Like Australia 

1987 | G | 54 mins | AUS | D: Jamie Robertson 

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Kevin Peek, composer and guitarist with Sky, teams up with Mars Lasar, composer and Fairlight musician, to take a voyage of discovery into the Australian continent. This beautifully crafted film interweaves the sounds of nature and recordings of rare Australian birds – Victoria’s riflebird, lyrebird and emu among others – with synthesised music that celebrates the Australian landscape and its wildlife. Superbly photographed, Sounds Like Australia breaks new ground in bringing music and the natural world together.  

Produced by Film Australia. © National Film and Sound Archive of Australia. 

Dreamings – The Art of Aboriginal Australia 

1988 | G | 54 mins | AUS | D: Michael Riley 

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Dreamings celebrates the art of Aboriginal Australia, journeying into the sacred heart of Australia to watch traditional artists at work. The artists talk about their work, its association with the land and its spiritual connection with the people, animals and plants. The film explores works from acrylic dot paintings of the Central Desert to cross-hatched bark paintings and burial poles of northern Australia and opens a window to the oldest continuous art tradition in the world. 

Image: women painting the ancestral design of the Sugar Leaf Dreaming.

A Film Australia National Interest Program. © National Film and Sound Archive of Australia. 

Who Do You Think You Are? – Kate Ceberano 

2007 | PG | 52 mins | AUS | D: Kay Pavlou, Andrew Saw 

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Singer Kate Ceberano is convinced she is descended from ‘pirates and bums’ but as she delves into her family tree, she uncovers links to landed gentry and an artistic past. One early ancestor, an entrepreneurial Swede, was an inventive pioneer and a pillar of the establishment of the Mallee region. On the trail of a mysterious Spanish sea captain, she heads to Tasmania and finds instead a relationship with music teacher-turned-artist Henry Mundy. Kate crosses cities and cultures in the search for her past, uncovering some life-changing surprises along the way. 

© National Film and Sound Archive of Australia, Artemis International, Serendipity Productions, ScreenWest and Lotterywest, SBS Independent 

Vietnam Symphony 

2005 | Not Classified | 51 mins | AUS | D: Tom Zubrycki 

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In 1965, as the Vietnam War intensified, students and teachers from the Hanoi National Conservatory of Music were forced to flee the city for the relative safety of a village in the countryside. There, they built an entire campus underground and, as the war raged around them, they lived, studied and played music for five years. Vietnam Symphony combines archival footage with contemporary interviews and a sublime soundtrack to tell their story.  

Image: Vu Thi Mai Phuong and a student with traditional Vietnamese Bau instruments at the Ha Noi National Conservatory of Music. 

© National Film and Sound Archive of Australia, Screen NSW 

The Celluloid Heroes: The Pioneers (1894–1927) 

1995 | G | 57 mins | AUS | D: Robert Francis 

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Australians were among the first to discover and excel at filmmaking in the 1890s. Early classics such as The Story of the Kelly Gang (1906), Robbery Under Arms (1907) and The Squatter’s Daughter (1910) were followed by international hits: The Sentimental Bloke (1919) and On Our Selection (1920). Actors like Lottie Lyell and Arthur Tauchert and directors including Alfred Rolfe, Raymond Longford, Beaumont Smith and documentarian Frank Hurley all established their careers during this era. But the bold visions of these dynamic filmmakers soon faced threats from at home and abroad in the form of government indifference, restrictive laws and the growing influence of Hollywood. 

A Film Australia National Interest Program. Produced in association with the National Film and Sound Archive. Produced with the assistance of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. © National Film and Sound Archive of Australia. 

Boomalli – Five Koori Artists 

1988 | G | 28 mins | AUS | D: Michael Riley 

Boomalli is an artists’ cooperative formed by urban Aboriginal photographers, painters, sculptors, designers and filmmakers. This visually inspiring film from 1988 focuses on contemporary artists including clothing designer Bronwyn Bancroft, the first Australian fashion designer to be invited to show in Paris; sand sculptor Fiona Foley; Tracey Moffatt, who discusses her film about Aboriginal girls; and Raymond Meeks and Jeffrey Samuels, whose artworks incorporate aspects of traditional Aboriginal painting. 

Produced by Film Australia. © National Film and Sound Archive of Australia. 

88.9 Radio Redfern 

1988 | Not Classified | 54 mins | AUS | D: Sharon Bell, Geoff Burton 

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An observational documentary about Sydney’s first community Aboriginal radio station, Radio Redfern. Set against the backdrop of contemporary Aboriginal music, 88.9 Radio Redfern explores how the station became a focal point for communication and solidarity during the bicentennial protests of 1988.   

Image: Mac Silva at Radio Redfern

A Film Australia National Interest Program. © National Film and Sound Archive of Australia. 

Buried Country (Feature Version) 

1999 | Not Classified | 75 mins | AUS | D: Andy Nehl 

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Where African Americans turned to the blues, Aboriginal Australians found inspiration in country and western and made the music their own. From the bush to the city, Aboriginal people have used country music to tell their stories of life and the struggle for justice. Featuring rare recordings and interviews with singers and songwriters, Buried Country traces six decades of music-making. What emerges is an important record of First Nations Australians and a celebration of how music can lift the human spirit. 

Image: singer-songwriter Bob Randall

A Film Australia National Interest Program. Produced in association with SBS Independent. © National Film and Sound Archive of Australia.