Drop-In Docos

Spring Program – Law, Occupation and Migration 

Our Spring Program explores complex stories of law, occupation and migration, asking tough questions about place, belonging and ownership. In Mabo – Life of an Island Man, the landmark 1992 High Court of Australia decision on native title is examined through the private and public stories of Eddie 'Koiki' Mabo. Occupation and ownership are also investigated in The Forgotten Force, which examines the experiences of the British Commonwealth Occupation Force in Hiroshima after the Second World War. Questions of place and belonging expand to migration in two episodes of The Migrant Experience, which unpack the motivations and experiences of new migrants to Australia. Meanwhile, Rats in the Ranks and Big Brother of Christmas Island take more localised looks at justice and power within Sydney’s Leichhardt Council and the Union of Christmas Island Workers. 

Special Screenings – Love of an Icon: The Legend of Crocodile Dundee 

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To complement our special Q&A screening of Crocodile Dundee: The Encore Cut on Saturday 20 September, enjoy one of two free screenings of Love of an Icon: The Legend of Crocodile Dundee. This new documentary tells the behind-the-scenes story of the making of one of Australia’s most commercially successful films of all time, Crocodile Dundee.  

Book now to secure your spot for these free screenings at 12.30 pm on Saturday 20 September and 2.30 pm on Sunday 21 September.  

The Migrant Experience: Of Dreams and Reasons  

1983 | Not Classified | 55 mins | AUS | D: Karl McPhee  

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Why do people leave the lands of their birth? Why do some choose Australia as a new home? After the Second World War, migration to Australia increased significantly. For many Europeans, the country offered a haven from the upheaval of war. At the same time, Australia saw population growth as vital for its own security and development. 

Of Dreams and Reasons is episode 2 of The Migrant Experience, a six-part television series produced by Malcolm Smith for the Australian Institute of Multicultural Affairs and Film Australia. © National Film and Sound Archive of Australia. 

Mabo – Life of an Island Man  

1997 | G | 86 mins | AUS | D: Trevor Graham  

On 3 June 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. Mabo – Life of an Island Man tells both the public and deeply personal stories of a man so devoted to his family and home that he fought an entire nation and its legal system. Though his greatest victory was won only after his death, it has forever ensured his place – on Murray Island and in Australian history. 

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

The Forgotten Force 

1994 | PG | 55 mins | AUS | D: Raymond Quint 

Between 1946 and 1952, the British Commonwealth Occupation Force (BCOF) was tasked with policing the starving population of Hiroshima and destroying Japan’s vast war machine. The Forgotten Force tells, for the first time, the story of Australia’s role in postwar Japan. 

Fifty years on, the service of these men and women in the occupation of Japan is forgotten – missing from the pages of history and unacknowledged by successive Australian governments. The time has now come for the work of the BCOF to be acknowledged and rewarded. 

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

The Migrant Experience: First Encounters  

1983 | Not Classified | 55 mins | AUS | D: Karl McPhee 

This program looks at how immigrants have been received upon their arrival in Australia. It explores the expectations, fears and challenges of these new immigrants in first meetings between new and old settlers as well as the migrants’ desire to play a bigger part in what was fast becoming a multicultural society.  

The Migrant Experience is a six-part television series produced by Malcolm Smith for the Australian Institute of Multicultural Affairs and Film Australia. 

First Encounters is episode 3 of The Migrant Experience, a six-part series co-produced by Film Australia and the Australian Institute of Multicultural Affairs. © National Film and Sound Archive of Australia. 

Rats in the Ranks 

1996 | PG | 93 mins | AUS | D: Bob Connolly, Robin Anderson 

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Every September, Sydney’s Leichhardt Council elects its mayor. Incumbent Larry Hand is popular with the citizenry, but they don’t vote for mayor – the 12 councillors do. And politics is a bruising business; the best policies in the world mean nothing unless you’ve got the numbers. Rats in the Ranks  is a gripping, real-life drama with a white-knuckle climax; a fascinating portrait of how politics really works. Bob Connolly and Robin Anderson – two of Australia’s most distinguished filmmakers – gained extraordinary access to make the film. Arms are twisted, favours called in, and there are deals, double crosses and damaging leaks. But right up to the vote, no one knows if the numbers will stick.   

A Film Australia and Arundel Films Co-Production in association with the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, Channel Four and La Sept ARTE. © National Film and Sound Archive of Australia. 

Big Brother of Christmas Island  

1999 | Not Classified | 55 mins | AUS | D: Mathew Kelley 

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Phosphate-rich Christmas Island rises from the Indian Ocean just 10 degrees south of the Equator. It was mined first by the British and then by the Australians. The British Phosphate Commission ran the island like a Raj outpost, exploiting cheap Asian labour and practising a form of apartheid. Gordon Bennett, a hard-drinking Englishman, came to the remote Australian territory in 1979 to become General Secretary of the Union of Christmas Island Workers. Appalled at what he found, Bennett was determined to dismantle the archaic and racist institutions on the island. The film traces an attempt to crush the tiny union and shut down the mine. By the time Bennett died in 1991, he was known as ‘Tai Ko Seng’, which roughly translates to ‘big brother who delivers’. 

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