
Every weekend, drop in for free documentaries in the NFSA Theatrette. Four thought-provoking Australian documentaries will show on rotation, offering a window into key moments and conversations in our history and culture. Films will screen at 11am and 1.30pm every Saturday and Sunday. Admission is free and no bookings are required – stay for 10 minutes or settle in for the full screening.
The Theatrette is the perfect place to spend a cosy morning or afternoon immersed in Australia’s audiovisual culture. Enjoy a coffee in the courtyard before or after the doco and discover other screening in the Mediatheque or on display in The Library, Kookaburra Room or in our Recent Relics installation. Explore what’s on offer in our heritage building
Screenings commence at 11am and 1.30pm every Saturday and Sunday – drop in at any time throughout the screening. Entry is free and no bookings are required.
Bombora – The Story of Australian Surfing delves into the history of one of our favourite summer pastimes, while Harder than Everest follows an epic trek through snow and ice to summit Gasherbrum IV. Meanwhile, A Calcutta Christmas and Broken Journey, Mending Dreams explore culture and identity in post-colonial and migrant contexts across India and Vietnam.
A definitive history of surfing in Australia as told by our surfing champions, writers, pioneers, entrepreneurs, mavericks, legends, drop-outs and drop-ins.
Global surfing culture is a mix of wildness, grace and cool that is utterly Australian, but how did a nation of people, who mostly couldn’t swim, turn a Polynesian pastime into a national obsession and international cultural force? From the time we first took on the waves in the late 19th century, Australians were hooked on surfing. Episode one of Bombora looks at the early years of Australian surf history from 1830 to 1964.
With the Vietnam War came an influx of drugs, and surfers embraced the counterculture and dropped out of society to country towns along the coast. Elsewhere, a group of entrepreneurial surfers began backyard businesses making wetsuits and board shorts. Episode two of Bombora looks at the later years of Australian surf history from 1967 to the present.
Hidden in the middle of noisy, vibrant Calcutta is a quiet oasis, the Tollygunge Home, a refuge for 35 elderly Anglo-Indians. In stark contrast to the rest of post-colonial India, the residents of Tollygunge cling to the belief that Britain is their true home. A Calcutta Christmas is a gentle portrait of life inside this forgotten community.
An adventure film about Tim Macartney-Snape’s incredible expedition to climb Gasherbrum IV – an 8,000-metre symmetrical pyramid mountain of rock and ice on the border of Pakistan and China in the Karakoram Range of the western Himalaya. Macartney-Snape was the first in the team to reach the summit, a climb he said was 'harder than Everest’.
After 18 years in Australia, Hanh Tran is making his first journey home to Vietnam, fulfilling a long-held dream. Amidst the reunion of tears and laughter, an extraordinary family saga emerges. Broken Journey, Mending Dreams is not just about Hanh’s family but also about a society in transition. Hanh compares contemporary Vietnam with his life in Australia, admitting to ‘stepping in and out of being an insider and an outsider’.
Date |
11am |
1.30pm |
SAT 15 FEB |
Bombora – The Story of Australian Surfing |
Broken Journey, Mending Dreams |
SUN 16 FEB |
A Calcutta Christmas |
Harder Than Everest |
SAT 22 FEB |
Harder Than Everest |
A Calcutta Christmas |
SUN 23 FEB |
Broken Journey, Mending Dreams |
Bombora – The Story of Australian Surfing |
SAT 1 MAR |
Bombora – The Story of Australian Surfing |
Broken Journey, Mending Dreams |
SUN 2 MAR |
A Calcutta Christmas |
Harder Than Everest |
SAT 8 MAR |
Harder Than Everest |
A Calcutta Christmas |
SUN 9 MAR |
Broken Journey, Mending Dreams |
Bombora – The Story of Australian Surfing |
SAT 15 MAR |
Bombora – The Story of Australian Surfing |
Broken Journey, Mending Dreams |
SUN 16 MAR |
A Calcutta Christmas |
Harder Than Everest |
SAT 22 MAR |
Harder Than Everest |
A Calcutta Christmas |
SUN 23 MAR |
Broken Journey, Mending Dreams |
Bombora – The Story of Australian Surfing |
SAT 29 MAR |
Bombora – The Story of Australian Surfing |
Broken Journey, Mending Dreams |
SUN 30 MAR |
A Calcutta Christmas |
Harder Than Everest |
SAT 5 APR |
Harder Than Everest |
A Calcutta Christmas |
SUN 6 APR |
Broken Journey, Mending Dreams |
Bombora – The Story of Australian Surfing |
SAT 12 APR |
Bombora – The Story of Australian Surfing |
Broken Journey, Mending Dreams |
SUN 13 APR |
A Calcutta Christmas |
Harder Than Everest |
SAT 19 APR |
Harder Than Everest |
A Calcutta Christmas |
SUN 20 APR |
Broken Journey, Mending Dreams |
Bombora – The Story of Australian Surfing |
SAT 26 APR |
Bombora – The Story of Australian Surfing |
Broken Journey, Mending Dreams |
SUN 27 APR |
A Calcutta Christmas |
Harder Than Everest |
SAT 3 MAY |
Harder Than Everest |
A Calcutta Christmas |
SUN 4 MAY |
Broken Journey, Mending Dreams |
Bombora – The Story of Australian Surfing |
SAT 10 MAY |
Bombora – The Story of Australian Surfing |
Broken Journey, Mending Dreams |
SUN 11 MAY |
A Calcutta Christmas |
Harder Than Everest |
SAT 17 MAY |
Harder Than Everest |
A Calcutta Christmas |
SUN 18 MAY |
Broken Journey, Mending Dreams |
Bombora – The Story of Australian Surfing |
SAT 24 MAY |
Bombora – The Story of Australian Surfing |
Broken Journey, Mending Dreams |
SUN 25 MAY |
A Calcutta Christmas |
Harder Than Everest |
SAT 31 MAY |
Harder Than Everest |
A Calcutta Christmas |
SUN 1 JUN |
Broken Journey, Mending Dreams |
Bombora – The Story of Australian Surfing |
The National Film and Sound Archive of Australia acknowledges Australia’s Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples as the Traditional Custodians of the land on which we work and live and gives respect to their Elders both past and present.