AustLit

'Andrew had a dream. The dream was to drive disadvantaged children around for an experience they’d never forget and bring a smile to their beautiful faces. To do this he imagined owning a Western Star truck, that he wanted to name Ned inspired by the one and only Ned Kelly. His vision is to create an artful masterpiece with Ned Kelly’s mural, where children would feel they are stepping into a story. Ned was built and completed in 2014 and is truly a vision. Andrew had warmed the hearts of many and made children’s dreams come true.' (Publication summary)

Set in 1917, Let the Balloon Go tells the story of a crippled boy, Robert, and his attempts to overcome his physical disability. His overprotective mother is unwilling to leave him alone and unsupervised, until he convinces her one day that he'll be fine on his own. He promptly chucks his brace aside and scales the highest tree in town.

A farmer is forced off his land under the weight of debt and the diffculties of farming.

In its overview of awards from 1973, the Australian Film Institute notes that 'Moving On has other historical interest. It was the first major writing credit for Anne Brooksbank and the last film directed by Richard Mason.'

Source: Australian Film Awards (http://aacta.org/winners-nominees/1970-1979/1973.aspx). Sighted: 19/9/2012).

A 'mock-umentary' about making a documentary, From the Tropics to the Snow sees a scriptwriter and a director argue their approaches to the problem of making a comprehensive documentary about Australia. One favours an experimental style, the other a more conventional approach. Wittily observed excerpts from both proposed films indicate the faults of each, and the problems of making such a film are chronicled with considerable humour.

Set in Malaya during the Second World War, A Town Like Alice tells the story of Englishwoman Jean Paget. When Paget is captured by the advancing Japanese army, she joins a group of women and children who are forced to march from prison camp to prison camp because the Japanese had devised no plan to deal with them. She later meets up with an Australian digger, Joe Harman, who hails from Alice Springs in the Northern Territory. Although a prisoner of war, Joe is occasionally allowed outside his camp to help his guards, and subsequently helps the group with medicine and food, which he appropriates from the Japanese without their knowledge. When Joe is eventually caught and tried for stealing the commandant's chickens, he is sentenced to death. After being forced to watch him being tortured, Jean and the group are sent once more on the relentless march to nowhere. When their sole remaining guard later dies, they seek refuge in a village, where they remain until the war ends. Shortly before she returns to England, Jean finds out that Joe's execution was stayed and that he is still alive. She later travels to Alice Springs to find him. Joe, in the meantime, has travelled to England in pursuit of her. They eventually meet in the Alice Springs airport lounge and are finally able to express the emotion they feel for one another.