AustLit

'Two Fists One Heart is a contemporary family drama set in Perth, Western Australia.

'Anthony Argo is a champion boxer and nightclub doorman. He is trained by his father Joe who has brought his Sicilian values with him to Australia. Joe's proud traditional view of the world increasingly comes into conflict with his son's pursuit of "la dolce vita".

'Anthony meets Kate who stimulates him with ideas and love. She introduces him to a wider social group, way beyond the Australian society his father has known. Anthony starts to question many of the foundations of his upbringing, in particular, the role that violence plays in the resolution of conflict.

'As he assimilates his newfound broader view of the world, while battling with his own personal disappointments, he realises he is now mature enough to be his own man and see his father and his values within the context of his own developing philosophy.'

Source: Two Fists One Heart website, http://www.2fists1heartmovie.com.au/
Sighted: 12/03/2009

A story of an Australian outback family's courage as they struggle on a drought-plagued farm. Forced from their land, the Bells move to the city, where their daughter Matilda has difficulty coping. However, her friendship with another dislocated little girl, a Vietnamese refugee, helps her to adapt.

'Neal McBride is a Glasgow cop who likes to go undercover - the rest of the police wish he would stay there. When he arrests a politician he gets reassigned to where they used to send criminals: Australia. Lancelot Cooper is a Sydney cop but a country boy at heart; he is as trusting as McBride is suspicious. The two are partners on a case where death, deception and betrayal propels them into a desperate fight for survival.'

Source: Screen Australia. (Sighted: 28/1/2014)

In this third instalment of the Fields of Fire series, Kate, now widowed, 'is a wealthy woman owning many cane farms. She is attracted to Rinaldo, a newly arrived Italian cane-cutter. The referendum to outlaw the Australian Communist Party splits the town. A big flood draws the community back together and brings the saga to a close.'

Source: Moran's Guide to Australian TV Series.

Inspired by Robert Donaldson's novel Cane, this sequel to the 1987 mini-series Fields of Fire begins in 1946. Following the marriage of WWII, British expatriate Bluey and Dusty, one of his co-workers in the Australian cane fields, the focus shifts to a pair of new characters - Gina, an Italian refugee, and Franco, her black-marketeer husband.

The first part of a trilogy that dramatises the recurring 'new chum' theme in Australian storytelling and also touches on racism, wartime propaganda, and the mateship and community that exists in a small town dependent on one industry to survive. The narrative begins in the late thirties, with the arrival of a young Englishman in the Queensland sugar cane town of Silkwood. When he is not accepted by the Australian cane cutters, the Italian workers take him under their wing. As the story progresses, he has several love affairs, goes to war, and eventually returns to the canefields.

A romantic dramatisation of the beginnings of the Australian Berlei Corset company, which went on to become the most widely recognised brand for lingerie and underwear in Australia. Victorian Fred Burley founded Unique Corsets Limited with his brother Arthur in 1912 and went on to form Berlei Limited in 1919. The company eventually expanded its operations to New Zealand and the United Kingdom.

'Deadly radiation is released following an accident at the WALDO nuclear waste facility in central Australia. Heinrich (Ross Thompson), a scientist at the facility who has been exposed to a fatal dose of contaminated water, escapes into the countryside where he meets holidaying couple Larry (Steve Bisley), a car mechanic, and his wife Carmel (Arna-Maria Winchester), a nurse.

'Given orders to kill Heinrich and anyone he might have spoken to, WALDO security agents Gray (Ralph Cotterill) and Oates (Patrick Ward) close in on Heinrich, Larry and Carmel. Heinrich makes contact with Eagle (Hugh Keays-Byrne), an anti-nuclear campaigner who arrives on the scene determined to save Larry and Carmel and expose the cover-up by WALDO.'

Source: Australian Screen. (Sighted: 29/8/2013)

Beginning in Australia in the late 1940s, when movie theatres were the only source of audiovisual news coverage, the narrative follows the exploits of Len Maguire and his young sidekick Chris as they cover the big news stories for the Cinetone newsreel company. Len is a doggedly dependable and ever-cautious senior cameraman, trapped in a world of changing values. Len always knows the right thing to do, but becomes troubled as his marriage falters, his job becomes threatened by the arrival of television, and Cinetone is taken over and its work marginalised. Len's loyalties to the Catholic Church, the Labor Party, and his family are juxtaposed against both his brother/rival cameraman Frank--who sells out his values, abandons his responsibilities, and heads off to success in the USA--and his cocky young assistant, Chris.

The first feature film for Phillip Noyce, Newsfront also depicts the increasing changes to the Australian cultural and political landscape, tracing social shifts from the first waves of European post-war immigration through to the 1956 Olympic Games in Melbourne.