IN CINEMAS FEB 16 2023
SALES ENQUIRIES
Visit Films - info@visitfilms.com (International)
Dark Matter - info@bunyaproductions.com.au (Australia)
Rialto - +64 9 376 3902
Directors: Beck Cole, Dena Curtis, Danielle Maclean, Tracey Rigney, Renae Maihi, Chantelle Burgoyne, Mario Gaoa, Miki Magasiva, Tim Worrall, Richard Curtis, with writers Tiraroa Reweti and Samuel Paynter
WE ARE STILL HERE is a unique Indigenous feature film that interweaves eight powerful tales to tell a sweeping story of hope and survival.
Through the eyes of eight protagonists, WE ARE STILL HERE traverses 1000 years from past, present, and future to explore stories of kinship, loss, grief, and resilience. But ultimately, it shows the strength of love and hope to overcome shared traumas that Indigenous people from Australia, New Zealand and the South Pacific have continued to face.
From the beginning of time, in a Utopian world, a traditional fisherwoman and her Daughter are fishing when they pull up an ominous ship, foreshadowing stormy seas and tragedy to follow. Forward to 1862, a British Settler threatens an Aboriginal man to lead him to safety, whilst in New Zealand, tribes cocooned deep in the forest are preparing for a terrifying future.
In 1915, men from the Pacific were sent to support the British Colony in World War One fighting for a land that isn't theirs, with uncertainty of ever seeing home again. Flashing forward into a dystopian future, a young child must navigate her way through a dangerous underground marketplace to save her grandfather and survive.
WE ARE STILL HERE showcases the expansive landscapes of the Central Australian Desert to the lush green rainforests of New Zealand.
In spite of colonialism, racism, imperialism and the attempted erasure of our cultures, languages and race, WE ARE STILL HERE.
Director Jon Bell
15 minute short film
WINNER OF MELBOURNE INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL BEST AUSTRALIAN SHORT FILM 2020
The Moogai is a psychological horror about a young mother, Sarah, who becomes terrorised by a malevolent spirit she believes is trying to take her children.
Sarah’s husband Fergus desperately wants to believe her but as she becomes more unstable, Matt is increasingly concerned for the safety of their family.
The Moogai is a short film with the feature screenplay now adapted and to be directed by original concept creator Jon Bell, and to be produced by No Coincidence Media and Causeway Films.
Aaron Pedersen MIFF Jury 2020
Official Selection Melbourne International Film Festival 2020
Director Warwick Thornton
6 x 30 min Documentary Series (NITV / SBS)
A WORLD WIDE MIND production - Produced by NO COINCIDENCE MEDIA principal Mitchell Stanley
The Beach is a six-part series for NITV in which we join award-winning filmmaker Warwick Thornton (Sweet Country, Samson and Delilah) on an isolated remote beach on the north-west coast of Western Australia. Largely living off the land, in one of the most beautiful yet brutal environments in the world, Thornton will attempt to disconnect from a life lived in the fast lane and reconnect with Country.
“The Beach evokes powerful sense of presence: as if we too have travelled to that lovely, slightly rustic shack.” The Guardian
Directors Hunter Page Lochard and Carter Fred Simpkin
13 Minute Short Film (ABC)
Regaining consciousness in a car wreck, a young father finds that his daughter is missing. Terrified and grief stricken, the father sets out with his wife through the forest to try and find her. In order to reconcile what has happened to his child, he must overcome his own fears and past destructive actions that haunt him to the point of contemplating suicide. Closed Doors is a genre/thriller which at its heart speaks to the process of grief and forgiveness during a time of loss.
Official Selection
Flickerfest Short Film Festival Cinefest Oz Adelaide Film Festival
Director Jack Steele
15 Minute Short Film (ABC)
Between Two Lines is a story of two men’s journey for identity, set against the back-drop of WWI. This short film epic is told through the eyes of Burt, an Indigenous man serving for the Australian Imperial Forces. Burt’s journey for acceptance of his humanity has lead him to the muddy trenches of war, where after a failed military advance has left him stranded in No Man’s land. A place where many men go and very few survive. It is here that he stumbles across Hans, a German soldier who has also become stuck in No Man’s land. After many attempts to kill each other, and un-der heavy gun fire, the two take cover in separate mortar holes. Unable to kill each other and unable to make it to safety, the two are forced to communicate. Will they still be able to pull the trigger when the time comes? Or will their unlikely bond, born in a place of death, be the very thing that saves their lives?
Official Selection
Sydney Film Festival Flickerfest CinefestOz
Director Steven McGregor
56 Minute TV Documentary (NITV/SBS)
Audience Award at Melbourne International Film Festival
Audience Award at Antenna Documentary Film Festival
Best International Documentary Harlem International Film Festival
Three time AACTA nominated documentary Servant or Slave is an emotional and confronting insight into the history and legacy of the domestic servitude enforced upon Aboriginal girls in Australia, told through the stories of five women. Many thousands of girls were stolen as young children from their parents and placed in institutions, to be trained as servants who could be assimilated into mainstream Australian society.
Rita Wright, Violet West, and the Wenberg sisters Adelaide, Valerie (Linow) and Rita, are captivating when sharing their life stories. Their firsthand accounts of officially sanctioned enslavement reveal the true intent of the government policy of ‘protection’ prevalent throughout the twentieth century.
Rita, Violet and the Wenberg sisters endured estrangement from their families, immense hardship, rape and even torture, and were coerced into remaining silent or even punished for reporting mistreatment to the local police or institutional authorities. With the government exercising complete control over their wages, many Aboriginal girls and boys were effectively condemned to a treadmill of abuse, from which there was little hope of escape.
The testimony of experts, supported by archival footage, documents that from the early 1920s Aboriginal wages were misappropriated by governments to cover their own liabilities including the cost of removing people to missions and reserves and the forcible removal of children. Servant or Slave reveals that the stolen wages of Aboriginal people unwittingly funded their own disenfranchisement.
In bringing to light the heartbreaking experiences of Rita, Violet, Adelaide, Valerie and Rita, Servant or Slave celebrates their fortitude in pursuing justice for the crimes committed against them. Theirs is a David and Goliath battle, waged not only for personal healing, but to shed light on a barely acknowledged part of modern Australia’s history whose consequences are still felt today.
Official Selection
Melbourne International Film Festival Harlem International Film Festival Antenna Documentary Film Festival Festival International du Documentaire Oceanien
Director Charmaine Ingram
4 x 10 Min Documentary Web Series (ABC)
Following the day-to-day lives of four Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island transgender men and women; this is the story of how they changed the perceptions of themselves and those closest to them. So, what happens after you ‘come out’?
These characters have overcome adversity and continue to do so. We follow them in observational documentary style in their day-to-day lives; exploring their relationship dynamics, their aspirations to secure employment, their daily mental, physical and emotional battles and triumphs.
The characters are part of the facebook support and advocacy group Sistergirls and Brothaboys who celebrate gender, intersex and sexuality diversity.
Jeremy's battling to find the balance of being a man without misogyny which he's now discovered whilst developing male to male camaraderie with other men. Max's health issues after a double mastectomy and journey of wanting to perform traditional men's ceremony illustrate his struggle with health and well being, as well as acceptance culturally and within community. Nastasia's outgoing and witty personality is one that our audience will fall in love with, yet she's yet to find love for herself as her internal conflict of body dysmorphia challenges her to be the person that she wants to be, and Sammy from Sydney who returns home to Rockhampton where she was bullied as a teen and reminisces on a difficult time in her life.
These larger than life characters push the boundaries of social norms. They’re successful black Australians making a difference despite coming from remote communities, battling taboo views and acceptance and appropriate health care access. Transblack provides an insight into the normality of these characters and the need for equal rights but it will be ultimately up to the audience how they receive these characters.
Official Selection
Frameline Film Festival Shanghai Queer Film Festival