|
|
IN
RELEASE
|
Featuring
the music of Joseph Tawadros |
AS
SCREENED ON
SBS
TELEVISION
|
In Australia’s
first bilingual Arabic/English film, four elders give eye-witness
accounts of the tumultuous days of Al Nakba, the catastrophe,
May 15th, 1948, and its aftermath. As children and young adults,
they and their families were among 750,000 Palestinians fleeing
for their lives, in the drive to enlarge the recently created
State of Israel.
The stories told by these speakers
are poignant, unexpected and sometimes surprising, expressing
not only the tragedies but also the small miracles which occur
in a human catastrophe of such dimensions. Prevented from
returning to their homes, the speakers lived as refugees,
eventually making their way to Australia. Their continued
longing to see their homeland eloquently expresses the feelings
of the dispossessed everywhere, and gives this film a universal
dimension. |
24
mins PAL digibeta/DVD 2005 |
Director
|
Fadia
Abboud |
[Order]
|
Music |
Joseph
Tawadros |
|
Photography |
Dominika
Ferenz |
Festival
Screenings:
Sydney
Film Festival
Brisbane International Film Festival
Sydney Arab Film Festival
Flickerfest International Short Film Festival
Chicago Palestine Film Festival
UNHCR Refugee Film Festival (Cambodia-Japan)
Washington DC Palestine Centre Summer Series |
Editing |
Katrina
Barker |
Producers |
Martha
Ansara
Sohail Dahdal |
|
|
|

MY SURVIVAL AS AN ABORIGINAL
|
As
broadcast on the ABC and
NITV
|
Screened
on National Indigenous Television 2007 |
|
In 1978, the ground-breaking
documentary MY SURVIVAL AS AN ABORIGINAL (1978) rocked Australia
and the world with its presentation of atrocities and hardships
committed against Aboriginal people. Winning prizes around
the world, the film was broadcast overseas, shown on the ABC
and used widely in Australian education. Today it is featured
on the Australian
Screen website which describes the film as challenging,
and says, “"Though a call to justice, it is also
tempered with beauty, and the audience is allowed to glimpse
the private world of the Essie Coffey and the people of Brewarrina,
N.S.W.” Country and Western songs performed by Coffey
are also a rich element of the documentary".
MY SURVIVAL AS AN ABORIGINAL directed by Essie
Coffey, was one of the first Australian films where an Indigenous
Australian was able to decide how she and her community would
be represented. It was also the first Australian film directed
by an Indigenous woman. Through her films, Essie Coffey's
voice reaches across time to continue the ongoing fight for
the rights of Indigenous peoples. |
49
mins 16mm/video/DVD •- PAL & NTSC - Rated G - 1978 |
Director
|
Essie
Coffey |
[Order]
|
Music |
Songs
include: |
"Bush Queen" by Essie Coffey |
Photography |
Martha
Ansara, |
Awards
include
Sydney
Film Festival - Winner Best Documentary & Rouben Mamoulian
Award
Cinema
du Reel, Paris - First Prize
Screened
on ABC Television and the BBC
|
Editing |
Kit
Guyatt |
Production |
Martha
Ansara, Alec Morgan |
|
Gary
Foley's Koori website gives
more information about Essie Coffey and other indigenous leaders
|

MY LIFE AS I LIVE IT |
As
broadcast on the ABC, SBS
and NITV
|
Screened
on National Indigenous Television 2007 |
|
In her second film, MY LIFE
AS I LIVE IT (1993), Essie Coffey returns to her home in Dodge
City where she and the A-Team are running in the shire elections.
Inter-cutting between 1993 and 1978, the film presents the
fascinating contrasts of a society in transition. Some of
the kids we met in the earlier film now have families of their
own and are involved in education, art and sports. Others
are drifting, trying to cope with alcohol and depression.
Most significantly, community programs offer the possibility
of dignity and self-determination.
In this film, Essie shows us the Community
Development Employment Program (CDEP) making a real difference.
Although the CDEP has now come under attack from the Federal
government, MY LIFE AS I LIVE IT portrays the CDEP as providing
meaningful work and services to an impoverished remote community.
Unusually, this film was originally broadcast on both national
public broadcasters, SBS and the ABC. |
55
mins Digibeta/ VHS/DVD •- PAL & NTSC - Rated G - 1993 |
A
film by |
Essie
Coffey |
with
Martha Ansara
and Kit Guyatt |
Editor |
Kit
Guyatt |
[Order]
|
Photography |
Martha
Ansara,
|
Awards
Screened
on ABC & SBS Television and at the Margaret Mead Festiva,
New York
|
|
Gary
Foley's Koori website gives
more information about Essie Coffey and other indigenous leaders
|

NUMBER
ONE FAN - LAURIE NICHOLS |
BALMAIN
TIGERS LEGEND MEMORIAL DVD
|
It
was terrific.
Great memories.
Made me cry."
- Arthur Beetson |
Visit
Laurie on you tube
to see
a clip from the film.
Don’t
forget to come back and buy the DVD!
|
For three decades until his
death in 2000 Laurie Nichols could be seen prowling the sidelines
at Tigers games and punching the air in support of the team.
Generally wearing nothing but a singlet he became a much-loved
part of the team and the atmosphere of game day.
‘You wouldn’t get a person more committed, not
even in marriage. This bloke was dead-set ALL Balmain’
Benny Elias
‘Number One Fan’ follows Laurie’s journey
from the time he was proclaimed as Balmain’s number
one fan following the 1969 grand final, through his still-singleted
jaunts to England with the Australian team and into the mountains
to his hometown of Springwood.
A renowned mischief maker and larrikin, Laurie’s famous
friends recount one of rugby league’s funniest stories
involving Laurie, a train seat and a cat in a basket. Finally
the film ends with Laurie’s great fight to save the
Balmain Tigers during the Super League war.
The thing that kept Laurie going, his reason for living, was
the ‘Tiges’, but there were a lot of Laurie Nichols.
A lot of people who felt that way, and still do.’ Alan
Jones
Laurie died three days before the first game Balmain played
as the Wests Tigers. Was it all too much for the one-eyed
tiger? Did he die from a broken heart? What happened to the
cat? |
13
mins DVD •- PAL Rated G - 2007 |
Director |
Jolyon
Hoff |
|

|
Contact
Ballad Films • Martha Ansara
•
ABN 52 199 403 779
1 Hampden Street Hurlstone Park NSW 2193 Australia
Tel: +612 9573 1886 Contact
Us
|
|