Let the Balloon Go

This anthology film brings together three stories—"Michael", "Judy", and "Toula"—each centered on a young Australian confronting personal and social choices about their future. Produced by the Commonwealth Film Unit, the film explores themes of identity, independence, and cultural tension through distinct perspectives from directors Brian Hannant, Oliver Howes, and Peter Weir.

A Pidgin language drama based upon the emergence of Papua New Guinea as an independent nation. A young coastal man, Tonten, is searching for his missing brother. During his travels Tonten meets and marries a Chimbu girl in the highlands, and then he makes his way over the mountains to Port Moresby, the capital of PNG. After finding his brother, Tonten and his wife return to a peaceful life in his village. Wokabaut Bilong Tonten was the first feature film shot in Papua New Guinea with an all-Indigenous cast.

The world continues to look to Japan as a highly industrialized, future-oriented country that has retained much of its ancient tradition. This series provides an insight into the character of a highly complex nation by examining the lives of nine Japanese from widely diverse backgrounds in the context of social and economic developments.

Toula, a young woman from a Greek migrant family living in Sydney, struggles to balance her family’s expectations with her own desire for independence and a modern Australian identity. As these pressures collide, she seeks a way to reconcile both aspects of her life. (Note: This film is one segment of the anthology feature "Three to Go" (1971).)

On Sacred Ground looks at the story behind the Noonkanbah dispute, the well-publicised Aboriginal struggle to stop mining in the Kimberley region of Western Australia in the late 1970s. Presented by a young spokesman for the Kimberley Land Council, the film gives an Indigenous view of the area's history from the early days of European colonisation. It explores the problems of Aboriginal dispossession and loss of identity and the efforts that have been made towards self-determination, economic self-sufficiency and maintaining language and culture. It helps explain Aboriginal ties to the land, the importance of sacred sites and the reasons for the land rights struggle.