The Passionate Industry: Australian Cinema 1920-1930

A man, his son and a piano player travel around Australia showing the first silent movies

Proud and classy Caddie Marsh is forced to get a job as a barmaid and raise two children on her own after her husband walks out on her.

Two teenage surf chicks from the southern suburbs of Sydney ingratiate themselves with a new group of boys.

After World War II, 4,000 Polish families came to Australia. They were Jews, Fascists, anti-Communists, and others dispossessed. In a large hostel, where even married men and women were housed in separate barracks, the adults lived for two years while they worked off the government's payment of their passage. Even though he is married to Anna and has a son, Julian falls in love with Nina and she with him. As they and others face the new situations and prejudices that await immigrants and as they take on aspects of Australian culture, old-country values reassert themselves. Julian decides what to do about love and family, and Nina must find a way to move on.

Made by The National Film Board 1954, this film captures the delightful city of Adelaide, capital of South Australia. The city set against a background of hills, owes a lot to its original plan by Colonel Light. The film displays the beauty of its wide streets and impressive public buildings and also features landscape painter Hans Heysen.

Part 1 of the History of Australian Cinema series. Australian cinema from the very beginning, from the newsreels, ethnographic and actuality films, to the controversy of "The Story of the Kelly Gang" and the success of "The Sentimental Bloke".

A 38-year-old woman feels her biological clock is ticking and is torn between her ex and a younger lover.