Michael Edols

The Australian Aborigines (in this film anyway) believe that this is the place where the green ants go to dream, and that if their dreams are disturbed, it will bring down disaster on us all. The Aborigines' belief is not shared by a giant mining company, which wants to tear open the soil and search for uranium.

Lalai Dreamtime takes the viewer into pre-settled Australia to show a myth from the spiritual tradition of the people. It is the story of Namarali, as presented by Sam Woolagoodja to his son Stanley and his granddaughter Kerry. Namarali is the law-giving 'Wandjina' of the Worora people who, along with him, have many other such Wandjinas. The 'Wandjinas' are ancient creators whose presence is real in the painted imprints of cave walls and in the shape of specific land formations. The film shows the importance of the Dreamtime in the Aboriginal culture.

Lalai Dreamtime takes the viewer into pre-settled Australia to show a myth from the spiritual tradition of the people. It is the story of Namarali, as presented by Sam Woolagoodja to his son Stanley and his granddaughter Kerry. Namarali is the law-giving 'Wandjina' of the Worora people who, along with him, have many other such Wandjinas. The 'Wandjinas' are ancient creators whose presence is real in the painted imprints of cave walls and in the shape of specific land formations. The film shows the importance of the Dreamtime in the Aboriginal culture.

The year is 1789. In the central Pacific Ocean the crew of Her Majesty’s Ship Bounty mutinied against their captain, William Bligh, and cast him adrift with 18 other men in an open boat, 150 kilometres from Tonga. In an extraordinary feat of seamanship and navigational skill, Bligh proceeded to pilot the packed longboat through the cannibal-infested Fiji islands and across to the Australian mainland, landing on Cape York after a dangerous entry through what is now Bligh Passage. After a brief stay, and fearful of the local Aboriginal people, he set sail again, arriving in Dutch Timor from where he and his men took a ship back to England.

The events took place in June/July 1973 and the film was made with the help of the Mowanjum Community

The lively atmosphere of Sydney’s famous landmark, Paddy’s Market in Haymarket, documented on film before the market moved to a new location. A Film Australia crew gets up early to shoot the stall holders selling fruit, vegetables and all things second hand. Shot in vibrant colour Out They Go captures the earthy dignity and vitality of the workers at the market as they go about their business, right in the heart of the city.

A compelling account of the return by a group of dispossessed Aboriginal people to their ancient tribal grounds in the Northern outreaches of this continent.

The 1988 Australian bicentenary prompted many artistic events and contemporary expressions of Australia's living cultures. One of the most remarkable of these was the first memorial ever created by Aborigines for Aborigines - two hundred bone burial poles were carved and painted by Arnhem land artists to honour the deceased of the past - lost people, lost tribes, lost languages. This unique Aboriginal Memorial captures this spiritual event. This collection seeks to reassure surviving Aboriginal Australians that there is a living continuity of traditions. -Ronin Films