Directing

Brian McKenzie

Brian McKenzie is an Australian documentary filmmaker.

Acting credits

Behind the camera

Yumburra poster
NR

A lyrical portrait of Bruce Pascoe in the aftermath of Dark Emu living on his riverside farm, recharging and reflecting, as he tests out the theories proposed in his book.

Yumburra

2026

With Love to the Person Next to Me poster
6.0

Wallace is a Melbourne taxi driver who lives in a block of run-down small apartments in St Kilda on the bay. When not driving his cab, he makes apple cider and broods about his past.

With Love to the Person Next to Me

1987

Winter's Harvest poster
8.0

The documentary records the traditional Italian community event of slaughtering a pig, butchering it for the meat, making sausages and having a feast with dancing enjoyed by the whole group.

Winter's Harvest

1980

On the Waves of the Adriatic poster
NR

Melbourne filmmaker Brian McKenzie spent 5 years working on this engrossing study of a not-so-typical Brunswick household. It's a laconic, observational documentary similar to the director's I'll Be Home For Christmas (MFF '85), in which McKenzie plays a central part, camera in tow, as he documents the lifestyle of Graham (a youth in his 20s), his family and friends. After having spent so long with the family, McKenzie becomes part of the furniture - a situation which enables him to dig deep into the subject's lives.

On the Waves of the Adriatic

1991

On the Waves of the Adriatic poster
NR

Melbourne filmmaker Brian McKenzie spent 5 years working on this engrossing study of a not-so-typical Brunswick household. It's a laconic, observational documentary similar to the director's I'll Be Home For Christmas (MFF '85), in which McKenzie plays a central part, camera in tow, as he documents the lifestyle of Graham (a youth in his 20s), his family and friends. After having spent so long with the family, McKenzie becomes part of the furniture - a situation which enables him to dig deep into the subject's lives.

On the Waves of the Adriatic

1991

Stan and George's New Life poster
10.0

Stan is a mild-mannered, gentle, middle-aged man who still lives with his overbearing parents. One day, acting on a suggestion by his father, he lands a job at the Weather Bureau. The work is challenging to him, and a little daunting, and his adjustment is considerably eased for him by his female co-worker "George," as she is called. The two become close, eventually marrying and moving in together. While they are adapting to the married state, conditions at work are deteriorating in a bizarre and irrational way, which puts a considerable strain on both the newlyweds.

Stan and George's New Life

1992

Stan and George's New Life poster
10.0

Stan is a mild-mannered, gentle, middle-aged man who still lives with his overbearing parents. One day, acting on a suggestion by his father, he lands a job at the Weather Bureau. The work is challenging to him, and a little daunting, and his adjustment is considerably eased for him by his female co-worker "George," as she is called. The two become close, eventually marrying and moving in together. While they are adapting to the married state, conditions at work are deteriorating in a bizarre and irrational way, which puts a considerable strain on both the newlyweds.

Stan and George's New Life

1992

Mister Biscuit poster
NR

Noel Mason's vaudevillian skills are appreciated by his younger audience, but he is not making enough money at the children's shows to pay his costs, his old car does not go very well, and he is dyslexic and unable to understand the contracts employers give him. The situation starts to look more hopeful when Noel answers a newspaper advertisement to join an entertainment agency.

Mister Biscuit

1999

Kelvin and His Friends poster
NR

A closely observed portrait of a single man in his 40's who lives in St. Kilda. Although he has none of the trappings of conventional existence, Kelvin's obsessive interest in born again Christianity, physical culture and recent German/Jewish history has given him a way of making sense of the world and led him to a number of people, friends through whom we see something of his life and beliefs.

Kelvin and His Friends

1988

Kelvin and His Friends poster
NR

A closely observed portrait of a single man in his 40's who lives in St. Kilda. Although he has none of the trappings of conventional existence, Kelvin's obsessive interest in born again Christianity, physical culture and recent German/Jewish history has given him a way of making sense of the world and led him to a number of people, friends through whom we see something of his life and beliefs.

Kelvin and His Friends

1988

No artwork available
NR

This film uses archival footage and interspersed interviews to look at the dairy industry and its products, but only as a backdrop, as a social indicator in a society thirsty for modernity, unquestioning of the change that first gives and then takes away-milk bottles, railway stations, windows that open and even football clubs. How quickly do things change? How much do we care?

People Who Still Use Milk Bottles

1990

Meet Me at the Mango Tree poster
NR

A compelling set of five stories illustrating the fragile nature of day-to-day existence in Tamil Nadu, Southern India.

Meet Me at the Mango Tree

2010

I'll Be Home for Christmas poster
NR

I'll be Home for Christmas cuts through social taboos to explore the subculture of people commonly dismissed as ‘derelicts'. In its portrayal of five homeless men, the film challenges conventional views of alcoholism and homelessness by depicting these men as members of a social network with a highly developed sense of mutual concern and camaraderie.

I'll Be Home for Christmas

1985

I'll Be Home for Christmas poster
NR

I'll be Home for Christmas cuts through social taboos to explore the subculture of people commonly dismissed as ‘derelicts'. In its portrayal of five homeless men, the film challenges conventional views of alcoholism and homelessness by depicting these men as members of a social network with a highly developed sense of mutual concern and camaraderie.

I'll Be Home for Christmas

1985

In the Land of Wolves poster
5.0

A portrait of a small Georgian village filmed across the seasons, that focuses on family intricacies and working the land in a timeless place of transience and refuge.

In the Land of Wolves

2018

The Last Day's Work poster
NR

Work is becoming more service oriented and more and more services rely upon us doing harm to each other. In most people's lives, work operates as a degrading and debilitating force. It disables people's critical and perception capacities. Unless workers assume responsibility for evaluating the meaning and implications of the work they do, there will never be the capacity to redirect the modern work institutions from their courses of violence and exploitation. Built in seven parts which correspond to each day of the week, this film studies the relationship between work being done and the nature of the people that are doing it.

The Last Day's Work

1987

The Last Day's Work poster
NR

Work is becoming more service oriented and more and more services rely upon us doing harm to each other. In most people's lives, work operates as a degrading and debilitating force. It disables people's critical and perception capacities. Unless workers assume responsibility for evaluating the meaning and implications of the work they do, there will never be the capacity to redirect the modern work institutions from their courses of violence and exploitation. Built in seven parts which correspond to each day of the week, this film studies the relationship between work being done and the nature of the people that are doing it.

The Last Day's Work

1987