Tom Zubrycki

As notions of civil rights transformed across the world, so was the screen landscape reformed by the ascension of grassroots film movements seeking to challenge the mainstream. Some aspired to push form to its limit; others worked to destabilise what they saw as a homogenous industry, or to provoke questions around gender, sexuality, migration and race.

The flying foxes that soar across Sydney each evening face many challenges: impacted by heatwaves, evicted from urban parklands, struggling to survive an ongoing loss of habitat. Bat carers save a handful here and there, and ecologists document their struggles, as threats escalate. Filmed over six years, The Weather Diaries reaches its climax in 2020, as temperatures soar, bushfires rage, and flying fox pups die in record numbers. Drayton ruminates on our failure to value these essential pollinators and the forests they sustain, and reflects on the implications for her daughter Imogen, a girl long inspired by Studio Ghibli’s Princess Mononoke, who’s emerging from the classical confines of the Conservatorium High School to embark on a career as an electronic pop artist.

An hour-long documentary on the life and career of actor David Gulpilil.

A feature documentary about opera singer Tiriki Onus who finds a 70-year-old silent film believed to be made by his grandfather, Aboriginal leader and filmmaker Bill Onus. As Tiriki travels across the continent and pieces together clues to the film’s origins, he discovers more about Bill, his fight for Aboriginal rights and the price he paid for speaking out.

‘memory film: a filmmaker’s diary’ is an immersive poetic documentary based on Jeni Thornley’s Super8 archive (1974-2003) filmed during the decades of her political and personal filmmaking, while producing ‘Maidens’, ‘To the Other Shore’, ‘Island Home Country’ and the collaborative feature ‘For Love or Money’. Documenting the activism of three decades amidst the intense sexual politics of radical feminism and social change, ‘memory film’ tells the inner story of a journey of liberation – gender fluidity, utopian feminism, love and its tribulations, the pleasure and pain of motherhood, violence against women, the desire for a world free of war and colonizing, and ultimately mortality and impermanence.

A journey into the emotional landscape of family, love and loss of two close friends, both Aboriginal, who were adopted by white families and have connected back with their bloodline families.

For 24 years East Timor's freedom fighter and Nobel Peace Prize winner José Ramos Horta campaigned to secure independence for his country, a Portuguese colony invaded by Indonesia in 1975. The Diplomat takes up Ramos Horta's story in the final dramatic stages of his long journey - the fall of Indonesia's President Suharto, the referendum to determine East Timor's future, the overwhelming vote for independence, the devastating carnage that ensued, the intervention of United Nations peacekeepers, and Ramos Horta's final triumphant return to his homeland.

Heritier Lumumba, formerly known as Harry O'Brien, was in the middle of his best season of AFL when his club president, Eddie McGuire, made a racist on-air comment, suggesting that Sydney Swans player Adam Goodes could be used to promote a King Kong musical. As a man of colour and strong supporter of equality, Lumumba chose to speak out against his high-profile boss. What followed was a media storm and an on-air showdown with McGuire which painted Lumumba as an overly PC, hyper-sensitive villain. Through exclusive access to Lumumba, his friends and family, AFL legends Mick Malthouse, former Collingwood Captain Nick Maxwell and sports journalists, Fair Game uncovers the personal and professional journey of a man who at the top of his game, dared to hold a mirror to a nation that didn't like what it saw.

A community video made by Tom Zubrycki and the residents of Balmain and Rozelle that documents concerns held by residents and local businesses about the impact of an existing port terminal on their community. Residents give their perspectives on the issues of noise, pollution and safety which arise from trucks laden with shipping containers rolling down Mort Street, Balmain towards the terminal. The community’s protests and lobbying efforts are also recorded.

Following the Sunnyboys’ enigmatic frontman Jeremy Oxley from the band’s origins, breakthrough success and his subsequent 30-year battle with schizophrenia, The Sunnyboy is one man's inspired story of survival and hope. A meditation on a condition often stigmatised and misunderstood, Kaye Harrison’s documentary buries below the surface of Oxley’s public “identity” to explore his own reality and battle to maintain “self”. Secure in a loving relationship with his partner Mary, Oxley slowly emerges from his solitary torment to join the world we all share. The film follows him as he tentatively unpicks his confused thoughts and feelings about the past with his brother Peter. From his struggle with the physical effects of years spent self-medicating to his hopeful contemplation of a married future and a daring return to the stage, The Sunnyboy is the definitive documentary of Jeremy Oxley's journey from the Sunnyboys and back.

Dogs of Democracy is an essay-style documentary about the stray dogs of Athens and the people who take care of them. Author and first-time filmmaker Mary Zournazi explores life on the streets through the eyes of the dogs and peoples' experience. Shot in location in Athens, the birthplace of democracy, the documentary is about how Greece has become the 'stray dogs of Europe', and how the dogs have become a symbol of hope for the people and for the anti- austerity movement. A universal story about love and loyalty and what we might learn from animals and peoples' timeless quest for democracy.

The story of 95-year-old Aboriginal elder Laurie Baymarrwangga and her work to maintain the language and cultural traditions of the Yan-nhangu people of Murrungga.

The film outlines the history of the redevelopment of the Sydney suburb of Waterloo. Residents are interviewed and archival footage is used to outline the history of change in the area. The documentary emphasises the need for consultation and shows the results of more recent residents’ action groups.

The Eter family live on a state housing estate in a suburb comprising mainly Anglo-Australian families. One night a fight breaks out involving the Eters' teenage sons and those of the neighbour. Racial insults are thrown and returned. People are hurt, property is damaged and police are called. The following day sixteen-year-old Billal Eter crosses the road. A car accelerates. His mother sees Billal flying through the air. Billal lies in a hospital in a coma fighting for his life. Meanwhile his parents plead with the government housing authorities to move them from the suburb where the driver of the car still resides.

One thousand power workers went on strike against the South East Queensland Electrical Board (SEQEB)in February 1985 in protest against the introduction of contract worker hire. This documentary details the industrial relations dispute between the ensuing Joh Bjelke Peterson coalition government and the Electrical Trades Union in Queensland, Australia during 1985.

A film about the Australian government's practice of removing Aboriginal children from their families.

A video that looks at some of the marginalised young people who come to the Addison Road Drop-In Centre in Marrickville. Interviews with both the youth and centre staff are combined with images of the young peoples activities, and in some parts the boys take over the camerawork and commentary themselves.

In 1965 during the Vietnam War, students and teachers from the National Conservatory of Music in Hanoi were forced to flee to a small village in the countryside. With the help of villagers they built an entire campus underground where they lived, studied and played music for five years as the war raged around them. This documentary records the coming together of the former conservatory students and villagers for a reunion concert 30 years after the war, to paint a moving portrait of life in Vietnam then and now.

Molly & Mobarak is a 2003 Australian documentary directed by Tom Zubrycki. It follows a Hazara asylum seeker, 22-year-old Mobarak Tahiri, as he falls in love with 25-year-old Molly Rule, and faces possible deportation as his temporary visa nears expiration.

The Secret Safari tells the story of one of the most audacious military operations in the armed fight against apartheid in South Africa. A character-driven journey of courage and suspense with reconstructions of events using the original participants. Between 1986 and 1993 a company created by the African National Congress operated a business taking tourists on overland sight­ seeing trips which crossed the border into South Africa. Unbeknown to the tourists, under the seats of this Bedford truck were secret compartments housing military arms and explosives destined for the frontline of the underground military struggle.