Our mad trip into the world of Reg Mombassa is screening on Studio channel this Tuesday night, February 19th at 10 p.m.  GOLDEN SANDALS - The Art Of Reg Mombassa is a repeat but as Graeme Blundell said in his review in the Australian:  "the film is stylishly directed and as artful as any one of Mombassa's poetically aggressive paintings, - it is simply irresistible."  If you're still up at that hour check it out.  Here is the opening of the film which gives you an inkling of the man.  The film is available on DVD from our catalogue

GOLDEN SANDALS

Smart St. has just reached agreement for the new National Indigenous TV network (NITV) to acquire a package of our films. The network which began broadcasting in December has purchased BACKROADS, NINGLA-A‘NA, TWO LAWS and PROTECTED.

These works are rare and important historical films about the struggle for justice and land rights by indigenous Australians.   The network is rushing them to air in January.   “Protected” will air on January 9^th whilst “Backroads” and “Ningla-A’Na” will form a high profile double bill at prime time on Australia/Invasion Day January 26^th.

Backroads, directed by Philip Noyce and starring Gary Foley and Bill Hunter is a classic road movie, Ningla - A’Na is Allessandro Cavadini’s unique record of the establishment of the Aboriginal tent embassy in 1972, Two Laws is an investigation of the relationship between the laws of white Australia and those of the people of the Borolloola community in the Northern Territory and Protected looks at the history of Palm Island, a concentration camp created to house disparate indigenous groups from around Queensland.

These films are available on DVD from smartstreetfilms.com.au

In December 1992 Prime Minister Paul Keating addressed a large crowd in Sydney's Redfern. For the first time an Australian Prime Minister admitted the carnage and destruction that white invasion had wrought on the Aboriginal population of the country. It was an extraordinary speech.
To mark the twentieth anniversary of the speech Gail Mabo, daughter of Eddie Mabo who prosecuted the High Court case which led to the concept of Native Title being accepted in law, made some comments on the speech and the developments in the years since it's delivery. We had a camera there to capture the moment for posterity
Gail Mabo was speaking at the Damien Minton Gallery in Redfern Sydney on Saturday December 8th 2012

Gail Mabo and Paul Keating's Redfern speech

In a strange and very happy twist of fate we’ve found the master negatives of our film PANDEMONIUM that had been lost for more than twenty years. The negatives, which had been held in a storage unit and then moved and paperwork lost. For the last few months we have been working our way back through a number of companies as each was taken over by another entity until we found someone who recalled them. “Not much chance,” he said. “We throw stuff out after seven years if we don’t have other instructions.” What a sinking feeling a comment like that engenders. Anyway we held our breath and two weeks later an email came through. Wonder of wonders - for some reason the negative and soundtracks had not been thrown away. No one knew why but a courier later and they were in our office waiting to go down to the National Film & Sound Archive where they will be stored safely.

Pandemonium is one of the most controversial feature films made in this country and while some people have been offended, many more love it. Trapped in a disused movie studio a young girl finds out why her parents tried to kill her at Ayers Rock. The tenants in the studio leave something to be desired… 

                                                                                         Pandemonium