Best Australian documentary movies

Interviews with leading authors, philosophers and scientists, with an in-depth discussion of the Law of Attraction. The audience is shown how they can learn and use 'The Secret' in their everyday lives.

100 pounds overweight, loaded up on steroids and suffering from a debilitating autoimmune disease, Joe Cross is at the end of his rope and the end of his hope. In the mirror he saw a 310lb man whose gut was bigger than a beach ball and a path laid out before him that wouldn't end well— with one foot already in the grave, the other wasn't far behind. FAT, SICK & NEARLY DEAD is an inspiring film that chronicles Joe's personal mission to regain his health.

Twenty years after the modern world's most notorious child murder, the legacy of the crime and its impact are explored.

A documentary about the rise and fall of the Cannon Film Group, the legendary independent film company helmed by Israeli cousins Menahem Golan and Yoram Globus.

In 2013, the world's media reported on a shocking mountain-high brawl as European climbers fled a mob of angry Sherpas. Director Jennifer Peedom and her team set out to uncover the cause of this altercation, intending to film the 2014 climbing season from the Sherpa's point-of-view. Instead, they captured Everest's greatest tragedy, when a huge block of ice crashed down onto the climbing route...

A searing account of war correspondent Michael Ware's seven years reporting in Iraq--an extraordinary journey that takes him into the darkest recesses of the Iraq War and the human soul.

Doctors, scientists and chefs around the globe combat illness with dietary changes, believing fat should be embraced as a source of fuel.

In the past 40 years, the War on Drugs has accounted for 45 million arrests, made America the world's largest jailer, and destroyed impoverished communities at home and abroad. Yet drugs are cheaper, purer, and more available today than ever. Where did we go wrong?

Exposing the dark underbelly of modern animal agriculture through drones, hidden & handheld cameras, the feature-length film explores the morality and validity of our dominion over the animal kingdom.

With nutritionally-depleted foods, chemical additives and our tendency to rely upon pharmaceutical drugs to treat what's wrong with our malnourished bodies, it's no wonder that modern society is getting sicker. Food Matters sets about uncovering the trillion dollar worldwide sickness industry and gives people some scientifically verifiable solutions for curing disease naturally.

An epic cinematic and musical collaboration between SHERPA filmmaker Jennifer Peedom and the Australian Chamber Orchestra, that explores humankind's fascination with high places.

A searing account of what happens when raw talent and extreme personalities collide. In this unflinching, never-before-seen account of drugs and the dark side of professional skateboarding, brothers Tas and Ben Pappas' intense bond and charisma take them from the pinnacle of their sport into a spiraling world of self-destruction.

A documentary exploring how money and the trading of value has evolved, culminating in Bitcoin.

As Australian cinema broke through to international audiences in the 1970s through respected art house films like Peter Weir's "Picnic At Hanging Rock," a new underground of low-budget exploitation filmmakers were turning out considerably less highbrow fare. Documentary filmmaker Mark Hartley explores this unbridled era of sex and violence, complete with clips from some of the scene's most outrageous flicks and interviews with the renegade filmmakers themselves.

The fantastic story of how an ancient martial art, Chinese kung fu, conquered the world through the hundreds of films that were produced in Hong Kong over the decades, transformed Western action cinema and inspired the birth of cultural movements such as blaxploitation, hip hop music, parkour and Wakaliwood cinema.

A portrait of the man behind the greatest fraud in sporting history. Lance Armstrong enriched himself by cheating his fans, his sport and the truth. But the former friends whose lives and careers he destroyed would finally bring him down.

A film about the noted American linguist/political dissident and his warning about corporate media's role in modern propaganda.

Dr Derek Muller takes us on an epic adventure, a world-spanning investigation of vitamin science and history, asking how do we decide whether to take vitamin supplements, or not?

A radio DJ in pursuit of an exclusive interview follows ABBA during their mega-successful tour of Australia.

What if you were a Hollywood movie star with an obsession for cars and racing? Eric Bana is such a star!

In the final decades of the 20th century, the Philippines was a country where low-budget exploitation-film producers were free to make nearly any kind of movie they wanted, any way they pleased. It was a country with extremely lax labor regulations and a very permissive attitude towards cultural expression. As a result, it became a hotbed for the production of cheapie movies. Their history and the genre itself are detailed in this breezy, nostalgic documentary.

Concert special featuring the iconic superstar as she performs in packed arenas around the globe. Featuring new hits and beloved classics that showcase Madonna's signature visual theatrics, exquisite costumes and awe-inspiring choreography. With exclusive behind-the-scenes access that reveal the pop icon and her legion of dancers as they pour blood, sweat and tears into creating an astonishing arena show celebrated by fans around the world.

Fresh off the plane and in need of money, two Finnish backpackers find themselves the latest batch of “fresh meat” sent to work as barmaids at the only pub in a remote Australian mining town.

During the 1940s, Nevil Shute had a steady job as an engineer in the British military but in his spare time, he wrote novels that were being well-received. Once the war was over, Shute choose to move to Australia and focus on writing, soon becoming an internationally acclaimed novelist. His novel On The Beach, particularly hit a chord with the international community, depicting the impact of global nuclear destruction. This documentary studies Shute's career and the adaptation of his most famous novel into a feature film in Melbourne, as his predictions of a post-Hiroshima world seem to be foreboding in their accuracy.

Turtle Odyssey explores the unique lifecycle of an Australian green sea turtle named Bunji and her incredible journey across the open ocean. The film follows Bunji the green sea turtle from a hatchling into adulthood as she swims thousands of miles, meets incredible creatures and has some really wild encounters.

Filmmaker and comedian Kevin Smith returns to EPIX with an all new special, taped in front of a sell out audience in Sydney, Australia Joined by his notorious cohort Jason Mewes, this off-the-cuff uncensored hour is filled with ribald and cautionary tales about everything from Australian children's television to mythical Australian drop bears

Hot Potato is a backstage pass to the global phenomenon, The Wiggles. The documentary chronicles the story of three preschool teachers, Anthony, Murray and Greg, and their friend Jeff, as they triumph over the odds to become one of the most successful children’s acts of all time.

Barbecue is about more than grilling a piece of meat. It’s a ritual performed religiously across the world. For some it’s a path to salvation. It is the pride of nations. And the stories told around the fires become a way to bring the world together.

Follows the deadly Australian bushfires of 2019-2020, known as ‘Black Summer’. Burning is an exploration of what happened as told from the perspective of victims of the fires, activists and scientists.

GoldenEra is a documentary that tells the story of the creation and legacy of the video game GoldenEye 007 (1997) for the Nintendo 64.

Set both in Latin America and the United States, the film explores the historic and current relationship of Washington with countries such as Venezuela, Bolivia and Chile. Pilger says that the film "...tells a universal story... analysing and revealing, through vivid testimony, the story of great power behind its venerable myths. It allows us to understand the true nature of the so-called "war on terror". According to Pilger, the film’s message is that the greed and power of empire is not invincible and that people power is always the "seed beneath the snow".

Under roaring fighter jets and missile strikes, Ukrainian artists Slava, Anya, and Andrey choose to stay behind and fight, contending with the soldiers they have become. Defiantly finding beauty amid destruction, they show that although it’s easy to make people afraid, it’s hard to destroy their passion for living.

Tasmania lies on the Australian continent, but is a world apart. It is home to an extraordinary cast of black devils and white wallabies. Trees here tower to one hundred metres and green lights dance in the southern sky. As the last landfall heading south before Antarctica, Tasmania's isolation, cooler climate and distinct seasons influence everything.

A group of Sydney-based, Pacific Islander kids start recording drill raps to avoid a life of crime. Two years into their meteoric rise, a police task force shuts down their sold-out national tour due to concerns that the group's music will incite violence.

When illness forces her away from her beloved trauma cleaning business, Sandra Pankhurst faces up to her traumatic past and begins a search for her birth mother.

In the early nineties, before the massive gentrification of many of New York's then slums, several young people from very disparate backgrounds left their broken homes and ventured onto the brutal streets of the city. United by their love of skateboarding, they formed a family and built a unique lifestyle that eventually inspired Kids, a groundbreaking and outrageous film directed by photographer Larry Clark and released in 1995.

The powerful and inspiring true story of the controversial human rights campaigner whose provocative acts of civil diso bedience rocked the British establishment, revolutionised attitudes to homosexuality and exposed world tyrants. As social attitudes change and history vindicates Peter's stance on gay rights, his David versus Goliath battles gradually win him status as a national treasure. The film follows Peter as he embarks on his riskiest crusade yet by seeking to disrupt the FIFA World Cup in Moscow to draw attention to the persecution of LGBT+ people in Russia and Chechnya.

A documentary detailing the spread of Hawaiian sugar-cane toads through Australia in a botched effort to introduce them as counter pests.

Four people seek a more sustainable and secure future by asking the question: "What is it really like to build and live in a tiny house?"

In this one-off documentary, Space Dive tells the behind-the-scenes story of Felix Baumgartner's historic, record-breaking freefall from the edge of space to Earth. The world watched with bated breath when Felix became the first person to freefall through the sound barrier on 15 October 2012, after jumping from 128,100ft (24 miles) from the edge of space.

In the small town of Speedway, Indiana in 1978, four young employees of a Burger Chef restaurant went missing at the end of a Friday night shift. The police initially suspected a petty theft by the work crew. By the time their bodies were found on Sunday and the investigation elevated to multiple murders, the crime scene had been cleaned and re-opened for business.

You find fungi in Antarctica and in nuclear reactors. They live inside your lungs and your skin is covered with them. Fungi are the most under appreciated and unexplained organisms, yet they could cure you from smallpox and turn cardboard boxes into forests. They could even transform Mars into Eden. There are vastly more fungi species than plants and each and every one of them play a crucial role in life’s support systems. Join us on a journey into the mysterious world of Fungi to witness their beauty, unravel their mysteries and discover how this secret kingdom is essential to life on Earth, and may in fact hold the key to our future.

For a guy who grew up thinking only of Australian Rules football, it’s almost an accident that Shane Warne became the greatest cricketer of a generation, and one of the greats of all time. Mastering the difficult art of spin bowling after being kicked out of football for not being a good enough player proved a pivotal choice for 19 year old Shane – declared unfit and fat, he transformed himself. When success came, so did fame and adulation, money and prestige but a betting scandal, drugs scandal, and affairs that cost him his marriage, threatened his career. From the lows of a 12 month ban he rebuilt his cricket, his career, and his reputation as one of the most ferocious competitors on the planet, admired and revered by millions.

Imagine eating nothing but traditional, authentic Japanese cooking for 12 weeks. What sort of health benefits would this kind of diet have on one's body? In a dieting experiment similar to Supersize Me, but towards improving health, award-winning actor and comedian Craig Anderson does just this. Through a series of entertaining and educational scenarios filled with culinary secrets and cultural chaos, Craig investigates how the traditional Japanese diet, along with their active lifestyles, results in the Japanese population being the healthiest and longest living people on the planet. Miso Hungry is a light-hearted documentary about one man's journey to find a simple, painless path towards a healthier life.

ROCK N ROLL NERD is an intimate tale that charts Tim Minchin’s meteoric rise from obscurity to celebrity. Capturing every moment of Tim’s first frenzied break onto the comedy scene the documentary weaves never-before-seen performance footage, backstage antics, home footage and candid interviews into a funny and deeply personal story of love and ambition.

Christmas Island, Australia is home to one of the largest land migrations on earth—that of forty million crabs journeying from jungle to sea. But the jungle holds another secret: a high-security facility that indefinitely detains individuals seeking asylum.

Follow the self-managed Australian heavy metal band Parkway Drive on their 15 year underdog journey.

1. Show Opening 2. Zoo Station 3. The Fly 4. Even Better Than The Real Thing 5. Mysterious Ways 6. One 7. Unchained Melody 8. Until The End Of The World 9. New Year's Day 10. Numb 11. Angel Of Harlem 12. Stay (Faraway, So Close!) 13. Satellite Of Love 14. Dirty Day 15. Bullet The Blue Sky 16. Running To Stand Still 17. Where The Streets Have No Name 18. Pride (In The Name Of Love) 19. Daddy's Gonna Pay For Your Crashed Car 20. Lemon 21. With Or Without You 22. Love Is Blindness 23. Can't Help Falling In Love U2 had been a major entity in the rock music world for many years by the time they released the ACHTUNG BABY album. Yet, it was this album that brought the band from popular rock act to multimedia force as their concerts began to include the video screen as an important part of the show. Following ACHTUNG BABY was the ZOOROPA album and one of U2's most successful tours, the Zoo TV Tour, in which the multimedia experience was expanded upon.

Documentary - War zone borders, engine trouble and the difficulties of making money to survive couldn't outweigh the thrill of adventure and discovery Daniel Rintz encountered while motorcycling around the world for two and a half years.

This provocative consideration of the lasting influence and draw of Hitler provides insight into the resurgence of white supremacy, antisemitism, and the weaponization of history.

Story of trailblazing American rock singer-songwriter Suzi Quatro, who helped redefine the role of women in rock 'n' roll when she broke out in 1973.

Why are so many people wheat-intolerant or sensitive to wheat? And why is wheat linked to so many modern-day health problems, when it has been a staple of the human diet for thousands of years? In this documentary, a nutritionist interviews 14 experts, to understand how wheat has changed since it was first cultivated, how these changes could be affecting human health, and how people can break a dietary cycle that could be making them sick.

A film about the cultural evolution of the Sydney beach side suburb of Maroubra and the social struggle faced by it's youth - the notorious surf gang known as the Bra Boys.

With nine #1 albums to his name, Jimmy Barnes is one of Australia’s greatest rock icons. But his success masked a life of hardship and abuse, where the music that once saved him from oblivion almost came back to destroy him. Before Jimmy Barnes was Jimmy Barnes, he was James Dixon Swan, a troubled kid from the mean streets of Glasgow – and the even meaner streets of North Adelaide – trying to survive against a backdrop of addiction, alcoholism, poverty and abuse. For Jimmy, escape was the only option and he found it with a band called Cold Chisel. But the rock’n’roll lifestyle has its own temptations and the scars of childhood are always waiting to take you home. Based on the bestselling memoir and directed by veteran Australian filmmaker Mark Joffe, Working Class Boy is both an inspiring story of rock and redemption told in Barnes’ own words and an unflinchingly honest reflection on fame, creativity and depression.

Australia: Land Beyond Time takes viewers on a breathtaking journey back in time to witness the birth and evolution of a mysterious land that harbors remnants of Earth's earliest life and many of it's strangest creatures that exist nowhere else on the planet.

Australian documentary filmmaker Ian Darling re-examines the incidents that marked the final 3 years of Indigenous footballer Adam Goodes' playing career. Made entirely from archival footage, photos and interviews sourced from television, radio and newspapers, the film reviews the national conversation that took place over this period.

Kids being raised by same-sex couples are growing in numbers worldwide. We are in a Gayby-Boom. But who are these kids? What do they think about having same-sex parents? And do they face different issues to other kids? At a time when the world is debating marriage equality, these questions are more pertinent than ever. Told from the perspective of the kids, Gayby Baby is intimate and sometimes humorous account of four children and their families.

This is the gripping and emotionally charged story of Tyke, a circus elephant that went on a rampage in Honolulu in 1994, killed her trainer in front of thousands of spectators and died in a hail of gunfire. Her break for freedom - filmed from start to tragic end - traumatised a city and ignited a global battle over the use of animals in the entertainment industry. Looking at what made Tyke snap, the film goes back to meet the people who knew her and were affected by her death - former trainers and handlers, circus industry insiders, witnesses to her rampage, and animal rights activists for whom Tyke became a global rallying cry. Like the classic animal rebellion film King Kong, Tyke is the central protagonist in a tragic but redemptive drama that combines trauma, outrage, insight and compassion. Ultimately, this moving documentary raises fundamental questions about our deep and mysterious connection to other species.

A cinematic and musical odyssey that explores the remarkable relationship between humans and rivers. Throughout history, rivers have shaped our landscapes and our journeys; flowed through our cultures and dreams. RIVER takes its audience on a journey through space and time; spanning six continents, and drawing on extraordinary contemporary cinematography, including satellite filming, the film shows rivers on scales and from perspectives never seen before. Its union of image, music and sparse, the poetic script will create a film that is both dream-like and powerful, honouring the wildness of rivers but also recognizes their vulnerability.

Wirecard: a beacon of hope for Germany's future industries. A FinTech with a dark mucky past and a grandiose future. A company that was set to take over Deutsche Bank in 2019. Until the marvel collapses as a tissue of lies in June 2020, leaving a black hole of 3.2 billion euros in debt.

KylieX2008 became Minogue's biggest and most expensive tour to date, travelling over four continents in the course of seven months with a crew of over 120 people. The film features the entire concert (shot in Super 16 format) along with a documentary, stage back-drop projections, conceptual designs, and a photo gallery.

This pulse-racing real-life adventure follows two of Australia's greatest surf legends on their quest to hunt down and ride the Pacific's biggest and most dangerous waves. With 3D cameras installed on their boards, Ross Clarke-Jones and Tom Carroll defy middle age by pushing the limits of what they — and cinema technology — can do.

The story of Dujuan, a 10-year-old Aboriginal boy living in Alice Springs, Australia, who is struggling to balance his traditional Arrernte/Garrwa upbringing with a state education.

In 1970s New York, photographer Martha Cooper captured some of the first images of graffiti at a time when the city had declared war on it. Decades later, Cooper has become an influential godmother to a global movement of street artists.

It’s the 1980s and the world of professional surfing is a circus of fluorescent colors, peroxide hair and radical male egos. "Girls Can't Surf" follows the journey of a band of renegade surfers who took on the male-dominated professional surfing world to achieve equality and change the sport forever. Featuring surfing greats Jodie Cooper, Frieda Zamba, Pauline Menczer, Lisa Andersen, Pam Burridge, Wendy Botha, Layne Beachley and more, "Girls Can't Surf" is a wild ride of clashing personalities, sexism, adventure and heartbreak, with each woman fighting against the odds to make their dreams of competing a reality.

28 lost adventurers must fight for their lives after their only lifeline is destroyed in the most uninhabitable place on Earth – Antarctica. SHACKLETON - THE GREATEST STORY OF SURVIVAL reveals the true story of polar explorer Sir Ernest Shackleton and the crew of the Endurance, told by the only man ever to have repeated their incredible feat - explorer and adventurer Tim Jarvis. Following in the beset crew’s footsteps, Tim reveals the enduring legacy of Shackleton's crisis leadership in the face of impossible odds - a lesson more relevant to us now than ever before.