At a time when Australians looked to other countries for culture, Margaret Preston's work celebrated the local. She validated the familiar, the indigenous and the everyday. Her bold landscapes of Sydney and its environs included the harbour, the beaches, native flora, domestic interiors and the suburbs where she lived. A Modernist, influenced by her extensive overseas travels, her decorative and richly coloured works demonstrated her desire to create a national artistic identity. In the early 1970s the Australian film industry was invigorated by government assistance after four virtually inactive decades. Filmmakers began asking themselves the same questions as Preston had raised striving to create a "national cinema" and depict local cultures. This selection of feature films and documentaries is devoted to Preston's city of Sydney.
Program
3 & 7 August
Caddie
Dir: Donald Crombie 1976
106 min. 35mm Colour Rated M
Helen Morse, Jackie Weaver
After her wealthy husband abandons her, a headstrong, independent woman must survive in the tough climate of Sydney during the 1930s depression. Based on the book "Caddie: The Autobiography of a Sydney Barmaid" by Catherine Elliot-Mackay
10 & 14 August
Resonance
Dir: Stephen Cummings & Simon Hunt 1991
11 min. 35mm B&W Rated M
A personal response to Gay bashing in Darlinghurst.
Palisade
Dir: Laurie McInnes 1987
15 min. 35mm Colour Rated G
Featuring extraordinary imagery filmed at night around inner-city Sydney, Palisade traces the movements of a night-shift worker and explores his dreams of escaping.
Eternity
Dir: Laurence Johnston 1994
56 min. 16mm Colour Rated G
For forty years the word "Eternity" appeared written on the streets of Sydney in perfect copperplate script. Johnston's documentary traces the life of Arthur Stace, better known as "Mr Eternity", and presents interviews with those who knew him, met him and are obsessed with him.
17 & 21 August
Heatwave
Dir: Phil Noyce 1981
95 min. 35mm Colour Rated M
Judy Davis, Richard Moir, Bill Hunter
Amid a typical Sydney Christmas heatwave, an ambitious architect and an impulsive local activist are caught in a confrontation involving local residents and their homes which are about to be bulldozed to make way for a high-rise development. The story is loosely based on Juanita Nielson's disappearance.
24 & 28 August
Rocking the foundations
Dir: Pat Fiske 1985
92 min. 16mm B&W Rated PG
Powerful documentary telling the story the NSW Builders Labourers Federation and its attempts to save historic Sydney buildings and communities. Focuses on the battles for Victoria St, Kings Cross and The Rocks and the use of union power in assisting resident action groups and environmental groups.
31 August & 4 September
Puberty blues
Dir: Bruce Beresford 1981
83 min. 35mm Colour Rated M
Nell Schofield, Jad Capelja
Two teenage girls must endure the sexual and social rites of the Greenhills' gang, an elite surfie group which occupies a particular stretch of Cronulla Beach, or be consigned to the margins of their teen society. Based on the book by Cathy Lette and Gabrielle Carey
7 & 11 September
Sydney Harbour Bridge
Dir: Paul Winkler 1977
13 min. 16mm Colour
Experimental film utilising an array of intricate visual cross-rhythms in its depiction of the Sydney Harbour Bridge.
My life without Steve
Dir: Gillian Leahy 1986
58 min. 35mm Colour Rated PG
This striking meditation on love and loss is an intimate study of one woman's year in a room with a view. Features "still life" interiors and industrial landscapes of Pyrmont shot by cinematographer Erica Addis.
14 & 18 September
Winter of our dreams
Dir: John Duigan 1981
89 min. 35mm Colour Rated M
Judy Davis, Bryan Brown
A trendy Balmain suburbanite, who runs an inner-city bookshop, and an uneducated Kings Cross prostitute, who longs for a better life, are drawn together following the death of a mutual friend.
21 & 25 September
100 a day
Dir: Gillian Armstrong 1973
8 min. 16mm B&W Rated M
Armstrong's first short film, set in 1930s Balmain, focuses on women working in a shoe factory.
Rui
Dir: Jason Ollivier 1976
14 min. 16mm Colour
Documentary depicting the lives of kids from Alexandria - these bicycle riding adventurers have developed their own mechanisms for coping with the inner-city environment.
Nice coloured girls
Dir: Tracey Moffatt 1987
17 min. 16mm Colour
Moffatt's early experimental short, set in Kings Cross, suggests connections and differences in the relationship between Aboriginal women and European men in the early years of settlement and in contemporary Sydney.
Tran the man
Dir: Rowan Woods 1994
18 min. 16mm Colour Rated M
David Wenham, Rowan Woods, Skye Wansey
Ray Moss, nicknamed Tran by his Asian workmates, has a job as a security guard at a Cabramatta shopping centre. But the heat is on when his brother, Donny, and Uncle Jack have had their heroin business undercut.
28 September & 2 October
Looking for Alibrandi
Dir: Kate Woods 2000
103 min. 35mm Colour Rated M
Pia Miranda, Greta Scacchi, Anthony LaPaglia
A 17 year old teenager of Italian heritage searches for identity as she tries to balance home, family, school and relationships while doing her final year of high school. Adapted by Melina Marchetta from her bestselling novel. Depicts inner-city Sydney, Glebe and Leichhardt locations shot by cinematographer Toby Oliver
5 & 9 October
Palm Beach
Dir: Albie Thoms 1979
88 min. 35mm Colour Rated M
Nat Young, Bryan Brown
Forty-eight hours in the lives of motley characters who reside in the northern beaches area. With an experimental narrative structure, long takes and documentary-style camera work, the film explores Palm Beach in the 1970s with its unique mix of rich and poor, straight and crooked.
12 & 16 October
FJ Holden
Dir: Michael Thornhill 1977
105 min. 35mm Colour Rated M
Shot on location in the Western suburbs with non-professional actors from the area cast in the lead roles, this social realist drama focuses on Kevin, his brief relationship with Anne and his ongoing relationship with his FJ Holden. "A suburban road movie, in which the protagonists _ get nowhere, trapped in the maze of Sydney's western suburbs". - Susan Dermody
19 & 23 October
Waterloo
Dir: Tom Zubrycki 1981
48 min. 16mm Colour Rated G
Influential documentary of the nine-year fight by residents of the suburb of Waterloo to stop planned demolition of their community by housing authorities. The residents won the battle and this film played a major part in their victory.
Our Park
Dir: Gillian Leahy 1998
53 min. 16mm Colour PG
A diverse and rapidly changing community in Leichhardt must negotiate a conflict over the use and development of a local park. Filming of the documentary took place over one year with intimate access to those involved in the dispute. | 
