Gentle Strangers

This film contains three short stories about life in Australia in the 1950's.

Above the tip of Cape York, beyond the northernmost point of the Australian continent, are the Torres Strait Islands. The economy here is based on home gardens and pearlshell fishing. The culture, with its basis in music, dancing and ceremony, provides a striking contrast to that of mainland Australia. This film, shot in the late 1960s, shows how strongly old traditions still affect Torres Strait Islander people, even though they also have most of the trappings of modern life.

A history of Henry Lawson and the Australian workers press.

Set in and around Darwin the film discloses the life of a full-blood Aborigine as depicted in Douglas Lockwood's book of the same name. Philip Roberts recalls his early years of tribal life and gradual acceptance by the white community. He receives medical training, and travels frequently to his own people making use of his knowledge.

The story of four aboriginals grappling with assimilation pressures and facing a changing future. Through the experience of a bark painter, a teaching assistant, a carpenter, and a tribal headman, we see the type of life each one lives, and the conflict of the old and the new which sets up tensions within each one, and in Aboriginal society.

Fred Ward is imprisoned for horse stealing. He escapes from Cockatoo Island and under the name of Captain Thunderbolt becomes a bushranger, working with his friend and fellow escapee Alan Blake.

Life on a coaster, loading, ports, storm at sea, dramatic incidents in New Zealand, with commentary in rythmical verse.