Kevin MacIsaac
Adapted from the bestselling novel by Madeleine St John, Ladies in Black is an alluring and tender-hearted comedy drama about the lives of a group of department store employees in 1959 Sydney.
Laura Chant. 16, lives with her mother and four-year-old brother Jacko in a poor new suburb on the edge of a partially demolished Christchurch, New Zealand. Laura is drawn into a supernatural battle with an ancient spirit who attacks Jacko and slowly drains the life out of him as the spirit becomes ever younger. Laura discovers her true identity and the supernatural ability within her, and must harness it to save her brother's life.
Anna Macy left Kettering when she was just 14, shortly after her best friend, Gillian Baxter mysteriously disappeared. The two girls had been playing in the forbidden forests outside Kettering when they saw strange lights in the sky. Eight hours later, Anna was found alone, terrified and covered in blood. 15 years on, Anna returns to find the town struggling to survive. The forests have been marked for logging and the community is being torn apart by passionate but violent clashes between environmentalists and the local loggers.
1814. Van Diemen’s Land, the notorious British penal colony, has dissolved into chaos. Outlaws roaming the wilderness have pushed the colonial government to breaking point. Driven by a deep sense of loyalty and an unquenchable hatred towards those he once served, English convict Michael Howe and a young aboriginal girl turn a desperate band of convicts, deserters and bushmen into a fearsome guerrilla army and lead them in open rebellion against the brutal, corrupt establishment. As the British hunt the outlaws, Howe remains an elusive prize. In desperation, the Governor makes the capture of Howe’s pregnant girl his priority. An epic story of love and betrayal, The Outlaw Michael Howe chronicles the astonishing true story of the man who pushed Australia to the brink of civil war.
Laddy and the Lady follows an out-of-control golden retriever, owned by a Lady, on a pheasant shoot. Scenes of the shoot are intercut with flashbacks to Laddy’s troubled past as a puppy, wrenched from his mother’s side. On the shoot, Laddy is subjected to forms of physical and verbal abuse associated with gun dog handling. His inability to behave and retrieve the dead birds results in relentless punishment. Laddy becomes a receiver – a golden receiver- of abuse.
