Tom Zubrycki

The Diplomat

Tom Zubrycki

For 24 years East Timor's freedom fighter and Nobel Peace Prize winner José Ramos Horta campaigned to secure independence for his country, a Portuguese colony invaded by Indonesia in 1975. The Diplomat takes up Ramos Horta's story in the final dramatic stages of his long journey - the fall of Indonesia's President Suharto, the referendum to determine East Timor's future, the overwhelming vote for independence, the devastating carnage that ensued, the intervention of United Nations peacekeepers, and Ramos Horta's final triumphant return to his homeland.

Molly & Mobarak

Tom Zubrycki

Molly & Mobarak is a 2003 Australian documentary directed by Tom Zubrycki. It follows a Hazara asylum seeker, 22-year-old Mobarak Tahiri, as he falls in love with 25-year-old Molly Rule, and faces possible deportation as his temporary visa nears expiration.

The Hungry Tide

Tom Zubrycki

Maria Tiimon, Anote Tong

Only metres above sea level, the nation of Kiribati is on the front line of climate change. Maria Tiimon, a Kiribati woman living in Sydney, is passionate about her homeland and, despite her shyness, is determined to raise the world's awareness of its predicament.

Kemira: Diary of a Strike

Tom Zubrycki

Weeks before the closure of a Wollongong coal mine, a group of 31 miners occupied the pit and established themselves 5 kilometres underground. The strike, which caught the imagination of the whole country, was documented from the inside by documentarian Tom Zubrycki.

Billal

Tom Zubrycki

The Eter family live on a state housing estate in a suburb comprising mainly Anglo-Australian families. One night a fight breaks out involving the Eters' teenage sons and those of the neighbour. Racial insults are thrown and returned. People are hurt, property is damaged and police are called. The following day sixteen-year-old Billal Eter crosses the road. A car accelerates. His mother sees Billal flying through the air. Billal lies in a hospital in a coma fighting for his life. Meanwhile his parents plead with the government housing authorities to move them from the suburb where the driver of the car still resides.

Vietnam Symphony

Tom Zubrycki

In 1965 during the Vietnam War, students and teachers from the National Conservatory of Music in Hanoi were forced to flee to a small village in the countryside. With the help of villagers they built an entire campus underground where they lived, studied and played music for five years as the war raged around them. This documentary records the coming together of the former conservatory students and villagers for a reunion concert 30 years after the war, to paint a moving portrait of life in Vietnam then and now.

Bran Nue Dae

Tom Zubrycki

Goes behind the scenes of the original stage production of Bran Nue Dae, which was eventually adapted into the box-office hit musical.

Hope Road

Tom Zubrycki

Zacharia Machiek, Janet Dyne

A refugee from the Sudanese civil war, Zacharia (one of the ‘Lost Boys' of Sudan) lives in Sydney with his wife and daughter. He desperately wants to do something for his former village, now in the newly created nation of South Sudan. His dream is to build a much-needed school, enlisting the backing of numerous Australians. Janet, a dedicated supporter, joins him on a 40-day fundraising walk from Tweed Heads to Sydney along with filmmaker Tom Zubrycki. But will this strategy raise the funds they need? Thwarted by escalating conflict back in South Sudan, and shocked by a broken relationship, Zac must decide what's important in his life.

Friends & Enemies

Tom Zubrycki

One thousand power workers went on strike against the South East Queensland Electrical Board (SEQEB)in February 1985 in protest against the introduction of contract worker hire. This documentary details the industrial relations dispute between the ensuing Joh Bjelke Peterson coalition government and the Electrical Trades Union in Queensland, Australia during 1985.

Amongst Equals

Tom Zubrycki

Zubrycki’s controversial, provocative and rarely screened documentary about the Australian trade-union movement was originally commissioned by the ACTU and funded by the Bicentennial Authority to provide an audio-visual history stretching from the birth of the movement in the mid-1850s and the formation of the Australian Labor Party to key events like the 1891 shearers’ strike and the 1988 Bicentenary. This pro-union but objective history, focusing on the struggle between capital and labour, and featuring the candid testimony of many unionists, was refused sanction by the ACTU and has long languished in obscurity aside from some “illegal” screenings in the early 1990s.

Lord of the Bush

Tom Zubrycki

Eccentric British developer Lord McAlpine has a dream – an urge to create a whole new civilisation in Australia’s North based around the town of Broome in the remote north of Western Australia. Within a year of arriving he buys a cinema, builds a luxury resort and starts a zoo. He even has his sights on an international airport. However not everyone likes the change this will bring to the town – least of all the Aboriginal community.

Homelands: View from the Edge

Tom Zubrycki

In his first exploration of the migration experience, Zubrycki poses the question ‘When the fighting stops, how do you make choices about where you want to live?’.

Waterloo

Tom Zubrycki

The film outlines the history of the redevelopment of the Sydney suburb of Waterloo. Residents are interviewed and archival footage is used to outline the history of change in the area. The documentary emphasises the need for consultation and shows the results of more recent residents’ action groups.

Strangers in Paradise

Gil Scrine, Tom Zubrycki

On the eve of bicentennial celebrations, Strangers in Paradise looks at Australian culture through the eyes of tourists on a ‘Dreamtime’ tour.