Suppliers & distributors of Australian Aboriginal movies
Did you find an Indigenous film that you like to buy? Try to locate the movie using the following links. Aboriginal films are not always easy to find, especially the short subjects which might be on a DVD together with other films.
Where can I buy Indigenous movies?
Below is a selection of suppliers. All distributors are in alphabetical order.
ABC Content Sales
The ABC screens lots of Aboriginal films and shorts in its Message Sticks program. Content Sales is responsible for the sales and marketing of television programming content both in Australia and worldwide.
www.abc.net.au/abccontentsales
All About Movies
Claims to be "Australia's Largest DVD/VHS Database" and also offers a out-of-print service to find older movies. Also available are press books, posters, postcards, photographs, lobby cards, autographs and original working scripts.
Civic Video
Civic Video has more than 290 stores located throughout Australia , New Zealand and Thailand. They offer mainly recent mainstream films and have a searchable movie database.
Done Dirt Cheap DVD
Done Dirt Cheap DVD claims to be "Australia's biggest and best DVD retail site" and shares, coincidentally, the name with an Indigenous short by Debbie Carmody.
DVD Bits
One of Australia's largest and oldest DVD websites offering news, reviews, competitions and resources. Aboriginal movies available are mainstream.
DVD Video Planet
A New Zealand-based company offering mainstream DVDs with a good selection of Aboriginal-themed movies.
DVD Plaza
You can search for best prices of Aboriginal DVD titles in five stores and pick the cheapest one. DVD Plaza provides information and services for Australia's online DVD stores since 1999.
EzyDVD
Note: EzyDVD went into receivership in December 2008. Though its website still accepts orders I'm not sure about their ability to deliver goods. Their online catalogue offers many Aboriginal movies though.
Flickerfest
Flickerfest is a short film distributor who "hand-picks" quality Australian short films including "the latest collection of Australian indigenous short films". They are able to deliver many shorts presented on CreativeSpirits.info.
National Film and Sound Archive
The National Film and Sound Archive is the national audiovisual archive, collecting, storing, preserving and making available screen and sound material relevant to Australia's culture. A good address if you want to show Indigenous movies to a broader audience (schools, universities, communities).
Play4Me
A large collection of DVDs with many Aboriginal movies among them, even some not found in other stores.
Ronin Films
Ronin Films is an independent distributor of non-theatrical films. A list of educational videos is available on the site. They are a very good source for Aboriginal movies and they have a large collection.
Video Ezy
Video Ezy is an online shopping site for both mainstream and many Aboriginal video titles.
Warlpiri Media Association
Warlpiri Media Association is a non-profit community organisation managed by a locally elected indigenous management committee. They have a proud history of independently produced local television. Local Indigenous video operators collect news stories and local events for editing and broadcast to the local community. Warlpiri has also produces a wide variety of programming for national broadcast, including the ground breaking Bush Mechanics.
Where can I watch Indigenous movies?
Over the last few years Indigenous films have become more and more popular. Watch out for film festivals which either show Aboriginal films along with non-Indigenous films or purely Indigenous film festivals such as the annual Message Sticks Indigenous Film Festival.
National Indigenous Television
The digital Indigenous TV station NITV (National Indigenous TeleVision) broadcasts in the Sydney region on channel 40. Among other material it broadcasts Indigenous documentaries which are usually repeated over a number of days at different times so you get a chance to watch them.
Check out NITV's upcoming movie program.
National Film & Sound Archive
The National Film & Sound Archive (NFSA) runs the Black Screen Program where it provides Indigenous communities and the broader Australian public with access to Indigenous films. Each DVD compile has a range of Indigenous films, short dramas, comedies and documentaries.
Contact www.nfsa.gov.au to find out how to access DVD compiles.
Other resources
Screen Australia
Screen Australia (formerly Australian Film Commission) offers a list of distributors you can contact also: