To aid in the selection of videos for your class and research needs, we've created a large number of filmographies on many subject areas. If you'd like to suggest a new filmography or ask that an existing one be updated, please contact mediaservices@american.edu.
This is a selective list of video holdings in the American University Library. Filmographies are created by doing multiple keyword searches in the catalog to capture as many titles on a topic as possible.
For complete, up-to-date holdings please search the library catalog search box on the Media Services homepage. (http://www.american.edu/library/mediaservices/) Finding Aids on the same page includes other subject oriented content.
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52 Tuesdays. 2016, 1 online resource (1 video file, approximately 115 minutes). 16-year-old Billie's reluctant path to independence is accelerated when her mother reveals plans for gender transition and their time together becomes limited to Tuesday afternoons. Filmed over the course of a year, once a week, every week (only on Tuesdays) these unique filmmaking rules bring a rare authenticity to this emotionally charged story of desire, responsibility and transformation. Streaming video.
The adventures of Priscilla, queen of the desert. 2007, 1 videodisc (103 min.). With a contract to perform a drag show way out in the Australian desert, Tick, Adam and Ralph each has his own reason for wanting to leave the safety of Sydney. Christening their battered, pink tour bus "Priscilla," this wickedly funny and high-drama trio heads for the outback and into crazy adventures in even crazier outfits. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 243.
Age of consent. 2009, 1 videodisc (106 min.). The collector's choice. Based on the life of controversial Australian artist Norman Lindsay. Lindsay is a jaded painter who heads Down Under looking for a way to revitalize his creative soul. His self-imposed exile is interrupted by Cora, an uninhibited young woman on her own journey of self-discovery. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 5524.
Animal kingdom. 2011, 1 videodisc (113 min.). Seventeen year-old J is in the process of becoming initiated into a gang of armed robbers, known as the Cody brothers. J quickly comes to believe that he is a player in this world, but soon discovers that the entire situation is far larger and more menacing than he could ever imagine. Meanwhile, senior police officer Nathan Leckie recognizes that J's youth and inexperience may prove to be the key to finally conquering the Codys, and hopes to lure him into the fold after the death of a partner. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 8083.
Aquamarine. 2015, 1 online resource (1 video file (1 hr., 43 min., 33 sec)). In a dreary Florida beach resort village, luscious-limbed lifeguard Raymond is the main attraction for girls. Teenager buddies Claire and Hailey became experts on him by observation, but never dared actually approach him, and after this closing summer season will be separated as one's parents move to Australia. Then they find a storm washed up in a pool a sassy mermaid, who promises them a wish if they help her prove to Neptune love exists, and Raymond is the only creature resembling a love-god. Streaming video.
Australia. 2009, 1 videodisc (165 min.). In northern Australia at the beginning of World War II, an English aristocrat inherits a cattle station the size of Maryland. When English cattle barons plot to take her land, she reluctantly joins forces with a rough-hewn stock-man to drive 2,000 head of cattle across hundreds of miles of the country's most unforgiving land, only to still face the bombing of Darwin, Australia, by the Japanese forces that had attacked Pearl Harbor only months earlier. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 10033. Streaming video.
The babadook. 2015, 1 videodisc (93 minutes). Amelia is a single mother plagued by the violent death of her husband. When a disturbing storybook called Mister Babadook turns up at her house, she is forced to battle with her son's deep-seated fear of a monster. Soon she discovers a sinister presence all around her. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 12219.
Bright star. 2010, 1 videodisc (119 min.). Nineteenth century poet John Keats and the girl next door, Fanny Brawne, started out as unlikely lovers who were totally at odds with each other. However, when Brawne offers to help Keats nurse his seriously ill brother, the two soon became involved in an unstoppable romance that only his untimely death at age 25 could bring to a shattering end. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 7070.
The cars that ate Paris The plumber. 2004, 1 videodisc (158 min.). The cars that ate Paris - the inhabitants of a quiet country town lure unsuspecting motorists to their deaths and live off the remains of the wrecks. Arthur Waldo survives a car crash that kills his brother and is taken in by the town of Paris. The plumber - one morning there is an unexpected knock on the door and Jill Cooper opens it to a man who says he's the plumber. So begins five days of mental torment that will change her life. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 6537.
The chant of Jimmie Blacksmith. 2008, 1 videodisc (122 min.). A film based on real events which occurred in Australia, at the turn of the century. The life story of a half-caste Aborigine named Jimmy Governor. Jimmy marries a white girl hoping to achieve assimiliation into white society, instead he becomes an object of loathing and ridicule. In winter, 1900, after some harassment from farmers, he murders a family near Gilgandra in New South Wales. He and his full blood Aborigine brother, Joey embark upon an odyssey of murdering whites. Hunted and hounded, he is eventually captured, tried, sentenced to death, and executed. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 4970.
Children of the revolution. 1996, 1 videodisc (100 min.). After a mad, passionate fling on a whirlwind trip to Moscow, party girl Joan Fraser returns home pregnant. And when little Joe is born, everyone wonders who "Daddy" is! Soon, the ball starts rolling on a hilarious sequence of events that includes a clueless husband, a lovesick double agent and even Joseph Stalin himself. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 12506.
Chopper. 2001, 1 videodisc (90 min.). "I'm just a bloody normal bloke. A normal bloke who likes a bit of torture," says Mark "Chopper" Read. Read is one of Australia's best-selling authors, in part because before he became an author, he was one of Australia's most brutal stand-over men. "Chopper" tells his story with a kind of fascinated horror, a study of the mystique of criminal notoriety, and portrait of a cunning, ruthless killer who is a legend in his own mind. In prison, Chopper is a composed, dynamic, lean survival machine. Out in the real world, Chopper is a going-to-seed paranoiac prone to uncontrollable rages. But this enigmatic criminal exudes charismatic bravado as he plays the raconteur, and the larger-than-life anti-hero he imagines himself to be. If it seems like the universe of "Chopper" Read is the wrong way round, it may be because the film does not designate a point of view from which to observe him. Celebrity, killer, or maniac--it's your call. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 10217.
Creation. 2010, 1 videodisc (108 min.). Gives viewers a unique inside look at Charles Darwin, his family, and his love for his deeply religious wife, as he is torn between faith and science. Darwin struggles to finish his legendary book, On the Origin of Species, which goes on to become the foundation for evolutionary biology. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 13440.
Daybreakers. 2010, 1 videodisc (98 min.). In the year 2019, an unknown plague has transformed the world's population into vampires. As the human population nears extinction, so does the blood supply. Now the vampires must find a blood substitute before time runs out. Researcher Edward Dalton and a clandestine group of vampires have made a remarkable discovery, one which has the power to save the human race. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 8627.
The devil's playground. 2008, 1 videodisc (107 min.). The accomplished and currently pertinent story of a boy's coming of age set in an Australian Catholic boys' school. Based on the director's experiences in a monastery, repressed desires meet Christian doctrine head-on. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 10669.
Haute cuisine. 2013, 1 Blu-ray disc (approximately 95 min.). Nothing predicted that Hortense Laborie would become the personal cook of the President of France. When she is called to the Élysée Palace, she doesn't measure the obstacles that she will encounter in the halls of power. But the authenticity of her cuisine soon seduces the President. The film is based on the life of Danièle Mazet-Delpeuch, the personal chef of François Mitterand. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 13095.
He died with a felafel in his hand. 2001, 1 online resource (107 min.). Film Movement series: New world cinema: independent features & shorts, 1990-present. Danny has just moved into his 47th shared house, this time in Brisbane, and the flatmates have not improved. One lives in a closet, another in a tent in the living room and, before Danny takes off for shared house numbers 48 in Melbourne, he will have endured satanic worshipers, skinheads and the perennially ubiquitous cane toad. No wonder he is on the verge of a nervous breakdown. Streaming video.
Holding the man. 2016, 1 videodisc (128 min.). The love story of two high school boys, one the hunky captain of the football team and the other sensitive drama student. After a sweet courtship, the two fall madly in love and traverse an enduring relationship over fifteen years. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 14912.
Kenny he's number one with your number two. 2008, 1 videodisc (93 min.). From the biggest festival to the smallest church social, Kenny Smyth delivers porta-potties to them all. A true unsung hero, Kenny does one of society's dirtiest jobs. Kenny struggles to juggle family tensions, fatherhood and sewage. Part philosopher, part comedian and all heart. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 12696.
The last wave. 2001, 1 videodisc (106 min.). Criterion Collection. The story of a lawyer defending a group of aboriginals accused of murder. The lawyer feels the pull of magic forces beneath the surface of civilization. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 493.
Lion. 2016, 1 videodisc (118 min.). Five-year-old Saroo gets lost on a train that takes him thousands of kilometers across India, away from home and family. Saroo must learn to survive alone in Kolkata, before ultimately being adopted by an Australian couple. Twenty-five years later, armed with only a handful of memories, his unwavering determination, and a revolutionary technology known as Google Earth, he sets out to find his lost family and finally return to his first home. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 13992.
Logan. 2017, 1 videodisc (137 min.). In the near future, a weary Logan cares for an ailing Professor X in a hide out on the Mexican border. But Logan's attempts to hide from the world and his legacy are up-ended when a young mutant arrives, being pursued by dark forces. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 14596. Streaming video.
Long weekend. 2005, 1 videodisc (95 min.). A couple attempts to revive their failing marriage by going on a weekend camping trip to a deserted stretch of Australian coastline. They carelessly litter, shoot guns, and even leave a wounded animal behind. Soon the animals begin to seek revenge. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 6839.
Lore. 2013, 1 videodisc (108 min.). "Abandoned by their Nazi parents at the end of World War II, five German siblings, led by fourteen year-old Lore, embark on a harrowing journey across their war-torn country."--Container. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 11373. Streaming video.
Macbeth. 2007, 1 videodisc (110 min.). Shakespeare's tale of greed and ambition is set amidst the hyper-violent drug gangs of modern Australia. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 5528.
Mad Dog Morgan. 2009, 2 videodiscs (98 min.). Tromasterpiece collection. A dramatization of the story of Dan Morgan, an adventurer whose exploits during the Australian gold rush caused him to become a wanted outlaw and the object of a manhunt. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 3462.
Mad Max. 2001, 1 videodisc (94 min.). In the desolate near future, road cop Mad Max tires of chasing after vicious roving gangs and quits. When his wife and child are murdered by a motorcycle gang he returns to seek revenge. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 6657.
Mad Max beyond Thunderdome. 2009, 1 videodisc (107 min.). Once again, Mad Max stands alone against the barbarians of a post-nuclear age. This time, Max enters the gladiatorial maces-and-chainsaws combat inside Thunderdome arena and then defends the future for a group of abandoned children. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 6579.
Mary and Max. 2010, 1 videodisc (92 min.). Mary is a lonely eight-year-old in the suburbs of Melbourne. Struggling with questions that no one can answer, she writes to Max, an obese 44-year-old Jewish man with Asperger's Syndrome living in New York City, which starts a friendship that spans 20 years and two continents. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 7589.
Muriel's wedding. 1999, 1 videodisc (105 min.). No one ever paid much attention to Muriel and her humdrum small town life, so she and her best friend Rhonda decide to leave it behind and head for the big city ... where they end up having the exciting adventure of their lives! What's more, soon everyone takes notice when Muriel becomes engaged to a handsome and popular sports hero! HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 883.
My brilliant career. 2005, 2 videodiscs (100 min.). Sybylla, oldest child of an impoverished family in the Australian Outback, must decide between her love for a landowner and her desire for an independent life. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 5188.
Newsfront. 2016, 1 online resource (streaming video file) (111 minutes). Directed by Phillip Noyce and produced by David Elfick, Newsfront represents a seminal moment in the emergence of the Australian movie industry on the world stage.. Highly acclaimed at the 1978 Cannes Film Festival and the winner of 18 international awards including 8 AFI Awards,Newsfront garnered raves from critics around the world and became a major box office success at home.. Newsfront is the story of the previously unsung newsreel cameramen, who raced to beat deadlines and dangers to capture on film, for a voracious audience of cinemagoers, the historic moments that were shaping a young nation. These were the men who lived and worked in post-World War 2 Australia; a turbulent time with the fear of reds under the beds , the tragic Maitland floods and national pride on show at the 1956 Melbourne Olympics. But their days were numbered. A new technology would eventually bring the world into the living room instantly - it was called television.. Featuring one of the finest Australian casts ever assembled, many of whom were soon to become household names, NEWSFRONT stars Bill Hunter as Cinetone newsreel cameraman Len Maguire, Gerard Kennedy as his brother Frank, and Wendy Hughes as Amy, Cinetone s production assistant and lover of both men. Included in the support case are Chris Haywood, Bryan Brown, John Ewart, Angela Punch-McGregor and Drew Forsythe. Streaming video.
On the beach. 2000, 1 videodisc (134 min.). Radioactive fallout from a nuclear war has wiped out the entire northern hemisphere, with the exception of Australia. With fallout expected momentarily, the Australians review their lives, establish new relationships and prepare for their tragic demise. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 2102.
The overlanders. 2009, 1 videodisc (91 min.). In 1943, Australian cattle drovers save a thousand head of cattle from the threatened Japanese invasion, by driving them two thousand miles across country. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 8932.
The piano. 1999, 1 videodisc (121 min.). A young mute woman and her child travel to New Zealand in the 1800s for an arranged marriage to a farmer. After the marriage she meets another man, and the competition for her love begins. Just one of the men realizes that her affections can only be won through her beloved piano. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 63.
Picnic at Hanging Rock. 1998, 1 videodisc (107 min.). Criterion collection . On Valentine's Day, 1900, a group of Australian schoolgirls set out for a picnic at Hanging Rock, an ancient volcanic outcropping. The outing turns to disaster for the residents of Mrs. Appleyard's school when three young girls and a teacher inexplicably vanish. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 66.
Predestination. 2015, 1 videodisc (98 minutes). Chronicles the life of a Temporal Agent sent on an intricate series of time-travel journeys designed to prevent future killers from committing their crimes. Now, on his final assignment, the Agent must stop the one criminal that has eluded him throughout time and prevent a devastating attack in which thousands of lives will be lost. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 13643.
Quigley down under. 2001, 1 videodisc (120 min.). Western legends. Sharpshooter Quigley travels to western Australia, only to find himself saddled with a half-loco lady, and locked in a lethal battle with a wealthy rancher. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 13836.
The road warrior. 1997, 1 videodisc (95 min.). Story is set in the post-nuclear outback of Australia where a battle is raged by a tiny band of civilized survivors and a group of barbarians over a precious cache of gasoline. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 6578.
Romper stomper. 2000, 2 videodiscs (93 min.). Drama about a neo-Nazi skinhead gang that wages war on Vietnamese immigrants in Melbourne. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 311.
The Sapphires. 2013, 1 videodisc (99 min.). Inspired by a true story, it's 1968, and four young, talented Australian Aboriginal girls learn about love, friendship and war when their all girl group The Sapphires entertain the US troops in Vietnam. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 11184.
Scarlet road. 2011, 1 videodisc (71 min.). As a vocal advocate for everyone's right to sexual expression, Sydney sex worker Rachel Wotton is passionate about providing people with disabilities the opportunity to experience sexual intimacy. She helped set up an advocacy group, runs workshops for carers and sex workers, and is studying for a masters degree in her spare time. Rachel also provides a specialised service to her clients. Campus use only. DVD 14850.
Shine. 1997, 1 videodisc (105 min.). The story of Australian pianist David Helfgott. He experiences a nervous breakdown and is hospitalized, but later returns to the concert hall. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 8977.
Somersault. 2004, 1 videodisc (106 min.). Heidi, who is starved of true affection, looks to short-lived sexual encounters for the physical and emotional contact she craves. After a confrontation with her mother, she flees Canberra for the snow resort of Lake Jindabyne. A chance encounter with Joe, the son of a wealthy local farmer, leads to a developing relationship in all its complexity. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 3955.
The Stranger. 2013, 1 online resource (1 video file (1 hr. 55 min. 15 sec.)). The film sees Anila receiving a letter from a man claiming to be her uncle, a man who disappeared 35 years prior. He turns up at her family home professing to be an anthropologist, a globally seasoned traveler en route from the United States to Australia. The family, are suspicious of the stranger, believing him to be an impostor with a financial scam to sell. After a grilling from the family's lawyer, he leaves as unexpectedly as he arrives, leaving behind a stunned family, and some very insightful observations. Streaming video.
Strictly ballroom. 2002, 1 videodisc (94 min.). A championship ballroom dancer who's breaking all the rules and his ugly duckling dancing partner make their dreams come true together. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 882.
The sundowners. 2007, 1 videodisc (133 min.). Robert Mitchum, the signature collection. A married couple in Australia find themselves at odds when the wife wants to settle down on a farm of their own, but the husband finds settling down more than his untethered spirit can bear. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 12716.
Sweetie. 2006, 1 videodisc (99 min.). The Criterion collection. Jane Campion, director of The Piano, will always be remembered for this stunning debut feature. The focus of this film is the hazardous relationship between button-down, superstitious Kay, and her rampaging sister, 'Sweetie.'. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 3927.
Tanna. 2017, 1 videodisc (104 min.). In one of the last traditional tribes in the South Pacific, a young girl falls in love with her chief 's grandson. But when war with their enemies escalates, Wawa is unknowingly betrothed as part of a peace deal. The young lovers run away, but are pursued by warriors of both tribes. With their lives on the line, the star-crossed lovers must choose between their hearts and the peaceful future of the tribe. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 13965.
Ten canoes. 2007, 1 videodisc (88 min.). In the distant past, Dayindi covets his older brother's wife. To teach him the proper way, he is told a parable of forbidden love from the mythical past, a story of wrong love, kidnapping, sorcery, and revenge gone wrong. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 3229.
Theorem. 2011, 1 videodisc (94 min.). "When a striking young stranger arrives at a household and sets about seducing each family member he leaves behind an inescapable void of confusion that leads them on an odyssey of self-discovery and departure from the norm"--Container. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 6618.
Under Capricorn. 2003, 1 videodisc (117 min.). In Australia in l830, an English immigrant stays with his cousin Heneritta and her cruel husband, setting a triangle to explode and reveal a strange crime. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 3527. Streaming video.
Utopia an epic story of struggle and resistance. 2015, 1 streaming video file (115 min.). John Pilger's epic portrayal of Earth's oldest continuous human culture, Aboriginal Australians, and his investigation into Australia's suppressed colonial past and rapacious present. Steaming video.
Walkabout. 1998, 1 videodisc (100 min.). Stranded in the Australian desert, an English girl and her small brother are rescued by an aborigine boy who has journeyed into the outback on his "walkabout"--A tribal initiation into manhood. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 4076.
Wrong side of the bus. 2011, 1 videodisc (56 min.). "Sidney Bloch, an internationally recognized professor of psychiatry from Australia, returns to Cape Town, South Africa for his medical school reunion. Sid has suffered from a troubled conscience for forty years and wants to resolve his guilt for colluding with Apartheid, but what will it take to free him from his past? He's accompanied on his quest for reconciliation by his son Aaron, who is also his harshest critic"--Container. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 9170.
The year of living dangerously. 2000, 1 videodisc (115 min.). Guy Hamilton, an ambitious Australian reporter on his first overseas assignment, is befriended by a Eurasian cameraman, Billy Kwan, with connections in high places. Hamilton soon gains an entree to Indonesian Communist Party leaders, as well as insight into Jakarta's grim realities on the eve of a major political upheaval. Includes theatrical trailer. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 295.