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Capt. Grant's Family
🇳🇿 New Zealand 🇦🇺 Australia The 1860sThe son and daughter of a lost-at-sea captain recruit help to find him on the basis of an incomplete note found in a bottle, and encounter adventures in Patagonia, Australia, and New Zealand... Based on Jules Verne novel.
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Hei Tiki
🇳🇿 New ZealandA Weird Maori Drama — Hei Tiki, also known as Primitive Passions and Hei Tiki: A Saga of the Maoris, is a 1935 American mock-documentary film made in New Zealand by the eccentric Alexander Markey and released (with sound added) in America. The film gained notoriety in America for having scenes of nudity cut in various states. It is one of four films (with The Devil's Pit, Down on the Farm, and On the Friendly Road) which claim to be the first "New Zealand talkie", although the claim is dubious in this case as the sound was added in America.
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Stingaree
🇦🇺 Australia The 1870sWith the world at her feet, she threw away gold and glory to be crushed in his lawless arms. — A young lady named Hilda who works as a servant for the wealthy Clarksons, sheep farmers, and dreams of being a great singer. An upcoming visit by Sir Julian, a famous composer arriving from London, drives jealous Mrs. Clarkson (an interfering biddy who fancies she can sing - but can't) to send away Hilda, so he doesn't hear Hilda has a good voice. Meanwhile, an infamous outlaw named Stingaree has just arrived in town and kidnaps Sir Julian, then poses as him at the Clarksons, where he meets Hilda a few hours before she is to leave.
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Red Morning
🇵🇬 Papua New GuineaA captain's daughter become marooned on an island after the ship is taken over by a mutinous crew.
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His Royal Highness
🇦🇺 AustraliaHis Royal Highness is a 1932 Australian musical film directed by F.W. Thring, also known as His Loyal Highness (Australia alternative title and title in the United Kingdom), starring George Wallace in his feature film debut.
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Pagan Moon
South Pacific - GeneralOn a tropical island, a native boy sings "Pagan Moon" to his sweetheart. Later, he plays music underwater with an octopus-pianist and other jazz-loving sea life.
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Tabu
South Pacific - GeneralThe youngsters Matahi and Reri are in love with each other. The old warrior Hitu announces that Reri is to be the new chosen virgin for the gods. This means she must stay untouched, otherwise she and her lover will be killed. But Matahi abducts and escapes with her to an island ruled by the white man, where their gods would be harmless and powerless.
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Girl of the Port
🇫🇯 FijiJosie, a New York showgirl with a mind of her own and a heart of gold, finds herself stranded on the island of Fiji. While seeking a way home she is befriended by a local man who gets her a job working as a barmaid at The Bamboo Bar. There she meets an alcoholic World War I veteran who is haunted by his wartime experiences and has an irrational fear of fire. Under her concerned care, he begins to recover and they fall in love. But then her jealous self-appointed boyfriend forces the veteran to participate in a traditional Fijian fire-walking ritual. To overcome his terror he must walk across 20 feet of burning coals and fight his rival to reach Josie's loving arms.
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South Sea Rose
South Pacific - GeneralA French girl raised in the south seas is brought to prim and proper New England by her New England born and bred sea captain husband. She wears short skirts and shocks the puritanical New Englanders in her new home with her wild candid ways...
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Under The Southern Cross
🇳🇿 New ZealandNeither tribal custom, danger nor the sacred ban of 'tapu' could overcome the strength of his love. — Under the Southern Cross also known as The Devil's Pit or Taranga, is a 1929 American drama film set in New Zealand, directed by Lew Collins for Universal Studios, who also wrote the screenplay. Originally titled Taranga by the original director Alexander Markey, but was completed by Collins and released as Under the Southern Cross in 1929, then with the introduction of sound was given a soundtrack and retitled The Devil’s Pit in 1930. The film was shot on White Island, which has an active volcano. It is one of four films (with Down on the Farm, Hei Tiki and On the Friendly Road) which lay claim to be the first "New Zealand talkie", although dubious as the sound was added to the 1930 release in the United States. Only fragments of out-takes are left. The film probably has no connection with the 1927 British film of the same name, directed by Gustav Pauli.
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The Birth of White Australia
New South Wales The 1860s The 18th CenturyAn early Australian silent film depicting historical events on the Young district goldfields, then known as Lambing Flat. During the gold rush of 1861, tensions between Australian miners and immigrant Chinese led to rioting, with Chinese miners attacked and driven from the diggings. The film portrays these events as being the genesis - or birth - of the White Australia policy, a significant political issue of the day.
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For the Term of His Natural Life
Tasmania The 19th CenturyA convict, wrongfully accused and sent a harsh prison colony, attempts to escape.
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Under the Southern Cross
🇳🇿 New ZealandThe rural love story of young English migrant David Bryne and Hazel Carlisle, who manages a Hawke's Bay sheep farm with her brother.
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Moana
🇼🇸 SamoaRobert J. Flaherty's South Seas follow-up to Nanook of the North is a Gauguin idyll moved by "pride of beauty... pride of strength."
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Adventure
🇸🇧 Solomon IslandsDavid Sheldon owns a plantation in the Solomon Islands. Many of his field hands die of blackwater fever, and then he becomes sick himself. Joan Lackland, a female soldier of fortune, arrives by schooner in the islands. With the help of her Kanaka crew, she protects David from an attack by the natives who are led by Googomy. Joan nurses David back to health and becomes his business partner, protecting his mortgaged property from two avaricious moneylenders. Seeking vengeance, the moneylenders incite the natives to revolt.
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Pearls and Savages
🇵🇬 Papua New Guinea The 1920sFrank Hurley (1885-1962) was firmly established by 1925 as Australia's most famous photographer. After World War 1, having filled the position as the first official photographer of the Australian war effort, Hurley became interested in Papua New Guinea. In December 1920, he left Australia to record the work of Anglican missions in Papua and to make "travelogue entertainment". The result was this documentary, "Pearls and Savages" which was released in Sydney, in December 1921.
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Hinemoa
🇳🇿 New ZealandThe film told the Māori legend of Hinemoa and Tutanekai. It is the first dramatic feature film produced in New Zealand.
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For the Term of His Natural Life
🇦🇺 Australia The 19th CenturyAdaptation of a classic Australian novel about life as a convict, this was the third feature film produced in Australian history. It is now considered lost.
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Eureka Stockade
🇦🇺 Australia The 19th CenturyThe surviving seven-minute fragment (original length unknown) shows street scenes of Ballarat is believed to be part of the 1907 film, the second feature film made in Australia (after the 1906 production, The Story of the Kelly Gang). Other scenes in the lost reels of the film were believed to have included gold seekers leaving London; the issuing of licences; the rush at Canadian gully; the arrival of the first women at the goldfields; licence hunting; diggers chained to logs and rescued by mates; the murder of Scobie; diggers burning Bentley's Hotel; the Rebellion; Peter Lalor addressing the miners; burning the licenses; building the stockade; troops storming the stockade; the stockade in ruins; and a look at Ballarat 55 years later
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The Story of the Kelly Gang
🇦🇺 Australia The 19th CenturyThe Most Sensational, The Most Thrilling and Interesting LIVING PICTURES EVER TAKEN. — Just as Fritz Lang’s Metropolis (1927) is testimony to German silent film art, The Story of the Kelly Gang (1906) symbolises both the birth of the Australian film industry and the emergence of an Australian identity. Even more significantly it heralds the emergence of the feature film format. The Story of the Kelly Gang, directed by Charles Tait in 1906, is the first full-length narrative feature film produced anywhere in the world. Only fragments of the original production of more than one hour are known to exist and are preserved at the National Film and Sound Archive, Canberra. (unesco.org)
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Royal Visit of the Duke and Duchess of Cornwall and York to New Zealand
🇳🇿 New Zealand The 1900sThe Duke and Duchess of Cornwall and York travelled to New Zealand in 1901 to thank New Zealanders for their contribution to the Boer War. Only a short fragment remains of a much longer film.
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Inauguration of the Commonwealth
New South Wales The 1900sThis clip shows part of the official parade for the Inauguration of the Commonwealth on 1 January 1901 as it passes through the temporary gate built especially for the occasion in Hyde Park, Sydney.
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The Departure of the Second Contingent for the Boer War
🇳🇿 New Zealand The 1900sNew Zealand's oldest surviving film shows a troop of horsemen from the Boer War Second Contingent in camp at one of the open days held before their departure at Newtown Park, Wellington, likely 13 January 1900. (https://ngataonga.org.nz/)
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Wolf Creek 3
Western AustraliaThere will be blood. — An American family takes a dream trip to the Australian outback and soon draws the attention of notorious serial killer Mick Taylor. A hellish nightmare ensues as the two children escape only to be hunted by Australia’s most infamous murderer.
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Outback Rabbis
🇦🇺 AustraliaOn a road trip like no other ultra-Orthodox Chassidic Rabbis hit the Aussie bush looking for 'lost Jews'. Leaving the comfort of Melbourne Jewish life, two Rabbis and their families are heading into the heart of Australia on a journey filled with surprising and emotional encounters with Aussie outback characters and laced with Jewish wit, music and culture.
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The Last Trackers of the Outback
🇦🇺 AustraliaFor millenniums, Aborigines used tracking to survive. Their ancient skills now help police capture murderers and save people's lives. Will modern technology replace an art based on the intimate bond between man and nature?
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The Unknown Man
🇦🇺 AustraliaTwo men who meet on a plane and strike up a conversation that turns into friendship. For Henry Teague, worn down by a lifetime of physical labour and crime, this is a dream come true.
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