Ronin Films (Firm)

Danila Vassilieff was a major Australian artist and personality who was also Russian - a bold cossack, from South Russia, a defender of the czar.. His fascinating life and profound humanity are the subject of a compelling and wide-ranging documentary. When individualism was 'in the air' in the 1940s, he liberated a group of younger painters - Nolan, Boyd, Tucker, Hester, Perceval and Blackman - to paint their own original visions. Vassilieff shaped...

Filmmaker Edoardo Crismani and his mother Barbara embark on a search to unravel the mystery surrounding Barbara’s father, Joe Murray, an indigenous boxing champion known as “The Black Panther” who danced and sang in vaudeville shows, and married a blue-eyed blonde white woman in 1930's Australia.. Joe never revealed where he came from and together, and to find out his background, mother and son journey across the land to libraries, and meet...

When an Australian garbage collector, Stuart Harris, takes a photo of a tiny colourful spider, he has no idea how it will change his life. An epic three-year quest follows in which Stuart discovers much more than just a spider unknown to science. A remarkable story of determination, self-discovery and the power of citizen science to reveal nature’s most extraordinary and well hidden wonders.

A refugee of 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, and he enlists the backing of numerous Australians who help him to raise funds, but his ambitious plans are challenged when life intervenes.. Official Selection at the Melbourne...

This series contains all four films in this remarkable Sri Lankan cycle:..MY MOTHER’S VILLAGE..In this journey back to the sites of his parents’ work, Aaron Burton meets people who appeared in the original films and discusses with them their perspective on the films and their lives since that time. It is also at another level a poignant reflection by the filmmaker on his mother’s research and his father’s art as photographer. (2014, 95 mins)..DANCERS...

Comedian Becky Lucas jokes about taboo subjects. When she realized her best childhood friend had suffered years of horrific domestic violence, Becky became determined to bring the subject out into the open.. Becky had suspected something might be wrong with her friend but did nothing, and still feels a deep regret that she didn't act on her suspicions and help her friend. But what does an abusive relationship even look like? How does it begin? And...

Filmed over three decades, ON RICHARD'S SIDE charts the life-story of Richard, a young man with a complex disability since birth. The film provides intimate and poignant insights into his parents’ determined quest to establish a quality life for their son and for themselves...Richard’s mum, Deirdre is now ageing and she is fiercely committed to finding an answer to the questions: who will care for Richard in the next stage of his life and what...

GIRLS' TALES: Women discuss experiences of schooling consists of three thirty-minute episodes. The documentary is a compilation of interviews in which adult women recollect the experiences and opportunities of their secondary school education.. It is a rich educational resource and a provocative discussion starter on the subject of female experiences in secondary school, and also a stimulus for student's own research. It is at once inspiring, humorous...

Now a popular tourist destination north of Perth, the Benedictine Aboriginal Mission at New Norcia in Western Australia, holds harsh memories for former Aboriginal "inmates" who were placed there during the 1920s through to the 1960s. In recent decades the New Norcia Monastery has been packaged as one of the State's leading cultural tourist attractions. "A unique blend of Spanish architecture, European art treasures and pioneer history," "Monks, Music...

These extended conversations with David and Judith MacDougall represent an invaluable archival record and convey a wealth of ideas and information relating to their experiences as a highly influential ethnographic filmmaking team.. The conversations cover their years with the Film Unit of the Australian Institute of Aboriginal Studies, Canberra, 1975-1987. During this time, the MacDougalls made a series of eleven documentary films, many of them acknowledged...