Curtis Levy

The President Versus David Hicks

A documentary about the "Australian Taliban", David Hicks. The film follows the struggles of David's father, Terry Hicks, as he tries to free his son from the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay. Terry Hicks travels the world, locking himself in a cage on street corners in major cities as a demonstration of the harsh conditions his son is unjustly suffering under. At the same time, the movie traces David Hicks' path through Pakistan and Afghanistan, where he eventually joined the Taliban.

Hephzibah

The story of Hephzibah Menuhin is as rich as a novel by Henry James. A child prodigy like her violinist brother, Yehudi, she toured the world giving piano concerts from an early age.

Riding the Tiger

In just 50 years, Indonesia has gone from being a Dutch colony to a fiercely proud nation which is the most powerful in Southeast Asia. This series reveals what lies behind the momentous social changes which took place in this country in the 20th century.

Ghan to Alice

A father and son, both rodeo riders, travel by train from Marree in South Australia to the Alice Springs Rodeo, in the Northern Territory. They travel on a unique railway - The Ghan - which runs through the heart of Australia. It's an overnight trip through spectacular country, pausing briefly at towns along the way, as the men look forward to their final destination, a bull-riding contest between the best rough-riders in the region.

Ghan to Alice

A father and son, both rodeo riders, travel by train from Marree in South Australia to the Alice Springs Rodeo, in the Northern Territory. They travel on a unique railway - The Ghan - which runs through the heart of Australia. It's an overnight trip through spectacular country, pausing briefly at towns along the way, as the men look forward to their final destination, a bull-riding contest between the best rough-riders in the region.

Sons of Namatjira

One of Curtis Levy’s finest documentaries, Sons of Namatjira, follows Keith and his wife, Isabel, and other relatives, in their interactions with the wider world including art galleries in town and bus-loads of middle-aged tourists from the big cities. The film highlights communication difficulties between black and white, and in Levy’s terms, becomes “a parable of black-white relations in Australia”.

Mourning For Mangatopi

Because of work commitments and the influence of Christian Missions, traditional mourning ceremonies among the Tiwi people of Melville Island were becoming rare at the time of making this film (1974). The full, elaborate ceremony, called the Pukumani ceremony, lasted several days and involved large numbers of people in ritual roles. It was performed here with full awareness that this may be one of the last times such a ceremony would be staged in the traditional way. The ceremony was prepared by the Mangatopi family of Snake Bay after the death of a 35-year old family member killed by his wife. The dead man’s father, Geoffrey Mangatopi, and his family requested this film to be made as a public record of a disappearing tradition. Unique to the Tiwi people of Melville and Bathurst islands, the Pukumani ceremony was not only performed to safe-guard the passage of the dead person into the spirit world, but to re-affirm kinship relationships and traditional Tiwi culture.

Lurugu

"Lurugu" is the name of an initiation ceremony that had almost died out on Mornington Island after mission contact during World War One. This film records the community's efforts to revive the ceremony after a lapse of 14 years.