Tom E. Lewis

The Skin of Others

A compelling portrait of an extraordinary figure, Aboriginal WWI soldier Douglas Grant, featuring acclaimed Indigenous actor Balang Tom E. Lewis (in his final performance). Grant (c.1885-1951) was extraordinarily famous in his day, an intellectual, a journalist, a soldier, a reader of Shakespeare and a bagpipe player who could put on a fine Scottish accent. His life story connects Archduke Franz Ferdinand, Adolf Hitler, and Henry Lawson among other famous figures as he moved from Australia to Europe, UK and back. Lewis’s thoughtful and often playful reflections on Grant’s life, along with guest appearances from Max Cullen and Archie Roach, connect to the larger story of Australia’s tragic colonial history and its troubled relationship with First Australians.  

Australia: The Wild Top End

Narrated by Indigenous elder Balang T E Lewis, this inspiring documentary will take you on an adventure to explore the culture and wildlife of Australia’s remote wild north. Far Northern Australia is a land of extremes, from bushfires to torrential floods. Explore the wildlife and meet the people in Australia’s wild top end, from the Kimberley coast through the mysterious Arnhem Land, and deep into the world’s oldest rainforest in Cape York.

Finding Maawirrangga

Tom E Lewis knows he must die with all of his Songs. After years of haunting silence, he returns to his Grandmothers’ country to seek the permission of the Jungayi (Lawmen) to learn Thumbul corroboree (Morning Star). With the family’s blessing through ceremony, the spirits, stars and ancestors help Tom prepare to find the mysterious Sandy Island of Maawirrangga by singing.

Goldstone

Indigenous Detective Jay Swan arrives in the frontier town of Goldstone on a missing persons inquiry. What seems like a simple investigation unearths an intricate web of crime, corruption, human trafficking, and coordinated exploitation of indigenous people’s land. Jay must bury his differences with young local cop Josh, so together they can bring justice to Goldstone.

Red Hill

Young police officer Shane Cooper's first day on duty, after relocating to the small town of Red Hill, rapidly turns into a nightmare. News of a prison break, involving convicted murderer Jimmy Conway, sends the local law enforcement officers - led by the town's ruling presence, Old Bill - into a panic and leads to a terrifying and bloody confrontation.

September

The friendship of two 15-year-old boys – one black, one white – begins to fall apart under the stress of a changing world.

Crocodile Dreaming

Crocodile Dreaming is a modern day supernatural myth about two estranged brothers, played by iconic Indigenous actors David Gulpill and Tom E. Lewis. Separated at birth, they have different fathers. One is readily accepted as a full-fledged member of the tribe and is looked on to fulfill the duties of jungaiy, an important ceremonial role which obliges him to be caretaker for his mother's dreaming, the crocodile totem. The other, whose father was white, is younger and has had to struggle to fit into the tribe who see him only as a yella fella.

The Proposition

In 1880s Australia, a lawman offers renegade Charlie Burns a difficult choice. In order to save his younger brother from the gallows, Charlie must hunt down and kill his older brother, who is wanted for rape and murder. Venturing into one of the Outback's most inhospitable regions, Charlie faces a terrible moral dilemma that can end only in violence.

Yellow Fella

In 1978, Tom Lewis appeared in the Australian feature film, The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith. The life of the character he played was hauntingly close to his own, a young, restless man of mixed heritage, struggling for a foothold on the edge of two cultures. Tom's mother is a traditional Indigenous woman of southern Arnhem Land, his father a Welsh stockman who he never really knew. Yellow Fella is a journey across the land and into Tom's past, as he attempts to find the resting place of his father and to finally confront the truth of his most inner feelings of love and identity.

Kangaroo Palace

The story of four young Australians trying their luck in 1960s London.

The Life of Harry Dare

Harry Dare is a shambolic Adelaide private investigator. He’s still not certain why he’s in the business; perhaps to understand his father’s disappearance, 20 years earlier? But now Harry’s got a real case: who stole his father’s old Kombi van, nicked (oddly) just after Harry finished restoring it?

Vacant Possession

Following the death of her mother Tessa (Pamela Rabe), a young woman, returns after many years to the weather-beaten family home on the shores of Sydney's Botany Bay. But the old family home begins to bring old wounds more and more to life. The story unfolds through flashbacks yet as it progresses the flashbacks merge into the present as it becomes apparent that the situation Tessa has returned to is very much the result of that which passed before.

Touch the Sun: Top Enders

Two children get stranded in the desert in Australia's Top End.

Slate, Wyn & Me

Meandering drama of Brothers Burke and Sacks, who rob a bank, kill a cop and kidnap Thornton, a witness to their crime.

The Naked Country

Far North Queensland, 1955. Deep in the untamed frontier tough rancher Lance Dillon and his sensual, but bored wife, battle inhospitable nature to eke out a living from their cattle herd. When the aborigines kill the Dillon's prize bull a chase begins that will culminate in bloody tragedy with Lance pitted against Mandaru - an aborigine struggling to maintain his cultural way of life

Robbery Under Arms

Fourth adaptation and first made for television of the classic Australian bushranger novel "Robbery Under Arms" by Rolf Boldrewood. Made by the South Australian Film Corporation during the mini-series boom of the 1980s and lensed in the Flinders Ranges, it stars Sam Neill as the infamous Captain Starlight.

The City's Edge

In an effort to come to terms with his father's death, a young man (Weaving) moves into a rooming house amidst the decaying grandeur of Bondi Beach, where he gets enmeshed in the lives of the other boarders, including a junkie, his sister, and an Aboriginal activist.

We of the Never Never

Based on the well-loved Australian classic by Mrs. Aeneas Gunn, this is the remarkable true story of Jeannie Gunn, a woman who fought to overcome sexual and racial prejudice amid the harsh beauties of the outback. Leaving her Melbourne existence for a new life on her husband's isolated ranch, Jeannie's feisty, good-natured attitude soon wins over the misogynistic stockmen, but she faces a much tougher challenge in trying to change their racist attitudes towards the indigenous aboriginal population.

The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith

The true story of a part Aboriginal man who finds the pressure of adapting to white culture intolerable, and as a result snaps in a violent and horrific manner.