DOCUMENTARIES
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AQUARIUS
Palace Byron Bay + Nimbin Bush Theatre
In May 1973, 10,000 artists, activists, hippies, radical students, gurus and visionaries descended on a small dairy town for 10 days of social and cultural exploration that changed a generation. Those 10 days birthed an irrepressible movement that may have been the much-needed blueprint for sustainable change.
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AGENT OF HAPPINESS
Brunswick Picture House
An agent from Bhutan's Ministry of Gross National Happiness traverses the country annually to assess happiness levels, guiding government policy but also seeking his own contentment.
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ART & LIFE: The Jim Phillips Story
Lennox Head Cultural Centre
A pioneer of graphic art, Jim Phillips, known for his bold and visceral imagery, has left an indelible mark on the world of rock posters, surf, and skateboard art. Drawing inspiration from his life in Santa Cruz, California,
Jim's journey from publishing his first artwork in Surfer Quarterly in 1962 to becoming the art director for Santa Cruz Skateboards, shaped the golden era of skateboarding.
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BLAK DOUGLAS VS THE COMMONWEALTH
Lennox Head Cultural Centre
Before winning the coveted Archibald Prize in 2022, Dhungatti artist Blak Douglas collaborated with filmmakers to document the preparation of his most emotionally charged work, a portrait of his Indigenous grandmother, revealed at the National Gallery of Australia’s Indigenous Art Triennial: Defying Empire.
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FUNGI: WEB OF LIFE
Palace Byron Bay
All life on Earth is connected by a great mystery we are only just beginning to unravel. Hidden between the world of plants and animals, another world exists…Fungi: Web of Life. We’ll begin in the mysterious world of the forest floor, where fungi are the central players in nature’s story of birth, death, and rebirth to discover that life as we know it simply would not exist without them.
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FUTURE COUNCIL
Palace Byron Bay + Lennox Head Cultural Centre
Director Damon Gameau (2040, THAT SUGAR FILM) invites eight children on an epic adventure across Europe in a school bus powered by biofuel. Their mission is to better understand the planet’s predicament, explore solutions and, most importantly, take the conversation from the streets, into the boardrooms of some of the world’s largest polluters and most influential companies.
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IMPACT
Brunswick Picture House
The powerful story of two skydivers, Mark Lucchiari and Ben Lucock, and their journey to recovery after a near-fatal accident.
Both Mark and Ben were experienced jumpers, but their lives changed forever when they collided in freefall during a jump in Byron Bay.
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PORCELAIN WAR
Palace Byron Bay
Amidst the chaos and destruction of the brutal Russian invasion of Ukraine, three artists defiantly find inspiration and beauty as they defend their culture and their country.
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SOUNDTRACK TO A COUP D'ETAT
Palace Byron Bay
Jazz and decolonization are entwined in this forgotten episode of the Cold War, where the greatest musicians stepped onto the political stage, and downtrodden politicians lent their voices as inadvertent lead singers.
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THE LIFE & DEATH OF WESTERLY WINDINA
Palace Byron Bay + Brunswick Picture House
In 2008, years after nearly drowning in a traumatic and life-changing surfing accident, Drouyn suddenly resurfaced by coming out as a trans woman on national television. Her new name, she said, was Westerly Windina. “It was a supernova,” Westerly said of her gender awakening. “It just kicked in one night, and suddenly Peter went; Westerly was there.”
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THE MOST AUSTRALIAN BAND EVER
Palace Byron Bay
Three migrant school kids (Korean, Sri Lankan and Croatian) form a band in the '80s. They fight racism and the music industry to take their Aussie punk music to the world. The Hard-Ons become the biggest independent Australian band of their time and blaze a trail overseas for other bands to follow.
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THE POOL
Palace Byron Bay + Palace Ballina Fair
Icebergs is at once a meeting place, a resting place, a workout place and a place of romance and ritual. We come to understand that for those who seek it out, and return, it is a symbol of inclusivity, healing and resilience. THE POOL is a stunning cinematic experience with a soundtrack that harks back to the 1960s and a cast of characters who each have a story to tell; breezy, heart-warming, funny and poignant.
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Unlikely Allies
Palace Byron Bay
In 2003, a low-level cannabis case would end Weldon Angelos’ budding and promising career in the music industry. But it would also give birth to a national movement to reform our country’s criminal justice system, uniting far right conservatives like billionaire Charles Koch and Senator Mike Lee (R-UT) with liberals such as Senator Corey Booker, Van Jones and musicians Alicia Keys, and Snoop Dogg.
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Walkabout: The Songlines of Surfing
Palace Byron Bay
Two decades after their original adventure together, Robbie and Arnaud are set to meet up again. Arnaud surprises Robbie at the National Aboriginal Surfing Championships at Bells Beach and together, they embark on a new road trip, in search of waves, community and connection to Country.
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Washed Away
Lennox Head Cultural Centre
The untold stories of Australia’s worst flood, focusing on the strength of communities left to rebuild on their own. Against overwhelming devastation, the film highlights how neighbours banded together, with no choice but to fight for survival and recovery.
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WILDING
Palace Byron Bay, Palace Ballina Fair + Brunswick Picture House
Based on Isabella Tree’s best-selling book by the same title, Wilding tells the story of a young couple that bets on nature for the future of their failing, four-hundred-year-old estate. It is the beginning of a grand experiment that will become one of the most significant rewilding experiments in Europe.
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WING SUIT FLYERS
Brunswick Picture House
The quest to fly like a bird, unaided by machine has captured the imagination of humankind as long as we have been gazing upon the world’s natural flyers. Wingsuit flight provides us with the chance to experience what it would be like to fly like a bird.
Screens with Impact
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YOU SHOULD HAVE BEEN HERE YESTERDAY
Palace Byron Bay + Lennox Head Cultural Centre
You Should Have Been Here Yesterday combines hundreds of hours of lovingly-restored 16mm footage – uncovered in the garages and dusty cupboards of our original surf filmmakers – with a salt-infused soundscape by Headland and wisdoms from Australian Surfing’s Gurus, Outsider Artists and Intuitives.