Australia Global Health Film Festival 2023

Australia Global Health Film Festival 2023 - official programme

PDF (1.01 MB)

Second edition of the Australia Global Health Film Festival opens today

Our festival partners, the Australian Global Health Alliance have selected five films to screen over the next ten days in Melbourne, Sydney, Perth and Canberra; here's the full line-up.

Three films are available on our festival platform; this three-film collection costs £12.99, just under 25 Australian dollars.

Get your festival VOD pass here!

Here are the three films we have lined up for you:

Solstice (2022)

Directed by Helen Newman, 57 mins

When 15-year-old Mary Baker took her own life after a three-year battle with a serious mental illness, the stigma and silence that surrounds suicide compounded her family's grief and isolation.

Solstice documents the extraordinary story of Mary's parents, Annette and Stuart, as this personal tragedy propelled them into the public space to confront the challenges of mental illness and help to end the heartbreaking loneliness of those left behind when a person dies by suicide.

Stumbling on Mary's poetry after her death, her writings became Annette and Stuart's imprimatur for bravely speaking into the silence. They share their struggles and the challenges they faced as they prepared to bring a conversation around suicide into their home town's main square, through a unique collectively healing event, 'Winter Solstice'.

Unintentionally and unexpectedly they became firebrands for better mental health support and, as their determination grew, they reached out to anyone who would help them in their mission to create the change that may have saved their daughter.

Through intimate interviews, archival footage, verité events, animations and a nuanced, layered soundscape, Solstice draws together the threads of a world always shadowed by grief yet filled to the brim with determination and hope, seeking to unite, challenge and change how we respond to our collective mental health crisis now and into the future.

Watch window

Friday 20 October - Monday 23 October

Duty of Care: The Climate Trials (2022)

Directed by Nic Balthazar, 57 mins

Duty of Care tells the exclusive, inside story of Roger Cox, the first and only lawyer to have successfully sued a government and an oil giant in landmark court cases that established catastrophic climate change can be made illegal. Roger’s ground-breaking cases against the Dutch government and oil giant Royal Dutch Shell established that those in power owe a duty of care to citizens to avoid catastrophic climate change, stunning legal experts and sending shockwaves through parliaments and corporate boardrooms around the world.

With echoes of the lawsuits against Big Tobacco, this inspirational documentary gives a behind-the-scenes experience of the David versus Goliath battle as one Dutch property lawyer turned litigation maverick takes on powerful states and the world’s largest oil company in the court room drama of our lifetimes.

With interviews from experts and activists leading the wave of international climate litigations triggered by Roger’s successes, the film presents a fresh and inspiring story about, and for, future generations of climate leaders, as Lady Justice takes over where politicians and profit makers have obstructed and delayed.

Can Roger, now one of Time Magazine’s Top 100 people, and the pioneers of climate litigation succeed before it’s too late?

Watch window

Monday 23 October - Thursday 26 October

NB: NOT available in Belgium, Netherlands, Austria, Germany, Switzerland, Estonia

Erasmus in Gaza (2021)

Directed by Chiara Avesani and Matteo Delbò, 88 mins

Riccardo, a final-year medical student in Italy, is going on Erasmus: to the besieged Gaza Strip.

His friends are concerned, but he is determined as he wants to train as a trauma surgeon and is writing his thesis on explosive bullet wounds. Entering Gaza is not simple, he needs permission from three different authorities: the Israeli army, the Palestinian Authority and Hamas.

Upon arrival at the Islamic University, he is welcomed by the Chancellor and interviewed by the local and international media. Riccardo starts to feel the pressure: his experience will determine the success of the exchange programme. The threat of war doesn’t help and he starts suffering panic attacks; luckily, his new friendships with young Gazans help him handle his anxiety.

In Erasmus in Gaza we accompany Riccardo on his journey into adulthood, a journey of personal struggle that tests whether or not he truly has the strength to pursue his dreams.

Watch window

Wednesday 25 October - Saturday 28 October

NB: NOT available in France, Italy, Spain