Five AFTRS productions will stream on ABC iview as part of their Celebrating NAIDOC Week collection. The program includes short films produced between 1997 and 2021, bringing together iconic First Nations filmmakers such as Catriona McKenzie and Ivan Sen, as well as recent alumni Larissa Behrendt, Tace Stevens and Nazareth Alfred.
Warm Strangers (1997), The Third Note (1999), Clan (2013), To Be Silent (2021) and Pills & Powder Milk (2021) explore themes of identity, displacement, cultural reclamation, community and connection.
Acclaimed filmmaker Ivan Sen (Mystery Road, Limbo) was the director, writer, producer and post-production supervisor of the film Warm Strangers, as part of his Bachelor of Arts: Directing program.
The film sees an unknown man stumbling through city streets as he attempts to reunite with his father, and brings to screen the early work of Ivan, already recognisable in tone, utilising harsh cinematography and an oppressive soundscape to create an ominous story world. In 2023 AFTRS partnered with ABC iview to deliver a newly restored version of Ivan’s student film.
Writer/director Catriona McKenzie directed The Third Note as part of her studies in the Master of Arts (Film & Television) (Hons) Directing program. The film tells the story of a blind woman and her neighbour as they discover a common bond after battling each other with sound.
The Third Note was awarded Best Short Film at the Festival Internazionale Cinema delle Donne (Italy) and Best New Director at the St Kilda Film Festival. The film was also a finalist at the AFI Awards and the Australian Screen Sound Guild Awards.
Catriona has worked across Australia and the US on titles including Redfern Now, Dance Academy, How to Get Away with Murder, Riverdale, The Walking Dead, Satellite Boy and Disney+ series Echo.
Larissa Behrendt’s short documentary Clan follows the life of James Saunders, an Aboriginal man who found a sense of belonging and a new “clan” by coming out and joining the Sydney Convicts Rugby Club. The film, which was produced as part of Larissa’s Graduate Diploma in Documentary studies at AFTRS, won Best Documentary at the Canberra Short Film Festival and the Shorts Film Festival in Adelaide.
Larissa Behrendt also wrote and directed the Walkley-nominated documentary Innocence Betrayed, which aired on NITV in 2014. She received the Australian Directors Guild Award in 2018 for After the Apology, the AACTA Award for Best Direction in Factual Television in 2020 for Maralinga Tjarutja, and the NSW History Award Digital History Prize in 2025 for One Mind, One Heart.
Bachelor of Arts Screen: Production film To Be Silent has screened worldwide in film festivals, including the Sydney Film Festival, Maoriland Film Festival, Adelaide Film Festival, Asinabka Film & Media Arts Festival, SXSW Sydney as part of NSW House, Melbourne Documentary Film Festival, Imagine Native, Hawai’i International Film Festival, and Cleveland International Film Festival. The film tells the story of Noongar and Spinifex woman Tace Stevens, as she explores the impact of code-switching on her identity, before revealing what led her to embrace the power of standing firm in who she is, no matter where she is.
Nazareth Alfred’s film Pills & Powder Milk addresses the nullification of culture through systemic assimilation. The film explores feelings of cultural identity loss and community erosion, calling for the rekindling of culture by reclaiming memory and story.
Pills & Powder Milk is also part of the NAIDOC Week program at Fanforce, along with three other AFTRS productions, Bringing His Spirit Home, Echoes of Dissent, and See-Saw.
Pills & Powder Milk and See-Saw, both directed by Nazareth, present different stories in genre and approach, sharing intimate and emotionally confronting themes shaped through considered camera work and performance.
See-Saw premiered at SXSW Sydney in the Bush Shorts program. The coming-of-age drama follows Jade, a Torres Strait Islander girl navigating school, home and loss. The film explores grief and healing while honouring those who came before.
Bringing His Spirit Home has been awarded Best Achievement in Indigenous Filmmaking at the St Kilda Film Festival, Best Short Film at the Red Poppy Awards, and it was recognised with Bronze in the Australian Cinematographers’ Society NSW Awards in the Documentary category and received an honourable mention from the jury for the Flickerfest Special Jury Award for Documentary Short Film. The film premiered at the 2025 Sydney Film Festival, where it was shortlisted for the First Nations Award.
The documentary follows Gomeroi man William Allan Irwin DCM, a First Nations soldier who served in World War I. Through family history, community voices and creative storytelling, the film highlights the contribution of First Nations servicemen. Its story has since extended through ABC Compass with Yaluu (See You Again).
Also directed by Dylan Nicholls, Master of Arts Screen: Documentary Echoes of Dissent premiered at Flickerfest International Short Film Festival. The film has also screened at ACMI as part of the Blaktivism is Film program earlier in the year, and at the Museum of Contemporary Art Australia as part of their NAIDOC week program in 2025.
The film brings to the screen the story of Anthony Martin Fernando, who took his protests for justice abroad to Europe. His warnings are guided by law, by memory, and by spirit carried from home. Director Dylan Nicholl’s decision to re-embody the man through his own father re-knits that story back into community.
Across the Fanforce program, these films explore grief and cultural continuity through intimate storytelling. Personal journeys intersect with collective histories, highlighting First Nations voices, resilience and memory, and the ongoing connection between family, community and storytelling across generations.
Last year, Nazareth and Dylan shared their thoughts on their filmmaking process and the films they produced while studying at AFTS, in the context of the 2025 NAIDOC theme ‘The Next Generation: Strength, Vision & Legacy’. Read more about the vision and filmmakers behind the films: Nazareth Alfred, Dylan Nicholls.
Watch the Celebrating NAIDOC Week collection on ABC iview here.
Watch the Fanforce NAIDOC week program here.
CREDITS
Clan
James Saunders is an Australian Aboriginal man who was told at boarding school he was not clever enough to go to University. He lived in the Aboriginal community where there is ‘men’s business’ and ‘women’s business’, James overcame doubts about coming out and joined the Convicts Rugby team, winning three Bingham Cups with them. James has become a role model for young, gay Aboriginal people. ‘Clan’ details the journey of James’ remarkable life in his own words.
Writer/Director – Larissa Behrendt
Producer – Sophie Wiesner
Cinematographer – Tom Jefferson
Sound Recordist – Gareth Evans
Sound Mixer – Geir Brillian Gunnarson
Sound Designer – Ned McPhie
Production Designer – Ella Carey
Editor – Florence Holmes
Music – Ned McPhie
Bringing His Spirit Home
Peter’s great-uncle, an Aboriginal WWI soldier, is buried far away from his family and traditional lands. With a cultural belief that his ancestor’s spirit won’t be at rest until he returns home, Peter travels to France to visit his grave, performing a traditional ceremony to bring his spirit home.
Director/Producer – Dylan Nicholls
Producer – Sophia Carolyn Wallace
Cinematographer – T. Oxford
Composer – Genevieve Patrick
Editor – Jack Charter
Sound Supervisor – Ivan Ordenes
Key Participants – Peter Milliken, Joe Flick, Marie-Paule Bonte, Jon Haslock, Lola Forester, Logan Dehan, Jeremy Page, Patricia D’Heilly, Uncle Mervyn Allen, Martine Ricard, Mark Atkins, Daniel Arthur
Echoes of Dissent
Echoes of Dissent attempts to piece together the tragic life story of Anthony Martin Fernando, an Aboriginal man who protested Indigenous rights over a century ago in Europe. By enlisting his father to re-enact Fernando’s famous protests, the film’s director uncovers just how prophetic Fernando’s protests would become.
Director/Producer – Dylan Nicholls
Producer – Luke Hodge
Cinematographer – Tim Oxford
Editor – Jack Charter
Composer – Robert Hislop
Sound Supervisor – Liam Dennis
Production Designer – Jordan Taylor
Pills & Powder Milk
An indigenous woman discovers her trauma and realises her triggers. Pills & Powder Milk is a hybrid drama of poetic and participatory documentary. It is about a Torres Strait Islander woman, who uncovers her childhood memories and simultaneously discover her trauma and realises her triggers.
Writer/Director – Nazareth Alfred
Producers – Nazareth Alfred and Ricky James
Cinematographers – Anith Mukherjee and Antony Zhang
Production Designer – Roberto Manzani
Editor – Izzat Nadeem
Sound Designer – Nazareth Alfred
See-Saw
After a year of multiple deaths and family visits to the hospital, all Jade wants to go to the Gold Coast and celebrate the last week of high school to party with her friends. Jade struggles with grief and identity, but her family is not making it easy for her.
Writer/Director – Nazareth Alfred
Producers – Travis Wesley and Nazareth Alfred
Cinematographer – Luke Torrevillas
Production Designer – Sally Brown
Composer – Robert Hislop
Editor – Jem Batley
Sound Supervisor – Ivan Ordenes and Nathan Turnbull
The Third Note
A blind woman and her neighbour discover a common bond after battling each other with sound.
Director – Catriona McKenzie
Writer – Lynne Vincent McCarthy
Producer – Priscilla Collins
Director of photography – Mark Lapwood
Sound designer – Paul Miskin
Sound recordist – Chris Beech
Sound mixer – Gethin Creagh
Production designer – Lea Lennon
Editor – Thom Corcoran
Music score – Anthony Linden Jones
To Be Silent
Noongar and Spinifex woman Tace Stevens explores the impact of code-switching on her identity, before revealing what led her to embrace the power of standing firm in who she is, no matter where she is.
Writer/Director – Tace Stevens
Producer – Skye Leon
Cinematographer – Maddie Green
Production Designer – Reilly O’Loughlin
Costume Designer – Nazareth Alfred
Editor – Jasmine Stokes
Sound Supervisor – Raquel Cuevas
Sound Designer – Jess Flanagan
Composer – Lena Matienko
Animator – Elyse Landsberry
Warm Strangers
The last moments in the life of Jess, a young Aboriginal man. Fatally wounded, he attempts to reunite with his father whom he has not seen for fifteen years.
Writer/Director – Ivan Sen
Producer – Melanie Coombs
Director of photography – Allan Collins
Sound designer – Kuji Jenkins
Production designer – Matthew Puttland
Editor – Nancy Wu
