Ballarat Film Society | Journey Home
2026-07-16 19:30 - 21:00 (Australia/Melbourne) | BMI – Minerva Space, 117-119 Sturt Street, Ballarat Central, VIC, 3350
July 16
@
7:30 pm
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9:00 pm
Minerva Room
Documentary Tribute to David Guylpilil

David Gulpilil, from the Mandjalpingu (Djilba) clan of the Yolngu people, was discovered by a visiting British film-maker and recruited into the world of film. Adventurous, talented, intelligent and ambitious, he became one of Australia’s best-known and charismatic actors.
Following Walkabout (1971), Gulpilil’s acting career spanned over 40 films, including classics such as The Tracker (2002), Rabbit-Proof Fence (2001), Ten Canoes (2006), and My Name is Gulpilil (2021); international attention soared with his role in Crocodile Dundee (1986). Gulpilil spent over 50 years of his life bringing authentic Indigenous stories, dance and music to audiences around the world, culminating in a collaboration with Rolf de Heer and Molly Reynolds on My Name Is Gulpilil (2021) which showed him looking back over a life of extreme highs and lows.
While dying of lung cancer, Gulpilil made his final wishes known – he not only wanted his body to be repatriated to his homeland Gupulul, a remote location in East Arnhem Land on Yolngu Country, but for the funeral to be captured on film – a final act of cultural sharing. The film crew chronicled an extraordinary journey across more than 3000 kilometers before recording the funeral ceremony, or Bäpurru, that was both traditional and unique. It was a collective act of farewell that will be remembered for generations to come. Madman.

Australia, 2025, 88 min. Dir: Maggie Miles and Trisha Morton-Thomas. Narrated by Baker Boy and Hugh Jackman
Ballarat Film Society

Membership
12 months – Feb-December: $60Feb-July: $35 – July-Dec: $30
To join or renew your membership, please e-mail or phone Angus McLachlan (5374 2474), or come with cash on the night.
Membership can be paid by bank transfer or with cash.
For film enquiries, phone Sue Nunn: 5341 2266 or visit the Ballarat Film Society website
All films are subject to availability. If there is no next film shown below it means the BFS is working on next season’s programme.

Ballarat Film Society | The Blue Trail
2026-08-13 19:30 - 21:00
August 13
@
7:30 pm
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9:00 pm
Minerva Room
Brazilian Dystopian Sci-fi

The Blue Trail depicts a dystopian world, one that functions as a wry social critique rather than containing any lasting sense of terror or gloom. In a futuristic Brazil, retirement has questionable consequences. 77-year-old Tereza is hailed as a ‘national living heritage’, yet she will soon be forced to live in a colony for seniors. But Tereza has one dream: to fly on a plane before she’s shipped off and forgotten.
Embarking on a fantastical journey through the Amazon, she encounters a blue drool-discharging snail with an ability to chart a person’s destiny, a shady boat captain and a sly new friend with secrets – and lessons – of her own. The best-reviewed film of the 2025 Berlinale – where it topped Screen International’s prestigious critics’ poll – Gabriel Mascaro’s extraordinary film is a breathtaking cinematic odyssey.
“It’s remarkable how much Mascaro packs into the slender 86-minute runtime of The Blue Trail. This tale of quiet triumph knows that the best counterweight to the market’s invisible hand is to offer a caring hand into the dreams of those it leaves behind … Mascaro compassionately exhibits how a future that doesn’t make space for its past is not one worth venturing toward.” Slant Magazine. Palace Films

Brazil, 2025, 87 mins. Dir Gabriel Mascaro.
Ballarat Film Society

Membership
12 months – Feb-December: $60
Feb-July: $35 – July-Dec: $30
To join or renew your membership, please e-mail or phone Angus McLachlan (5374 2474), or come with cash on the night.
Membership can be paid by bank transfer or with cash.
For film enquiries, phone Sue Nunn: 5341 2266 or visit the Ballarat Film Society website
All films are subject to availability. If there is no next film shown below it means the BFS is working on next season’s programme.

Ballarat Film Society | Kōkā
2026-09-10 19:30 - 21:00
September 10
@
7:30 pm
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9:00 pm
Minerva Room
​Māori Roadtrip Film

The Māori celebration of New Year in July, marked by the rising of the stars in the Matariki constellation, is an occasion to mourn the deceased, celebrate the present, and prepare the ground for the coming year.
While driving the length of New Zealand from hospital on the South Island to her home on the North, Māori Elder Hamo takes on the care of Jo, a troubled young woman being evicted from a caravan park, who has lost touch with her Māori culture. They form an unlikely bond, and as they confront past traumas and demons, their journey becomes a path to healing and reconciliation, experienced through Matariki. The film won the People’s Choice Award at the Māoriland Film Festival in 2025, possibly helped by its high production values; director Kath Akuhata-Brown said that the film benefited indirectly from the recent writers and actors strikes in America. “With several overseas film productions on hold here, their crack crews were suddenly available, and keen to throw their expertise at Kōka.” (Radio NZ). Roadshow.

N.Z., 2025, 107 min. Dir: Kath Akuhata-Brown.
Ballarat Film Society

Membership
12 months – Feb-December: $60
Feb-July: $35 – July-Dec: $30
To join or renew your membership, please e-mail or phone Angus McLachlan (5374 2474), or come with cash on the night.
Membership can be paid by bank transfer or with cash.
For film enquiries, phone Sue Nunn: 5341 2266 or visit the Ballarat Film Society website
All films are subject to availability. If there is no next film shown below it means the BFS is working on next season’s programme.

Ballarat Film Society | Bound for Glory
2026-10-08 19:30 - 21:00
October 8
@
7:30 pm
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9:00 pm
Minerva Room
Dustbowl Folk Singer Elegy

Folk legend Woody Guthrie, an extraordinary hard-driving, ‘truth-telling man’ from the Oklahoma Plains, who left the American mid-west Dust Bowl in the 1930s for the promise of California and on his journey became one of America’s most noted poet-folk singers.
Guthrie, through years of travelling, penned more than 1000 songs, many in protest about injustice and inequality. He sang about historic events, migrant workers, hoboes, stories of the disenfranchised and ignored, love, and the fight against fascism. He even penned a song called “Old Man Trump” (1954) about Donald’s father, whom he accused of stirring up racism through residential segregation in his Beach Haven apartment complex.
One of his best-known songs, “This Land is Your Land” (1940), has become an alternative anthem in America. His songs have been reimagined by dozens of folk singers such as Bob Dylan, Pete Seeger, Joan Baez, Billy Bragg, and many more. Nearly 60 years after his death, an album with refined original songs Woody at Home, was released in 2025. Roadshow.

USA, 1976, 147 min. Dir: Hal Ashby (Harold and Maude, 1971). Stars: David Harradine as Woody Guthrie.
Ballarat Film Society

Membership
12 months – Feb-December: $60
Feb-July: $35 – July-Dec: $30
To join or renew your membership, please e-mail or phone Angus McLachlan (5374 2474), or come with cash on the night.
Membership can be paid by bank transfer or with cash.
For film enquiries, phone Sue Nunn: 5341 2266 or visit the Ballarat Film Society website
All films are subject to availability. If there is no next film shown below it means the BFS is working on next season’s programme.

Ballarat Film Society | Smiley Gets a Gun
2026-12-10 19:30 - 21:00
December 10
@
7:30 pm
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9:00 pm
Minerva Room
Further Adventures of Smiley

Our screening of Smiley (1956) two years ago was popular with film society members. In this sequel, Smiley is a young Aussie upstart and cheeky home-grown hero, who sets out to turn over a new leaf and become a ‘responsible citizen’ after his past misadventures.
Sergeant Flaxman (Chips Rafferty) keeps a keen eye on the rapscallion and promises to award him a brand new .22 rifle if he stays out of trouble. Smiley of course scoots around in his mad-cap daily life desperately trying to keep his word, but eventually getting accused of stealing gold from little old granny McKinley (Sybil Thorndike). Filmed over an eight week period towards the end of 1957, shooting took place at Camden and then Pagewood Studios in Sydney. Have a walk down memory lane to a time when a Christmas present for a kid could be a .22 rifle! Roadshow.

Australia, 1958, 90 min. Dir: Anthony Kimmins. Stars Keith Calvert as Smiley, Sybil Thorndike, Leonard Thiele and Ruth Cracknell in her first feature film.
Ballarat Film Society

Membership
12 months – Feb-December: $60
Feb-July: $35 – July-Dec: $30
To join or renew your membership, please e-mail or phone Angus McLachlan (5374 2474), or come with cash on the night.
Membership can be paid by bank transfer or with cash.
For film enquiries, phone Sue Nunn: 5341 2266 or visit the Ballarat Film Society website
All films are subject to availability. If there is no next film shown below it means the BFS is working on next season’s programme.
