Phillip Crawford

Forty years ago, Wollongong’s Jobs for Women Campaign, with director Robynne Murphy among its leaders, took on Australia’s most powerful company BHP – and won. But when the 1980s steel slump devastated the city’s economy, the women were forced into the courtroom. Their struggle plays out against a background of societal changes: from anti-discrimination legislation, to the shifting roles of women in the home and workforce (particularly complex in Wollongong’s migrant, non-English speaking households). This fascinating account of the largely forgotten history of Australia’s Steel City was crafted over decades with support from local community volunteers and over 500 donors.   

Forty years ago, Wollongong’s Jobs for Women Campaign, with director Robynne Murphy among its leaders, took on Australia’s most powerful company BHP – and won. But when the 1980s steel slump devastated the city’s economy, the women were forced into the courtroom. Their struggle plays out against a background of societal changes: from anti-discrimination legislation, to the shifting roles of women in the home and workforce (particularly complex in Wollongong’s migrant, non-English speaking households). This fascinating account of the largely forgotten history of Australia’s Steel City was crafted over decades with support from local community volunteers and over 500 donors.   

Made with a message of hope, Rites of Passage is a raw, uncensored and honest film inspired by the life experiences of the young people involved in the making of this powerful feature-length drama. Six interwoven stories show these teenagers negotiating the dangers and discoveries of their age and because the cast were also the crew what emerges is a self portrait of resilient kids responding to the challenges surrounding them. They might live in public housing and come from families that have seen disadvantage and hardship. But with frankness and courage, these young people have dipped below the surface of their often tough exteriors to reveal what’s going on inside their lives.

Made collaboratively with children from public housing areas in the Illawarra on the south coast of New South Wales, Protection uses a unique blend of film and animation to tell stories about childhood - inspired by the lives and experiences of the film's adventurous and often hilarious young cast.