Two social workers reach breaking point with the heartless welfare system which treats destitute children as criminals. Reaching out to these children means entering into the world of drain kids, pinball parlour pimps, graffiti gangs, the 14-year-old dealers and their 12-year-old customers. It's an exhausting and sometimes dangerous occupation but they care about the kids with a passion and the successes make it all worthwhile.
Phoenix is an Australian police drama television series. Phoenix screened as two thirteen-part series on Australian Broadcasting Corporation in 1992 and 1993.
The first series of Phoenix in 1992 recounted the investigation of the bombing of the Victorian state police headquarters, loosely based on a real case in the mid-1980s, the Russell Street Bombing. It was aided by extensive research into police techniques and was lauded as one of the most realistic depictions of police investigation techniques, including both surveillance and forensics, as well as having an involving storyline.
The series was notable for its dark visual tone and for its no-holds-barred attitude to violence and language.
It spawned a second thirteen-part series, Phoenix II, in 1993 as well as a spin-off series, Janus, in 1994 devoted to the machinations of court cases.
The series was created and produced by Tony McDonald and Alison Nisselle and screened by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.
The ABC have released Series 1 and 2 on DVD as a 4 DVD box set.
Set in the summer of 1910 in Australia the film follows the story of 14 year old Alan Marshall (Alexander Outhread) as he stumbles out of childhood towards the exciting yet forbidding world of adulthood. For Alan, despite the effects of polio, there is only one passion in life - to become a great horseman just like his hero, the reclusive horse trainer East Driscoll (Russell Crowe). Alan is one of East's few friends and also one of the few who knows about the affair between East and the aristocratic English woman Grace McAlister (Charlotte Rampling). Things inevitably take a turn towards the tragic when East becomes determined to force Grace to leave her husband and run away with him. Hammers Over The Anvil is an evocative coming of age film from Australian director Ann Turner.
