Movies by Colin Friels

Dark City
A man struggles with memories of his past, including a wife he cannot remember, in a nightmarish world with no sun and run by beings with telekinetic powers who seek the souls of humans.

Darkman
Dr. Peyton Westlake is on the verge of realizing a major breakthrough in synthetic skin when his laboratory is destroyed by gangsters. Having been burned beyond recognition and forever altered by an experimental medical procedure, Westlake becomes known as Darkman, assuming alternate identities in his quest for revenge and a new life with a former love.

Angel Baby
Two schizophrenics meet during therapy and fall in love. Unfortunately they are on a road to nowhere...

The Farm
After the death of his father, Tom Cooper want to modernise the family farm, and borrows a lot of money. When disaster strikes, the loan cannot be repaid.

Australia: Land of Parrots
Discover the beauty, brilliance and behaviour of Australia's most conspicuous birds - parrots and cockatoos in Australia: Land of Parrots. Multi-award winning, natural history filmmakers David Parer and Elizabeth Parer-Cook have turned their cameras to the sky to capture the spirit of these dazzling birds with breathtaking results - including rare and never before seen footage - all shot in HD.

Mabo
The remarkable life story of Eddie 'Koiki' Mabo; a Torres Strait Islander who left school at the age of 15, yet spearheaded the High Court challenge that overthrew the fiction of terra nullius.

BlackJack
Jack Kempson started out as an idealistic cop. Thirty years on, he remains relentless in tracking down villains, but has lost confidence in his moral barometer. He turns a blind eye to the dubious methods employed by some of his contemporaries — prepared to let dodgy means be justified by the noble end.

Black and White
Australia, 1958. When a nine year old white girl is found murdered, police are quick to arrest illiterate Aborigine, Max Stuart. Under interrogation Max admits to the killing. With a legal system compromised by intimidation tactics, the skills of his two gifted but naïve defense lawyers are put to the test.

Weekend with Kate
This breezy sex comedy follows ex-journalist turned rock promoter Richard Muir (Colin Friel), who is pulled in two different directions by the women in his life -- his vivacious wife, Catherine (Catherine McClements), who wants to have a baby -- and Carla (Helen Mutkins), his ambitious mistress, who wants to have Richard.

Mr. Reliable
All Wally Mellish, an ex-convict in 1960s Australia, wants to do is live a quiet life with his girlfriend Beryl. Unfortunately when two police officers come around to disturb this, a misunderstanding quickly becomes out of control, resulting Wally, Beryl and her child being trapped in their house, surrounded by armed police under the impression that Wally is holding everyone hostage. Events quickly spiral into a media circus as, through the siege, Wally - inadvertently - manages to become a symbol for the anti-war movement.

The Turning
Seventeen talented Australian directors from diverse artistic disciplines each create a chapter of the hauntingly beautiful novel by multi award-winning author Tim Winton. The linking and overlapping stories explore the extraordinary turning points in ordinary people’s lives in a stunning portrait of a small coastal community. As characters face second thoughts and regret, relationships irretrievably alter, resolves are made or broken, and lives change direction forever.
Max's Dreaming
A hospitalized amnesiac boy, victim of an abduction gone wrong, brings police detective Mark Bryce (Friels) and nurse Rose (Picot) together. Both have 'baggage' -- she a recently widowed and somewhat demented father, George (Myles), living at home; Mark a divorce with only part-time access to his two children, plus a demanding and increasingly frustrating job. Over the next 24 hours the lives of this pair intersect as they each try to coax some memories from the boy (named 'Max' by Mark), while George struggles with his failing mental capaci...

The Coolangatta Gold
Steve Lucas is a nineteen year old who is filled with the burning resentment of being forced to live in his brother's shadow. His brother Adam, is burdened by his father's desire for glory, and must win The Coolangatta Gold Tri-Aquathon, It is the greatest endurance test of them all: a marathon involving a 20 kilometer beach run, 6 kilometer swim and a 17 kilometer surf ski from Surfers Paradise along the golden arc of beach to Coolangatta and back to the start. The Coolangatta Gold is a story of human endeavor and endurance against overwhel...

The Man in the Iron Mask
Teenage boy from a small village learns that he is in fact the secret twin brother of the current corrupt king of France. The four musketeers ask him to replace the king, but in a way that no one finds out about the switch. Burbank Films Australia animated release.

BlackJack: Dead Memory
A young woman goes missing when her car breaks down one rainy night. Her body is later discovered in a national park and for Detective Jack Kempson's offsider Sam, details of the crime mirror the disappearance of her friend Hannah, who vanished without trace some years ago. In Kempson's pursuit of the truth Sam is forced to face the sordid secrets of her past.

BlackJack: Ghosts
Nearly 20 years ago a young mother was shot during an apparent kidnapping and subsequent police chase. Now after all that time, the man in jail for the murder is about to be paroled. Jack has two missions - to bring the father and his daughter back together and to find out if any justice has been done by the conviction.

BlackJack: At the Gates
Ten years ago, a baby was killed in a house arson fire after a violent home invasion. The parents used the tragedy as a motivation to help build an evangelical community church but now the mother has comes to Jack for help. Jack agrees to look into the still unsolved crime but in looking for the truth Jack will have to fight the system and his own conscience to uncover a tangled web of lies and deception. In the end, Jack must decide if the truth should prevail over the interests of the innocent.