Banjima Elder Maitland Parker calls his yurlu (homeland) in the Pilbara region of Western Australia “poison country”; this haunting truth is etched into his body as he lives with terminal mesothelioma, an aggressive cancer resulting from asbestos exposure. Six decades prior, the Wittenoom mines left behind more than three million tonnes of waste rock laced with deadly asbestos fibres, turning 46,840 hectares of Banjima Country – an area three times the size of Geneva city – into a toxic exclusion zone. Today, Aboriginal communities in Western Australia have the world’s highest mortality rate from mesothelioma. Yurlu | Country follows Maitland as he confronts government inaction and corporate greed in the hope of allowing his people to reconnect with and heal their ancestral lands. Directed by two-time UN Media Peace Award and five-time Walkley Award winner Yaara Bou Melhem, who worked closely with Parker and his family, this powerful documentary bears witness to Australia’s Chernobyl. Director: YAARA BOU MELHEM | Producer: YAARA BOU MELHEM Co-Producers: TOM BANNIGAN & JAMES SAUNDERS

Circus was once the world’s grandest entertainment and the Colleano Family reached the highest echelons of circus stardom. When the Colleanos reunite they reveal family secrets and showbiz lives that intersect with iconic moments in history. As the Colleanos rise to international stardom, they also conceal their Australian Aboriginal identity to keep their family together. Through the family’s remarkable home movies and never-before-seen footage, their extraordinary story comes to life. Director/Writer: PAULINE CLAGUE | Producer: KATE PAPPAS

In Mongolia’s coldest valley, horses mean life. But in the Iron Winter, nothing can survive alone. For countless generations, the herders of the Tsakhir Valley have protected their horses from ferocious arctic storms by amassing a giant winter herd, nominating their bravest young men to protect it. The daring tradition served as a brutal coming of age ritual, until five years ago, when under increasing environmental pressure, it abruptly ended. Fearful about the loss of culture, elders soon vowed to revive it. And two young friends were handed the daunting responsibility to not only protect the valley’s herd — but to save its most sacred practice. For four months, the boys battle Mongolia’s deadliest winter on record, testing friendship and faith in a fight to keep 2000 horses alive, and preserve an ancient way of life. Director: KASIMIR BURGESS | Producers: BEN GOLOTTA, MORGAN WRIGHT, CHRIS KAMEN

Emily: I Am Kam celebrates the legacy of Australia’s most significant female artist – Emily Kam Kngwarray and explores the power of her work to protect her country, Alhalker. We follow her descendants as they revive awely ceremonies and collaborate on a major retrospective exhibition, helping us gain real understanding of who she was and why she painted, while reaffirming her enduring connection to Country and community. Archival recordings give Kngwarray the opportunity to speak for herself revealing her legacy is so much more than the 3,000 or so paintings she left behind. Director: DANIELLE MACLEAN | Producers: ANNA GRIEVE, DANIELLE MACLEAN

In the aftermath of the devastating Black Summer bushfires, the SA community of Kangaroo Island is confronting death in new and unique ways; shedding the notion of mortality as a taboo subject and taking charge of the way its people want to die. As the island’s first “death doula” begins her work with terminally ill patients, members of this close-knit community begin fostering their own death rituals; shying away from traditional funerals and burials in favour of reconnecting with the land they are indelibly drawn to; country that supported their livelihoods, filled their souls and offered healing in hard times. Director & Producer: DANIEL CLARKE | Executive Producer: AMANDA COLLINGE

While cooking crabs on an open fire, a buried WWII bomb exploded – killing Lorettalyn’s husband and son, and injuring her and her teenage son Jeffry. In the Solomon Islands, thousands of unexploded bombs remain under homes and schools. The War Below is a 50 minute film that follows Lorettalyn, Jeffry, and Maeverlyn – another survivor building the country’s first victims’ support network. Filmed in the Solomon Islands by Sāmoan director Tuki Laumea and an all-Pacific crew, this observational documentary unfolds without narration, grounded in a Pacific worldview – where memory and danger still live in the ground beneath their feet. Director: TUKI LAUMEA | Producers: TUKI LAUMEA, CLEO FRASER, ELIZABETH OSIFELO

In this special investigation, Guardian Australia reveals exclusive new evidence in the case of Hannah Clarke and her children, including serious police failings in the lead-up to the murders that were overlooked by the coronial inquest and not investigated by homicide detectives. It also examines how police are failing to learn from their own mistakes when it comes to domestic violence deaths, exploring allegations from a former senior Queensland detective. She has accused police of covering up their own failures in cases in which vulnerable women died, and alleges she was ordered to ‘protect the organisation’s reputation at all costs’. Producer: MILES HERBERT

Four French agents sail to Norfolk Island after bombing the Rainbow Warrior in Auckland, killing Greenpeace photographer Fernando Pereira. Australian police take them into custody on behalf of their New Zealand counterparts but then, bafflingly, allow them to sail away, never to face justice. On the 40 year anniversary of the bombing, award-winning journalist Richard Baker goes on an adventure from Paris to the Pacific to get the real story – and ultimately uncover the role that Australia played in the global headline-making affair. Director & Producer: RICHARD BAKER | Producers: LIZ BURNETT & JOEL SUPPLE

Karla Hart is one of Australia’s most influential First Nations screen practitioners – a Noongar filmmaker, producer and cultural leader whose work has fundamentally reshaped nonfiction and narrative storytelling on national platforms. Named Aboriginal West Australian of the Year, she is also a two-time Perth NAIDOC Artist of the Year, recipient of the ImagineNATIVE International Award, multiple Performing Arts Awards, a National Deadly Award and the CinefestOZ Award. As founder of Karla Hart Productions, she has spent more than a decade delivering premium television, major cultural events and community-driven screen projects. Karla has created over 140 episodes of broadcast television as a producer, writer and director, including Our Medicine, Yokayi Footy, Family Rules, On Country Kitchen, Mamma’s on a Mission and The Return – Stuff the British Stole.

Simon Nasht is a filmmaker, author, teacher, storyteller and passionate advocate on behalf of the documentary craft.  He has worked all over the world, helping to create hundreds of hours of nonfiction films and running successful production companies. He began his career in journalism, first at his hometown newspaper, The Age in Melbourne, before joining the ABC and SBS reporting current affairs from Canberra. He is one of the Smith&Nasht founders, a collaboration with Australian entrepreneur and philanthropist Dick Smith. The company has created many groundbreaking films that push boundaries, incite discussion and promote fresh thinking, including Frackman, The Children In The Pictures and I Can Change Your Mind about Climate, all released in conjunction with extensive impact campaigns. One of these films, The Vasectomist, a collaboration with Sundance Grand Jury Prize winner Jonathan Stack, has become a major global NGO, World Vasectomy Day, now operating in more than 20 countries.