PickFlick
The Department

The Department

Life on the front line of child protection.

Part of The Oasis Collection

2021•1h 29m
Documentary

THE DEPARTMENT is a feature documentary which takes us inside the never-before-seen child protection system at work in NSW. Filmed in an observational style, it follows caseworkers across the state as they navigate the complexities of keeping children safe in families experiencing domestic violence, addiction, poverty, mental health issues and intergenerational trauma.

Open in PickFlick

Production

Shark Island Productions

Language

EN

Status

Released

Release Date

Trailers & Videos

Similar Movies

Land Without Bread

Land Without Bread

7.1
1933
Movie

An exploration —manipulated and staged— of life in Las Hurdes, in the province of Cáceres, in Extremadura, Spain, as it was in 1932. Insalubrity, misery and lack of opportunities provoke the emigration of young people and the solitude of those who remain in the desolation of one of the poorest and least developed Spanish regions at that time.

Land Without Bread

1933
7.1
Megacities

Megacities

6.5
1998
Movie

Megacities is a documentary about the slums of five different metropolitan cities.

Megacities

1998
6.5
Cuba and the Cameraman

Cuba and the Cameraman

7.5
2017
Movie

This revealing portrait of Cuba follows the lives of Fidel Castro and three Cuban families affected by his policies over the last four decades.

Cuba and the Cameraman

2017
7.5
The Salt Mines

The Salt Mines

6.0
1990
Movie

Explores the lives of Sara, Gigi and Giovanna, three Latino transvestites who for years have lived on the streets of Manhattan supporting their drug addictions through prostitution. They made their temporary home inside broken garbage trucks that the Sanitation Department keeps next to the salt deposits used in the winter to melt the snow. The three friends share the place known as "The Salt Mines".

The Salt Mines

1990
6.0
Hell

Hell

2019
Movie

Chennu committed his first crime when he was 15 years old: being a street kid. And he entered hell: Pademba Road. The adult prison in Freetown. In hell, Mr. Sillah is in charge, and there is no hope. Chennu got out after four years. Now he wants to go back.

Hell

2019
Petit Rempart

Petit Rempart

2025
Movie

Mariem, 53, a former estate agent, has been living at a shelter for several months. Surrounded by women in far more precarious circumstances than herself, she tries to regard her unprecedented social downfall as an immersion in real life. By the time she leaves, Mariem’s view of the world will have changed forever, enriched by all the women she has met along the way.

Petit Rempart

2025
Dark Days

Dark Days

7.2
2000
Movie

A cinematic portrait of the homeless population who live permanently in the underground tunnels of New York City.

Dark Days

2000
7.2
Methadonia

Methadonia

4.8
2005
Movie

Shot over the course of 18 months in New York City's Lower East Side, METHADONIA sheds light on the inherent flaws of legal methadone treatments for heroin addiction by profiling eight addicts, in various stages of recovery and relapse, who attend the New York Center for Addiction Treatment Services (NYCATS).

Methadonia

2005
4.8
Working But Poor - The Middle Class in Crisis

Working But Poor - The Middle Class in Crisis

8.0
2023
Movie

Citizens across Europe who used to belong to the lower middle class have fallen into poverty. An in-depth investigation into the precariat, a new social class of financially insecure citizens who, although they are employed, find it very difficult to make ends meet.

Working But Poor - The Middle Class in Crisis

2023
8.0
Alicia

Alicia

8.0
2017
Movie

"It’s not easy to find a foster family for you," an orphanage supervisor explains to nine-year-old Alicia. "After all, you are a very special girl." Alicia is crying. "I’m not special. I’m just a girl." This disturbing scene sets the tone for this film about Alicia, who was taken away from her teenage mother by the Child Welfare Bureau when she was 12 months old. She’s been living in an orphanage since the age of five, and they have never managed to find a foster family for her. In Alicia, we watch as she becomes a teenager, still craving safety and love. Over the course of three years, filmmaker Maasja Ooms follows her daily life up close. Alicia's yearning and powerlessness are palpable in these observations, which painfully reveal the effects of having no prospects.

Alicia

2017
8.0
49 Up

49 Up

7.3
2006
Movie

49 Up is the seventh film in a series of landmark documentaries that began 42 years ago when UK-based Granada's World in Action team, inspired by the Jesuit maxim "Give me the child until he is seven and I will give you the man," interviewed a diverse group of seven-year-old children from all over England, asking them about their lives and their dreams for the future. Michael Apted, a researcher for the original film, has returned to interview the "children" every seven years since, at ages 14, 21, 28, 35, 42 and now again at age 49.In this latest chapter, more life-changing decisions are revealed, more shocking announcements made and more of the original group take part than ever before, speaking out on a variety of subjects including love, marriage, career, class and prejudice.

49 Up

2006
7.3
The Explorer

The Explorer

6.0
2020
Movie

A former lawyer leaves everything behind to embark on the quest for a dinosaur-like animal supposedly living in Africa's unexplored forests.

The Explorer

2020
6.0