The Drawing Room

Sixteen years ago, Morris Gleitzman introduced audiences to Felix: a young Jewish boy struggling to survive during the Holocaust.

Over time, what was originally a stand-alone book become a beloved series.

In the Drawing Room, Gleitzman talks about the power of friendship and saying goodbye to Felix, with the seventh and final book in the series: Always.

Is it possible to bring water to the desert? To force a cloud to burst into rain when and where you want?

And if it is possible, what are the ethical questions of actually doing it?

In the Drawing Room, Tuija Halttunen talks about her new documentary, How To Kill a Cloud, which follows the work of a Finnish scientist, Hannele Korhonnen, who received a grant from the United Arab Emirates to work on the science of cloudseeding

In the midst of the Second World War, in Paris, a young woman is drafted to work at an art gallery where the highest members of the Nazi forces show up to divvy out great artworks between themselves.

In the present day, a woman fleeing her own grief is forced to confront a family secret.

Natasha Lester's latest book, The Riviera House, melds these two stories and takes readers into a history of art, fashion, and remarkable women.

Dragging trucks, tossing cars, picking up huge stones, the strongman and strongwoman competitions have shown us remarkable physical feats by people who push against the limits of what most of us would consider possible.

Strong Women, a new documentary series, takes viewers onto the competition floors and behind the scenes, where four strongwomen speak candidly about their lives.

The canopies of our forests contain dizzying amounts of life and provide ecosystems that are completely different to the world below, but, until quite recently, scientists didn't think to look up from the forest floor.

Meg Lowman, PhD, is a pioneer in forest ecology: taking science into the highest branches and inspiring generations of researchers.

In The Drawing Room, Meg discusses her path to science, her homemade equipment and her new book, The Arbornaut.

Thelma Beeton is an award winning artist who creates bright, happy paintings inspired by her totem, the Tasmanian emu.

She's part of an exhibition on at the moment with her friend Stacey titled BANJ BANJ / NAWNTA or Sister / Sister.

But her path to art wasn't the typical journey. Thelma is part of The Torch program, which provides art and cultural support to Indigenous women and men who have had experience with Victoria's criminal justice system.

A drummer, a documentary film maker, and an artist, Tina Havelock Stevens has travelled the world creating works that speak to the places that she finds.

From arts patrons watching a three-day long performance to a curious cow on the route of Apocalypse Now, Tina introduces us to her work and the audiences that she's seen along the way.

Lottie Lovinger was a star of the screen, a foundational piece of the horror genre, and a grand dame of theatre.

Her granddaughter, Ellie Marsden, looked set to follow in her footsteps, but a terrible experience on her first film set brought everything crashing down.

Now Lottie is dying and Ellie has to figure out how to forgive her grandmother and how to move on with her life.

Danielle Binks talks about her new novel, The Monster of Her Age.

For four decades, Masamoto Ueda and his wife, Kazuko, have been running a small ramen shop in Tokyo. Over the years, they've slowly perfected their recipe and created a community for themselves and their customers.

In his new documentary, Come Back Anytime, John Daschbach takes audiences into the kitchen, the farm and the lives of the people who call the place home.

Bunny King is a single mother, working as a squeegee bandit at the stoplights, living on her sister's couch and desperately trying to get her children back from a system that doesn't seem to care.

But despite that bleak setup, The Justice of Bunny King is a wonderful journey full of heart, that balances humour and pathos.

In the Drawing Room, Gaysorn Thavat talks about her long path to directing and the conversations behind the film.