The latest rounds from Screen Australia’s Documentary Production Broadcast and Producer programmes will fund 16 ambitious and significant documentaries. The documentaries will receive nearly $4.4 million investment generating a total production expenditure of close to $16.7 million.
Screen Australia’s Senior Manager, Documentary, Liz Stevens, said, “In the second round of the Producer programme we are pleased to see producers aiming at ambitious and multi-layered release plans for stories that will appeal. The documentaries coming through the Broadcast programme offer audiences good insights and a few surprises into many compelling Australian stories.”
Through the Producer programme, filmmakers have the flexibility to find the best pathway to their audience.
The seven projects to receive support use innovative ways of reaching audiences, the feature documentary Mountain by Stranger Than Fiction Films is a good example of this. Jennifer Peedom (Sherpa) will direct and Jo-anne McGowan will produce the film about the complex relationship between humans and the natural world. Set to make its world premiere in 2016, the film will screen at a high-profile live event accompanied by a live performance of an original Richard Tognetti soundtrack by the internationally acclaimed Australian Chamber Orchestra (ACO).
The live cinematic production will tour internationally with the ACO, followed by festival screenings and an aspiration to release in IMAX cinemas locally/internationally before television broadcast.
In a true multiplatform setting, Intafusion Films’ Motorkite Dreaming will see two adventurers attempting to be the first to fly microlights across Australia. Charlie HillSmith will direct the film with producer John Cherry. The film has secured a theatrical release for the feature version, a broadcast partner for the four-part series domestically with NITV/SBS2 and globally on a variety of platforms with Red Bull TV.
Below is a complete list of documentaries to receive support through the Producer programme.
The Broadcast programme will support nine films that will screen to local and international audiences on television. In this round, Cordell Jigsaw will make Hanson: The Years That Shook Australia about provocative politician/fish-and-chip shop owner Pauline Hanson. Anna Broinowski will direct and will team up with Toni Malone to produce the film for SBS.
Conviction by director Terry Carlyon, who will also produce the film with Robyn Miller and John Silvester, will air on the ABC. DD & B Productions will make the documentary that takes an inside look at a homicide squad as they build a case in the glare of social media commentary against a killer.
Blackfella films will receive support to make two documentaries. Deep Water is an innovative multiplatform venture that will be a feature drama (previously announced), documentary and online content. Deep Water recalls in full the gay-hate crime epidemic in Sydney that saw up to 80 murders and 30 unsolved cases. Jacob Hickey will write and Darren Dale will produce the film for SBS. The duo will also make the second series of respected documentary First Contact for SBS.
The Documentary Production Producer and Broadcast programmes now accept applications through the Online Application Portal. The next deadline for the Producer programme is 19 June 2015. From 1 July 2015, the Broadcast programme will accept applications at any time.
Documentary Production – Producer Programme
China’s Deep Dive / Riding The Ocean Dragon (working title)
50 mins
Sealight Pictures Pty Ltd
Producer Adam Geiger
Executive Producer Colette Beaudry
Directors Adam Geiger, Rachael Thornton
Synopsis For the very first time, China invites an Australian journalist on a mission that risks national pride, millions of dollars and dozens of lives – including our host’s. Rachael Thornton spends five weeks at sea with the world’s deepest diving three person sub as it explores the wealth of the deep.
Glenn Murcutt Architect
58 mins
Catherine Hunter Productions
Producer Julia Overton
Director Catherine Hunter
Synopsis Glenn Murcutt Architect explores the life and art of Australia’s most famous living architect. At 79 years, he is tackling the most unusual commission of his career.
Motorkite Dreaming
96 mins, 4 x 24 mins
Intafusion Films Pty Ltd
Producer John Cherry
Executive Producers Marcus Gillezeau, Ruth Cross, Simon Nasht
Director Charlie Hill-Smith
Synopsis Motorkite Dreaming is an extreme cultural adventure following two young Aussie adventurers and their fiancées giving wings to their crazy idea to be the first to fly micro lights 5,000 km across Australia, with an award-winning filmmaker trying to keep up!
Mountain
70 mins
Stranger Than Fiction Films Pty Ltd
Producer Jo-anne McGowan
Executive Producer Stephen Boyle
Director Jennifer Peedom
Synopsis A feature documentary that takes us on a cinematic and musical odyssey, exploring our complex relationship with mountains. The history of a fascination. In collaboration with Richard Tognetti and the Australian Chamber Orchestra.
Singing The Country
56 mins
Tarpaulin Productions Pty Ltd
Producers Tom Murray, David Jowsey, Ian Ludwick
Director Tom Murray
Synopsis After more than 100 years in spiritual limbo, two Indigenous warriors are being returned to the rainforest country of their souls – but a century of colonial rule has not been kind to their culture. Can Tom Gertz, their great-grandson, ‘reignite’ the dreaming songs that will lead their spirits safely home?
PSALM 91 (PART 2)
98 mins
The Sheik Film Company
Producers Katey Grusovin, Janine Hosking
Director Janine Hosking
Synopsis The story of two sisters and the dark secret they share.
Zach’s Ceremony
90 mins
Wangala Films Pty Ltd
Producers Sarah Linton, Alec Doomadgee
Executive Producer Mitzi Goldman
Director Aaron Petersen
Synopsis Zach’s an ordinary Australian kid, struggling with life in the city and the outback. His parents divorced when he was nine and he now lives with his father who insists he reconnects with his Aboriginal roots, to become a man through the ancient rite of initiation. As the pressure of ceremony builds, Zach hits the teenage years with angst and rebellion, and his relationship with his father breaks down. But what’s at the heart of his struggle? Is it the approval of his father, the love of his mother or the freedom to be himself?
Documentary Production – Broadcast Programme
Aussie Gold
10 x 45 mins
Electric Pictures Pty Ltd
Producer Andrew Ogilvie
Director Roger Power
Broadcaster National Geographic Channel
Synopsis Against the backdrop of the colourful communities who call Australia’s famed Goldfields home, we enter the high-stakes world of prospectors in hard pursuit of AUSSIE GOLD!
Breaking The Silence
56 mins
Mint Pictures Pty Ltd & Identity Films
Producer Dan Goldberg
Executive Producer Adam Kay
Director Danny Ben-Moshe
Broadcaster ABC
Synopsis An explosive courtroom drama set partially inside the Royal Commission, Breaking the Silence sifts through the rubble of the fallout and follows an investigative trail to America, climaxing with a dramatic twist when the whistleblower from Code of Silence confronts another ultra-Orthodox rabbi who he claims molested him.
Conviction
57 mins
DD & B Productions Pty Ltd
Producers Terry Carlyon, Robyn Miller, John Silvester
Director Terry Carlyon
Broadcaster ABC
Synopsis A missing person, a murder that shocked the nation and a suspect hunted by social media as police close in. Conviction takes viewers inside the homicide squad as they bring the killer to justice.
Deep Water
77 mins
Blackfella Films Pty Ltd
Producer Darren Dale
Writer Jacob Hickey
Broadcaster SBS
Distributor DCD Rights
Synopsis Up to 80 murders, 30 unsolved cases, thousands of assaults. For the first time, Deep Water presents the full account of the gay-hate crime epidemic that bloodied Sydney’s coastline.
Dolphin Dynasty
60 mins
Sea Dog TV International Pty Ltd & WildBear Entertainment Pty Ltd
Producers Jodie De Barros, Bettina Dalton
Executive Producers Jodie De Barros, Michael Tear, Peter Moers, Edwina Thring
Writer/Directors Leighton De Barros, Peter Moers
Broadcaster National Geographic Channel
Synopsis Utilising specialist filming techniques never used before we’ll unveil the complex social hierarchy, family ties and the incredible maternal bonds of a small group of Shark Bay dolphins, in a wild soap opera that is Dolphin Dynasty.
First Contact Series 2
3 x 51 mins
Blackfella Films Pty Ltd
Producers Darren Dale, Jacob Hickey
Writer Jacob Hickey
Broadcaster SBS
Distributor SBS
Synopsis Six out of 10 who call Australia home have had little or no contact with Indigenous people. Twenty-eight days. One life-changing journey.
Hanson: The Years That Shook Australia
72 mins
Cordell Jigsaw Pty Ltd
Producers Anna Broinowski, Toni Malone
Executive Producer Michael Cordell
Director Anna Broinowski
Broadcaster SBS
Synopsis A contemporary history film about Pauline Hanson: a fish & chip shop lady from Ipswich, who changed Australia forever.
Hatch, Match & Dispatch
8 x 28 mins
Fredbird CDK Pty Ltd T/A Fredbird Entertainment
Producers Sandra Welkerling, Colin Thrupp, Faye Welborn
Executive Producer Craig Graham
Broadcaster ABC 1
Synopsis A privileged look at the funny and moving stories of the biggest events of our lives: births, deaths and marriages.
Mambo: Art Irritates Life
57 mins
Bombora Film and Music Co Pty Ltd
Producer Scott Nowell
Executive Producer Jo-anne McGowan
Director Paul Clarke
Broadcaster ABC
Synopsis This is the story of how punk rockers and reprobates created an art movement that would capture the minds of the masses in a wearable art form.
