FUNDING APPROVALS
in the archive
Documentary production 2010-2011

National Documentary Program

BLACK PANTHER WOMAN 
Blackfella Films
Producer Darren Dale
Writers Rachel Perkins, Marlene Cummins
Director Rachel Perkins
Broadcaster SBS TV 
Sales SBS Content Sales
Synopsis Marlene Cummins takes us back to Brisbane 1971 and behind the scenes of the Australian Black Panther Movement through, at times both euphoric and bitter, first-hand experience.

CROKER ISLAND EXODUS
Tamarind Tree Pictures
Producers Anna Grieve, Danielle MacLean
Writers Danielle MacLean, Steven McGregor
Director Steven McGregor
Broadcasters ABC
Sales ABC Commercial
Synopsis 1942, Croker Island, Arafura Sea – as the Japanese bomb the Australian north, 95 Aboriginal children and their missionary carers make a remarkable journey to safety across the continent.

THE HISTORY DEPARTMENT
Renegade Films 
Producer Alex West 
Line Producer Kate Pappas
Writer Alex West
Director TBC
Synopsis An interactive website that curates interviews with leading historical writers and scholars, alongside a live and interactive webcast in which they debate and discuss a wide range of historical subjects.

LOST AND FOUND
WTFN
Executive Producer Daryl Talbot
Producer Ben Ulm 
Writer/Director Sean Cousins
Broadcaster History Channel
Synopsis From journals to eclectic objects, a medieval manuscript or a message in a bottle – Warren Brown dives headlong into the NSW State Library to investigate how some of the most valuable artefacts in Australia were discovered in 10 x five-minute interstitials.

ONCE UPON A TIME IN CABRAMATTA 
Once Upon a Time Productions Pty Ltd 
Executive Producers Sue Clothier, Craig Graham
Producer Mike Bluett
Director Bernadine Lim
Broadcaster SBS
Sales SBS Sales
Synopsis Spanning 35 years, Once Upon a Time in Cabramatta is the epic story of the Vietnamese community in Sydney.

THE OUTLAW MICHAEL HOWE
Outlawed Films
Executive Producers Nial Fulton, Rosemary Blight
Producer Nial Fulton 
Writer Nial Fulton
Director Michael James Rowland
Broadcaster ABC TV
Synopsis In 1815 a young English convict leads a wretched guerilla army of outlaws, deserters and bushmen in open rebellion against the morally corrupt government on the notorious prison settlement of Van Diemen’s Land. As their numbers grow by the day, Michael Howe’s gang threaten to overrun the colony. An epic story of love and betrayal, The Outlaw Michael Howe will chronicle the astonishing true story of the man who pushed Australia to the brink of civil war. 

UTOPIA GIRLS ONLINE
ISH Media
Executive Producer Debra Allanson
Producer Kylie Robertson
Writer ISH Media/Dr Clare Wright 
Synopsis Utopia Girls Online looks broadly at the history of Australian women’s activism through the development of a distributed content brand that engages multiple audiences through a central website, viral campaign and social strategy.

ANATOMY SERIES 3
Matchbox Pictures
Executive Producer Tony Ayres
Producers Michael McMahon, Polly Staniford           
Writers/Directors   Paola Morabito, Alethea Jones, Kim Munro
Broadcaster ABC TV
Sales None as yet
Synopsis After the success of the first and second series of Anatomy, Matchbox Pictures are currently developing a third series, which, following the form of the previous series, will consist of three documentaries that explore art, sex and the body.  The three films – Hair, Nerve and Tissue – will all touch upon a wide range of human experience and emotion well beyond the boundaries of traditional arts documentaries.  They will be unique with each story being realised in distinctive director driven visions.

RUNNING TO AMERICA - post production
Goodoil
Executive Producer Michael Cordell
Producer Juliet Bishop           
Writer/Director Matt Long
Broadcaster ABC TV
Sales Off The Fence
Synopsis This observational documentary follows four young Indigenous men from Outback Australia as they take on an opportunity to be the first Indigenous Australians to run in the worlds most famous race, the New York Marathon.

THE BOMBING OF DARWIN: AN AWKWARD TRUTH
Artemis
Producer/Executive Producer Brian Beaton
Writer Russell Vines
Director TBA
Broadcaster The History Channel
Sales Off The Fence
Synopsis The true story behind Australia’s worst disaster, the bombing of Darwin during World War II.

FOUNDERS AND SURVIVORS STORYLINES
Digital, Roar Film
Producers Kath Symmons, Anna Grieve, Steve Thomas
Writers Steve Thomas, Melinda Standish
Creative Director Steve Thomas
Musical Director Mick Thomas
Synopsis Founders and Survivors Storylines is an online project that springs from one of the world’s great historical studies of immigration, forced labour and settlement – the 73,000 individual records of convicts transported to Tasmania.

SINGAPORE 1942
Electric Pictures
Producer Andrea Quesnelle
Executive Producers Andrew Ogilvie, Trevor Graham
Writer/Director Don Featherstone
Broadcasters SBS, BBC Scotland, Discovery Asia, UKTV
Synopsis The fall of Singapore shattered myths, brought an empire to its knees and changed the destiny of millions of people.

SPORTING NATION
Princess Pictures Pty Ltd
Producer Andrea Denholm 
Executive Producers Laura Waters, Yael Bergman, Andrea Denholm 
Series Producer Jeff Stilson 
Writers John Clarke, Jeff Stilson
Director Bruce Permezel
Broadcaster ABC
Sales ABC Commerical
Synopsis Australia is a sporting nation. In Australia, to be a properly accredited member of society, you’ve got to either play or watch sport. John Clarke, arguably Australia’s greatest natural athlete, kicks around with legendary sporting heroes, amateur athletes and the country’s loudest fans in a documentary series that barracks for and rips into Australian sport, past and present.

THE YEARS THAT MADE US: AUSTRALIA BETWEEN THE WARS
Beyond Screen Productions
Producers Mark Hamlyn, Renee Kennedy
Executive Producer Mark Hamlyn
Writer/Presenter Chris Masters
Director Stuart Goodman
Broadcaster ABC
Synopsis Chris Masters investigates a crucial but sometimes overlooked period of Australian history, the between the war years from the 1920s to the 1940s. When the guns stopped sounding another battle began. The maturing of a nation and its people can often be found less through war than the struggle for peace. This series traces three key themes each connecting this important era to the present. While Federation in 1901 is a formal beginning and Gallipoli in 1915, a symbolic coming of age, in the following years when the soldiers returned, the people endured a depression and then steeled themselves for yet another war, vital steps to nationhood were negotiated.

AUSTRALIA ON TRIAL
December Films and Essential Media
Executive Producers Tony Wright and Ian Collie
Writers Katherine Thomson, Ma Mannix, Andy Cox
Directors Lisa Matthews, Malcolm McDonald, Ana Kokkinos
Broadcaster ABC
Synopsis Provides snapshots of colonial Australia, through the prism of three pivotal and controversial criminal trials that in a wider social and political context raised significant questions around national identity. At stake in each case were not just the necks of the defendants but the evolving ideas of identity and nationhood, as Australia grew from a dominion of the British Empire to a more autonomous federated nation by 1900. The three trials are the Eureka Trial, the Mount Rennie Rape Trial and the Myall Creek Massacre Trial.

KAPYONG
Kapyong Pty Ltd
Producer John Lewis
Writer/Director Dennis K Smith
Broadcaster History Channel
Synopsis In 1951, following a rout of the South Korean army, the Chinese People’s Volunteer Army pursued their enemy to the lines of Australian and Canadian troops still digging fall-back defences, 12 kilometres to the rear. The battle fought at Kapyong became the turning point of China’s spring offensive. The aim of the offensive was to finally drive the foreign troops out of South Korea and into the sea. What happened instead, changed the history of the Korean War.

THE MAN WHO JUMPED
Prospero Productions
Producers Ed Punchard, Julia Redwood
Writer/Director Russell Vines
Broadcaster SBS
Sales and Distribution SBS
Synopsis In 2002, footage of an incarcerated asylum seeker leaping onto razor wire at Woomera Detention Centre made front-page news around the world. It became one of the most provocative and enduring images of the decade in Australia. But who was the man who jumped, why did he do it and what happened to him?

UTOPIA GIRLS
Renegade Films
Producers Lucy Maclaren and Alex West
Executive Producers Alex West, Joe Connor, Ken Connor
Director Jasmin Tarasin
Writers Dr Clare Wright and Alex West
Broadcaster ABC
Sales and Distribution ABC
Synopsis Historian Clare Wright investigates how and why Australian women fought successfully to become the first in the world to obtain equal political rights.

ALL THE WAY (formerly VIETNAM: THE WAR BETWEEN AUSTRALIA AND THE USA)
November Films
Producer Anne Delaney
Writers Toby Creswell, Paul Ham
Directors Toby Creswell, Anne Delaney
Broadcaster ABC
Sales and Distribution ABC Commercial
Synopsis How Australia discovered that its biggest battle in the Vietnam War was dealing with its best friend, the USA.

WIDE OPEN ROAD
Bombora Films and Music
Producer/Director Paul Clarke
Broadcaster ABC TV
Sales & Distribution ABC Commercial, Roadshow
Synopsis An Australian social history of the 20th century – viewed through the windscreen of the cars that we so cherished.

BIG STORIES SMALL TOWNS
Big Stories
Producers Anna Grieve, Martin Potter
Interactive Producer Nick Crowther
Filmmakers Jeni Lee and Sieh Mchawala
Synopsis A collaborative, multi-platform documentary project that gathers local stories for a global audience. Featuring in Big Stories 2, Murray Bridge and Raukkan in South Australia and Ban Lung in Cambodia.

THE MULTICULTURAL HISTORY INTERACTIVE DOCUMENTARY
Chocolate Liberation Front
Producers Dan Fill and Frank Verheggen
Lead Developers Charlie MacKenzie and Sam Howie
Synopsis The Multicultural History Interactive Documentary is a series of innovative interactive components including an interactive documentary, digital editing tool, resource hub and asylum seeker simulation (serious game) that celebrates the diverse history of immigration to Australia.

TRAFFICKED - THE RECKONING
Fair Trade Films Pty Ltd
Producer Stella Zammataro
Director Luigi Acquisto
Synopsis The inspiring, courageous story of a young woman’s quest to bring the man who enslaved her in a Sydney brothel to justice.

Domestic documentary program

COUNTRY TOWN RESCUE
Zapruder’s Other Films
Executive Producers Anita Jacoby and Debbie Cuell
Series Director Debbie Cuell
Writer Debbie Cuell
Broadcaster ABC
Sales and Distribution ABC Commercial
Synopsis Documents the inspiring story of the people of Trundle, a small community of 485 in Central Western NSW, who plan to save their town from dying by giving families Australia-wide the chance to begin a new life in the country by living in an abandoned local farmhouse for just One Dollar A Week! It’s a story about how these newcomers will build new lives and friendships in this small community, and how the old traditional country community will come to accept these new families into their town.

THE DIGGER – A HISTORY FOR THE TITLE
Bearcage Films
Producer Michael Tear
Director Serge Ou
Writer Michael Cove
Broadcaster Foxtel
Synopsis At the end of the 19th century soldiers from Australia came under fire in Africa – they were the first of one and a quarter million Australian men and women to serve their country in war and conflict and in every continent except the one they called home. Amongst them were the first of more than one hundred thousand to die in the service of Australia. The chronicle of Australia’s soldiers from then till now is full of heroism, humour, mateship and larrikinism. It has bred perhaps the most enduring Australian icon – the digger. This is his story.

GO BACK TO WHERE YOU CAME FROM
Cordell Jigsaw Productions
Executive Producers Michael Cordell, Nick Murray
Writer/Director TBC
Broadcaster SBS
Sales and Distribution SBS
Synopsis Six Australians agree to challenge their preconceived notions by living with, and as, refugees for one month. To do so, they will trace, in reverse, the journeys that real refugees took to reach Australia. In Episode I, the participants move in with a recently arrived refugee family and join them in their everyday lives... to work, to school and their social, cultural and religious activities. In Episode II, the Australians head for Indonesia, getting a first-hand account of refugee life in transit and why some board leaky boats even if there are structures for re-settlement in place. In Episode III, our participants travel all the way to (or near to) the countries of origin of their refugee hosts in Australia. There they will live in sprawling refugee camps or as destitute urban refugees. Along the route the participants will debate, argue and perhaps change some of their opinions. Not one will be untouched by their experience.

A LAW UNTO HIMSELF
Carolyn Johnson Films
Producer Carolyn Johnson
Director Catherine Hunter
Broadcaster ABC
Synopsis Roger Law was the artist and energy behind the UK puppet show Spitting Image before he deported himself to Australia to explore his remaining artistic talent. Roger Law takes us on his journey of personal discovery through the wonders of Australian wildlife and his work in Jingdezhen porcelain.

MAD AS HELL: THE PETER FINCH STORY
Lowlands Media
Producer/ Writer/Director Robert de Young
Broadcaster Ovation
Sales and Distribution Ovation
Synopsis Peter Finch is the only actor ever to have received an Academy Award® for Best Actor posthumously, for his performance in the film Network (1976) where, as apocalyptic live newscaster Howard Beale, he tells a stunned American public to go outside and shout, “I’m as mad as hell, and I’m not going to take it anymore!” While Mad as Hell maps the career of actor Peter Finch, the film is much more than a biopic – this film provides an opportunity to explore, through the lens of Finch’s career, the complex relationship between Britain and her Australian colony during the 1940s and 1950s. Finch left an acting career in Sydney at the invitation of Laurence Olivier in 1948. Finch went on to work with some of the major stars and directors working in England and then Hollywood including Olivier, Vivien Leigh, Errol Flynn, Virginia McKenna, Glenda Jackson, Audrey Hepburn, Julie Christie, Alan Bates, Shelley Winters, Terence Stamp, Elizabeth Taylor, Jane Fonda, Angela Lansbury, Liv Ullmann, Faye Dunaway and William Holden. The film also includes frank interviews with three of Finch's daughters and unseen candid private photos.

OCHRE AND INK
Nirvana Films
Producers Rachel Clements, James Bradley
Writer/Director James Bradley
Broadcaster ABC
Synopsis A landmark exhibition on the history of the Australia–China trade in trepang (sea cucumber) opens in Beijing. It is the culmination of an extraordinary partnership between artists Zhou ‘Joe’ Xiaoping and the late Aboriginal artist JBB, forged over 20 years in remote Arnhem Land. As JBB’s son Paul and brother Peter attend the exhibition opening, Joe’s fascinating story unfolds in a compelling series of glimpses into his life and work. The cultural exchange that has been the basis of Joe’s life and work is powerfully played out as Peter and Paul explore Joe’s home country.

ARTHOUSE
Paalma Pty Ltd
Producer/Writer Marian Bartsch
Director Britt Arthur
Broadcaster ABC
Sales & Distribution ABC Content Sales
Synopsis ArtHouse looks at the changing face of architecture, innovation and design in Australia through the eyes of Melbourne-based husband and wife team, architect Robert McBride and interior designer Debbie Ryan. Their outstanding architecture, which is changing the skyline of Melbourne, has achieved the highest accolade winning the recent 2009 World Architecture Festival Awards for best residential house in the world for The Klein Bottle House. A first for any Australian architectural team. This documentary follows a day-in-the-life of this stellar design team over a period of eight months, and the inspiration behind their iconic works. This documentary will also aim to explore the need for innovation in the Australian way of living as Robert and Debbie-Lyn build their own family home for their growing family.

COOL SCHOOL
Angels Television Pty Ltd
Producers/Writers/Directors Gregory Miller and Liz Courtney
Broadcaster Nickelodeon, Australian Television, NHK
Sales & Distribution Off The Fence
Synopsis Filmed almost entirely in Antarctica. It is a chance to explore sustainable development and climate change in one of the places being most affected, and it shows the transformative effect on a number of young people as they travel to the world’s largest and most isolated wilderness.

DICK SMITH’S POPULATION PUZZLE
Mitra Films Pty Ltd
Producer Anna Cater
Producer/Director Simon Nasht
Broadcaster ABC
Sales & Distribution Ovation
Synopsis The film follows Dick Smith’s public campaign against rapid population growth. The polemical film tests the propositions put forward in favour of a Big Australia. Can this popular entrepreneur persuade the nation to change its mind?

FOOTBALL UNITED
North One TV Australia
Producer Dan Goldberg
Executive Producer/Director Adam Kay
Broadcaster Bio Channel
Sales & Distribution Fox, North One
Synopsis Follows the inspirational story of one woman’s dream to use the world game to help refugee children who’ve recently arrived in Australia integrate into their new society.

HARDLINERS
Cordell Jigsaw           
Executive Producers Nick Murray and Michael Cordell
Producer Steve Bibb
Broadcaster Fox 8
Sales & Distribution DCD Rights, Cordell Jigsaw
Synopsis Larger-than-life Australian long-line tuna fishermen risking it all on a daily basis are at the heart of the new documentary series, Hardliners.

I’M NOT DEAD YET
iKandy Films
Producer/Writer/Director Janine Hosking
Broadcaster ABC
Synopsis The ‘unplugged’ chronicle of 76-year-old country music legend Chad Morgan. “I’ll die on the stage or on the nest,” vows the controversial Chad as he packs his guitar, walking stick and his wife’s Zimmer frame in the back of the car for his latest tour. This observational documentary is an intimate portrait of a ‘one of a kind’ musician, playing out the final phase of his career. At the heart of the narrative is an enduring love story ­– littered with dirty lyrics!

KULKA
Wonderland Film & Theatre Production Pty Ltd
Producer Kingston Anderson
Director Claire Haywood
Broadcaster NITV
Sales & Distribution Wonderland Productions
Synopsis About the life and times of Dr Gordon Briscoe (AO). It is a celebration of his outstanding contribution as a campaigner for basic human rights for Indigenous Australians, an activist, a motivator, a thinker, a researcher, author, teacher and mentor. Narrated by Gordon’s son, Aaron Briscoe, it is the inspirational story of an institutionalised Aborigine, interned in an ‘alien’ camp during World War II with very little education, who struggled against the odds to achieve dignity and respect for himself and his people. The story of his life reflects the struggles still facing many Indigenous communities today.

THE LAST WALTZ
Waterbyrd Filmz
Producer/Co-director Nickolas Bird
Co-director Eleanor Sharpe
Broadcaster ABC
Sales & Distribution Galloping Films
Synopsis Anny Salerni, the charismatic owner of Melbourne’s only gay and lesbian ballroom dancing studio, has devoted the last 14 years of her life to creating her own fabulous world of same-sex dancesports. Her students are not the most talented of dancers but they are passionate about their sport and are driven by a dream of competing at the Gay Games in Germany. As they prepare for the biggest event of their lives, Anny and her students must battle injury, personal dramas and entrenched homophobia from the mainstream ballroom dancing community and the world in general.

MISS SOUTH SUDAN AUSTRALIA
Matchbox Pictures Pty Ltd
Executive Producer Tony Ayres
Producers Polly Staniford and Michael McMahon
Director Shannon Owen
Broadcaster ABC
Synopsis A joyful and exuberant half-hour documentary following the precarious and erratic journey to pull together the premiere event for Australia’s Sudanese community – the ‘Miss South Sudan Australia’ beauty pageant – and the lives of the organisers and the participants post event.

MT (working title)
Evershine Pty Ltd
Producer Helen Barrow
Director Hugh Piper
Broadcaster ABC
Synopsis An observational documentary about print journalism, freedom of speech and publishing in South East Asia.

ON A WING AND A PRAYER
Sea Dog TV International Pty Ltd
Executive Producer Dione Gilmour
Producers Jodie De Barros and Leighton De Barros
Director Leighton De Barros
Co-director Sam Smith
Writers Leighton De Barros and Sam Smith
Broadcaster ABC
Sales & Distribution ABC Commercial
Synopsis Follows the incredible life cycle of the endangered Carnaby’s Black Cockatoo through an engaging story of one small bird family as they fight for survival and the one man who will do whatever it takes to protect them.

SEX: AN UNNATURAL HISTORY
Matchbox Pictures
Executive Producer Penny Chapman
Producer Michaela Perske
Writer Mark O’Toole
Broadcaster SBS
Sales & Distribution SBS Content Sales
Synopsis A six-part factual series hosted by Julia Zemiro that will explore the last 50 years of Australia’s sexual landscape. A lively series using a blend of experts, philosophers, academics and ordinary people that poses the big questions about sex in the modern day.

TWO IN THE GREAT DIVIDE
Artemis International Pty Ltd
Executive Producers Nick Murray and Michael Cordell
Producer Toni Malone
Director Michael Cordell          
Broadcaster ABC
Sales & Distribution ABC Commercial
Synopsis Tim Flannery and John Doyle undertake their third quixotic journey through the Australian landscape, this time exploring The Great Dividing Range. To the east of the Divide are abundant rivers, fertile land and ever-burgeoning population. To the west are uncertainty, drought and vast tracts of ‘emptiness’. As Tim and John follow the range northward they are undertaking more than a geographical journey, they are also exploring the ‘great divides’ in Australian life. Arguments over water, population and nuclear power will all feature, as well as more profound debates – like Holden vs Ford.

WHO DO YOU THINK YOU ARE 4
Artemis International Pty Ltd & Serendipity Productions Pty Ltd
Executive Producer for Artemis Brian Beaton
Executive Producer for Serendipity Margie Bryant
Series Producer Celia Tait
Broadcaster SBS
Sales & Distribution SBS Content Sales
Synopsis Well-known Australians play detective as they go in search of their family history, revealing secrets and surprises from the past.

International documentary program

AUSSIEWOOD (working title)
Matchbox Pictures
Executive Producer Tony Ayres
Producers Michael McMahon, Cecilia Ritchie
Writer TBC
Director Gary Doust
Broadcaster ABC TV
Sales ABC Commercial
Synopsis Every year another Aussie actor makes it big on American screens. Who will be the next of our homegrown actors to become a Hollywood star?

DANCING DOWNUNDER
Wild Fury
Executive Producers Hugh Marks
Producer Veronica Fury
Writer/Director Susan Lambert
Broadcaster ABC 3, TG4
Sales ACTF
Synopsis This series is a journey through the colourful and competitive world of Irish dancing Down Under. It is the untold story of passion, music and rich Irish culture thriving in mainstream Australia. From the harsh outback to glitzy inner city dance schools, we follow the highs and lows of an amazing bunch of Aussie kids as they prepare to compete in the Australian ‘Nationals’ for a chance to represent their country in the World Irish dancing championships in Dublin.

DEVIL ISLAND
360 Degree Films
Executive Producer/Producer Sally Ingleton        
Director Andrew Sully
Broadcaster ABC TV, ITV UK, France TV
Sales ABC Commercial, NGTI
Synopsis In a real life ‘Madagascar,’ 50 mollycoddled Tasmanian Devils are hauled from the 5-star luxury of Australian zoos and released into the wilds of a remote island to fend for themselves and, with a little luck, to save their species from extinction.

KOALAS: THE SECRET SOCIETY EXPOSED
Mindful Media & Wild Fury
Executive Producer Hugh Marks
Producer Bettina Dalton           
Writer/Director Paul Scott
Broadcaster ABC TV, Thirteen/WNET
Sales NGTI
Synopsis A year in the personal lives of eight koalas, featuring previously unknown science, some surprising and fascinating natural behaviour, and a dedicated scientist who wants to decipher the ‘koala code’.

JACK THE RIPPER: PRIME SUSPECT
Prospero Productions
Executive Producers/Producers Julia Redwood, Ed Punchard
Writer TBC
Director Franco di Chiera
Broadcaster Network Seven, UK TV, Discovery Canada
Sales BBC Distribution, Oberon
Synopsis The story of Jack The Ripper is one of the most gruesome and infamous crimes in history. A horrific killing spree, which exposed the darkest recesses of Victorian London, leaving a city gripped in terror. Today more than 120 years later, modern science may just hold the key to cracking the case.  There has been a major new development in the Ripper story.  In a laboratory on the other side of the world, lies what is believed to be the skull of Fredrick Bailey Deeming, infamous as Australia’s first serial killer. At the time of his execution in 1892, Deeming was a suspect in the Jack the Ripper case.  In a recent experiment in an Australian laboratory, DNA was extracted from the skull.  Now if DNA can be discovered that can be linked to the crimes, Deeming could finally be proved to be the world’s most notorious killer or once and for all eliminated from the enquiries. The hunt is now on.

SHARK CITY
Markland Communications
Executive Producer Kip Spidell
Producer/ Director Jason Markland                       
Writers Kip Spidell, Jason Markland
Broadcaster National Geographic Wild Australia, National Geographic Wild International
Sales NGTI
Synopsis The idyllic Australian resort city just south of Brisbane known as The Gold Coast has the usual blend of urban challenges faced by any fast-growing metropolis. But the town council has an issue that few other cities have to contend with – sharks in the suburbs. The region is seeing an alarming rise in Bull Shark incidents in canals, rivers and the popular beaches. But can anything be done to protect local residents? And perhaps more importantly, can anything be done to protect this species of shark from wholesale slaughter in the face of increasing demands for public safety?  Local scientist Jonathan Werry believes the answer to both questions begins with a better understanding of the shark itself – and especially its attraction to these urban canals.  

WILD AUSTRALIA
Wild Fury with Moers Media and NDR Naturfilm
Executive Producer Hugh Marks
Producer Bettina Dalton
Writer TBC
Director Rory McGuinness
Broadcaster National Geographic Aus, NDR Naturfilm, ZDF/Arte, NDR LMA
Synopsis Sumptuously shot in full HD over multiple episodes Wild Australia will showcase some of our most iconic and significant national parks and what makes each ecologically unique. Featuring ‘blue chip’ animal behaviour footage, the series will take Australians beyond National Parks as tourist attractions and into the heart of each of these living icons, revealing their history, character, biological significance, and what shapes and potentially threatens them in the current state of our planet. These are the jewels in the crown in our national heritage, islands of wilderness in a sea of environmental change, reminding us of our natural legacy past and future.

IN THE WILD
Freehand Productions
Producer Colette Beaudry
Writer Matt Tomaszewski
Director Jeff Siberry
Broadcaster National Geographic
Sales and Distribution National Geographic, Australia and ROW, Freehand DG
Synopsis Welcome to the extraordinary life of dangerous animal expert Matt Wright. Raised in the rugged Australian bush, Matt now uses his unique skills and perspective to solve problems with animals that no-one else can. Fusing blue chip with ob-doc and wildlife adventure, In the Wild will follow Matt as he finds, captures and safely relocates some of the world’s most fascinating and dangerous animals with the simple objective of keeping humans safe from animals and just as importantly – keeping them safe from us.

SAS: THE SEARCH FOR WARRIORS
Prospero Productions
Producers Ed Punchard, Julia Redwood
Writer Russell Vines
Director Russell Vines
Broadcaster SBS
Sales and Distribution Beyond Distribution
Synopsis For the first time in 25 years, a film crew has been given access to the highly secretive selection course for the Australian Special Air Service Regiment (SASR). This gripping two-part documentary reveals what it takes to join one of the most elite fighting forces in the world.

SHARK HARBOUR
Ultramarine Films
Producer Edward Radford
Executive Producer Michael Lynch
Writer/Director Michael Lynch
Broadcaster National Geographic US / ABC
Sales and Distribution Off The Fence
Synopsis Sydney, Australia, 2009. Three terrifying shark attacks in as many weeks caused a wave of primeval panic to sweep through the city. Not since the last fatal shark attack in 1963 had the city been gripped by such collective fear. Shark Harbour follows a specialist ‘Shark Research Team’ – commissioned by the government in response to the attacks – as they conduct the most comprehensive and technologically advanced study of sharks that’s ever been undertaken in Sydney’s waters. They want to know if, in a city of nearly four and a half million people, surrounded by much loved and used waterways, sharks and humans can safely co-exist.

THE GRAMMAR OF HAPPINESS
Essential Media and Entertainment
Producer Chris Hilton
Director Randall Wood
Broadcaster ABC, Arte France, Smithsonian
Sales & Distribution Essential Media and Entertainment
Synopsis Amongst perhaps the only truly happy people on earth, maverick linguist Daniel Everett sets out to discover if the language we speak defines the way we think. In fresh studies of the culture and language of the Amazonian Pirahã tribe he seeks evidence for groundbreaking concepts that, if proven, will end the ostracism and insults Everett has endured from his own savage tribe of academics and expand our idea of what it means to be human.

MACQUARIE THE FATHER OF AUSTRALIA
Intomedia Pty Ltd
Producers Stuart Scowcroft and Seona Robertson
Director Les Wilson
Broadcaster Foxtel, BBC Scotland
Synopsis Lachlan Macquarie took the jail settlement of Sydney Cove from a penal outpost to a British colony in 10 short and tumultuous years. In doing so he paved the way to nationhood. This is his story.

ROCKET COMPULSION
Firelight Productions Pty Ltd and Paper Bark Films Pty Ltd
Producers Marcus Gillezeau and Ellenor Cox
Director Gregory Read
Writer Simon Nasht
Broadcaster Discovery Networks Asia
Sales & Distribution Off The Fence, ABC Enterprises
Online Blink Digital
Synopsis This is the story of a tenacious Australian jet pilot, David Mayman, as he strives to achieve his childhood dream of building and free-flying his very own Rocket Belt, only to discover he faces a nearly impossible task. Collaborating with the world’s leading Rocket Belt engineers David risks life and limb to become the world’s next Rocketman. Rocket Compulsion will take the audience on a ride that shows point blank why less people have flown Rocket Belts than have walked on the Moon.

THE SECRET HISTORY OF THE EUROVISION SONG CONTEST
Electric Pictures Pty Ltd
Producers Andrew Ogilvie and Andrea Quesnelle
Writer/Director Stephen Oliver                                   
Broadcaster SBS, Ch4, DR, NPS/VPRO, NRK, RTE, SVT, VRT, WDR, YLE
Sales & Distribution BBC Worldwide
Synopsis Some see it as an outdated, second-rate entertainment show. But as the contest enters its second half century in robust health, this is an opportunity to take it seriously (well, most of the time) in a documentary series that mixes politics and pop music, fun, gossip, and – sometimes – real international intrigue, to tell the behind-the-scenes stories of one of the great institutions of European broadcasting. A winning blend of humour and insight, the program will peer beyond the glitz and sparkle to examine the Eurovision Song Contest and how it has tracked – and at times even influenced – the changing social and political life of Europe.

AUSTRALIA: THE LAND THAT TIME FORGOT
Essential Media
Executive Producer Chris Hilton
Producer Andrea Gorddard
Director Richard Smith
Synopsis Takes us from the birth of the Solar System to the modern world, an amalgam of natural history, science and adventure, revealing the diversity of the Australian continent, meeting not only the creatures in question, but also the people unravelling their secrets.

Special Documentary Program

A COMMON PURPOSE
Looking Glass Pictures
Producer/Writer/ Director Mitzi Goldman
Synopsis In a landmark trial in South Africa that convicted 26 people collectively of murder of one man and sentenced 14 of them to death, two white lawyers fight for justice in the most violent era of apartheid’s history. A Common Purpose tells this story of law, justice and human rights.

MAKE HUMMUS NOT WAR
A Yarra Bank Films and Eclipse Films Production
Producer/Writer/Director Trevor Graham
Co-producer Ned Lander
Executive Producers Andrew Myer, Phil Craig
Synopsis A new war has broken out in the Middle East between the usual suspects, but chick peas, not bullets, are in the front line.

MISSING IN THE VALLEY OF GODS
Producer Liz Burke
Writer/Director Davor Dirlic
Synopsis Missing in the Valley of Gods is a film about an Australian family who must battle an emotional and cultural minefield in the search for their free spirited son who has mysteriously disappeared in India.

MY LONG NECK
Producer Judi Oehme
Executive Producer Lauren Drewery
Writer/Director Shalom Almond
Synopsis Three young Kayan refugees feel trapped by life as ‘long neck’ tourist attractions in a village along the Thai-Burmese border. Now these sisters have a chance at freedom but will they take it?

SONS AND MOTHERS
Pop Pictures
Producer Louise Pascale
Writer/ Director Christopher Houghton
Synopsis A group of isolated men find common ground in the creation of a theatre show about their mothers.

MONGOLIAN BLING
Flying Fish Films Pty Ltd
Producer Nubar Ghazarian
Consultant Producer Liz Burke
Writer/Director Benj Binks
Synopsis Mongolia has hip hop. It was beamed into the country, bringing with it foreign images of jewels, clothes and fame. In their haste to take in the outside world, many of the youth ignored their country’s rich musical history. A history that the Shamans believe holds the key to Mongolia’s success on the world hip hop stage. While many artists still aspire to the West, a handful are using hip hop to try and salvage their country’s struggling democracy, and bring Mongolia’s rich musical history into modern beats and rhymes.

THE TOTE DOCUMENTARY
NicNat Films
Producer Nicole Rogers
Director Natalie Van Den Dungen
Synopsis Explores the rich musical history of one of Melbourne’s most renowned rock’n’roll pubs, the Tote Hotel in Collingwood, and the impact of its imminent closure.

WELCOME TO MAPWORLD
CraigFX Pty Ltd
Producer/Writer/Director Craig Anderson
Writer/Director Doug Bayne
Synopsis Comedy, animation and special effects combine in this essay documentary to ask the big questions: “What is it to be human? Do we need God? What is it with these maps?”