December 2007

The final FFC board meeting for 2007 has approved a record number of 22 projects generating $72.94 million worth of production in film, television drama and documentary projects featuring some of our leading film makers including Scott Hicks, Bryan Brown, Rachel Ward.

"With the introduction of the producers offset film makers are now empowered to get stronger deals together. This has led to many more projects being presented to the board than we can finance, but that is a sign of a healthy, dynamic and energised industry," said Brian Rosen today.

"The slate announced today reflects the boards desire to back strong creative teams, with box office potential and diversity."

Projects receiving funding today are feature films; both market place and evaluation, television drama and documentary. There have also been eight feature film projects receiving a letter of intent through evaluation.

Features financed

• Scott Hicks will once again tackle the father-son relationship in his first Australian feature since the Oscar-winning Shine. The Boys are Back in Town is a high-budget Australian/British co-production from the producer of the smash hit Billy Elliot, Greg Brenman, and Australia's Tim White (Oscar and Lucinda, Ned Kelly, Gettin' Square). Talented sports writer, Joe, is thrust unexpectedly into single parenthood. In looking after his two boys from two different marriages, Joe starts out by trying a Peter-Pan-like strategy of no rules whatsoever, only to find he has a lot to learn about fatherhood and about himself. This finely-tuned, comic drama is set primarily in Australia and also in the UK. It is written by Allan Cubitt (Anna Karenina, Prime Suspect), based on the book by UK sports writer Simon Carr.
• Beautiful Kate will be directed by award-winning short film director and actor Rachel Ward (Against All Odds, The Thorn Birds). Ward's husband, actor/producer Bryan Brown, is producing Beautiful Kate with Leah Churchill-Brown (Suburban Mayhem), and will also play a lead role in this drama about family secrets.
• There is comedy, drama and romance in Prime Mover, the feature from director David Caesar (Dirty Deeds, Mullet, RAN). Prime Mover will star Australian actor Emily Barclay (Suburban Mayhem), playing the heart's desire of Thomas (Michael Dorman Suburban Mayhem, Daybreakers), a young man with a dream to own and run one of the massive road trains that cruise the Australian outback. It is a big-screen, diesel-powered love story with drive, speed and energy enough to make the heart race (produced by Vincent Sheehan - Little Fish, Mullet).
• Accidents Happen 15 year old Billy Conway has been an accident magnet since he was a kid. When he and his best friend cause an almighty crash with a bowling ball and a moving car, Billy must face up to his family's history and learn that sometimes someone is to blame and that sometimes... well... accidents just happen. Producer Anthony Anderson (Somersault, The Silence), director is Andrew Lancaster (In Search of Mike) and writer Brian Carbee (In Search of Mike) and Heather Ogilvie is executive producer (Dating the Enemy, Hildegard). Geena Davis (Thelma & Louise) is attached to star in this project.
• Triangle is a psychological thriller set inside the Bermuda Triangle. Writer/director is Christopher Smith (Creep, Severance), the Australian producer is Chris Brown (Under the Radar, The Proposition) and UK producer is Jason Newmark (Severence, The Cat's Meow).

Feature film Letters of Intent

In addition to features financed, eight feature film projects received Letters of Intent at the FFC's December meeting. Films chosen through the FFC's evaluation program receive a Letter of Intent containing the terms and conditions of proposed FFC funding. The FFC board makes a formal commitment to fund evaluation projects only when the producers have satisfied the terms and conditions set out in the Letter.

• Cane Toads is a feature documentary from writer/producer/director Mark Lewis whose previous documentary for television Cane Toads provides the inspiration for this feature. Cane Toads is a theatrical horror documentary which recaps the history of this ecological disaster and brings us up to date with the cane toads ongoing conquest of mainland Australia.
• Bran Nue Dae from director and co-writer Rachel Perkins (Radiance, Once Night the Moon); choreographer Stephen Page (artist director Bangarra Dance Theatre Skin, Ninni); composer Jimmy Chi (Bran Nue Dae) and producers Robyn Kershaw (Looking for Alibrandi, Kath and Kim series one and two) and Graeme Isaac (Dhakiyarr Vs The King) is an explosion of colour, music and dance and the innocent joy of youth when first produced as a play in the 1990s.
• Blessed from director Ana Kokkinos (The Book of Revelation, Head On) is a film about mothers and their children, about love and beauty, about being lost and finding your way home. Writers are Andrew Bovell (Lantana, Head On, The Book of Revelation), Melissa Reeves (Who's afraid of the Working Class?), Christos Tsiolkas (novelist Loaded Dead Europe) and Patricia Cornelius, producer Andrena Finlay (Razzle Dazzle - A Journey into Dance, Me Myself I) and executive producers Al Clark (The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert, Chopper) and Marian MacGowan (Two Hands, Death Defying Acts).
• Neil Neil Orange Peel is a story of a social revolution set within the microcosm of a experimental "free" school set against the turbulent backdrop of the early 1970s, a period of enormous change all across the western world. Writer/director is Richard Lowenstein (Dogs In Space, He Died with a Felafel in His Hand) producer Sue Murray (10 Canoes, Dr Plonk).
• The Last Ride is a powerful contemporary exploration of a child's dilemma - the choice between doing what his heart knows is right and the need to be loved by a dysfunctional father. From director Glendyn Ivin, winner of the Palme D'Or at this year's Cannes Film Festival for his short film Crakerbag, produced by Nicholas Cole (director on Water Rats, A Difficult Woman) and Antonia Barnard (Welcome to Woop Woop, The Quiet American, Rain Shadow) and written by Mac Gudgeon (Ground Zero, The Delinquents, Wind).
• The Loved Ones tells the story of a young man digging himself out of his own grave. Producer Mark Lazarus (Restraint, Australian Rules) and writer/director Sean Byrne (Advantage).
• Myself: Sometimes tells of a young man who is impossible to live with and who must find a way to live with himself. Producer Melissa Beauford (Feed, Puppy), director/writer Keran Galvin (Puppy).
• Izzy Noble. For every action there are endless reactions. Izzy Noble is a lonely, eccentric outsider. He avoids reality at all costs by retreating into his encyclopaedic mind and a constant monologue with himself. A series of life threatening events test Izzy's nobility and his courage to find love in the real world. Producers Laura Waters, (Kath and Kim, We Can be Heroes), Janine Gold (previously worked for Film 4 Intl, Celluloid Dreams) and Greg Sitch (Bad Eggs, Boytown), writer/director is Hernan Bornas (America).

Adult Television Drama

• From the AFI Award-winning team behind The Home Song Stories comes Saved. The story of a married woman who saves a young Iranian refugee from detention, only to fall passionately in love with him. Tony Ayres (The Home Song Stories, Walking on Water) will direct from a screenplay written by Belinda Chayko (Grandma's Teeth). Producing is Michael McMahon (The Home Song Stories, Wildness). Claudia Karvan is attached to star in the project.
• Dirt Game is a 6-part drama series about a UK CEO who is sent out by his secretive London Board to head up a debt-ridden Australian mining firm and who - with the help of a hastily-formed Aussie crisis-management team - is under ruthless instruction to either save the company or dump it. Written and produced by Michael Harvey (Janus, Goodbye, Johnny Ray) with producer David Taft (Newlyweds, State Coroner).
• Against the heavily researched feature backdrop of bickering intelligence agencies, fallible police forces and international tensions, False Witness is a high-octane thriller based on the West's worst nightmare: a threat they do not see coming. To be directed by Peter Andrikidis (Blackjack, Jessica), produced by Greg Haddrick (Mary Bryant, The Society Murders), story by Greg Haddrick, Ronan Glennane and Nell Greenwood, written by Ronan Glennane and Nell Greenwood (Pride and Joy) and executive produced by Des Monaghan (Jessica, Mary Bryant) and Brendan Dahill.

Documentaries - International Door

• Dead Tired investigates how sleep deprivation causes sickness and death in today's society. The series also focuses on solutions as well as the causes, consequences and cures for insomnia - now the world's most common medical disorder. From Producer/director/writer Paul Scott (A Recipe for Change, The Oldest Living Tasmanian). International co-finance comes from National Geographic. Domestic broadcaster SBS.
• We've heard a lot about global warming, but what about the solutions? The Future Makers unearths successful people in business and technology as they begin to create the changes needed on a large scale, in both local and international contexts. Producer/director Maryella Hatfield (From Dreamtime to Dance, the Student Movie Show) along with producers Lisa Duff (Last Train to Freo, Romancing the Chakra), Krissoula Syrmis (Powder Burn, Big TV). The project has attracted international investment from Discovery International.
• With the very latest scientific research, dramatic re-enactments and CGI, Death of the Megabeasts journeys back 60,000 years to come face to face with Australia's megafauna and solve one of the biggest mysteries of our past. From director Franco Di Chiera (Who Do You Think You Are, Constructing Australia: Pipe Dream), executive producers Ed Punchard and Julia Redwood (Eco House), and writer John McCourt (Constructing Australia: Pipe Dream). International co-finance comes from France 5 (France), National Geographic Channel (USA, Canada) and National Geographic Television International. Domestic broadcaster SBS.
• Robot Revolution - a cutting-edge science programme exploring Artificial Intelligence with one of the world's greatest mind - Professor Rodney Brooks - as he races to create the world's first affordable personal robot. From director/writer Andrea Ulbrick (Missing Persons Unit, Nerves of Steel), producer Isabel Perez (In The Company of Actors, The Shelter) and executive producer Chris Hilton (Songlines of the Seine, Bridging the Timor Sea). The project has attracted international investment from ARTE France (France, Germany) and CBC Canada (Canada). Domestic broadcaster ABC.

Documentaries - Domestic Door

• In Modernity Paradox producer/director/writer Judy Rymer (Victory over Death, Century of Cinema) along with producers Bevan Childs (Message from Moree, All Points of the Compass), Jody Nunn (Inside Australia) look at how increasing childhood rates of diabetes, respiratory disease, behavioural disorders, obesity and one in four children with mental health problems lead 2003 Australian of the year, Fiona Stanley, to predict that future generations of Australians could have a shorter life expectancy than their parents. Domestic broadcaster ABC.
• Paper Dolls - The Pin Up Girls of World War 2 charts the growth of the Australian pin-up through the recollections of four former pin-up girls and three male collectors who were in the military during the Second World War. From writer/director Angela Buckingham (Tested, The Beaconsfield Miners) and producer Yvonne Collins (The Circuit). Domestic broadcaster SBS.
• What happens when Tara Morice, star of Strictly Ballroom, meets Mildred Levine, a 75 year old, lip-synching great grandmother from Coconut creek, who is her biggest fan? My Biggest Fan documents an unlikely friendship forged between two women from very different worlds, and re-affirms the power of a movie to bring people together. From producer/director/writer Tara Morice and executive producer Michael Cordell (Two Men in a Tinnie, The Original Mermaid). Domestic broadcaster SBS.
• You Only Live Twice explores 4 generations of the Hughes family dynasty. A generational journey through the past 100 years of Australian life exploring family mythology and the power of family ties, the love of artistic expression and the discovery of a quintessential Australian, rat bag, and larrikin dynasty like no other. From director Brendan Young (Conspiracy, The Two of Us) and producer Ruth Cullen (Becoming Julia). Domestic broadcaster ABC.
• About Women is a series investigating the modern Australian woman in her many stages of life - what she needs to thrive and survive in the 21st Century and the obstacles she faces on her life's journey. Director Judith John-Story (The Mole), executive producer Jessica Douglas-Henry (Road Trip Nation, Divorce Stories) and producer John Jansen-Moore (Kidnapped).

Special Documentary Fund

Each year the FFC invests, through its Special Documentary Fund, in the production of up to five documentary programs where there is no requirement for broadcaster co-finance. The aim of the scheme is to provide the opportunity for filmmakers to step outside the potential limitations of broadcaster commissioning and FFC market requirements. This year the films selected are:

• Indonesia Calling: Joris Ivens in Australia from producer/director/writer John Hughes (The Archive Project) recalls the birth of an independent Indonesia, the role of Australia in its emergence and the heritage and impact of a small film at a moment of crisis.
• The Boot Cake, in the small town of Adipur in north west India, Charlie Chaplin is treated as a god. Australian filmmaker Kathryn Millard travels to Adipur for Chaplin's 116th birthday party. In the course of this journey, she seeks out some of the ghosts and reincarnations of Charlie Chaplin's Tramp. Producer/director/writer Kathryn Millard (Parklands, Light Years).
• Snowman, a feature documentary involving 2 parallel journeys into mental illness and conspiracy theories. In 1978 Jimmy was a 34 year old happily married mountaineer who scored his dream job with Operation Deepfreeze - training NASA astronauts in survival skills in Antarctica. Coming back 3 months later, he soon descended into schizophrenia and remains quite out of touch with reality today. Director/writer Juliet Lamont (Burst, The Players) and producer Rachel Landers (A Northern Town; A Girl, A Horse, A Dream).
• Salt combines the breathtaking imagery of internationally renowned photo-artist, Murray Fredericks, with the hauntingly delicate sounds of Aajinta's "Harmonic Sphere's", as Murray embarks on a solo pilgrimage to the heart of some of the worlds' most desolate environment on Lake Eyre in South Australia. Producer/director/writer Michael Angus (Ooldea, The Fight Game) with Murray Fredericks.
• Australian filmmakers Daniel Fallshaw and Violeta Ayala go to the Saharawi refugee camps in the Algerian desert to make a film about the human price of the long lasting political conflict in the Western Sahara, and find a society where slavery still exists. Through the prism of one family, Born in Captivity will provide an honest picture of this society today - a place where slaves cannot decide their fate, political leaders pretend to be unaware and organisations like the UN stand by and do nothing. Directors Violeta Ayala (A Vegan in the Meat Isle, Between the Oil and the Deep Blue Sea), Daniel Fallshaw (A Vegan in the Meat Isle, Isle, Between the Oil and the Deep Blue Sea) and producer Tom Zubrycki (Temple of Dreams, Molly & Mobarak).

For further information:

Victoria Buchan
The Lantern Group
Ph: 02 9383 4033
Mob: 0408 114 864

For a full list of new backed projects, see below:

Feature Films

Financed through Marketplace

THE BOYS ARE BACK IN TOWN
Southern Light Films Pty Ltd
Producers: Tim White, Greg Brenman
Director: Scott Hicks
Writer: Allan Cubitt
Sales and Distribution: Hopscotch, BBC Films, Capitol Films, Miramax Films
Synopsis: Based on the book by UK sports writer, Simon Carr.

TRIANGLE
Pictures in Paradise, Dan FIlms
Producers: Chris Brown, Jason Newmark
Director: Christopher Smith
Writer: Allan Cubitt
Sales and Distribution: Icon
Synopsis: Triangle is a psychological thriller set inside the Bermuda Triangle.

Financed through Evaluation

ACCIDENTS HAPPEN
Red Carpet Productions Pty Ltd
Executive producer: Heather Ogilvie
Producer: Anthony Anderson
Director: Andrew Lancaster
Writer: Brian Carbee
Sales and Distribution: Hopscotch/Galvanised, Bankside
Synopsis: 15 year old Billy Conway has been an accident magnet since he was a kid. When he and his best friend cause an almighty crash with a bowling ball and a moving car, Billy must face up to his family's history and learn that sometimes someone is to blame and that sometimes... well... accidents just happen.

BEAUTIFUL KATE
Beautiful Kate Productions Pty Ltd
Producers: Leah Churchill-Brown, Bryan Brown
Director/writer: Rachel Ward
Sales and Distribution: Roadshow, The Works, Showtime
Synopsis: Ned Kendall returns to his isolated family home to say goodbye to his dying father, but memories of his beautiful sister awaken long buried secrets from the past.

PRIME MOVER
Porchlight Films Pty Ltd
Producer: Vincent Sheehan
Director/Writer: David Caeser
Sales and Distribution: Dendy, Becker International Films
Synopsis: Prime Mover is a diesel charged love story about ambition, pressure, responsibility and the love shared by a man, a woman and his truck.

Letters of Intent through Evaluation

BLESSED
Zizani Films
Executive producers: Al Clark, Marian Macgowan
Producer: Andrena Finlay
Director: Ana Kokkinos
Writers: Andrew Bovell, Melissa Reeves, Patricia Cornelius, Christos Tsiolkas
Sales and Distribution: TBC
Synopsis: Blessed is a film about mothers and children, about love and beauty, about being lost and finding your way home.

BRAN NUE DAE
Robyn Kershaw Productions and Mayfan Pty Ltd
Producers: Robyn Kershaw, Graeme Issac
Director: Rachel Perkins
Writers: Rachel Perkins, Reg Cribb
Sales and Distribution: Omnilab, Bankside
Synopsis: Bran Nue Dae is a road movie, coming of age, comedy musical which celebrates the adventure of finding home.

CANE TOADS (feature documentary)
Radio Pictures
Producer/director/writer: Mark Lewis
Sales and Distribution: Participant, Madman
Synopsis: Cane Toads is a theatrical documentary that returns to the subject filmed by Mark Lewis 20 years ago. It recaps the history of this ecological disaster and brings us up-to-date with the cane toad's ongoing conquest of mainland Australia.

IZZY NOBLE
Princess Pictures
Executive producer: Joel Pearlman
Producers: Laura Waters, Janine Gold, Greg Sitch
Director/writer: Hernan Bornas
Sales and Distribution: Roadshow Films
Synopsis: For every action there are endless reactions. Izzy Noble is a lonely, eccentric outsider. He avoids reality at all costs by retreating into his encyclopaedic mind and a constant monologue with himself. A series of life threatening events test Izzy's nobility and his courage to find love in the real world.

THE LAST RIDE
Talk Films
Producers: Nicholas Cole, Antonia Barnard
Director: Glendyn Ivin
Writer: Mac Gudgeon
Sales and Distribution: Madman
Synopsis: The Last Ride is a powerful contemporary exploration of a child's dilemma - the choice between doing what his heart knows is right and the need to be loved by a dysfunctional father.

THE LOVED ONES
Mark Lazarus
Producer: Mark Lazarus
Director/writer: Sean Byrne
Sales and Distribution: Madman
Synopsis: The Loved Ones tells the story of a young man digging himself out of his own grave.

MYSELF: SOMETIMES
All At Once
Producer: Melissa Beauford
Director/writer: Kieran Galvin
Sales and Distribution: TBA
Synopsis: A young man who is impossible to live with must find a way to live with himself.

NEIL NEIL, ORANGE PEEL
Fandango Australia
Executive producer: Domenico Procacci
Producer: Sue Murray
Producer/director/writer: Richard Lowenstein
Sales and Distribution: Fandango srl
Synopsis: A story of a social revolution set within the microcosm of a experimental school in Melbourne at the beginning of the 1970s.

Adult Television Drama

DIRT GAME (6x1 hour mini-series)
Harvey Taft Productions
Producers: Michael Harvey, David Taft
Director: TBC
Writer: Michael Harvey
Sales and Distribution: Beyond, Omnilab, ABC
Synopsis: A 6-part drama series about a UK CEO who is sent out by his secretive London Board to head up a debt-ridden Australian mining firm and who - with the help of a hastily-formed Aussie crisis-management team - is under ruthless instruction to either save the company or dump it.

FALSE WITNESS (2x2 hour mini-series)
Screentime Pty Ltd
Executive producers: Des Monaghan, Brendan Dahill, Justin Bodle
Producer: Greg Haddrick
Director: Peter Andrikidis
Writers: Ronan Glennane, Nell Greenwood, Greg Haddrick
Sales and Distribution: Power, UKTV
Synopsis: Against the heavily researched feature backdrop of bickering intelligence agencies, fallible police forces and international tensions, False Witness is a high-octane thriller based on the West's worst nightmare: a threat they do not see coming.

SAVED (2x1hour mini-series)
Big and Little Films
Producers: Tony Ayres, Michael McMahon
Director: Tony Ayres
Writers: Belinda Chayko
Sales and Distribution: SBS, SBS Content
Synopsis: The story of a married woman who saves a young Iranian refugee from detention, only to fall passionately in love with him.

Documentaries

ABOUT WOMEN (3 x 52 minute documentary-series)
Iris Pictures Pty Ltd
Executive producer: Jessica Douglas-Henry
Producer: John Jansen-Moore
Director: Judith John-Story
Sales and Distribution: SBS TV
Synopsis: About Women a series investigating the modern Australian woman in her many stages of life - what she needs to thrive and survive in the 21st Century and the obstacles she faces on life's journey.

DEAD TIRED (2x52 minute documentary-series)
Paul Scott Films Pty Ltd
Producer/director/writer: Paul Scott
Sales and Distribution: SBS TV, National Geographic Television International
Synopsis: Is the loss of sleep due to contemporary living doing us harm? Many scientists believe so and now they've got the evidence to prove it. New medical studies reveal that sleep deprivation can trigger and exacerbate many diseases including heart disease, obesity, diabetes and depression. The American Sleep Foundation reports that sleep deprivation now constitutes the number ONE killer in the Western World!

DEATH OF THE MEGABEASTS (52 and 96 minute documentary)
Prospero Productions Pty Ltd
Executive producers: Ed Punchard, Julia Redwood
Director: Franco Di Chiera
Writer: John McCourt
Sales and Distribution: National Geographic International, National Geographic Television International
Synopsis: With the very latest scientific research, dramatic re-enactments and CGI, Death of the Megabeasts journeys back 60,000 years to come face to face with Australia's megafauna and solve one of the biggest mysteries of our past.

THE FUTURE MAKERS (52 minute documentary)
The Future Makers Pty Ltd
Producers: Lisa Duff, Maryella Hatfield, Krissoula Syrmis
Director: Maryella Hatfield
Sales and Distribution: Discovery Asia, First Hand Films, Madman
Synopsis: The Future Makers - people creating solutions that don't cost the earth. Ecological solutions inspired by nature, from surprising and successful innovators.

MODERNITY PARADOX (52 minute documentary)
Rymer Childs/ThunderboxTV
Producers: Judy Rymer, Bevan Childs, Jody Nunn
Director/writer: Judy Rymer
Sales and Distribution: Ronin Films
Synopsis: After a lifetime of cutting edge scientific study into the condition of the nation's children, Fiona Stanley believes we are at a crisis point, where a toxic physical and social environment may reduce the life expectancy of future generations. Stanley and the film eloquently and passionately explore the alarming, measurable health effects of the way we now bring up children - and where we might find the ideas and the will to improve child health.

MY BIGGEST FAN (52 minute documentary)
Tara Pictures Pty Ltd
Executive producer: Michael Cordell
Producer/director/writer: Tara Morice
Sales and Distribution: SBS TV, SBS Program Sales
Synopsis: What happens when Tara Morice, star of Strictly Ballroom, meets Mildred Levine, a 75 year old, lip-synching great grandmother from Coconut creek, who is her biggest fan?

PAPER DOLLS - PINUP GIRLS OF WORLD WAR 2 (52 minute documentary)
Marina Films Pty Ltd
Producer: Yvonne Collins
Director/writer: Angela Buckingham
Sales and Distribution: SBS
Synopsis: A documentary about the Australian women, who in the 1940's posed in their swimsuits for glamorous shots in magazines, newspapers and postcards.

ROBOT REVOLUTION (55 minute documentary)
Essential Viewing Pty Ltd
Executive producer: Chris Hilton
Producer: Isabel Perez
Director/writer: Andrea Ulbrick
Sales and Distribution: RDF
Synopsis: Robot Revolution - a cutting-edge science programme exploring Artificial Intelligence with one of the world's greatest mind - Professor Rodney Brooks - as he races to create the world's first affordable personal robot.

YOU ONLY LIVE TWICE (55 minute documentary)
Ruth Cullen
Producer: Ruth Cullen
Director: Brendan Young
Sales and Distribution: Ruth Cullen
Synopsis: You only Live Twice explores 4 generations of the Hughes family. This is a generational journey through the past 100 years of Australian life exploring family mythology, the power of family ties, the love of artistic expression and the discovery of a quintessential Australian, rat bag, and larrikin dynasty like no other.

Special Documentary Fund

THE BOOT CAKE
Charlie Productions Pty Ltd
Producers/director/writer: Kathryn Millard
Synopsis: In the small town of Adipur in north west India, Charlie Chaplin is treated as a god. In The Boot Cake, Australian filmmaker Kathryn Millard travels to Adipur for Chaplin's 116th birthday party. In the course of this journey, she seeks out some of the ghosts and reincarnations of Charlie Chaplin's Tramp.

BORN IN CAPTIVITY
United Notions Film
Producer: Tom Zubrycki
Directors: Violeta Ayala, Daniel Fallshaw
Synopsis: Australian filmmakers Daniel Fallshaw and Violeta Ayala go to the Saharawi refugee camps in the Algerian desert to make a film about the human price of the long lasting political conflict in the Western Sahara, and find a society where slavery still exists. Through the prism of one family, Born in Captivity will provide an honest picture of this society today - a place where slaves cannot decide their fate, political leaders pretend to be unaware and organisations like the UN stand by and do nothing.

INDONESIA CALLING: JORIS IVENS IN AUSTRALIA
Early Works
Producer/director/writer: John Hughes
Synopsis: Indonesia Calling: Joris Ivens in Australia recalls the birth of an independent Indonesia, the role of Australia in its emergence and the heritage and impact of a small film at a moment of crisis.

SALT
Jerrycan Films Pty Ltd
Producer/director/writer: Michael Angus
Synopsis: Salt combines the breathtaking imagery of internationally renowned photo-artist, Murray Fredericks, with the hauntingly delicate sounds of Aajinta's "Harmonic Sphere's", as he embarks on his annual solo pilgrimage to the heart of the worlds' most desolate environment on Lake Eyre, South Australia.

THE SNOWMAN
Pony Films Pty Ltd
Producer: Rachel Landers
Directors: Juliet Lamont, Rachel Landers
Writer: Juliet Lamont
Synopsis: Snowman is a feature documentary which involves 2 parallel journeys into mental illness and conspiracy theories. In 1978 Jimmy was a 34 year old happily married mountaineer who scored his dream job with Operation Deepfreeze - training NASA astronauts in survival skills in Antarctica. Coming back 3 months later, he soon descended into schizophrenia and remains quite out of touch with reality today. Snowman is a stunning piece of work that ties in the macro with the micro on a deeply personal journey.