2007/2008 - Documentaries

The following documentaries were financed by the former FFC during the 2007/2008 period.

THE CURSE OF THE GOTHIC SYMPHONY (52 minute documentary)
Fury Productions Pty Ltd
Producer Veronica Fury
Director/Writer Anthony Mullins
Sales and Distribution ABC
Synopsis This documentary follows the journey of a brave and committed group of Brisbane musicians, who will attempt to break an 80 year curse and stage the longest, largest and most technically difficult symphony ever composed.

DRUGS, DEATH AND BETRAYAL (52 minute documentary)
Carlyon-Miller Productions
Producers Terry Carlyon, Robyn Miller
Director Terry Carlyon
Sales and Distribution ABC
Synopsis Drugs, Death and Betrayal lifts the lid on the slaughter that resulted when two underworld tribes went to war over drug profits during Melbourne's infamous gangland killings.

THE LONG GOODBYE (55 minute documentary)
Luminous Films Pty Ltd
Producer Gina Twyble
Director/Writer Kaye Harrison
Consulting Director Catherine Marciniak
Sales and Distribution ABC
Synopsis Thousands of Baby Boomers are living in fear of what may lie ahead. On the eve of a dementia epidemic, three couples reveal how love and humour can balance despair for those living The Long Goodbye.

MAKING MUSIC (55 minute documentary)
Arundel Productions Pty Ltd
Producers Bob Connolly, Helen Pankhurst
Directors Bob Connolly, Sophie Raymond
Sales and Distribution ABC
Synopsis Filmmakers Bob Connolly and Sophie Raymond follow MLC Schools legendary director of music, Karen Carey, as she throws her young students into musical waters over their heads. Fifteen months later, at the Sydney Opera House, this extraordinary educational program comes to fruition, and we celebrate the making of music and what it can give us.

MURDER IN THE SNOW
360 Degree Films Pty Ltd
Producer Sally Ingleton
Director  Mark Gould
Writers Mark Gould, Sally Ingleton
Sales and Distribution National Geographic TV International, SBS, BBC, TSR, RTBF, YLE
Synopsis In September 2006, Chinese soldiers shot at a group of pilgrims as they fled Tibet. International mountain climbers filmed the shooting, helped rescue survivors and bravely broadcast their story to the world. Both sides risked their lives. Why?

NOT FORGOTTEN (52 minute documentary)
Firefly Productions Pty Ltd
Executive Producer Margie Bryant
Director/Writer/Producer Jane Jeffes
Sales and Distribution SBS
Synopsis Virtually every town and suburb across Australia has a monument to its own local WW1 heroes: men, boys and women who ‘gave their lives that we might live'.  We walk past them every day.  Names carved in stone unseen.  Lives forgotten.  Taking these memorials and the long lists of the dead as a starting point, Not Forgotten brings individual lives and stories back to life, reaching out to 21st century descendants to explore the ways in which Australian families, communities and the nation as a whole was touched and transformed by the Great War and how the legacy of their experience laid the foundations for our 20th century history.

ONCE BITTEN (2 x 52 minute series)
Circe Films Pty Ltd
Producer Beth Frey
Co-Producer/Writer Janette Howe
Director Mark Walker
Sales and Distribution SBS, SBS Content Sales, Maori Television
Synopsis Once Bitten is about second-time round relationships- the way we love in today's complex world and survive to tell the tale.

THE PAGEANT (52 minute documentary)
Ikandy Films
Producer Janine Hosking
Director Martin Taylor
Sales and Distribution SBS
Synopsis The sashed State Finalists line-up. In this beauty pageant no one wants to save the world or the environment and there's no mention of feeding starving children. The judges are on a booty quest for good tits and arse. Miss QLD says that if she wins "she'll use the money to open a brothel". Welcome to the politically incorrect Miss Nude Australia Pageant!

THE PORTRAIT PAINTER (52 minute documentary)
Storm Productions Pty Ltd
Producer/Director Esben Storm
Sales and Distribution SBS
Synopsis A portrait of the artist Shen Jiawei and the journey of his life from Shanghai to Sydney.

THE REAL HOBBITS (52 minute documentary)
Essential Viewing in association with Real Pictures
Executive Producer Chris Hilton
Producer Annamaria Talas
Director Simon Nasht
Sales and Distribution ABC, ARTE, CBC, RDF
Synopsis The controversial discovery of the "Hobbit", a new species of human, challenges the understanding of our origins.

WHATEVER HAPPENED TO BRENDA HEAN (90 minute documentary)
Big and Little Films Pty Ltd
Producers Michael McMahon, Scott Millwood
Director Scott Millwood
Writers Scott Millwood, Mira Robertson
Sales and Distribution ABC
Synopsis Whatever Happened to Brenda Hean tells the remarkable story of Brenda Hearn- one of the first leaders of an environmental political party in the world- whose fight to save Tasmania's Lake Pedder lead to her mysterious disappearance in 1972. Thirty-five years later a filmmaker undertakes a quest to discover the truth.

WHO DO YOU THINK YOU ARE - SERIES 2 (6 x 52 minute series)
Artemis International Pty Ltd and Serendipity Productions Pty Ltd
Executive Producers Brian Beaton, Margie Bryant
Series Producer Celia Tait
Directors/Writers TBC
Sales and Distribution SBS, 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.

THE INTERVENTION (56 minute documentary)
Jotz Productions
Producer Tom Zubrycki
Director/Writer Julie Nimmo
Sales and Distribution ABC
Synopsis The lntervention examines the process of the Federal intervention taking place in Indigenous communities in the Katherine region in the Northern Territory in the name of neglected and abused children.

SAMSON AND DELILAH: THE DOCUMENTARY (55 minute documentary)
Scarlett Pictures
Producers Kath Shelper, Beck Cole
Director/Writer Beck Cole
Sales and Distribution ABC
Synopsis Two Aboriginal youths, plucked from obscurity, bring to life and in to cinemas worldwide the fictional journey of Samson and Delilah.

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.

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.

EMBEDDED EPISODE 1 (1x52 minute)
Embedded with Black Fellas
Circe Films Pty Ltd
Executive Producer: Michaela Perske
Producer: Beth Frey
Director/writers: Sarah Jane Woulahan, Polly Watkins
Sales and Distribution: SBS Content Sales
Synopsis: A young white girl steps across the urban divide to find out what it is like to live black.

EMBEDDED EPISODE 2 &3 (2x52 minute)
Embedded with Jihad/Embedded with Nationalism
Red Ithaka Productions Pty Ltd
Executive Producer: Michaela Perske
Producer: Michaela Perske
Director: Nicola O'Callaghan
Sales and Distribution: SBS Content Sales
Synopsis: Episode 2 Embedded With Jihad - Does Islam pose a threat to the Australian way of life? Episode 3 Embedded With Nationalism - A Bengali migrant journeys into the heartland of Australian nationalism.

NAVY DIVERS (4x30 minute)
Prospero Productions (2006) Pty Ltd
Executive Producers: Ed Punchard, Julia Redwood
Directors: Steve Westh, Russell Vines
Writer: John McCourt
Sales and Distribution: ABC Content Sales
Synopsis: At a time of heightened tension and increasing security risks throughout the world, Navy Divers is a timely exploration of life at the front line of national defence with unprecedented access to the Navy's most extreme training course.

TWO IN THE TOP END (5x26 minute)
Cordell Jigsaw Productions Pty Ltd
Executive Producer: Michael Cordell, Nick Murray
Supervising Producer: Toni Malone
Directors: Michael Cordell, Ashley Smith
Sales and Distribution: ABC Content Sales
Synopsis: John Doyle and Tim Flannery explore Australia's last frontier in an eclectic journey across the top end from Cairns to Broome. As climate change shifts the national focus northward the two men examine the colourful past, present and future of the deep north in their inimitable style.

GREAT AUSTRALIAN ALBUMS: SERIES 2 (4x52 minute mini-series)
Mushroom Pictures Pty Ltd
Executive Producers: Martin Fabinyi, Michael Gudinski
Producer/Writer: Toby Creswell
Producer: Danielle Kelly
Director: Larry Meltzer
Sales and Distribution: SBS
Synopsis: Great Australian Albums Series 2 is a documentary series that celebrates and examines those iconic Australian albums that have had significant popular and critical acclaim throughout the world.

THE BURNING SEASON (1x52 / 1x90 minute)
Hatchling Productions Pty Ltd
Executive Producers: Roger Graef, Trish Lake
Co-Producers: Jeff Canin
Co-producer/Director/Writer: Cathy Henkel
Sales and Distribution: ABC TV, BBC, CBC, National Geographic Television International
Synopsis: As the world faces up to the impacts of climate change, a young environmental entrepreneur proposes a massive carbon trading deal that could protect the forests of Indonesia, save the orangutans from extinction and redefine the Earth's future?

I, PSYCHOPATH (1x52 / 1x90 minute)
Liberty Productions Pty Ltd and The Magic Real Picture Company
Executive Producer: Jennifer Cummins
Producer: Sally Regan
Co-Producer: Ian Walker
Director/Writer: Ian Walker
Sales and Distribution: ABC TV, ZDF, CBC, Off The Fence
Synopsis: I, Psychopath will take us on a road trip into the life and mind of a psychopath.  Former white-collar criminal, Sam Vaknin goes in search of a diagnosis that proves beyond doubt that he doesn't have a conscience and that he can't be cured.

GALLIPOLI'S SUBMARINE (1x55 / 2x26 minute)
Electric Pictures Pty Ltd
Executive Producers: Andrew Ogilvie, Crispin Sadler,
Director/Writer: Steve Westh
Sales and Distribution: ABC, ITV Westcountry, ZDF, Alliance Atlantis, NGTI,
Synopsis: Gallipoli's Submarine combines the intrigue of a hazardous underwater expedition to Australia's greatest surviving relic of the Gallipoli Campaign, with the dramatised, spine-tingling tale of one of the most audacious missions ever undertaken by a submarine.

THE LAST CONFESSION OF ALEXANDER PEARCE (1x55 minute)
Essential Viewing Group
Executive Producer: Chris Hilton
Producer/Writer: Nial Fulton
Sales and Distribution: ABC TV, History Channel UK, RTE, Sunday Night Movies, RDF Content Sales
Synopsis: The Last Confession of Alexander Pearce follows the final days of Irish convict Alexander Pearce's life as he awaits execution. The year is 1824 and the British penal colony of Van Diemen's Land is little more than a living hell. Chained to a wall in the darkness of a cell under Hobart Gaol, Pearce is visited by Father Connolly, the parish priest of the fledgling colony and a fellow Irishman. The Last Confession Of Alexander Pearce will draw a visceral and compelling picture of a hell on earth and tell how one man endured the unimaginable by doing the unthinkable.

CHATEAU CHUNDER (1x55 minute mini-series)
Electric Pictures Pty Ltd
Producers: Andrew Ogilvie, Phil Craig
Director/Writer: Alan Carter
Sales and Distribution: ABC TV, BBC, Off The Fence
Synopsis: This documentary is both a social history of wine and wine drinking and an in-depth examination of how a small group of enterprising Australian wine makers took on the world�and won, changing the way that wine is made and marketed as a result.

DARWINS LOST PARADISE (2x52 /1x90 minute mini-series)
Chapman Pictures Pty Ltd
Executive Producer: Emmanuel Laurent
Producers: Penny Chapman, Katharina von Flotow
Director/Writer: Jan N Lorenzen
Writer: Simon Nasht
Sales and Distribution: SBS TV, ARTE, Monaco Films
Synopsis: This film investigates the scientific research and thought which in the fields of geology, zoology and biology have been inspired to this day by Darwin's discoveries.

JANET'S BABY
Screen Culture Pty Ltd
Producer/Director/Writer: Janet Merewether
Sales and Distribution: SBS TV
Synopsis: Tired of waiting for the perfect partner, and alarmed by the deafening tic-toc of her biological clock, 39 year-old filmmaker Janet Merewether decides to take life into her own hands and embark on a journey into the new social phenomenon of single motherhood by choice.

LIONEL
Circe Films Pty Ltd
Producer: Lizzette Atkins
Director: Edward Martin
Writer: David Tiley
Sales and Distribution: SBS TV
Synopsis: Lionel is a classic rags-to-riches story set against a changing cultural and political landscape. It's a story about winning and losing, about fame and misfortune. It's also a great love story and a testament to human resilience and courage.

THE MATILDAS
Essential Viewing Pty Ltd
Executive Producer: Ian Collie
Producer: Peter Scobie
Director: Helen Barrow
Sales and Distribution: SBS TV
Synopsis: The Matildas reveals a journey of discovery through the eyes of three female footballers. From the practice games in Australia to the World Cup matches in China the film will uncover the personal stories, expectations, fears and sacrifices that these women must make to be the best in their chosen sport.

THE MATILDA MODEL
Olsen Levy Productions Pty Ltd
Producer/Director/Writer: Curtis Levy
Producer: Helen Pankhurst
Sales and Distribution: ABC TV
Synopsis: The Matilda Model is a comedic film which looks at the origins of the song Waltzing Matilda in order to ascertain whether it should become the Australian national anthem.

ON TRIAL (4x54 minute mini-series)
On Trial Television
Executive Producer: Michael Cordell
Producer: Ian Collie
Directors: Susan Lambert, Hugh Piper
Sales and Distribution: ABC TV
Synopsis: On Trial, Cases from the District Court of NSW, is a documentary series that offers unprecedented access to criminal trials in an Australian court.

RETURN OF THE MASTA (1x52 minute mini-series)
Arcimedia Pty Ltd
Producer: John Lewis
Line Producer/Writer: Chris Owen
Director/Writer: Thom Cookes
Sales and Distribution: SBS TV, ITVS
Synopsis:

ROAD TRIP NATION (4x27 /6x27 minute mini-series)
Iris Pictures Pty Ltd
Executive Producers: Stephen Segaller, Nathan Gebhard
Producer: Jessica Douglas Henry
Director: Kalita Corrigan
Sales and Distribution: SBS TV, WNET
Synopsis: Road Trip Nation is an observational documentary series following three young people on a rugged five-week journey that takes in the diversity of Australia, our people, our culture and landscape as they travel across the country in search of inspiration, meeting and interviewing outstanding Australians.

Documentary Archive