Production Investment for Films, Television, Online & Mobile Phone Project Decisions

JUNE 2010

Title: ARTHOUSE
Television, Factual One Off
Mago Films Pty Ltd
Producer/Writer: Marian Bartsch
Director: Britt Arthur
ArtHouse, 26 minute television documentary or one hour, 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.  What drives them and inspires them in their uncompromising passion for good design?  This documentary follows a day-in-the-life of this stellar design team over a period of eight months, whilst examining the intricacies of their working relationship, the inspiration behind the somewhat iconic and at times controversial works.  We observe the design process unfolding in the construction of their own family home due for completion Dec 2010 plus there is a major pitch to complete . Will their design succeed?

Title: JUDITH LUCY'S SPIRITUAL JOURNEY
Television, Factual Series Long Form
Bearded Lady Productions Pty Ltd
Producer: Todd Abbott
Writer: Judith Lucy
Director: Janine Hosking
Judith Lucy is lost, so now, ready or not, she's going on a journey to find herself.
Raised a devout Catholic, converted into a committed atheist, stunned by the adult discovery that she was adopted, and now processing the losses of her parents, a dear friend, and her thirties (in that order), Judith wants something to believe in. Over six episodes, she'll explore what's on offer for the spiritually curious, interview spiritual leaders, immerse herself in confronting spiritual experiences, and relive through comic sketches the hilarious, bizarre and profound moments from her life that have shaped her spiritual belief system today. Following one person's most unusual personal path, it will explore issues that resonate with millions of Australians unsure of what to believe in, in a secular country at a time when the world seems to be shrinking at the same rate that fear is growing.

Title: MISS SOUTH SUDAN AUSTRALIA
Television, Factual One Off
Matchbox Pictures Pty Ltd
Producer/s: Michael McMahon, Polly Staniford, Tony Ayres
Writer/Director: Shannon Owen
Welcome to the "Miss South Sudan Australia" beauty pageant. It's the red carpet event of the year for Australia's Sudanese community; a glorious day and night of high-energy revelry, celebrating the courage and beauty of a dozen young women, and the vibrant culture of the Afri+can community. It's a precarious, and erratic ride as events are put together on the fly, and anything and everything can go wrong. Over three weeks we watch the sassy suite of young women from across Australia transform from schoolgirl to beauty queen. Some enter with hope of pursuing a modelling career, while others are in it for the party, but common to all these young women is the struggle to express an identity that fits with who they feel they are. Not only are they vying for the crown they are paving a way for a new generation of South Sudanese Australians.

Title: TRAFFICKED - THE RECKONING
Television, Factual One Off
Fairtrade Films Pty Ltd
Produce/sr: Luigi Acquisto, Stella Zammataro
Writer/Director: Luigi Acquisto
Trafficked - The Reckoning is the inspiring story of a former police officer's quest to find the man who enslaved a young Thai girl in a Sydney brothel. Ning was thirteen when she was trafficked to Australia and sold to a Sydney brothel owner. Chris Payne was an AFP officer at the time, running Australia's first anti-trafficking operation. The day before Immigration officials found Ning his operation was shut down and he was ordered not to investigate the case. Fifteen years later Payne, now a private investigator, mounts an investigation, determined to solve this cold case, and to put to rest some unfinished business.

Title: PRANK PATROL, SERIES TWO
Children's Television Series
ActiveTV Pty Ltd
Producer/s: Kylie Washington (Series Producer), Shona Van Lieshout (Producer), Michael McKay (EP), Amanda Peppard (Co-EP)
Director: Peter Lawler
Somewhere, sometime, a big time prank is about to be pulled all in the name of good fun! The Prank Patrol team return in this comedy-action series, where kids get to create, build and execute the prank of a lifetime on an unsuspecting friend or family member - all they have to do is call in the Prank Patrol! Host Scotty Tweedie, his sidekick Ninjas and guest experts help Aussie Pranksters pull off a big time prank using an array of playful gags, stunts and special FX, including flying bikes and exploding cars, life-like prosthetic masks and green screen effects - with all the action captured on hidden cameras. Can the Prankster pull it off? Fun and total mayhem is guaranteed... and the reactions from the Prankee make it all worthwhile!

Title: DANCE ACADEMY, SERIES TWO
Children's G Classification Television
McMicking Werner Pty Ltd t/a Werner Film Productions
Producer: Joanna Werner
Writer: Samantha Strauss
Tara returns to the National Academy of Dance with the goal of representing Australia in the world's most prestigious ballet competition. But perhaps she should be more focused on just surviving Second Year where having climbed to the top in her first year at the Academy - in dance, in life, in love - she now has a very long way to fall.

Title: THE SLAP
Television, Fiction Series Long Form
Matchbox Pictures Pty Ltd
Producer: Michael McMahon, Helen Bowden, Tony Ayres, Penny Chapman (EP)
Writer/s: Kris Mrksa, Alice Bell, Emily Ballou, Brendan Cowell, Cate Shortland
Directors: Tony Ayres, Jessica Hobbs, Cate Shortland, Robert Connolly
In a Melbourne backyard a tight-knit group of family and friends enjoy a late summer barbecue. There is a mixture of Indian and Greek food, much wine and beer, music and people of all ages. The kids play a game of backyard cricket until an argument between them escalates into a fight. It results in one of the adults, Harry, slapping four year old Hugo, a child who is not his son. This event ricochets through the group with devastating effects. In eight episodes, each told from a different character's point of view, The Slap traces the profound effect upon a group of friends and family of one disturbing event.

APRIL 2010

Title: THE FIRST INTERVIEW
Television, Factual One Off
Jungle Pictures Pty Ltd
Producer: Fiona Cochrane
Writer/Director: Dennis Tupicoff
Co-Producer/s: Wendy Griffiths, Stephanie Piera
The first part of The First Interview completes a documentary begun in Paris 124 years ago, on the 100th birthday of the great French scientist Michel-Eugene Chevreul. His conversation with the famous photographer Nadar - relaxed, witty and wise - is the first on-camera interview in history. The film also sketches in their long and influential lives, and brings the 1886 photographs to life in a highly original way. The second part of The First Interview shows the whole process of turning these famous still photographs and original text into an "impossible movie": a "talkie" interview from 1886!.

Title: THE LAST WALTZ
Television, Factual One Off
Waterbyrd Filmz Pty Ltd
Producer: Nickolas Bird
Writer: Dennis Smith
Director/s: Nickolas Bird, Eleanor Sharpe
Anny Salerni, the 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. As they prepare to compete at the Gay Games VIII in Germany, Anny and her students must battle injury, personal dramas and homophobia from the mainstream ballroom dancing community and the world in general.

Title: THE MULTICULTURAL HISTORY PORTAL
Online/Downloadable, Factual One Off
The Chocolate Liberation Front Pty Ltd
Producer/s: Dan Fill, Frank Verheggen
Writer: Prof. Andrew Jacobuwicz
Lead Developer: Charlie Mackenzie
The Multicultural History portal is a groundbreaking project that offers a set of components including: An interactive documentary, a thought provoking simulation and an elegantly designed digital story map, allowing users to find content in intuitive, sophisticated and visually attractive ways. In addition the project offers a community and resource destination for new Immigrants to upload and share their stories.

Title: SURVIVING GEORGIA
Cinema/Television, Fiction Feature
Surviving Georgia Pty Ltd
Producer/s: Kate Whitbread, Spencer McLaren
Writer: Sandra Sciberras
Director/s: Kate Whitbread, Sandra Sciberras
Steeped in trepidation and guilt Heidi and Rose return to claim their inheritance, and the least expected things begin to happen. Rose is reintroduced to her fiery high school crush, Johnny, and Heidi discovers that their manipulating mother is in fact not dead but living only streets away. Finally confronted with their living breathing mother the girls are sent into an emotional and amusing spin that ultimately leads them to face their demons and learn the lessons they need to move forward in their lives. Rose to stop running and Heidi to trust and accept love.

Title: OFFSPRING
Television Free to Air, Long Form Series
Southern Star Entertainment Pty Ltd
Producer/s: John Edwards, Imogen Banks
Writers: Debra Oswald, Jonathan Gavin, Kylie Needham, Michael Lucas and Margaret Wilson
Directors: Kate Dennis, Darren Ashton, Sian Davies and Glendyn Ivin
Offspring is the story of obstetrician Nina Proudman (Asher Keddie), her boisterous family and her chaotic romances. Dr Chris Havel (Don Hany) would be a perfect partner if only his wife hadn't gone missing a year ago. Her screw up sister Billie (Kat Stewart) is striving for a proper life with or without her musician lover Mick (Eddie Perfect). Her little brother Jimmy (Richard Davies) is a charming but compulsive liar. Her obstetric nurse friend Cherie has complicated all their lives by having had a baby with Nina's real estate agent dad Darcy (John Waters) and everyone becomes embroiled as they learn to platonically co-parent.

Title: OUTLAND
Television Free to Air, Long Form Series
Princess Pictures Pty Ltd
Producer/s: Andrea Denholm, Laura Waters
Writer/s: John Richards, Adam Richard
Director: Kevin Carlin
Where do you go if you grew up unpopular and pimply, having unrequited crushes on
boys in the rugby team and wishing to be transported to the exotic yet often papier-mâché worlds of English science fiction serials? How do you cope if you are both a geek, and gay? Orbiting around a gay science-fiction fan club, Outland is a series about belonging, and how everyone searches to find a place where they fit in.

MARCH 2010

Title: SUMMER CODA
Cinema Fiction Feature
Revival Film Company Pty Ltd
Producer/s: Richard Gray, Marc Goldenfein, John Finemore
Writer/Director: Richard Grey
Executive Producer/s: Natalie Miller, Bryce Menzies
A romantic drama set in the stunning orange groves of country Australia. Returning home to a family she's never known, Heidi meets Michael and embarks on an unexpected adventure, discovering that their secrets and lives are better shared. Closure is just the beginning.

FEBRUARY 2010

Title: CHARLES BEAN'S GREAT WAR
Factual One Off, Pay Television
360 Degree Films Pty Ltd
Producer: John Moore
Writer/Director: Wain Fimeri
In this dramatised documentary, Charles Bean, war correspondent, obsessive historian and reluctant mythmaker; tells us all about his remarkable life. From the playing fields of England via the Australian outback, to the maelstrom of the Great War. Charles Bean wrote the truth yet everyone thought he created a myth. He loved Australia the way most people love another person, and as so often happens in love, Australia let him down.

TITLE: CHRIS HUMFREY'S WILD LIFE
Television, Factual Series, Long Form 13 x 26 minutes
Producer/s: Tony Wright, Matt Calissi (AP)
Writer: Daniella Ortega
Meet Chris Humfrey, he's a zoologist who lives with his young family and their REALLY big dog in an idyllic bush haven in country Victoria. But the Humfreys also share their home with a few other pets-around 2000 of them in fact-and each and every one of them needs attention and 24/7 TLC. This isn't your average family home; it's a private zoo where human and animal sagas unfold on a daily basis - like a kind of mixed species 'Packed to the Rafters'! Chris and his wife Nicole work around the clock to keep their very extended family happy and healthy and manage their motley crew of Gen Y zookeepers/presenters. Each week Chris will share with us this extraordinary life and his amazing knowledge of Australia's fauna. Follow Chris in this chaotic, animal-crazy series that captures the drama, the danger, the animal facts and the sheer exhilaration of Chris Humfrey's Wild Life. Every day, a new saga unfolds at the zoo! And there is something new to learn all the time - even for Chris!

TITLE: KANGAROO MOB
Television, Factual One Off, 55 minutes
360 Degree Films Pty Ltd
Producer/Writer: Sally Ingleton
Director: Simon Target
KANGAROO MOB (1 x 55 minutes) is an intimate look at the kangaroos taking over the suburbs of Canberra and the team of ecologists following their every move. Using the latest scientific technology we will uncover surprising new behaviour whilst delving into the controversial issues that arise when sharing your backyard with a large wild animal. KANGAROO MOB will be a highly entertaining look at what happens when habitat runs out and kangaroos and humans are forced to co-exist.

TITLE: SECOND AUSTRALIANS
Television, Factual Series, Long Form 156 minutes (3 x 52' episodes)
Renegade Films Pty Ltd
Producer/s: Alex West, Lucy Maclaren
Writer/s: Alex West, Sara Tiefenbrun
Director: Ben Shakleford
Few modern nations are as diverse as Australia. Today half of all Australians, or their parents, were born overseas. Some 11 million of us have origins in around 185 countries. The story of immigration, of its restriction and liberalisation is the story of how the Australian dream unfolded. Behind that story is a secret history, revealing modern Australia is the result of a series of remarkable social experiments. The country did not simply evolve: it was socially reengineered. At times politicians who devised these social experiments on both the left and the right covered up their aims with spin. Ironically, while these experiments were intended to ensure that Australia prospered, they also made Australia an international pariah. Despite that, modern Australia ultimately developed into an affluent, cohesive and relaxed society, this series will explain how that was achieved and the struggles to make it possible.

TITLE: SNOWTOWN
Cinema Feature Fiction, 100 minutes
Warp Films Pty Ltd
Producer/s: Anna McLeish, Sarah Shaw
Writer: Shaun Grant
Director: Justin Kurzel
When 15-year-old Jamie is introduced to a charismatic man, a friendship begins. However as the relationship grows so do Jamie's suspicions, until he finds his world threatened by both his loyalty for, and fear of, his newfound father figure, John Bunting: Australia's most notorious serial killer.

DECEMBER 2009

Title: BED OF ROSES, SERIES THREE
Southern Star Entertainment Pty Ltd
Long Form TV Drama, 12 x 55 minutes
Producer: Stephen Luby and Mark Ruse
Director: Ted Emery
Writer/s: Elizabeth Coleman, Jutta Goetze, John Reeves, Josephine D Barrett, David Hannam, Deborah Parsons, Max Dann, Ysabelle Dean
In Series 3 of "Bed of Roses" Louisa Atherton, after much searching, has finally found her place in the town of Rainbow's End. At fifty she is head over heels in love, she is the proud new co-owner of the Echo newspaper - and she is still negotiating her affectionate, if often exasperating family. It could be a bed of roses but not for Louisa.

Title: LIBRARIANS, SERIES THREE
Gristmill Pty Ltd
Long Form TV Drama, 8 x 26 minutes
Producer: Wayne Hope and Robyn Butler
Director: Wayne Hope
Writer/s:Wayne Hope and Robyn Butler
Frances O'Brien, Head Librarian, is having a hellish time of it. And for once, it's not all of her making. Frances' mother, suffering from both dementia and a really horrible personality, lands on the O'Brien doorstep. Adding to her woes, morale at the Middleton Interactive Learning Centre is at a new all time low. In order to stay open, the library is forced to run as a business and return an annual profit. As the staff has a hard enough time enforcing the return of a book, this latest initiative could spell the end of life at the library.

Title: RUSH, SERIES THREE
Southern Star Entertainment Pty Ltd
Long Form TV Drama, 22 x 46 minutes
Producer: John Edwards and Mimi Butler
Director: TBC
Writer/s: Adam Todd
Rush Series 3, returns to Tactical Response - a squad of Police striving to be better. Trained to be faster and tactically superior, their aim is to get to the crisis first and respond with alternative, less lethal solutions. The Third Season is about what it is to be a family within the team. Brotherhood and sisterhood are challenged in action as TR continues pushing to do things better. We return to the city of Melbourne with the characters from Series 1 and 2, Josh, Lawson, Michael, Dom, Stella, Shannan, Kerry and Leon.

Title: MACHETE MAIDENS UNLEASHED!
Bionic Boy Productions Pty Ltd
One Off Factual, 80 minutes
Producer: Veronica Fury
Director/Wirter: Mark Hartley
Machete Maidens Unleased! - The Filipino Exploitation Explosion is a fast moving odyssey into the subterranean world of the rarely explored province of Filipino genre filmmaking. This is a unique celluloid world populated by miniature James Bonds, karate kickin' soul sisters, anorexic Rambos, unconvincing post-apocalyptic messiahs and a host of underfed and underpaid stunt extras.

OCTOBER 2009

Title: X
Circe Films Pty Ltd
Fiction Feature, 93 minutes
Producer: Lizzette Atkins
Writer: Belinda McClory
Writer/Director: Jon Hewitt
Holly Rowe's retiring, kissing her callgirl life goodbye. She just has to get through her last night on the job. Shay Ryan's a teenage runaway, broke and alone. She just has to get through her first night as a streetwalker. Then fate throws them together on a job that goes horribly wrong and they're trapped on an out-of-control roller-coaster ride through the twilight zone of sex-for-sale.

Title: THE ART OF WALKING
Flaming Star Films Pty Ltd
Television, Factual One-Off, 26 minutes
Producer: Sharyn Prentice
Writer/Director: Rosie Jones
In a world that values speed and efficiency, the notorious writer and cultural provocateur, Will Self chooses to walk 50 miles from Los Angeles Airport to Hollywood rather than take a taxi. As he doggedly traverses LA on foot, he invokes the curious histories of other subversive walkers who have changed the world through the art of walking. Through his idiosyncratic protest against the demands of modern urban life, Self asserts the power of walking to connect us to other people, the environment and the past.

Title: MICHAEL KIRBY
FilmArtDoco Pty Ltd
Television, Factual One-Off, 55 minutes
Producer: Sue Maslin
Writer/Director: Daryl Dellora
Filmed during his final days before retiring from the High Court of Australia, this documentary about Justice Michael Kirby explores the personal, moral and spiritual convictions which provide the framework for understanding one of Australia's greatest legal minds.

Title: PHOTOGRAPHY HIJACKED
Valarc Films Pty Ltd as Trustee for the Matteo Bruno Family Trust
Television, Factual One-Off 26-30 minutes
Producer: Matteo Bruno
Writer/Director: Jack Pam
"Hijacked: Australia & America", based on the highly successful photography book of the same name, is a discovery into the dynamic and diverse world of contemporary photography told through the eyes of the practitioner.

Title: KILLING TIME
Television, Fiction Long Form series 10 x 42 minutes
Producer: Jason Stephens
Writer/s: Mac Gudgeon, Shaun Grant, Ian David (Writer/Script Producer)
Director/s: Sian Davies
Andrew Fraser was one of Australia's most successful criminal lawyers. His upward trajectory seemed limitless until he himself began to believe the hype. A weekend dabble in cocaine quickly spiralled into a horrendous addiction that eventually saw him sentenced to seven years in maximum security prison. Now, surrounded by serial killers and murderers, Fraser must try and look back over his life to discover just where it went so wrong.

AUGUST 2009

Title: AFTER THE FIRES
December Films Pty Ltd
Television, One-Off (Factual) 55 minutes
Producer: Tony Wright
Writer/Director: Dione Gilmour
The devastation of the Victorian bushfires in February 2009, made headlines around the world. Not only where the paths of many human lives to be changed forever, so to was this natural wilderness and it's wildlife inhabitants. Burned to a blackened and silent wasteland, over the following 12 months we will document an amazing struggle, as nature (with a little human intervention) embarks on the regeneration of one of the earths most unique environments. A world previously occupied by koalas in the tree tops, wombats in their burrows below, and dancing lyrebirds mimicking the sounds of the forests. Our strategically located, satellite controlled time lapse cameras, will not only serve to visually enhance the production but for the first time record how the flora and fauna of these forests deals with such adversity.

Title: ANATOMY (SERIES 2)
Big and Little Films Pty Ltd
Television, Long Form (Factual), 81 minutes (3 episodes)
Producers: Michael McMahon, Tony Ayres, Polly Staniford
Writers: Tony Ayres, Donna McCrum, Andy Canny, Adele Wilkes
Directors: Donna McCrum, Andy Canny, Adele Wilkes, Emma Crimmings
Anatomy Series 2 is a three part documentary series which explores how sexuality and the body work as driving forces in the creative process. As in the first series, these films are thematically linked but are also complete story in themselves. Each episode touches upon a wide range of human experience and emotion well beyond the boundaries of traditional arts documentaries, with each story being realised in distinctive director driven visions.