You are here:

Production Investment

June 2008

Dogstar Series 2
Media World Pictures Pty Ltd
Children's "C" Classification Drama
Televisions Series, 26 x 24mins
Producers, Colin South, Ross Hutchens
Writers, Doug McCleod, Phillip Dalkin
Series Designer, Scott Vanden Bosch
Composer, Yuri Worontschak

The Clark kids have located the missing Dogstar, returned all the dogs to their owners on a rejuvenated earth, and defeated the evil robotics tycoon Bob Santino - or so they think. A case of mistaken identity on a cosmic scale means that all of earth's dogs are once again stowed on the Dogstar and launched into space. The canine-evolved beings from Sirius Two are involved -  believing they are launching a rescue operation to free their 'comrades'. In fact, they are placing Earths dogs in more danger than ever.  Sadly, this gives Bob Santino the opportunity to rebuild his evil Robog empire, but also provides the brave Clark kids with a second chance to prove just how heroic they can be - if they can only stop arguing.

Animal Kingdom
Porchlight Films Pty Ltd
Drama, Feature Film, 100mins
Producer, Liz Watts
Director, David Michod
Writer, David Michod
Costume, Cappi Ireland
Designer, Melinda Doring
DOP, Greig Fraser 

Welcome to the jungle. The Melbourne underworld. Tensions are building between dangerous criminals and trigger-happy police. It's the Wild West, played out on the city's streets. And into this world arrives 17-year-old Joshua "J" Cody. Animal Kingdom tells of a corrupted, yet fatally exciting moral universe and one boy's attempt to find his place within it.

Indonesia Calling
Early Works Pty Ltd
Documentary Feature (84 min) and Television One-Off (26 min) 
Producer, John Hughes
Director, John Hughes
Writer, John Hughes
Editor, Uri Mizrahi
Line Producer, Andrea Foxworthy

Two weeks after Hiroshima was bombed the Indonesian independence
movement declared an end to Dutch colonial rule; Indonesia Calling, a film
made by Dutch activist filmmaker Joris Ivens, while documenting the role of
Australian trade unions in defending the Republic had lasting implications for
the early development of documentary film in Australia.

Re-enchantment
Inside Out Productions Pty Ltd
Documentary Animation
Short Form Television Series and Cross Platform/Online Project, 10 x 3 min interstitials
Producer, Sue Maslin
Director, Sarah Gibson
Writer, Sarah Gibson
Interface Designer, Catherine Gleeson
Production Consultant, Megan Heyward
Animator, Rose Draper 

Re-enchantment is a broadband interactive documentary project exploring why fairy stories continue to enchant, entertain, fascinate and horrify contemporary adult audiences. Each story in its unique way invites you to navigate the historical, social, cultural and psychological layers embedded in the traditional tales, to discover their meaning for adults today and to view the way they are being re-imagined by contemporary artists.


March 2008

Blessed

Wildheart Zizani Pty Ltd

Fiction Feature, 110 mins

Producers, Al Clark and Marian MacGowan (EP)

Director, Ana Kokkinos

Writers, Andrew Bovill, Melissa Reeves, Patricia Cornelius and Christos Tsiolkas

 

Seven children wander the streets in an urban odyssey through a day and a night. Not all of them will find their way home. Dawn breaks and it's the same day but now we experience the journey from the mothers' point of view.

Blessed is a film about the depth of love between mothers and children, and the life force that connects us all.

 

 

Bran Nue Dae

Robyn Kershaw Productions Pty Ltd

Fiction Feature, 100 mins

Producers, Robyn Kershaw and Graeme Isaac

Director, Rachel Perkins

Writers, Rachel Perkins, Reg Cribb and Jimmy Chi

Choreographer, Stephen Page

 

It's the Summer of 1965 and young Willie is filled with the life of the idyllic old pearling port Broome, in the North of Western Australia - fishing, hanging out with his mates, and when he can, his girl Rosie.  However his mother Theresa has great hopes for him and she returns him to the religious mission in Perth for further schooling. After being punished by Father Benedictus for an act of youthful rebellion, Willie runs away from the mission.  But to where.he's too ashamed to go home, it will break his mother's heart.  Down on his luck he meets Uncle Tadpole, and together they con a couple of hippies, Annie and Slippery into taking them on the 3,000 km journey through spectacular landscape back to Broome. Willie learns the hard and funny lessons he needs to get home, all the while pursued by Father Benedictus.  Arriving back in Broome, Willie wins the girl, convinces his mother that Broome is the place he should be, and discovers that the father he never knew he had is his journeyman companion all along - Uncle Tadpole.

 

 

The Last Ride

Talk Films Pty Ltd

Fiction Feature, 90 mins

Producers, Nicholas Cole and Antonia Barnard (EP)

Associate Producer, Jane Liscombe

Director, Glendyn Ivin

Writer, Mac Gudgeon

 

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.

 

 

Love and Mortar

Cascade Films Pty Ltd

Fiction Feature, 90 mins

Producers, David Parker, Nadia Tass and Richard Keddie

Director, Nadia Tass

           

How bad can it get? - Jack, 9, is taken to hospital - he's probably got leukaemia.  Jack's Dad can't be found, because he's off having a fling.  Marisa, (Jack's mother) wants Jack moved - the kid in the bed next to him has a father who's a nutcase - Irish, sailor, annoying and intrusive.  But all is not what it seems - she starts to warm to Geoffrey, the Irishman.  After all, her husband is a lost cause.  Jack needs bone marrow and the only possibility, because of his dad's weird blood group is if his father has an illegitimate kid somewhere.  He says no, but Marisa isn't so sure - she looks back through his diaries for possible lovers, and then goes door knocking.  The results are both funny and tragic as this odd ball group find their way through this totally messed up world of sickness, infidelity and sailing boats.

 

 

The Loved Ones

Ambience Entertainment Pty Ltd

Fiction Feature, 90 mins

Producers, Mark Lazarus, Jason Moody and Bryce Menzies (EP)

 

Brent, a year twelve student still grieving for his father, declines an invitation to the school leavers' dance from Raylene, the creepiest girl in school. She and her father kidnap him and Brent must fight to survive the macabre celebration they have in store for him.

 

 

Drugs Death and Betrayal

Carlyon-Miller Productions

Documentary TV One-Off, 55 mins

Producers, Terry Carlyon and Robyn Miller

Director, Terry Carlyon

 

Drugs, Death and Betrayal investigates the story behind the headlines which gripped the nation during the years of Melbourne's infamous gangland wars. Between 1995 and 2006, 33 people, mostly linked to underworld criminals, died when two rival gangs went to war over drug profits.  The greed and violence also sucked in a number of Victorian police officers, who crossed the line between good and evil.  Respected crime-writers John Silvester and Andrew Rule lead viewers through the maze of murder and corruption to finally put the truth in perspective.

 

 

Liquid Stone: Unlocking Gaudi's Secret

Circe Films Pty Ltd

Documentary TV One-Off, 52 Mins

Producers, Beth Frey and James Franklin

Writer and Director, Polly Watkins

Story Consultant, Mark Burry

 

The Sagrada Familia Gaudi's most ambitious creation was begun in the 19th century and is still under construction in Barcelona today. With his tragic death in 1926 and the destruction of original models during the Spanish Civil War, the building languished for decades. No one understood the complex geometry needed to complete the building and only a handful of people cared. In 1979 23-year old architect Mark Burry was offered the chance to crack the master's code. For almost three decades now he and a dedicated team onsite in Barcelona and at RMIT University's Spatial Information Architecture Laboratory (SIAL), in Melbourne have been immersed in solving the puzzle using cutting edge science and technology; their histories intertwined with that of Gaudi's famous creation.

 

 

Murder in the Snow

360 Degree Films Pty Ltd

Documentary TV One-Off, 59 mins

Producer, Sally Ingleton

Director, Mark Gould

 

In September 2006, Chinese soldiers shot at a group of Pilgrims as they fled Tibet.  A young nun was murdered.  A team of international mountain climbers filmed the shooting, helped rescue survivors and bravely broadcast the story to the world.  This incident changed everyone¹s life forever. This is their story.

 

 

Whatever Happened to Brenda Hean?

Big and Little Films Pty Ltd

Documentary Feature, 90 mins

Producers, Michael McMahon and Scott Millwood

Director, Scott Millwood

Writer and Script Editor, Mira Robertson

 

Whatever Happened to Brenda Hean? tells the remarkable story of Brenda Hean - 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. The quest takes us on a journey into the landscape and eccentric community of Tasmania, painting a portrait of an inspirational woman whose environmental values still resonate today.

 

December 2007

Saved

Big and Little Films Pty Ltd

Mini Series, 2 x 52 mins

Producers, Michael McMahon, Tony Ayres and Belinda Chayko

Director, Tony Ayres

Writer, Belinda Chayko

 

Julia Weston, an attractive woman in her early thirties, becomes the advocate for Amir Ali, a young Iranian refugee held in detention. As Julia helps Amir adjust to ordinary life, she finds herself increasingly attracted to this handsome, damaged young man.  But she also starts to see the subtle cracks in Amir's story.  Is he really who he claims he is?  Or does he have a darker, more dangerous history

 

 

Bogan Pride

Big and Little Films Pty Ltd

TV Series, 6 x 26 mins

Producers, Michael McMahon, Tony Ayres and Rebel Wilson

Director, Andrew Lancaster

Writer, Rebel Wilson

 

Jenny Craig, a smart endearing teenage fugly, lives in Boonelg with her mother, Berenice, who is extremely overweight and has become confined to her bedroom. Her Aunty Sandra's become extremely annoying since her gay husband left; her best friends Amy Lee and Nigella are extremely religious; and her neighbour Nick is extremely good looking. What's a bogan girl to do?

Written and created by Rebel Wilson ('Toula' from SBS' Pizza, The Wedge, The Westie Monologues, Ghost Rider) this quirky upbeat series is based on her own experiences growing up in Sydney's western suburbs. The series features a predominantly female ensemble cast and original musical numbers which create a truly unique bogan spectacle.

 

 

Small Business In Australia

Gristmill Pty Ltd

TV Series, 6 x 30 Mins

Producers, Robyn Butler and Wayne Hope

Director, Daina Reid

Writers, Wayne Hope and Gary McCaffrie

 

Don Angel is a small businessman - the backbone of this great country's great economy. But if that's true, it's no thanks to him. After numerous unsuccessful business ventures, now Don's one man publishing empire is hurtling towards liquidation. His debts are mounting, his stomach's killing him, his wife has left him and he's just hired Ray Leonard as his journalist. Taking his first tentative steps back into the workplace after a six-year battle with depression, Ray enters a world totally alien to him. He's come from being a noted social commentator for 'The Australian' to writing advertorial for "Wilson's Woodwind and Brass" Autumn Sale - which might just be his cure. It's a marriage made in heaven - at least until the Tax Office gets there.


 

Dirt Game

Harvey-Taft Productions

TV Series, 6 x 52 mins

Producers, David Taft and Michael Harvey

Writer, Michael Harvey

 

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.

A series about one of Australia's oldest and riskiest pursuits; about the men and women who work deep underground, or on a heaving platform at sea, or drive huge trucks inside gaping pits in burning heat so that everyone else can watch TV, or use the phone, or open the fridge. 

The men and women - from the faction-torn board, down to the hazardous ore face - striving to save a proud if crippled Australian firm that is about to collapse unless a UK oil-executive, an Aussie woman geologist and an ill-matched crisis management team can somehow save it.

 

 

Paper Dolls: Pinup Girl of WW2

Marina Films Pty Ltd

Documentary TV One-Off, 52 mins

Producer, Yvonne Collins

Director, Angela Buckingham

Writer, Angela Buckingham

Script Editor, Alison Nisselle

 

A documentary about the Australian women, who in the 1940's posed in their swimsuits for

glamorous shots in magazines, newspapers a nd postcards.  Often these women were

anonymous and may have kept secret this part of their lives, given the relative conservatism

of Australia at the time.  Their images however, lifted the spirits of a nation, particularly the

servicemen who were without female company for long periods of time.

 

 

Rock N Roll Nerd

Letterbox Films Pty Ltd

Documentary Feature, 80 mins

Producers, Rhian Skirving and Lizzette Atkins

Director, Rhian Skirving

Editor, Jane Usher

 

Rock n Roll Nerd is a story of a star in the making.  A young man teetering on the brink of stardom.  Not quite a rock star, rather more cabaret.  A rags to riches story that tracks the rise of one of Australia's most unique young talents from obscurity to celebrity.  Using observational storytelling techniques as well as live performance and simple animation, Rock N Roll Nerd is a highly charged personal journey that is both an intimate portrait and a performance showcase.


 

Fitzroy Stars: More Than a Game

Movie Mischief

Documentary (Television One-Off), 26 mins

Producer, Mish Armstrong

Director, Daniel King

Writer, John Harding

 

The Fitzroy Stars was one of the first all indigenous football clubs established in the early 70's and folding in the early 90's.  Ex-player Troy Austin is on a mission to resurrect the former club - and as we follow his journey to recruit players and supporters we meet some of the ex players and discover and what being a "Star" meant to them then, and now. Many players went on to become leaders of the community, ATSIC Commissioners and developed welfare and cultural organisations in Melbourne and across the State. Football was more than football when you were a Fitzroy Star. It was more than a game.

September 2007

Snake Tales

Westside Film & Television Pty Ltd                    

Television Series, 13 x 22 mins  

Producer, Ann Darrouzet

Writers, Anthony Watt and Alix Beane

Story Editor, Brendan Luno

 

Snake Tales is a live action half hour tween comedy.  Two completely different teenage girls from opposite ends of the world are forced to live together in a run-down snake park in Outback Australia - with only their very strange families for company.

                                   

Balibo

Fiction Feature, 90 minutes       

Balibo Film Pty Ltd                   

Producers, Robert Connolly, John Maynard and Rebecca Purcell

Writers, David Williamson and Robert Connolly

Script Editor, Nick Drake

 

Jose Ramos Horta, twenty-five years old in 1975, and a member of the Fretilin Government, lures Darwin-based Australian journalist Roger East to East Timor to investigate the disappearance of the 'Balibo Five' - journalists Greg Shackleton, Gary Cunningham and Tony Stewart (Ch9) and from their rival network Brian Peters and Malcolm Rennie (Ch7).

On the morning of October 16, all five men, though identifying themselves as journalists from Australia, are killed in cold blood by the invading Indonesian troops, and their bodies burnt.  

East does not accept the official story that soon emerges, that the men were killed in cross-fire. Horta and East travel from Dili to Balibo, now occupied during the daytime by Indonesian forces, to try and uncover the truth of the journalists' death.

Back in Dili, East decides to stay on while other journalists are evacuated, in the knowledge that Indonesian forces will soon land in the capital. The very next day Indonesian paratroopers and commandos land from the sea and immediately capture East who is reporting the invasion.  Defiant to the end, East is executed the next day on the Dili wharf by an Indonesian execution squad. 

                                   

My Year Without Sex

Fiction Feature, 95 minutes       

Hibiscus Films Pty Ltd  

Producer, Bridget Ikin    

Director/Writer, Sarah Watt

Script Editor, Barbara Masel

                                   

Ross and Natalie have been together for 14 years. They have two children.  They have a too small and messy house and a goldfish. They have sex when they can, go out when they can afford it and buy what they think they need. When Natalie has an aneurysm and nearly dies, they are forced to reassess whether they are living the life they should be living. Despite the many distractions and consolations on offer, Natalie eventually comes to find hopefulness in the thing closest to hand - her family's love. The goldfish dies.

           

Salute

Documentary Feature, 90 minutes          

Salute the Movie Pty Ltd            

Producers, David Redman and Matt Norman

Executive Producers, Shana Levine and Dean Murphy

Director/Writer, Matt Norman

 

Salute is the feature length documentary chronicling Peter Norman's involvement in the Black Power salute at the 1968 Olympics.  This moment has become one of the most iconic images of  the 20th Century.   Peter Norman was the silver medallist in the 200m final and shared the podium with his fellow athletes in protest.  Now for the first time, this film documents the role an unknown white man from Australia had in a defining symbolic moment of the American Civil Rights Movement.

                                   

Intangible Asset Number 82

Documentary Television One-Off, 58 minutes       

In the Sprocket Productions Pty Ltd

Producers, Emma Franz and Richard Lowenstein

Director, Emma Franz

Editor, Bill Murphy

                       

Intangible Asset Number 82 is the story of a respected jazz musician's search for, and eventual encounter with, an elusive South Korean shaman. The protagonist's journey becomes a rite of passage as he encounters engaging and exotic characters, conquers cultural obstacles and the march of time, to eventually meet the master only days before his death. Ultimately, his faith in the relevance of music is renewed through his search and the inspiration he finds on the journey. The documentary is filmed observationally but utilises stylised elements to create a layered story that showcases the power of music to bridge the gap between cultures.                                  

 

Monash and the Anzac Legend

Episode of TV Series "The Making of Modern Australia", 55 minutes         

360 Degree Films Pty Ltd

Producer, John Moore

Director, Malcolm McDonald

Associate Producer, Lisa Horler

D.O.P, Jaems Grant

Editor, Andrew Scott

         

Sir John Monash was labelled by many as the most brilliant general in the First World War.  His command of the Australian, Canadian and American forces, at Amiens on August 8th 1918, resulted in a breakthrough that brought the German army to its knees.  'Monash and the Anzac Legend' is the story of a brilliant and passionate man who overcame enormous obstacles to become Australia's greatest general and through his intelligent and value driven leadership contributes to the sense of who we are as Australians

 

Anatomy

Documentary TV Series, 3 x 26 minutes

Big and Little Films Pty Ltd

Produces, Michael McMahon and Tony Ayres

Directors, Natasha Gadd, Rhys Graham and Amy Gebhardt

                               

Anatomy is a series of three narrative documentaries which explore the ways artists/performers deal with the subject of sex, love and the human body.  Each documentary will be intimate, sexy and revealing.  Although thematically linked, each film will be a complete story in itself and authored by an emerging Australian director. 

 


Top