Screen Australia Awards Millions in Doc Production Funding

Screen Australia has chosen 11 documentaries through the Producer Program and two through the Commissioned Program to share in A$3 million ($2.03 million) of production funding.

We Are Jeni, a selection from the Producer Program, is a feature-length documentary for SBS that tracks the journey of Jeni Haynes, the host of a vast network of alternate personalities. The doc is from directors Mariel Thomas (Better Date Than Never) and Akhim Dev (The Children in the Pictures), producer Simon Nasht (The Children in the Pictures) and Sara Kozac.

Also from the Producer Program are Edge of Life, following two Melbourne doctors who use a synthetic version of a naturally occurring psychedelic in palliative care; the observational feature-length documentary Hard as Puck; Make it Look Real, which gives access into how intimate scenes in film and TV are created; Mockbuster, following writer and director Anthony Frith; and Phenomena, in which art and science collide.

More projects from the Producer Program include Queens of Concrete, shot over the course of seven years; Sentient, which takes audiences behind locked doors of high-security laboratories that experiment on animals; Spreadsheet Champions, delving into the Spreadsheet World Championships; Untitled Mental as Anything Documentary, about the rise of Australian band Mental as Anything; and Yurlu | Country, taking viewers into the remote red gorges of the Pilbara in Western Australia.

Projects funded through the Commissioned Program are Headliners, in which Elly-May Barnes leads a quest to create two bands of musicians living with a disability, and The Secret DNA of Us, exploring Australia through mass DNA testing.

Richard Huddleston, head of documentary at Screen Australia, said, “I am thrilled that this funding will support a rich array of documentary producers, from emerging and established filmmakers to internationally award-winning artists and our leading investigative journalists. The mix of genres, the subjects they explore as well as the creative approaches are equally rich and will appeal to a diverse range of Australian and international audiences.”