WCSFP Announces Banner Sessions

TORONTO: The World Congress of Science and Factual Producers (WCSFP) has lined up two banner sessions for the event, taking place December 1 to 4 in Melbourne, Australia, in addition to the workshops, networking opportunities, pitch meetings and panels that will take place.

Scientist, author, documentary filmmaker and National Geographic’s explorer-in-residence Spencer Wells will appear as a guest speaker to share the latest findings from The Genographic Project, which had hundreds of thousands of people swab their DNA to try to reveal the genetic roots and migratory history of everyone on Earth. Delegates will discover what drove our ancestors to make so many different journeys, and find out from which branches of the human migration tree participating WCSFP luminaries descend from.

Delegates will also have the chance to meet the team behind The Link: Uncovering our Earliest Ancestor, a documentary about IDA the fossil. Anthony Geffen, the CEO of Atlantic Productions and producer of the documentary, as well as the key scientists and broadcasters, will appear at the Congress. The team will take delegates through all stages of the production, executed over two years under tight secrecy, and will confront the critics who questioned whether the whole process was a coup or hype.

The WCSFP will also feature the return of popular services such as Meet the Commissioning Editor sessions, an on-demand video library of delegates’ productions, as well as evening networking events and special social activities that will take advantage of Melbourne’s many historic and cultural attractions.

“There’s a common theme in the outstanding programs of 2009 that we will highlight in our slate of 2009 Congress sessions: Where did we come from and how did we evolve?,” said WCSFP editorial director Alison Leigh.