By Brendan Swift
SBS TV has unveiled more details about its output deal with Blackfella Films, which will underpin a string of key projects for the broadcaster over the next three years.
The independent production house, run by Rachel Perkins and Darren Dale, is currently working on four projects for SBS following the success of its seven-part series First Australians.
They include: a drama based on the Mabo decision; an adaptation of Chloe Hooper’s book The Tall Man, which tells the story of murdered Palm Island resident Cameron Doomadgee; a documentary about Sydney suburb Redfern; and an unnamed feature film.
Eriksen said SBS was prompted to strike the three-year output deal, which was announced last year, based on the quality of Blackfella Films’ projects.
“It’s given that company some certainty,” she said. “And after all, the majority of people working in this business … it’s a business, you have to earn a living off of it.”
SBS is the only public broadcaster charged with covering indigenous issues, according to Eriksen.
In an earlier AIDC session, SBS director of television and online content, Matt Campbell, said the broadcaster is the only network which does not have major output deals with production houses.
“We receive programs from all over the world and we go through the arduous task of sifting through to find that precious needle in the haystack.”
SBS rejects 96 per cent of the programs it is offered, he said.
Check out the upcoming March issue of INSIDEFILM, which features Rachel Perkins and Darren Dale in the Take Two column.