PRESS RELEASE
The Story of Australia, a six-part documentary series produced by Australia’s Bearcage and China’s CCTV9, has broadcast in China to a massive audience of more than 21 million people and earned the praise of Chinese President Xi Jinping who described the series as very popular and an example of close personal-to-person relations between Australia and China.
“As the first formal co-production between CCTV Documentary Channel and an Australian company, the project represents an initiative of great significance to both countries,” said Bearcage’s Michael Tear, who produced the series. “We are absolutely delighted that the series was so warmly embraced by Chinese audiences and was raised in a conversation in very positive way between Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbot and President Xi Jinping.”
The Story of Australia travels all over the continent and highlights Australia’s agricultural products, the mining industry, overseas students in Australia, city life and the stories of famous Chinese-Australians. Through these stories, the series review the relationship between Australia and China and look to its future.
Michael Tear and series co-director Serge Ou attended the official launch of the series in Beijing at the end of August. Also in attendance at the launch were the President of CCTV, Mr Luo Ming, Vice President of the CCTV Documentary Channel, Mr Shi Yan, and the Australian Ambassador to China, Her Excellency Ms Frances Adamson.
Bearcage, winner of the ACT Chief Minister’s Export Award in the Arts and Entertainment Category 2013 and an Arts in Asia Award for its work in China, has more than 20 years of experience in production. It specialises in film, television and digital media production for the Australian and international broadcast markets, focusing on high quality documentaries and factual programs.
In the past three years Bearcage has reviewed its business strategy and focused on the international television markets, particularly emerging markets. Since 2010 the international side of the business has grown rapidly and Bearcage has either co-produced or had projects acquired in China, Germany, France, the UK, the US, Malaysia, New Zealand, Hong Kong, Middle East, Taiwan and Canada.
Recent productions include six part series Building Australia for FOXTEL’s History Channel (nominated for A Screen Producer Australia Award), The Boffin, the Builder and the Bombardier for ABC (nominated for an ATOM Award for Best Factual Series) five part series New Zealand From Above, a co-production with Making Movies (NZ), GebruderBeetz (Germany) and broadcasters ARTE/ZDF (Germany), National Geographic (Australia) and Prime (NZ). The feature documentary The Digger (2011, History Channel) received the Gold Dolphin at the Cannes Corporate Media and Television Award in 2011. Other programs include the ASTRA Award nominated documentary For Valour – the highest rating program on the History Channel in 2009; the 10-part series As Australian As (2010, Bio Channel); and Blessed Mary: A Saint for All Australians – a landmark docudrama for the History Channel that was the highest rating program on that Channel in 2010.