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Doc Society and AIDC select seven projects for Art & Impact fellowship

Top row: Yaara Bou Melhem, Vincent Lamberti, Veialu Alia-Unsworth. Middle: Matias Bolla, Lachlan McLeod, Josef Jakamarra Egger. Bottom row: Ash Gibb, Gen Grieves, Dinah Lewis Boucher.

Seven documentary projects have been selected for the second Art & Impact Fellowship Australia, run by Doc Society in partnership with the Australian International Documentary Conference (AIDC).

The creatives behind the selected projects, which span mixed media and feature documentary, will join the global Doc Society team for a year-long creative mentorship and impact strategy fellowship starting next month.

The projects include Matias Bolla’s Campesinos; Yaara Bou Melhem’s Solastalgia; Genevieve Grieves and Josef Jakamarra Egger’s Descendants; Ash Gibb’s Tommy Tanna; Veialu Aila-Unsworth and Lachlan McLeod’s Guardians of the River; Vincent Lamberti’s Killjoy and Dinah Lewis Boucher’s Wave Riders.

Guardians of the River won the Hot Docs prize at AIDC earlier this year and Campesinos and Solastalgia the Doc Edge prize, after all competed in The FACTory pitch.

Supported by Screen Australia Enterprise funding, the Art & Impact fellowship aims to strengthen the storytelling and impact work of diverse voices, and advance crucial stories from across Australia and connect them globally.

The program provides opportunities for storytellers to refine their projects creatively, design their bespoke impact strategy, develop their pitches toward building collaborations, and launch their films within a supportive network.

It entails three training labs, attendance at the next AIDC in March 2023, and links the film teams up with the global Doc Society programs and filmmaking networks. 

Doc Society’s global director of Good Pitch Malinda Wink congratulated the teams.

“Across the year we look forward to sharing the insight, networks and connections of our global Doc Society team to vault the storytelling and impact ambitions of these projects,” she said. 

Doc Society director of Australian programs, Hollie Fifer said she was thrilled to run the fellowship again with “a cohort of storytellers who are dedicated to telling the untold story of both Australia and the region”.

“It is the creative ambition and bold impact plans of these projects that have inspired us and now the work begins to connect them globally.”

The project teams are:

  • Campesinos

Directed by Matias Bolla 

Produced by Carolina Sorensen 

  • Solastalgia

Directed by Yaara Bou Melhem

Produced by Ivan O’Mahoney 

  • Descendants

Directed by Genevieve Grieves & Josef Jakamarra Egger

Produced by Kieran Satour & Andrea Distefano

Associate Producer Maya Ghattas

  • Tommy Tanna

Directed by Ash Gibb 

Produced by Peta Ayers 

  • Guardians of the River

Directed by Veialu Aila-Unsworth & Lachlan McLeod

Produced by Kerry Warkia & David Elliot-Jones

Impact Producer Naomi Ball 

  • KillJoy

Directed by Vincent Lamberti  

Produced by Lisa Albert 

  • Wave Riders

Directed by Dinah Lewis Boucher

Produced by Eliorah Malifa