Jordan Giusti’s Sustainable Future Award-winning documentary, Floodland, and a new project from the team behind In My Blood It Runs are among seven documentaries selected to participate in the inaugural Climate Story Lab Australia.
An initiative of Documentary Australia and Doc Society, the three-day workshop aims to strengthen existing climate storytelling projects and impact campaigns, guide the creation of new projects, and spur partnerships to mobilise audiences and funding opportunities.
The selected titles are Genevieve Grieves’ documentary podcast Connected to Country, Maya Newell’s feature documentary Testimony, Giusti’s Floodland, Karla Hart’s documentary series Saltwater Cowboys of Shark Bay, Kellie Riordan’s 10-part narrative documentary podcast Austinmer 2515, Yale MacGillivray’s feature documentary Moblands, and a feature documentary uncovering the global supply chain and impacts of the gas industry.
A total of 55 projects were submitted for the lab, with Documentary Australia, Doc Society, and external reviewer and filmmaker Douglas Watkin tasked with making the selections.
Participants will now receive impact and pitch training, have the opportunity to present their projects during the three-day lab, and, where relevant, will receive support for interstate travel.
Documentary Australia’s impact director and initiative lead, Stephanie King, said the chosen projects reflected both the quality of climate-related storytelling and the strategic opportunities for documentaries to advance climate action and justice.
“We could not be more passionate about supporting these independent climate documentary projects characterised by their interrogation of power, their elevation of research and lived experience, and their visions of climate-just futures,” she said.
After the Doc Society and Exposure Labs first piloted the model in New York in 2019, Climate Story Lab has since been rolled out globally, from the Brazilian Amazon to East and West Africa, South Asia, the Middle East, and Europe.
Climate Story Lab Australia, set to be held August 26-28 at Sydney’s Artspace, is supported by Shark Island Foundation, Screen Australia, Screen NSW, Screen Queensland, and Screenwest.
Shark Island Foundation executive director Kate Hodges said the inaugural lab would feature an exciting lineup of climate stories.
“We’re so pleased to be part of this gathering, bringing together powerful storytellers and change-makers to ignite the bold, justice-driven climate narratives the world needs now,” she said.
The selected projects are as follows:
Austinmer 2515
Documentary podcast
Director: Kellie Riordan
Producer: Sarah Dabro
Austinmer 2515 is a 10-part narrative documentary podcast which follows one town’s quest and one crazed entrepreneur’s dream to electrify a town. Can this beachside village illuminate our path to a fossil-fuel-free future?
Connected to Country
Documentary podcast
Director: Genevieve Grieves
Producer: Laurrie Mansfield and Kate Montague
Connected to Country is an immersive listening experience that amplifies the wisdom of Australian First Nations Elders, custodians of the world’s oldest living culture. Through intergenerational storytelling, young people will preserve oral traditions while confronting the urgent and connected challenges of climate action, cultural survival and environmental stewardship.
Floodland
Feature documentary
Director and Writer: Jordan Giusti
Producer: Gal Greenspan and Rachel Forbes
Writers: Dr Carlie Atkinson and Joseph Nizeti
Lismore is Australia’s flood capital, priding itself on historic resilience in the face of immeasurable deluge. But as the climate crisis rises tides, uncomfortable truths boil to the surface, leaving residents wondering if their precarious way of life can survive a changing world.
Confidential Gas Project
Feature documentary – further details of this project are currently embargoed.
Moblands
Feature documentary
Director and Producer: Yale MacGillivray
Three renegade cowboys ride to protect a world most have forgotten. As they train for the rodeo of their lives, they’re armed with 80,000 years of unbroken knowledge to defend their Country — and pulled into a fierce reckoning with the forces erasing land, memory, and future. Against the backdrop of colonisation, they ride with fury, loyalty, and joy.
Saltwater Cowboys of Shark Bay
Documentary series
Director: Karla Hart
Producer: Renée Kennedy
Executive Producers: Renée Kennedy, Nathan Gibbs and Karla Hart
Malgana entrepreneur Michael Wear and his Indigenous startup, Tidal Moon, revive Australia’s sea cucumber trade and restore Shark Bay’s / Guthaaguda’s seagrass, battling shark-infested waters, regulatory barriers, and local tensions while trying to grow their business, empower their community and combat climate change.
Testimony
Feature documentary
Director: Maya Newell
Executive Producers: McRose Elu and Deanne Weir
Producers: Barbara Ibuai, Larissa Behrendt, Sophie Hyde, Alex Kelly and LisaSherrard
As the climate emergency rises before them, Torres Strait Islanders rise up too and sue the Australian Government for failing to protect them. We walk with witnesses and dance with story-holder Sedrick as he gathers his people to remember, brace and dream of possible futures. This film is their testimony.