Cordell Jigsaw Productions will produce a second series of Go Back to Where You Came From, the highly-successful documentary series which followed six Australians as they were taken on a confronting refugee and asylum seeker journey.
The original series produced SBS's highest ratings for the year when it was screened in June, sparking much debate in the community and on social media platforms about the refugee debate.
The follow-up series was announced as part of a slate of new documentaries funded by Screen Australia.
"Series two will expand the debate by exploring refugees in other regions and other issues not broached in the first series," the government agency said in a statement.
The funding for the second series of Go Back to Where You Came From comprises part of $2.4 million in production funding that Screen Australia will invest across seven documentaries, triggering production worth $6.5 million.
Screen Australia’s chief executive Ruth Harley said: “We’re constantly impressed by the level of expertise in the documentary community. Screen Australia investment ensures high-quality documentaries can continue to be supported and developed in this country.”
The full list of projects to receive funding are:
NATIONAL DOCUMENTARY PROGRAM
GALLIPOLI FROM ABOVE
John Moore Productions (55 mins)
Synopsis: Gallipoli From Above will reveal a truth about the ANZAC landing far more significant than the myths about poor planning, wrong beaches and British generals sending the ANZACs to certain death.
Producer: John Moore
Writer/Director: Wain Fimeri
Broadcaster: Foxtel
Sales: ABC Commercial, Beyond Distribution
LIFE AT 7
Heiress Films Pty Ltd (2 x 55 mins)
Synopsis: Life at 7 continues the stories of 11 Australian children against the backdrop of the largest-ever longitudinal study on child development in this country, looking this time at peers and temperament.
Producer: Jennifer Cummins
Executive Producer: Daryl Karp
Writer/Director: Jen Peedom
Broadcaster: ABC TV
Sales: ABC Commercial
RAISING THE CURTAIN
Essential Media and Entertainment Pty Ltd (3 x 52 mins)
Synopsis: Raising the Curtain is a three-part documentary series that celebrates Australia’s vibrant and fascinating theatre history. From the earliest entrepreneurs, writers and performers to today’s theatrical visionaries and luminaries, this series will capture the energy and passion of live theatre that Australia has enjoyed for well over two centuries.
Series Producer: Aline Jacques
Executive Producer: Julia Peters
Writer: Alec Morgan
Broadcaster: STVIDO TV
Sales: Essential Media
GENERAL DOCUMENTARY PROGRAM
CREATIVE MINDS
Arts Bio Pty Ltd (6 x 40 mins)
Synopsis: Creative Minds is a six-part series of documentary interviews designed to bring an audience into intimate contact with the people who create Australian art or who contribute in a significant way to Australian cultural life. Each program will explore in depth, using the artist’s own words, memories, and insights, that person’s life story and the influences that inform his or her work.
Producer: Tristram Miall
Writer/Director: Robin Hughes
Broadcaster: STVDIO TV
GO BACK TO WHERE YOU CAME FROM 2
Cordell Jigsaw Productions (3 x 60 mins)
Synopsis: Six Australians agree to challenge their preconceived notions about refugees and asylum seekers by taking a confronting refugee journey themselves for 25 days.
Executive Producers: Michael Cordell, Nick Murray
Series Producer: Rick McPhee
Broadcaster: SBS Sales, SBS Distribution
MAKING COUPLES HAPPY
Heiress Films Pty Ltd (4 x 55 mins)
Synopsis: Making Australia Happy put the new science of happiness to the test on eight miserable Sydneysiders and proved that by using positive psychology, mindfulness and focusing on their physical well-being, anyone could significantly increase their happiness levels in only eight weeks. Now, we’re upping the stakes. In the four-part Making Couples Happy, the experts will again put themselves on the line to see if science can help couples on the brink save their relationships.
Producer: Jennifer Cummins
Executive Producer: Daryl Karp
Director: Kalita Corrigan
Series Producer/Writer: Will Parry
Broadcaster: ABC TV
Sales: All3Media, ABC Commerical
NOTHING ON EARTH
Jerrycan Films Pty Ltd (57 mins)
Synopsis: Murray Fredericks is an award-winning artist renowned for his photographs of the vast empty space of Lake Eyre, South Australia. When he relocates his work to the Greenland Icecap – atop a melting glacier and under the solar storms of the Aurora Borealis – he finds himself alone in a landscape he’s never been, in a place he doesn’t understand, hoping this time he hasn’t taken his quest too far. What begins as an artistic odyssey becomes an adventure of extremes in one of the most breathtaking environments on Earth.
Producers: Michael Angus, Roxana McMallan
Directors: Michael Angus, Murray Fredericks
Writer: Michael Angus
Broadcaster: ABC TV
Sales: Naked Flame Productions