Screen Australia CEO Dr Ruth Harley took to the stage at the Australian International Documentary Conference last night to reflect on what the past year of Australian documentaries say about us as a nation.
“I wanted to have a look at the last 12 months and for us to think, ‘What does our time tell us? Who do we think we are, who do we think we were, who do we think we want to be? For the moment,” she said.
“The full slate of Australian documentaries that have been made over the last 12 months can be described as a capsule. What does this capsule contain? What are its messages?”
In her speech, entitled ‘Who do we think we are?’ Harley boiled down the 2012 slate of documentaries to illustrate three main themes – that of art, of social change and finally, diversity.
Of art, Harley said, “Art helps us better understand our world and communicate with one another,” before continuing on to list examples such as Coral: Rekindling Venus, Curse of the Gothic Symphony, Chateau Chunder and Liquid Notes: The Making of the Reef as prime examples.
The work of the Documentary Australia Founation (which was awarded the Stanley Hawes Award later in the evening) alongside the second series of award-winning documentary Go Back to Where You Came From were offered as examples of the social change that can be achieved through the documentary genre .
“Topics related to the program (GBTWYCF) trended worldwide during each episode, as high as position number three,” she said. “That’s worldwide, including of course most of the world where the program was not screening.
“The Facebook page attracted more than 10, 000 page likes during the week it went to air and reached over 17, 000 by the last episode.
“But that’s not the really impressive part… By the third episode of the series, more than 90 per cent of go-back Facebook followers were interacting with the page, not just clicking the like button. Massive engagement. And the series also spawned a separate non-SBS Facebook fan page which had 10 000 likes.
“So there’s no doubt this documentary generated debate and discussion about asylum seekers and our community’s attitude to them. And there can be no doubt that public discussion and media attention are essential steps in effecting social change.”
Harley went on to point out the producers of Go Back to Where You Came From have since secured multiple international format sales.
“No doubt they’re asleep as we speak, counting their money,” she joked.
Finally Harley listed diversity as the final strand making up the 2012 documentary cloth, applauding the amount of different stories and voices that had been seen and heard in the last year.
Included in her praises were documentaries Outback Truckers, Shark Harbour, Queen of the Desert, Dirty Business, Gallipoli from Above, Once Upon a Time in Cabramatta, I can change your mind about Climate, Miss Nikki and the Tiger Girls, Croker Island Exodus and The Lala Road.
Before wrapping up, Harley took the chance to announce the recipients of the second series of the Screen Australia and ABC TV Documentaries Opening Shot Initiative.
“If the first series proved young filmmakers had something to say… then the second series I think certainly has shown us some weighty subjects,” she said.
“These projects offer a great opportunity for audiences to hear the voices of the next generation of documentarians of subjects that matter to Australians.
The five projects, which Harley described as a “heartbreaking list of titles,” were Keep Me Safe Tonight, Growing Up Gayby, The Vagina Diaries, The Final Word, and Our Little Secret and covered a range of weighty topics such as suicide, sexual abuse and labiaplasty.
Harley also announced Screen Australia will be running a third series of Opening Shot with the ABC and that the deadline for applications is April 12.
The Australian International Documentary Conference is being held in Adelaide and will continue until March 3.