Six outstanding documentaries – each with a powerful agenda for social impact and change – have been chosen for Good Pitch² Australia 2015.
Last year’s successful inaugural Good Pitch² Australia secured more than $2 million in philanthropic funding and over 60 powerful new strategic partnerships were forged to fund production, build audiences and ensure the lasting impact.
The six high-â€impact, feature-â€length documentary projects chosen for Good Pitch² Australia 2015 are:
• On Richard’s Side (Director, Andrew Wiseman)
• Blue (Director, Nick Robinson; Producer, Karina Holden)
• Whiteley (Director, James Bogle; Producer, Sue Clothier)
• Prison Songs (Director, Kelrick Martin; Producer, Harry Bardwell)
• Happy Sad Man (Director, Genevieve Bailey; Producer, Rebecca Barry)
• The Hunting Ground (Director, Kirby Dick; Producer Amy Ziering)
Malinda Wink, Executive Director of Good Pitch² Australia said, “The power of Good Pitch² Australia has been clearly demonstrated with the remarkable impact of the first two Australian Good Pitch films released this year – That Sugar Film and Frackman. Gayby Baby is preparing to launch its trailer and impact strategy alongside the film’s world premiere at Hot Docs in Canada, one of the world’s most prestigious documentary film festivals.
“Our goal is not only to find and support outstanding films, but to select a diversity of subject matter with a view to continuing the ‘national conversation’ that we began with Good Pitch² Australia in 2014. The six remarkable films selected this year touch on entirely different areas of social concern to those presented last year.”
On Richard’s Side will complete a trilogy of films by director Andrew Wiseman about a family raising a child with an intellectual disability. Blue captures the true beauty of Australia’s underwater world with a powerful message about ocean conservation.
Whiteley tells of the life and legacy of one of Australia’s most celebrated artists, Brett Whiteley and his driving passion to express himself through his art.
In Australia’s first ever documentary musical, Prison Songs chronicles the lives of male and female inmates of a Darwin prison, 80% of whom are Indigenous.
Happy Sad Man explores male relationships to emotion and expression, giving voice to the complexity that is 21st century masculinity, in all its joy and despair.
The Hunting Ground, from the makers of the acclaimed US documentary The Invisible War, presents a startling exposé of sexual assault on university campuses, their institutional cover-â€ups, and their brutal social toll.
Good Pitch² Australia is hosted by Ian Darling’s Shark Island Institute in partnership with Documentary Australia Foundation. Good Pitch is a BRITDOC project in partnership with Ford Foundation and the Sundance Institute Documentary Film Program, and is held in various major cities around the world.
Once again the Sydney Opera House will host the Good Pitch² Australia event in September to bring together filmmakers from the six selected documentaries with foundations, not-â€for-â€profits, campaigners, philanthropists, policy-â€makers, brands, educators, broadcasters and media to forge powerful alliances around these ground breaking films that benefit the partners, the films and society as a whole.