PRESS RELEASE
OPENING SHOT is back with a new season of five half-hour documentaries made by Australia’s next generation of filmmakers. Bringing their own sensibilities to some of our most challenging and topical issues these filmmakers aren’t flinching from tough subjects.
In OUR LITTLE SECRET we meet Chas Fisher, a 28 years old and has just become a dad. His son’s birth has stirred up memories of the sexual abuse Chas suffered as a 5 year old from a babysitter. Determined to keep his son safe and make sense of his own experience, Chas embarks on a journey to try and find out why people sexually abuse children. Chas talks to victims, including a woman who was abused by her grandfather and a former Catholic altar boy abused by his local parish priest. He also talks to a former Catholic Bishop who has strong views on the reasons for abuse in the priesthood. In a series of emotionally confronting interviews Chas meets with a young girl abused by her father and directly with the perpetrator. Chas then sets out to talk to a range of experts and psychologists working with offenders, and finally, with an author and primary school teacher who has original ideas on how we might proactively approach the safety of children instead of living in fear. With so many people affected by child sexual abuse have you ever asked why it happens in the first place?
Director: MONIQUE SCHAFTER
Monique is a 32yo Australian Walkley Award winning storyteller who co-hosted the ABC's ground-breaking current affairs program Hungry Beast. Over three series on Hungry Beast, Monique produced stories on a variety of issues such as mental illness, disability, aged care, bullying, sexuality and religion. Her story 'Trapped In Your Own Body' about a woman who has Locked-In Syndrome and can only communicate by blinking, won the 2011 Walkley Award for Best Current Affairs TV Reporting (less than 20 minutes). Monique is currently a researcher/producer on the ABC's nightly current affairs program 7:30. Monique has previously co-directed a three-part short-documentary series Trans Boys, she also directed the short film Girls Kick Balls on girls who play AFL for the Melbourne International Film Festival. OUR LITTLE SECRET is Monique’s first long form television documentary.
Producer: LEE MATTHEWS
Lee Matthews achieved a postgraduate diploma in Film & Television (Producing) from VCA, the Victorian College of the Arts, in 2010 and has fast become a prolific filmmaker involved in the management of over 20 successful short films to date, producing fifteen of those himself, including award winning and festival hits Abraham, Shoplifting and Alphamum01. In 2011 he was accepted into SPAA’s emerging producer program, and last year received his first Screen Australia grant, for short film completion funding of Emo (the musical). Most recently, Lee has partnered with Melbourne’s Inspiration Studios to produce his first feature film The Paperman scheduled for 2014, and is associate producer on their current release The Heckler.
OUR LITTLE SECRET, is a MATTHEWSWOOD Pty Ltd production.