New doco funding for ABC, SBS, Nat Geo.

New documentaries for ABC, SBS and National Geographic have received funding from Screen Australia.

Amongst the projects are documentaries on Pauline Hanson, Mambo, Shark Bay dolphins, gay hate crimes in Sydney and a second season for Indigenous series First Contact.

The Broadcast program will support nine films that will screen to local and international audiences on television. In this round, Cordell Jigsaw will make Hanson: The Years That Shook Australia about provocative politician/fish-and-chip shop owner Pauline Hanson. Anna Broinowski will direct and will team up with Toni Malone to produce the film for SBS.

Conviction by director Terry Carlyon, who will also produce the film with Robyn Miller and John Silvester, will air on the ABC. DD & B Productions will make the documentary that takes an inside look at a homicide squad as they build a case in the glare of social media commentary against a killer.

Blackfella films will receive support to make two documentaries. Deep Water is an innovative multiplatform venture that will be a feature drama (previously announced), documentary and online content. Deep Water recalls in full the gay-hate crime epidemic in Sydney that saw up to 80 murders and 30 unsolved cases. Jacob Hickey will write and Darren Dale will produce the film for SBS. The duo will also make the second series of respected documentary First Contact for SBS.

Aussie Gold
10 x 45 mins
Electric Pictures Pty Ltd
Producer Andrew Ogilvie
Director Roger Power
Broadcaster National Geographic Channel
Synopsis: Against the backdrop of the colourful communities who call Australia’s famed Goldfields home, we enter the high-stakes world of prospectors in hard pursuit of AUSSIE GOLD!

Breaking the Silence
56 mins
Mint Pictures Pty Ltd & Identity Films
Producer Dan Goldberg
Executive Producer Adam Kay
Director Danny Ben-Moshe
Broadcaster ABC
Synopsis: An explosive courtroom drama set partially inside the Royal Commission, Breaking the Silence sifts through the rubble of the fallout and follows an investigative trail to America, climaxing with a dramatic twist when the whistleblower from Code of Silence confronts another ultra-Orthodox rabbi who he claims molested him.

Conviction
57 mins
DD & B Productions Pty Ltd
Producers Terry Carlyon, Robyn Miller, John Silvester
Director Terry Carlyon
Broadcaster ABC
Synopsis: A missing person, a murder that shocked the nation and a suspect hunted by social media as police close in. Conviction takes viewers inside the homicide squad as they bring the killer to justice.

Deep Water
77 mins
Blackfella Films Pty Ltd
Producer Darren Dale
Writer Jacob Hickey
Broadcaster SBS
Distributor DCD Rights
Synopsis: Up to 80 murders, 30 unsolved cases, thousands of assaults. For the first time, Deep Water presents the full account of the gay-hate crime epidemic that bloodied Sydney’s coastline.

Dolphin Dynasty
60 mins
Sea Dog TV International Pty Ltd & WildBear Entertainment Pty Ltd
Producers Jodie De Barros, Bettina Dalton
Executive Producers Jodie De Barros, Michael Tear, Peter Moers, Edwina Thring
Writer/Directors Leighton De Barros, Peter Moers
Broadcaster National Geographic Channel
Synopsis : Utilising specialist filming techniques never used before we’ll unveil the complex social hierarchy, family ties and the incredible maternal bonds of a small group of Shark Bay dolphins, in a wild soap opera that is Dolphin Dynasty.

First Contact Series 2
3 x 51 mins
Blackfella Films Pty Ltd
Producers Darren Dale, Jacob Hickey
Writer Jacob Hickey
Broadcaster SBS
Distributor SBS
Synopsis: Six out of 10 who call Australia home have had little or no contact with Indigenous people. Twenty-eight days. Six well-known Aussies. One life-changing journey.

Hanson: The Years that Shook Australia
72 mins
Cordell Jigsaw Pty Ltd
Producers Anna Broinowski, Toni Malone
Executive Producer Michael Cordell
Director Anna Broinowski
Broadcaster SBS
Synopsis: A contemporary history film about Pauline Hanson: a fish & chip shop lady from Ipswich, who changed Australia forever.

Hatch, Match & Dispatch
8 x 28 mins
Fredbird CDK Pty Ltd T/A Fredbird Entertainment
Producers Sandra Welkerling, Colin Thrupp, Faye Welborn
Executive Producer Craig Graham
Broadcaster ABC 1
Synopsis: A privileged look at the funny and moving stories of the biggest events of our lives: births, deaths and marriages.

Mambo: Art Irritates Life
57 mins
Bombora Film and Music Co Pty Ltd
Producer Scott Nowell
Executive Producer Jo-anne McGowan
Director Paul Clarke
Broadcaster ABC
Synopsis: This is the story of how punk rockers and reprobates created an art movement that would capture the minds of the masses in a wearable art form.