Returning: Untold Australia docos

SBS factual series Untold Australia returns in May with 4 new documentaries on Australia’s diverse and sometimes eclectic communities.

They span the subjects of forgotten islands trying to claim their rightful place, to multicultural cops, to a pair of Rabbis and their wives on a mission to bring Jews together in remote locations.

The first doco is Lebanese Beauty Queens by produced by iKandy Films.

SBS Head of Documentaries, Joseph Maxwell said, “SBS is known for commissioning bold and fascinating documentaries about Australia’s diverse and multicultural communities. The aim of Untold Australia is to shine a light on some of the people we don’t get to see on our screens so often and hear their amazing stories.”

“All of the documentaries in this season are unique; sometimes hilarious, often poignant – but all of them will make you look at the world with a slightly more quizzical and questioning outlook. They take you to places you may never been before and help to paint a picture of an Australia you may have never discovered before.”

The series will launch on Wednesday 16 May with Lebanese Beauty Queens that goes behind the scenes of Australia’s most controversial beauty pageant. For 16 years the pageant has attracted the who’s who of Sydney’s Lebanese community, as the daughters of proud families compete to be crowned Miss Lebanon Australia.

The documentary is seen through the eyes of the contestants and the pageant’s ‘glam squad’ who create the perfect beauty queen over a five-week period. The winner will go on to compete in the prestigious Miss Lebanon Emigrant Beauty Pageant in Beirut, with a history of past queens going on to achieve international stardom in the Middle East.

Lebanese Beauty Queens Wednesday 16 May, 8.30pm on SBS.