Film Production
2006 - Macbeth
The retelling of Shakespeare’s classic tale of ambition, desire and passion. Set in Melbourne’s ganglands, Macbeth is convinced that he is destined to one day assume great power. His ambition, fuelled his drug-addicted wife, leads him to plot to kill his close friend, Duncan. As his desire for power strengthens and he carries out his plan, he is forced to commit further foul deeds.
2003 - Gettin’ Square
Barry Wirth has just got out of prison, having been charged with a crime he did not commit. Barry has his suspicions as to who set him up, but is determined to stay out of trouble. Gettin’ Square follows Barry’s life after prison as he ties to stay on the straight and narrow and get square. But like his mate Johnny ‘Spit’ Spiteri and reformed gangster turned restaurateur Dabba, he finds out the hard way that there are old scores and a few new ones that’ll make getting square a lot harder than he thought.
2003 - Horseplay
Starring Marcus Graham as loveable rogue, Max MacKendrick, this light-hearted comedy is set in the colourful world of horseracing. Life becomes complicated for Max when his dream of training a horse to win the Melbourne Cup comes unstuck after he is barred from the racecourse for horse substitution. Not disheartened by this, he attempts fix the Melbourne Cup, so he can win big and go solo.
2000 - Chopper
Chopper is Mark ‘Chopper’ Read, real-life convict and bestselling author of How to Shoot Friends and Influence People. His story is frightening, savagely funny and twisted. The son of a devoutly religious mother and one-time soldier with a fondness for sleeping alongside a loaded gun, Chopper dreams of making a name for himself as a legendary crime figure. He begins his journey as a wisecracking criminal failure inside a maximum-security prison, but he manages to twist his violent life into a story that fascinates and polarises both press and public.
Film Distribution
2009 - Cedar Boys
A contemporary drama centering on the lives of a group of Middle Eastern boys in Sydney’s western suburbs. Tarek, a young Lebanese-Australian panel-beater, struggling to realize his dreams, is offered a chance to set himself up for life. All he has to do is follow a plan to outsmart the cops and a gang of serious criminals. There are choices that are irreversible and consequences beyond his worst nightmares.
2008 - Anvil
At 14, best friends Robb Reiner and Lips made a pact to rock together forever. Their band, Anvil, hailed as the “demi-gods of Canadian metal, ” influenced a musical generation that includes Metallica, Slayer, and Anthrax, despite never hitting the big time. Following a calamitous European tour, Lips and Robb, now in their fifties, set off to record their 13th album in one last attempt to fulfill their boyhood dreams.
2005 - Wolf Creek
Inspired by true events, this is the story of three friends who embark on a trip to the remote Wolf Creek National Park and end up in a fight for their lives. When their car won’t start they accept the help from gruff local, Mick Taylor. Too late, they realize they have made a huge mistake and their worst nightmare begins.
2001 - Russian Doll
Harvey is a slightly neurotic private investigator who discovers that the adulterer he is investigating is cheating with his own fiancée. Ethan, Harvey’s best friend befriends Katia, a Jewish woman from St Petersburg who arrives in Sydney answering an ad from an international matchmaking agency. With her prospective husband dead, and Katia stranded in Australia, Ethan begins scheming to keep her in Sydney. Ethan suggests paying Harvey to marry Katia, so Harvey can start writing the novel he had always dreamed of. When Harvey reluctantly agrees, Katia takes over his life. And the chaos begins.
2000 - Cut
Film teacher, Lossman warns his students about a cursed screenplay, Hot Blooded! Any attempt to complete filming or even screening of Hot Blooded! has ended up with lives being lost in mysterious and disturbing ways. A group of his students decide to take the risk, inviting Vanessa Turnbill (Molly Ringwald) to reprise the lead role once more.
Television
2010 - Such Is Life: The Troubled Times of Ben Cousins
The documentary outlines the sensational and controversial career of AFL superstar player Ben Cousins who from the earliest days seemed bound for glory. A prodigy of sorts – considered a star after his first game – he soon redefined how the game would be played. He was appointed captain of the mightily powerful West Coast Eagles at the uncommonly young age of 21, eventually becoming a Brownlow Medalist and a Premiership player. From the outset he was a natural leader blessed with boyish movie star good looks and charisma. Well groomed and articulate, he quickly became the AFL’s most well-known and most loved players.
2010 - Addiction
This two-part series follows the stories of addicts in the 28-day rehabilitation program at the Manor, a Melbourne rehab centre. These patients, suffering from a variety of addictions, grapple with serious mental and physical withdrawals as they attempt to turn their lives around. The addicts undergo intensive physical and psychological therapy, designed to help them understand their addiction and equip them with the skills to manage it. Every step in the rehab leads to the most difficult point in the journey; how will they cope with the temptations outside the gate?
2008 - Great Australian Albums, Season 2
Riding on the back of a successful first series, Great Australian Albums returned in 2008 with four more albums. This season featured albums from The Go-Betweens, Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, Hunters and Collectors and Powderfinger. Again, this series provided keen insights into some of Australia’s most loved albums.
2008 - Cannot Buy My Soul
Over two nights at Sydney’s grand State Theatre, before a packed audience, many of Australia’s most acclaimed singer/songwriters and musicians came together to perform the songs of Kev Carmody. Kev Carmody’s work draws on a unique life experience, combining both Western and Indigenous literary and spiritual traditions, an eye for historical and political narratives and a willingness to explore the deeply personal. His songs cover Christian theology, black deaths in custody and celebrations of all walks of Australian life. The combination of so many artists from different aesthetic, generational, racial and gender backgrounds, makes this concert the epitome of reconciliation. The fact that Kev is less well known than those paying him tribute gives a sense of mystery to the proceedings. At times intensely intimate, occasionally raucous and loud, this documentary is a joyous celebration of the life and times, the spirit, the songs and the story-telling of Kev Carmody.
2007 - Great Australian Albums, Season 1
This popular music television series documents the stories behind some of Australia’s most influential and much loved albums. Season One features the work of Silverchair, Crowded House, the Saints and the Triffids. The series gives a brief history of each band and records their memories of making the album and performing the songs, and responses to it.
1999 - The Singer and the Swinger
This is the story of the early days of rock and roll in Australia and two of its key figures, promoter, Lee Gordon and singer, Johnny O’Keefe, one of the stars he helped to make famous. Gordon promoted the tours of many of the big name artists of the 1950s and 1960s, including Ella Fitzgerald, Artie Shaw, Frankie Lane, Nat “King” Cole and Johnnie Ray but he shocked Australia by touring white American rock and roll pioneers Bill Haley and the Comets in 1957. Johnny O’Keefe became Australia’s best known rock and roll star and, with Gordon’s support, toured the country with legendary act such as Little Richard, Buddy Holly, Jerry Lee Lewis and the Everly Brothers.