Sally Aitken
Valerie Taylor is a shark fanatic and an Australian icon – a marine maverick who forged her way as a fearless diver, cinematographer and conservationist. She filmed the real sharks for Jaws and famously wore a chainmail suit, using herself as shark bait, changing our scientific understanding of sharks forever.
History is taking to the seas and walking in the footsteps of Captain James Cook. 250 years after Cook began his epic exploration of the Pacific, Sam Neill (Jurassic Park, The Piano) journeys in his wake uncovering stories that resonate from those times on both sides of the beach. Sam begins with a disclaimer – he is merely an actor – but the story of Cook, and the impact he has had on the Pacific in the 250 years since his first voyage, has always fascinated him.
A compelling personal journey with David Stratton, as he relates the fascinating development of our cinema history. David guides us from his boyhood cinema experience of Australia in England, where he saw the first images of this strange and exotic landscape via the medium of film, to his migration to Australia as a ‘ten pound pom’ in 1963 and onto his present day reflections on the iconic themes that run through our cinematic legacy. All of this reflects a passionate engagement in a uniquely Australian medium. Parallel and at the heart of the series is the story of an industry whose growing pains David has witnessed over a lifetime. Alongside David, the protagonists of this history are the giants of Australian cinema – both behind the camera and in front of it.
A fascinating look at the colorful career of architect Frank Gehry who despite being well into his eighties remains one of the world's most celebrated and famously provocative creative forces. From the iconic Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao to LA's Walt Disney Concert Hall, Gehry's buildings both intrigue and ignite. For Frank, rules are there to be broken. Alan Yentob explores Gehry's remarkable journey from poor outsider in Toronto to global 'starchitect' and follows the construction of a characteristically audacious new Gehry building in Sydney - his first in Australia.
The Week The Women Went is a television show produced by Paperny Films, and based on a BBC Three program of the same title. The show was part documentary, part reality television, that explores what happens when all the women in an ordinary Canadian town disappear for a week and leave the men and children to cope on their own. The first season of the show was taped in Hardisty, Alberta from June 2 to June 9, 2007 and consisted of eight one-hour episodes. The show first aired on CBC Television in Canada on January 21, 2008 and concluded on March 10, 2008. An estimated 1.2 million viewers watched the debut episode. The second season of the show was shot in Tatamagouche, Nova Scotia from September 8 to September 15, 2008 and began airing on January 21, 2009.
The band’s story from the very beginning with founding members Anthony, Murray, Greg and Jeff as they face doubters and disbelievers, before unprecedented fame and reinvention with the power of friendship and dreams, and features extraordinary, never-before seen personal archival footage.
