Films

F4 is Australia’s only film festival dedicated to documentary - a unique and rare opportunity to see remarkable documentaries on the big screen.

Revisit classics and discover new work by some of the world’s most renowned filmmakers alongside new films by Australia’s most talented emerging filmmakers.

F4 is where you will catch them first.

 

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Filmmakers

 

Masters

Gillian Armstrong  Brian Hill  Jonathan Stack  Tom Zubrycki

 

First Filmmakers

Trevor Almeida  David Downey  William Head  Stella Kinsella  Kim Munro  Bronwyn Purvis  Telen Rodwell  Elizabeth Tadic

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Gillian Armstrong

 

 

Gillian Armstrong first garnered attention for her debut feature, My Brilliant Career (1979), about a female writer who chooses her career over marriage.

At the film’s release Gillian Armstrong held the distinction of being the first woman to direct a feature-length movie in Australia in almost 50 years.

Alternating between period pieces and edgy modern works, Gillian frequently fashions stories built around strong, independent-minded women.

Her feature credits include Star Struck, Mrs Soffel, High Tide, The Last Days of Chez Nous, Little Women, Oscar and Lucinda, Charlotte Gray, Unfolding Florence: The Many Lives of Florence Broadhurst and Death Defying Acts.

Her films and documentaries have screened at numerous international film festivals including Berlin, Singapore, Sundance and Cannes.

Gillian has been nominated for Academy and Golden Globe Awards and received awards from the Australian Film Institute, the Film Critics Circle of Australia, the Houston Film Festival, Festival International de Creteil the US National Society of Film Critics, the British Critics Association and the British Academy.

Gillian has received an AM for services to the Australian Film Industry, a Doctor of Letters from the University of NSW, an Honorary Doctorate in Film from Swinburne University and the Hollywood Crystal Award for Women in Film.

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Brian Hill 

 

 

Brian is an award-winning director of both drama and documentary. His films have been shown by all major UK broadcasters and in many other countries around the world. He has been nominated six times for BAFTA awards and won three of them.

His recent films include: The Bigamist Bride (feature length documentary about 5 times bigamist bride, Emily Horne); Climate of Change (documentary feature about the future of planet Earth); and The Not Dead (documentary with poetry by Simon Armitage, that tells of three soldiers from different generations suffering post-traumatic stress disorder).

Past credits include Songbirds (documentary musical set in a women’s prison – Official Selection, Sundance); Nobody Someday (feature-length documentary about a Robbie Williams’ European tour); and Sylvania Waters (a TV series about life in an Australian suburb).

Brian has been executive and series producer on many programs and series including the BAFTA-winning Make Me Normal, Care House and Make Me Honest.

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 Jonathan Stack

 

 

 

Jonathan is a multiple Emmy Award-winning and two-time Academy Award® nominated documentary filmmaker.

During his career Jonathan has written, produced and directed over 25 films and 50 television programs including The Farm: Life Inside Angola Prison which was honoured with the Sundance Film Festival’s Grand Jury Prize.

His films have been distributed through HBO, BBC, A&E, Channel Four, the Discovery Channel, National Geographic, and many others.

While working as an independent filmmaker, Jonathan earned a reputation for his unique ability to gain access into forbidden and even dangerous worlds.

His exclusives include: President Charles Taylor’s farewell speech to the nation of Liberia (Liberia: An Uncivil War) and a rare interview with David Miscavige, head of the Church of Scientology (Inside the Church of Scientology).

In 2008 he produced Iron Ladies of Liberia, a film that tells the story of Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, Africa’s first female president.

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Tom Zubrycki

 

 

Tom Zubrycki’s widely respected body of documentaries have for the last 25 years mapped Australia’s changing social and political landscape.

Recent films include Temple of Dreams (2007), about the struggle of a group of young Muslim Australians to keep open a youth centre in Sydney's west, Molly & Mobarak (2003), a story about a relationship between a young Afghani refugee and a school-teacher in a country town, and The Diplomat (2000, AFI’s for Best Documentary and Best Direction), about the former exiled East Timorese leader Jose Ramos-Horta.

His latest film The Hungry Tide, currently in production, is about the Pacific nation of Kiribati - one of the countries in the world most vulnerable to climate change.

Tom also works as a producer mentoring first-time and emerging filmmakers.

Credits include Exile in Sarajevo (1996, International Emmy for Best Documentary), Making Venus (2001, Fipresci Award), Gulpilil - One Red Blood (2002), The Prodigal Son (2005, IF Award for Best Short Doc), The Intervention (2008), and Stolen (2009).

In 2008 he was awarded the Cecil Holmes Award by the Australian Directors Guild for his creative output, as well as for his work for filmmakers rights and conditions.

More information on his various films, plus articles and background pieces are on his website www.tomzubrycki.com.

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Trevor Almeida

 

 

 

Born in Nairobi, Kenya, Producer/Director Trevor Almeida immigrated to Australia as a child in the 1970's.

He trained as an environmental scientist and experimented with film and radio plays while at university.

It was at a film festival that he discovered the power of documentary. He attained his grounding in film by participating in short courses and film appreciation groups.

His first film EE BWANA was experimental and looked at spiritual music of Mozambique refugees living on the Kenyan border.

While living in Japan he worked with 100 Meter Films on award winning feature and short film projects.

He now runs Geonewmedia a production company that produces scientific and technical new media, educational films, and documentaries.

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David Downey

 

 

David Downey of Santa Dave Productions is an emerging Australian filmmaker who studied a BA (Hons) in Documentary Film and Television at the University of Wales.

For his final film, David paired up with fellow student and producer Alex D Hawks to produce a fun, quirky short film about the Santa Clause games held annually in Sweden.

It was this short film that secured David an ABC Pre Sale and attracted Veronica Fury of Fury Productions Pty Ltd to produce the half hour documentary.

Dave plans to go on to make lots of other quirky documentaries like his hero Mark Lewis!

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William Head

 

 

William is at the beginning of his documentary career.

In 2009 he undertook the postgraduate Documentary Directing course at the Victorian College of the Arts and Music. Whilst there, he was a recipient of the Margaret Lawrence Social Justice Fund Award and the Anthony Ganim Postgraduate Award.

His 2008 short animated documentary about Amsterdam, BUITEN, was selected as a finalist in the Lonely Planet Worldwide Encounters film festival and screened at the Falls Creek Film Festival.

He has been a Graphic Designer for 10 years and also has degrees in Political Economy and Media Studies.

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Stella Kinsella

 

 

Stella Kinsella is a producer and director with Archiva Films. She is also, predominantly a writer.

Her screenplay Veris won the 2004 Australian Writers Guild, Monte Miller Award. Her new feature film Slim Pickins, a spaghetti western Rom Com won the Holding Redlich Pitch Comp at SPAA 2009.

She is currently in development with producers Kylie Bryant (Moppet Productions) and Carmel McAloon (Endangered Pictures) to create the Film Vic funded The Divided Heart- about art and motherhood and the split self parenthood and creative careers cleaves. 

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Kim Munro

 

 

Kim's passion for film and photography has taken her all over the world. In the past she has lived in Japan, Canada and Korea.

In each country Kim has exhibited her work as a photographer, also running a photography business whilst in Vancouver.

Previous to her completion of the Documentary course at the Victorian College of the Arts, School of Film and Television Kim also studied linguistics. She has been a teacher for six years.
 

At the Victorian College if the Arts Kim wrote, directed and edited two documentary shorts: One Small Thing and The Rise of Leatherman:  A Musical. Leatherman reflects Kim's artistic sensibilities in its stylised form and eye catching visuals. It is a documentary with a difference.

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Bronwyn Purvis

 

 

 

Bronwyn is an award winning filmmaker and theatre director.

In Australia she has worked with Big hART, Polyglot Puppet Theatre, Restless Dance Company, Outback Theatre for Young People, Arts Access Australia, ABC Radio National and Australian Theatre for Young People.

Her short film Pops Dream won the Bondi Short Film Festival and was screened internationally.

She received the Australian Theatre for Young People International Lendlease scholarship which allowed her to travel to the UK and work with experimental theatre companies - Improbable Theatre, Volcano Theatre Company, the David Glass Ensemble and the Clod Ensemble.

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Telen Rodwell

 

 

Through his film production company, DaPICTURES, Telen has written, directed, shot, edited and composed a number of short films and documentaries with acclaimed community arts organisation BIG hART and more recently the University of Tasmania.

In 2004, he won the New and Emerging Australian Film Maker Award at the ‘Other Film Festival’ in Melbourne.

Telen has organised festivals and youth culture events with the II Heads Crew including No Comply, Sk8 Jams 1 -4 and Mad Month of Making.

Telen has an Advanced Diploma in Performing Arts from the Actors Centre, Sydney and practices Capoeira.

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Elizabeth Tadic

 

 

 

Elizabeth Tadic grew up in a patriarchal Bosnian migrant family in Sydney's multicultural belly, Marrickville.

From an early age, she stood her ground on sexual equality by refusing to do any chores traditionally relegated to females. Instead she helped her father build houses by carrying bricks and stomped on grapes to make red wine.

It's no surprise then that Elizabeth has spent the past decade working as a video journalist telling stories about injustices and women's rights.

In 2006, she produced a trilogy Women For Justice for SBS television program "Dateline", where she followed three powerful women fighting for their human rights from the corrupt streets of Nigeria to Pakistan. For this body of work she was awarded a UN Media Peace Award, a Walkley nomination and the prestigious Rory Peck Sony Impact Award. 

Recently, Elizabeth has partnered with Selene Alcock, with whom she plans to tell dynamic stories with humour and irony.

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