PUBLISHED10 Jun 2025
Floodland at Sydney Film Festival 2025
We caught up with the film team to discuss their nomination for the Documentary Australia Award.
Documentary Australia-supported film Floodland is a deeply moving story of love and loss set in the northern NSW town of Lismore, Australia’s most flooded postcode and site of the nation’s most costly climate disaster.
Focusing on several residents, director Jordan Giusti (Grevillea, SFF 2020) filmed over three years as a series of catastrophic floods tested community resilience.
Lismore born and bred Eli loves his flood-prone town and recently purchased a home with a view down the creek. He’s a pragmatic guy: if flooding is predicted, he’ll just move the washing machine and stock up on beers.
Eli’s friend Harper, tired of political complacency, turns to activism, while Carlie Atkinson, a Bundjalung-Yiman social worker, sets up a groundbreaking First Nations healing centre. With trauma bubbling up and talk of government buybacks dividing neighbours, locals must question whether they can find the strength and spirit to stay.
Documentary Australia: What does it mean to you to be nominated for the Documentary Australia Award?
Jordan Giusti: It’s incredibly exciting to be nominated for this award alongside some remarkable documentary films, and a validation of the hard work the film’s team and I have put in for the past three years. Ultimately, I hope it will help bring the story of Lismore to a wider audience.
DA: How did support from Documentary Australia help shape your journey?
JG: Support from Documentary Australia was key in being able to promote and gather the resources needed to tell this story the way it needed to be told.
DA: Do you have any advice for emerging filmmakers who want to create change through documentary?
JG: I think true change comes from action, and that means going beyond the film itself. Try to think about how your film can create an impact beyond the screenings and see it as the first building block for a wider campaign. I don’t think a film alone can change our world, but it can be a launchpad.