This bold and provocative four-part series asks the question – What is the idea of Australia and how might it evolve to become richer and more robust in the 21st century?
Australia’s population has grown dramatically over the past two decades, profoundly changing the nation and making it more important than ever to share the national backstory and find ways to incorporate new stories and understanding. This series braids the past and the present and enriches the insights drawn from archives and experts with emotionally powerful stories. It delves into Australia’s relatively little-known history, exploring the four national pillars – people, institutions, land and culture – to produce a multi-layered sense of Australian identity. It teases out the evolution of recurring themes – fairness, land ownership, equality, migration, and contests, First Peoples’ exclusion, race-based fear, gender and economic inequality.
Inspired by the acclaimed book ‘The Idea of Australia: a search for the soul of the nation’ (Julianne Schultz) the series is presented by acclaimed actor Rachel Griffiths, supported by in-depth interviews with experts, significant public figures, archive and personal testimony. The unique landscape of Australia provides a visually stunning backdrop against which big ideas are unpacked and explored with thought-provoking, subversive and emotionally engaging storytelling.
The aim of the series is to invite the audience to consider what they think the idea of Australia should be in a rapidly changing and unstable world, and to do so with some historical insight understanding how robust ideas and dissent have helped produce a dynamic society that has more potential than we often realise. The tone is affirming, revealing, at times challenging, personal and inviting. The Idea of Australia interrogates the past to make sense of the present and imagine a tomorrow when we might thrive, founded upon the best of what and whom we truly are.
Benjamin’s 20+ year career in Australian television started in the world of short-form production, directing award-winning campaigns for almost every network in the country In between he began work in the unscripted space by co-directing and editing the AFI nominated documentary Rudely Interrupted for ABC in 2009. He followed this with producing and post producing on the AACTA nominated series Judith Lucy is All Woman, directing on ABC’s Exhumed, and SBS’s broadcast of the 2015 Mardi Gras Parade.
A four year stint as the creative director of Australia’s first streaming service Stan meant working with Hollywood studios and the local film and television industry to launch a variety of original series, feature films and advertising campaigns.
Most recently Benjamin has been executive producer and director on the Donna Hay global hit food series for Disney+ and Australia’s Vietnam, a 3 part history documentary series for the ABC.
