What climate stories does the world need now?
Whose voices should tell them?
Which audiences need to see and hear these stories,
and how do we ensure those audiences are reached?
Taking place on 26–28 August 2025 at Artspace on Gadigal Land, Sydney, Climate Story Lab brings together documentary makers, climate experts, First Nations leaders, strategists and funders to workshop strategic climate storytelling.
The 3-day lab aims to strengthen climate storytelling and impact campaigns, spur partnerships to mobilise strategic audiences and funding opportunities, and grow confidence in the power of social impact storytelling.
Read more about the sessions:
Note: this lab is by invitation only.
VENUE
ArtSpace: Level 1, 43/51 Cowper Wharf Roadway, Woolloomooloo NSW
Enter the street level gallery and proceed up the stairs/lift up one level.
Please note: traffic in inner city Sydney can be heavy, so please arrive in time for registration.
DIRECTIONS
By Train
- Kings Cross Station is an 11-minute walk from Artspace. Catch the T4 Eastern Suburbs & Illawarra and TrainLink South Coastlines. Exit Kings Cross Station via the Victoria Street exit, travel along Victoria Street and turn left down the steps leading onto Cowper Wharf Roadway.
- St James Station is a 15-minute walk from Artspace. St James Station is on the City Circle, served by the T2 Inner West & Leppington, T3 Bankstown and T8 Airport & South lines. Exit St James Station via the Macquarie Street exit and head east on Prince Albert Road. Continue onto Art Gallery Road and follow the pathway across the Eastern Distributor footbridge. After crossing the bridge, descend by the stairs or elevator and turn left towards Bourke Street. Turn right onto Nicholson Street, then left onto Forbes Street to pass through the Forbes Street forecourt.
By Bus
Bus route 311 runs between Central Belmore Park and City Millers Point via Darlinghurst and Potts Point, with stops outside Artspace on Cowper Wharf Roadway. When travelling towards Central, your nearest bus stop to Artspace is Cowper Wharf Rd opposite Brougham St. When travelling towards Millers Point, alight at Cowper Wharf Rd before Bourke St.
On Foot
Artspace is a 10-minute walk from the Sydney CBD, Kings Cross, Hyde Park, Art Gallery of New South Wales and the Sydney Botanic Gardens. When walking to Artspace from the CBD, walk through The Domain to the Eastern Distributor Footbridge. After crossing the bridge, descend the stairs or elevator and turn left towards Bourke Street. Turn right onto Nicholson Street, then left onto Forbes Street to pass through the Forbes Street forecourt.
Parking
There is limited metered parking available at the entrance to Artspace on Cowper Wharf Roadway and at the rear of the building on Bland Street.
The closest publicly accessible secure car park is at The Wharf, Woolloomooloo on Lincoln Crescent. It is approximately a three-minute walk from Artspace and can be booked in advance online.
About the climate storytelling projects
From 55 applications, the applications committee selected seven compelling storytelling projects with strong impact ambitions to be workshopped and elevated through the three-day intensive.
The projects were reviewed by Documentary Australia Impact Director Stephanie King, Doc Society Director of Special Projects Hollie Fifer, and external reviewer and filmmaker Douglas Watkin.
The Electric Postcode (formerly known as Austinmer 2515)
Documentary Podcast
Director: Kellie Riordan
Producer: Sarah Dabro
The Electric Postcode is a 10-part narrative documentary podcast which follows one town’s quest and one crazed entrepreneur’s dream to electrify a town. Can this beachside village illuminate our path to a fossil-fuel-free future?
Connected to Country
Documentary Podcast
Director: Genevieve Grieves
Producer: Laurrie Mansfield and Kate Montague
Connected to Country is an immersive listening experience that amplifies the wisdom of Australian First Nations Elders, custodians of the world’s oldest living culture. Through intergenerational storytelling, young people will preserve oral traditions while confronting the urgent and connected challenges of climate action, cultural survival and environmental stewardship.
Floodland
Feature documentaryDirector and Writer: Jordan Giusti
Producer: Gal Greenspan and Rachel Forbes
Writers: Dr Carlie Atkinson and Joseph Nizeti
Lismore is Australia’s flood capital, priding itself on historic resilience in the face of immeasurable deluge. But as the climate crisis rises tides, uncomfortable truths boil to the surface, leaving residents wondering if their precarious way of life can survive a changing world.
Confidential Gas Project
Feature documentaryFurther details of this project are currently embargoed.
Moblands
Feature documentaryDirector and Producer: Yale MacGillivray
Three renegade cowboys ride to protect a world most have forgotten. As they train for the rodeo of their lives, they’re armed with 80,000 years of unbroken knowledge to defend their Country — and pulled into a fierce reckoning with the forces erasing land, memory, and future. Against the backdrop of colonisation, they ride with fury, loyalty, and joy.
Saltwater Cowboys of Shark Bay
Documentary seriesDirector: Karla Hart
Producer: Renée Kennedy
Executive Producers: Renée Kennedy, Nathan Gibbs and Karla Hart
Malgana entrepreneur Michael Wear and his Indigenous startup, Tidal Moon, revive Australia’s sea cucumber trade and restore Shark Bay’s / Guthaaguda’s seagrass, battling shark-infested waters, regulatory barriers, and local tensions while trying to grow their business, empower their community and combat climate change.
Testimony
Feature documentaryDirector: Maya Newell
Executive Producers: McRose Elu and Deanne Weir
Producers: Barbara Ibuai, Larissa Behrendt AO, Sophie Hyde, Alex Kelly and Lisa Sherrard
As the climate emergency rises before them, Torres Strait Islanders rise up too and sue the Australian Government for failing to protect them. We walk with witnesses and dance with story-holder Sedrick as he gathers his people to remember, brace and dream of possible futures. This film is their testimony.
“We could not be more passionate about supporting these independent climate documentary projects characterised by their interrogation of power, their elevation of research and lived experience, and their visions of climate just futures. As a committee, we deliberated at length on the 55 projects submitted, and are proud that this selection reflects both the quality of storytelling in this region, and the strategic opportunities for documentary to advance climate action and justice.”
– Documentary Australia Impact Director and initiative lead Stephanie King
“We are so excited to bring the Climate Story Lab model to Australia for the first time alongside Documentary Australia as co-hosts. Over three days, we will bring change-makers across the country including First Nations leaders, climate experts, storytellers, funders and the documentary industry to exchange knowledge, lived experience, movement strategies and the power of documentaries to shift Australia’s understanding of climate justice. This is an essential moment in Australian climate communications.”
– Doc Society Director of Special Projects and initiative lead Hollie Fifer
Co-hosts
Major Partners
