PUBLISHED26 Oct 2021
Australia Uncovered
A new partnership between SBS and Documentary Australia Foundation bringing powerful impact documentaries to prime-time broadcast
This landmark initiative will give a voice to important stories exploring contemporary Australian issues in 2021 – supporting them to create meaningful change through strategic impact campaigns.
The Australia Uncovered slate will put Impact in the spotlight and Documentary Australia and SBS aim to :
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- Provide a platform to amplify diverse Australian voices and narratives;
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- Engage and educate a wide general audience on contemporary Australian issues;
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- Support filmmakers to make an impact;
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- Demonstrate the power of storytelling to create change.
Read more about the incredible projects coming to your screen in 2021 below.
SBS Australia Uncovered Slate
Strong Female Lead
Strong Female Lead examines Australia’s struggle with women and power when a strong female takes the lead.
One in three Australian women experience discrimination or harassment in the workplace; former PM Julia Gillard was one of them. Using archival footage, Strong Female Lead charts the gendered response of the public, media and Australian Parliament itself to Australia’s first and only female Prime Minister. Exploring the themes of sexism, power and misogyny, Strong Female Lead examines the issue of prejudice against women in Australia and its ongoing impact on women’s participation in our Parliament
Osher Günsberg: A Matter of Life and Death
The situation is nothing short of a national crisis. Yet the experts agree that there are ways we can be better dealing with the issues. The SBS documentary ‘Osher Günsberg: A Matter of Life and Death’ will provide a comprehensive portrait of suicide in Australia today. Through the prism of Osher Günsberg’s own mental health experience, he’ll investigate why suicide rates remain high in Australia, and feature what is being done to mitigate the problem. The documentary will focus on solutions and what Australia and Australians can do to reduce the national suicide rate. In fact, the mission statement of this film is to go beyond the informative. Its charter is to be part of the solution and actually help stop suicide by offering hope and some practical answers.
The Bowraville Murders
The Bowraville Murders investigates one of Australia’s worst unsolved murder cases that has been marred by systemic racism – the 1990-91 serial killings of three Aboriginal children, all from the same street in a rural town in NSW, all killed within five months of each other and all of their remains found off the same dirt track. There has always been only one suspect, a white man who was acquitted of two of the murders after a racially biased police investigation. For 30 years, the victims’ families have fought a courageous battle for justice that is now being passed to the next generation.
Over three years, we have followed the families’ emotional journey through the courts along with the dogged cop who reinvestigated the murders and an activist MP who led a Parliamentary inquiry. As a result of their fight, Bowraville has become a rallying cry for Indigenous people everywhere who demand equal treatment under the law – an open wound haunting Australia until justice is done.
The Truth About Anxiety with Celia Pacquola
Celia Pacquola is an award-winning actor and comedian. She also suffers from anxiety. She wants to help millions of Australians through their battle with anxiety by telling her story, challenging stigma and showing a way through it. She will meet those suffering from the condition, those on the road to recovery and those who are helping with the journey.
The Department
The only time the public hears about the system that protects our most vulnerable children is when one of them ends up dead. The Department is an observational, feature documentary which allows a rare glimpse inside the child protection system at work across NSW.
The film will follow caseworkers, specialists and families, as they navigate the complexities of keeping children safe in the face of domestic violence, addiction, poverty, mental illness and intergenerational trauma. The lives of children from remote communities to metropolitan Sydney are at stake and decisions will impact for generations. In modern life where being a perfect parent is a standard none of us reach, what does ‘good enough’ parenting look like?
Our African Roots
On 26 January 1788, ten men of African descent stepped off the ships of the First Fleet and were set to work building the modern nation of Australia. They were the first of hundreds of African convicts sent to these shores.
On a journey back to the multicultural origins of modern Australia, African migrant Santilla Chingaipe rips up the monocultural myths of Australia’s white foundation narratives and colours in our nation’s post-colonial history by revealing the stories of the black Africans who left an indelible mark on this country.
Although their achievements have largely been overlooked or forgotten, they became bushrangers, feminists, freedom fighters, war heroes and sports stars, and they played a pivotal role in some of the most decisive events in Australian history.
Our African Roots writes these forgotten African men and women back into the nation’s history books, and reveals how Australia’s shifting attitudes to race came to shape our national identity.
The Children in the Pictures
A feature-length documentary and a 10-part podcast, which goes inside Task Force Argos, the world’s best investigative team dedicated to rescuing the children being sexually abused by highly organised dark web networks. As technology reaches into every corner of the globe, this has become the fastest-growing serious crime in the world. Tens of thousands of children are being exploited and tortured. Argos is often the only hope these children have of being found. This film is near completion and mainly fundraising for impact.
Incarceration Nation
Australia was founded with a clear purpose, to create a prison island. 230 years later, our incarceration rates are amongst the highest in the world, costing our nation billions of dollars. But the most devastating cost is the erosion of the culture, values and wellbeing of our First Nations Peoples.
Incarceration Nation reveals the systemic injustice and oppression of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people that has created an Internationally recognized human rights catastrophe. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders are amongst the most incarcerated people in the world – 3% of the population and 27% of prisoners.
We are in the midst of a new convict era. Incarceration Nation will put the justice system on trial. The film will ask why petty crimes like unpaid parking fines, can lead to imprisonment. We’ll highlight the costs of our current system – both economically and socially, by forensically examining our Nation’s law enforcement, judicial and prison systems.