Three new documentaries join 2025 Environmental Accelerator slate

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Documentary Australia has today announced three new documentaries to join the 2025 Environmental Accelerator slate.

The projects include Yurlu | Country, which follows late Banjima Elder Maitland Parker’s fight for the rehabilitation of his homelands from asbestos contamination; White Rock, where Damon Gameau uncovers the explosion of long-spined sea urchins devastating Australia’s kelp forests; and Sukundimi Walks Before Me, which follows Manu Peni and children of Papua New Guinea’s Sepik River campaigning to stop a large-scale gold and copper mine, which risks extracting, eroding and polluting the river.

Documentary Australia Impact Director and Environmental Accelerator program lead Stephanie King said, “We are thrilled to invite these powerful documentaries to join the program, and to work with the film teams to maximise the impact of such critical environmental stories. We are now midway through the ‘critical decade’ for tackling climate change – it has never been more urgent that we support and leverage environmental storytelling to move audiences from awareness to action.”

Launched in 2022 with support from Intrepid Travel, the Environmental Accelerator supports documentaries to increase awareness and accelerate action on a range of pressing environmental issues. The program offers pro bono impact campaign support to a slate of documentary projects over three years, supporting the design of impact strategies, providing guidance on impact campaign implementation and fundraising for impact, supporting the design of evaluation frameworks and the analysis of impact metrics, amplifying documentary releases and presenting impact screenings and events.

Now in its third year, the Environmental Accelerator Impact Program has to date supported six environmental documentaries, including Greenhouse By Joost, which follows internationally renowned zero-waste crusader Joost Bakker’s mission to create a self-sustaining home; The Giants, a cinematic portrait of environmentalist Bob Brown; Delikado, in which three environmental defenders confront murder and betrayal to save an island paradise in the Philippines; Rachel’s Farm, which follows director and actress Rachel Ward’s journey from ecological despair to joining a farming revolution; Climate Changers, which follows scientist and leading writer on climate change Tim Flannery’s global search for leadership on climate change; and Stay Tuned To Our Planet, a TikTok and YouTube climate action series tackling climate anxiety in young people.

Documentary Australia’s Environmental Accelerator program is supported by Intrepid Travel, Lord Mayor’s Charitable Foundation, Madman Entertainment, Planet Ark and others.

ABOUT THE FILMS

Yurlu | Country

Feature documentary

Director / Producer: Yaara Bou Melhem
Co-Writer / Executive Producer: Maitland Parker
Executive Producer: Chris Kamen
Co-Producers: James Saunders, Tom Bannigan
Impact Producer: Ann Megalla

A vivid ode to Country and an intimate portrait of an Aboriginal Elder’s final year as he strives to preserve his culture and heal his homeland, scarred by the largest contaminated site in the Southern Hemisphere. The late Banjima Elder, Maitland Parker, called his Yurlu (lands) “Poison Country” – a haunting truth he carried in his body, as he too fell to its toxic legacy.

Banjima Country lies within the remote red gorges of Western Australia’s Pilbara, scarred by the Wittenoom asbestos mines which dumped millions of tons of lethal asbestos tailings. In a journey imbued with legacy, Maitland’s fight to clean up his lands will inspire and catalyse.

White Rock

Documentary short

Director: Stefan Andrews
Producer: Dr Scott Bennett
Presenter: Damon Gameau
Impact Producers: Sahira Bell and Hillarey Jones

Award-winning filmmaker Damon Gameau (Future Council, 2040, That Sugar Film) embarks on a journey to expose a hidden consequence of the climate crisis – the explosion of longspined sea urchins that are devastating Australia’s kelp forests. Weaving together insights from Traditional Owners, firsthand accounts from fishers, and lessons learned from emerging industries, Damon discovers that a solution to this crisis not only exists, but exemplifies how ecological restoration can go hand in hand with economic opportunity – a true-blue, nature positive approach.

Sukundimi Walks Before Me

Feature documentary

Produced by Brown Sugar Apple Grunt Productions and Walking Fish Productions

The Sepik River is the mother line for Papua New Guinea communities. She winds through mountains and rainforests, the crucial vertebrae connecting and supporting the rare biodiversity and spiritual consciousness of the region. But her livelihood and her communities are threatened by the proposal of a copper-gold mine being built at her headwaters, which risks extracting, eroding and polluting an environment that has been sustained by her for millennia.

The children of this river, led by Manu Peni, create a grassroots campaign to stop the mine from being built, resisting the forces of colonial bureaucracy and Western narratives of ‘development’ by invoking Indigenous and ancestral knowledge.

Sukundimi Walks Before Me explores this existential fight through an impressionistic and lyrical exploration of existence, resistance and life along the mother river.

Learn more about the Environmental Accelerator