Champion: The Franz Stampfl Story

Over the past 12 months we have been sourcing archive material for the documentary from various institutions and individuals for use in the post-production of the project. The post-production was delayed due to lack of funds and the Incognita team responsible for this documentary taking on two other fully funded drama screen projects that are now completed and released. Sally has also been gaining film editing experience with other projects so that she can take on the task of editing this project herself, due to not being able to hire an editor due to lack of funds (any donations you make will go towards paying Sally and our Sound Editor, as well as paying for the software being used, music composition and acquisition and any other archive we may need to acquire). The trailer for the project was submitted to a handful of international film festivals to see what the response would be to the work and to test how Sally’s editing skills were advancing. Of the 8 festivals entered, the trailer was accepted into 7 of them and won “Best Trailer” in 5 of the festivals. Next year, we will be undertaking the mammoth task of collating all the archive materials gathered over the past 12 months and get fully into the edit. Due to the team’s experience in the web series world (10 years of producing award-winning content in that medium, as well as being commissioned and funded to create in that space), we have decided to shift this documentary to a hybrid program that will be 6 x 10 minute episodes, as well as a 60 minute long-form documentary. This is also due to feedback from distributors and broadcasters we have had conversations with over the past year. Any donations you can make to get this project finally over the line would be hugely appreciated! It has become a passion project that we are working on around our day jobs and paying gigs, but we would love to be able to dedicate a solid amount of time to get this finished and finally released!

Our team has been working in-between other projects compiling footage, transcribing all 40+ interviews we have filmed for the documentary and beginning the process of editing the film. Unfortunately, the post-production team are now working on the project for free, as we are yet to find a home for the film with a distributor or broadcaster. So work has been slow, as everyone has had to take other work to keep body and soul together over the past 12 months, which have been tough for just about everyone, we know. We are about to apply for various grants for next year to try and get a budget to pay our team, and obviously, your donations will also help with that goal! We are aiming to release the film in late 2024, so everyone can finally experience the wisdom, humour and storytelling of our incredible interviewees, and be inspired by the life of Franz Stampfl – at a time when inspiration is sorely needed.

We would like to thank all our donors who have helped us get this far into the final leg of producing “Champion: The Franz Stampfl Story”. We had some delays with the post-production period, mainly due to getting full funding for another project, “Dark Arcadia” (a drama series) in mid-2023, which has now been completed, so freeing up our time to get back in the trenches with this documentary. As we are working essentially for free on “Champion”, we are having to take other work here and there, which is what is delaying the completion. Any donations made to this project on the DAF website will go towards paying our post-production team so they don’t have to take other work and can fully focus on completing this film! Any help you can give with that – be it donating or just spreading the word via your networks – would be most appreciated. We will keep you posted as we go and look forward to releasing the completed film in late 2024.

Photo: the late John Landy, former Governor of Victoria and Australian Olympian photographed arriving for his interview for “Champion: The Franz Stampfl Story”