The Department

Sascha Ettinger Epstein is a documentary director/shooter known for raw, observational character-driven Australian stories. Her first film PAINTING WITH LIGHT IN A DARK WORLD about underbelly street photographer Peter Darren Moyle, collected various accolades including Best Direction AFI 2003, was the beginning of an exploration of beauty in darkness which has preoccupied Sascha throughout her career.
Her following films THE OASIS (AFI Best Direction Documentary 2008), a longitudinal observational study of a youth refuge, PLAYING IN THE SHADOWS, about an after-dark basketball tournament for kids from a housing estate in Woolloomooloo, and DESTINATION ARNOLD, following two female Aboriginal bodybuilders, have continued the same theme. THE PINK HOUSE, about the last original brothel in Kalgoorlie, won Best Documentary at the Sydney Film Festival, 2017. She recently completed LIFE AFTER THE OASIS, a ten year update of the lives of the teens from THE OASIS.
Sascha has also worked on commercial television series such as RECRUITS, KINGS CROSS ER and KALGOORLIE COPS. Sascha studied Communications (Hons 1st Class) at UTS and completed an MA in Documentary Directing at AFTRS. As an avid environmentalist Sascha has also worked pro bono for NGOs such as Bush Heritage Fund, Greenpeace, Lock the Gate and SurfAid.

Mary Macrae: For Shark Island Productions; Mary produced THE FINAL QUARTER (2019), LIFE AFTER THE OASIS (2019), SUZY & THE SIMPLE MAN (2016), PAUL KELLY STORIES OF ME (2012) and has held production manager roles with the company since 2008.
A producer of the Good Pitch initiative led by Shark Island Institute, Mary was a core team member for the impact work using the feature documentary THE HUNTING GROUND, leading to the first nation wide student survey on sexual harassment and assault in Australian universities, and the feature documentary UNREST. Mary manages the ongoing impact work of the documentary slate at Shark Island Productions with Executive Ian Darling.

Ian Darling: Ian Darling is an award-winning documentary filmmaker. He is Executive Director of Shark Island Institute in Sydney.
His Director and Producer credits include The Final Quarter, Paul Kelly – Stories of Me, The Oasis, Suzy & the Simple Man, In the Company of Actors, Alone Across Australia, Woodstock for Capitalists, and Polly & Me. He is an Executive Producer of On The Record, 2040, The Fourth Estate, The Bleeding Edge, Unrest, Inventing Tomorrow and How to Change the World. Recently he was a producer of Life After the Oasis.
He is currently directing the feature documentary The Fires and is a producer of The Department.
He was Founder of Good Pitch Australia, is a Member of the Impact Partners Advisory Board in New York, and is Founder and Patron of the Documentary Australia Foundation.
Ian Darling received the Byron Kennedy Award for innovation and the relentless pursuit of excellence at the 2018 AACTA Awards. He received the AFI/AACTA Award for Best Direction in a Documentary, has been a Walkley Awards Finalist (twice), is a two-time winner of the Film Critics Circle Award for best documentary, and has been nominated for numerous Australian Directors Guild, AFI/AACTA awards.