The short version
I’m an award-winning documentary producer/director and cinematographer working across film, TV and podcasting.
My favourite documentaries (to watch, listen to and make) sit in the middle of a Venn diagram where the overlapping circles are art, entertainment and social impact.
The long version
Before I got into documentary making I worked at an antiquarian bookstore handling Oscar Wilde manuscripts, then later at an all-night Turkish pide restaurant handling dough and inebriated customers.
I got my start in TV as a production assistant and it was only on my first day that I found out one of my main duties would be to get into a giant possum costume and appear on a kids’ show.
By this stage I’d finished a Bachelor of Arts (history major, Sydney Uni & Newcastle Uni), a Certificate IV in Media Production and a Graduate Certificate in Documentary at the Australian Film, Television and Radio School (AFTRS). I was a possum with a lot of student debt.
Around this time I started making my own documentaries, initially shoestring-budget, guerrilla-style productions.
My first film GROWING CHANGE (1-hr, 2011) about sustainable agriculture won the Shark Island Foundation’s award for Best Social Impact Film and screened at film festivals around the world.
I was hooked. Soon I was in Nepal following a clown (an actual clown) on a quixotic journey through the Himalayas. The half-hour documentary STUMBLING IN HILLARY’S FOOTSTEPS (2013) was commissioned by ABC’s Compass program.
I’d started out making issue-based documentaries but a few years in I was beginning to learn how to craft good yarns, how to build tension and explore characters and relationships. This, I realised, was the more compelling way to communicate ideas.
If I had to name my breakthrough film as director, however modest, it would be MARATUS (half-hour, 2015). The story of a garbage collector who accidentally discovers an unknown species of spider picked up a small cabinet-ful of awards, including at Australia’s premier documentary film festival, Antenna.
From there I got the opportunity to make many documentaries for THE FEED, SBS TV about subjects ranging from opioid addiction to competitive dog groomers. I produced a number of stories presented by Marc Fennell including a half-hour special and also co-produced a feature story with Laura Murphy-Oates that won a Walkley award.
In amongst directing and producing I’ve worked as a cinematographer with some brilliant teams, including on the award-sweeping feature doc I’M WANITA (2021, dir. Matthew Walker), the ABC’s THERE GOES OUR NEIGHBOURHOOD (2018, dir. Clare Lewis) and a behind-the-scenes featurette for BBC Earth’s SEVEN WORLDS, ONE PLANET series (2019).
Along the way I’ve lectured and tutored in documentary at the University of Canberra, started a business (Heirloom Films) to help families capture the life stories of their loved ones, worked as an editor for GoodChat TV, and a researcher for SBS.
Most recently I teamed up with Patrick Abboud to create, write and produce THE GREATEST MENACE (2022), a 9-part investigative podcast series for Audible about Australia’s gay prison. It has won 9 major awards including a Walkley.