AIDC had three main program strands for 2009, with each Speaker presenting within a particular strand.
Who’s Watching?
Are you in touch with your audience and their needs? Gather intelligence from national and international experts in the know on who the audience is, how they are accessing factual product, and what their viewing patterns really mean?
GENEVIEVE BELL - Director of the User Experience Group, Intel Digital Home Group. USA. Currently Adelaide Thinker in Residence.
Genevieve joined Intel in 1998 as a researcher in the Corporate Technology Group's People and Practices Research team - Intel's first social science oriented research team. She helped drive the company's first non-U.S. field studies to inform business group strategy and products and conducted groundbreaking work in urban Asia in the early 2000s. Genevieve currently leads an R&D team of social scientists, interaction designers and human factors engineers to drive consumer-centric product innovation in Intel's consumer electronics business. In this role she is responsible for setting research directions, conducting comparative qualitative and quantitative research globally, leading new product strategy and definition, and championing consumer-centric innovation and thinking across the company. Prior to joining Intel, Genevieve was a lecturer in the Department of Anthropology at Stanford University. She has written more than 25 journal articles and book chapters on a range of subjects focused on the intersection of technology and society.
BRIAN ROCK - Senior Insights Analyst, Network Ten. Australia.
After completing a BA from Monash University, Brian’s first advertising job was with George Patterson's, followed by The Ball WCRS Partnership and Saatchi and Saatchi. In the 1990s he spent eight years in academia, lecturing in RMIT University's BA in Advertising, and completed a Master of Communications from Monash University. In 2000 Brian was recruited as Research Director by Mitchell Media Partners, Australia's largest independent media buyer, and joined Network Ten three years later where he provides strategic analysis of audience attitudes and viewing behaviours. He has been on the Technical Committee of OzTAM, the TV ratings body, and is on the General Committee of the Audit Bureau of Circulation. Brian has co-authored four papers on TV-related issues, and in June 2008 he chaired the programme committee for the ESOMAR WM3in Budapest, one of the world's two leading research conferences into audience measurement. In his free time he writes screenplays, including one which made the Top 50 of Movie Network's Project Greenlight. The others have been even less successful.
KIM DALTON - Director of Television, ABC Australia. Australia.
Kim has been a practitioner and program maker since 1973, producing a number of award winning television dramas and documentaries. Kim worked as an investment manager at the AFFC in the early ‘90s, then joined Beyond International and worked on international financing, production and distribution. From 1999, as Chief Executive of the AFC, Kim was responsible for overhauling its development programs, expanding its screen culture programs and ensuring the agency’s and industry’s engagement with digital and online technology, production and distribution. Since joining the ABC as Director of TV in 2006, Kim has made a major contribution to the policy debate around Australian content and the role of the public broadcaster in the digital era as well as effecting significant reform within the TV Division in these areas. In 2007 Kim was awarded an OAM for service to the film and television industry in policy, in assistance to Indigenous producers and in the promotion of emerging visual technology.
HYOSOOK HONG - ACF Executive Manager, Programmer, Pusan International Film Festival. Korea.
Born in 1968. Hyosook majored in French Language at Chung-Ang University. She was a founder of Women Film Group and worked as the representative of Seoul Visual Collective. As a documentary cinematographer, her works include Doomealee, A New School is Opening, On-Line: An Inside View of Korean Independent Film, and Reclaiming Our Names. Since 1997, she has worked at Pusan International Film Festival and is currently its programmer for the Wide Angle Section. She also holds the post of Director of the Asian Cinema Fund (ACF).
The Australian International Documentary Conference is supported by the Commonwealth through the Australia-Korea Foundation of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade
GERMAINE DEAGAN SWEET – Vice President of Content Syndication, National Geographic Channel International. USA.
As Vice President of Content Syndication, Germaine Deagan Sweet manages global programme sales for NGCI factual programming. Overseeing key sales relationships, Sweet works closely with NGCI’s worldwide offices to maintain broadcast partnerships and maximize revenue in new markets, including expanding business opportunities in VOD, mobile and broadband. Sweet previously served as Director of Program Syndication for NGCI. Prior to joining NGCI, she was with the Network Group as Vice President of Sales and Co-Productions.
The Art and Craft in Documentary Making.
The input of the best craftsmen and artists can turn a good idea into a great documentary. Join the master-classes, workshops and panel discussions to hear from the best and learn the tricks of the trade.
PETER GILBERT - Producer/Director/DOP. USA.
Peter is one of the filmmakers who made Hoop Dreams, serving as a Producer and Director of Photography. Also with Steve James, he recently finished At the Death House Door which has won awards at several festivals and is currently short listed for an Academy Award. In 2004, Peter produced and directed With All Deliberate Speed, the first work in the new series Discovery Docs for the Discovery Network. The Emmy nominated film portrays the drama of the monumental Brown V. Board Supreme Court decision that helped change the racial fabric of the USA in 1954. Peter was Executive Producer on The Ballad of Eziquel Hernandez for PBS; the Sundance Festival Grand Jury and Audience award winning film, The Gods Tired of Us; and the award-winning, Emmy nominated, Deadline on NBC. He produced and directed the DGA and Emmy nominated A Time for Dancing for Showtime and his Cinematography work includes Barbara Kopple’s Academy award-winning, American Dream.
MAZIAR BAHARI – Filmmaker, Off-Centre. Iran.
Maziar is an award winning documentary filmmaker and journalist from Iran. His films include The Voyage of the Saint Louis, Targets: Reporters in Iraq, Football Iranian Style and Along Came a Spider. Maziar’s films have been shown internationally. In 2007, he was the subject of a retrospective at IDFA in Amsterdam. Maziar has written for many publications including Newsweek, the New York Times, the Washington Post and New Statesman.
PAMELA YATES – Director, Skylight Pictures. USA.
Pamela is the recipient of a 2008 Guggenheim Fellowship. She is the Director of the Sundance Award winning When the Mountains Tremble, Producer of the Emmy Award winning Loss of Innocence, and Executive Producer of the Academy Award winning Witness to War. Pamela has most recently completed The Reckoning, a feature length documentary film and educational initiative about the International Criminal Court. Filming took place on 4 continents and in 6 languages. Previously she directed State of Fear, a feature length documentary that tells the epic story of Peru’s 20-year “war on terror” based on the findings of the Peruvian Truth and Reconciliation Commission. Other projects include Presumed Guilty, Cause for Murder, Brotherhood of Hate and a trilogy of films about poor peoples’ movements in America, Living Broke in Boom Times.
SANDI DUBOWSKI - Director/Producer, Films That Change the World. USA.
Sandi produced A Jihad for Love, about the global struggle of Islam and homosexuality. A Jihad for Love premiered at the 2007 Toronto International Film Festival, then opened Panorama Dokumente at the 2008 Berlin Film Festival. The film is a co-production with France-Germany's ZDF-Arte, UK's Channel 4, LOGO, SBS-Australia, The Katahdin Foundation, and The Sundance Documentary Fund. Sandi is the Director of Trembling Before G-d, which premiered at Sundance, was the recipient of twelve awards, was released theatrically in the US, Israel, Canada, Germany, South Africa, and the UK, and broadcasted on TV stations worldwide. Sandi has conducted 800 live events with the film across the globe. He created Trembling on the Road to document this life-changing movement and launched www.filmsthatchangetheworld.com to engage people through global house parties and online events. He is now directing a new film, Soul Trainer.
RACHEL PERKINS – Director, Blackfella Films. Australia.
At eighteen Rachel began working at Imparja Television, an Aboriginal owned TV Station in Central Australia. In 1991, she moved to Sydney as the Executive Producer of the Aboriginal Television Unit at SBS Television. She produced and directed the documentary series, Blood Brothers and was the Executive Producer of a number of documentaries. In 1993 she established her own production company Black Fella Films; the company's first project was From Spirit to Spirit, a thirteen part half hour international co-production by Maori, Sami, Native Canadian and Aboriginal documentary filmmakers. Rachel moved to the ABC in 1996 as Executive Producer of the Indigenous Programs Unit and initiated Songlines, a nine part series on black music. Rachel directed her debut drama feature Radiance in 1997, then One Night the Moon with Paul Kelly. She directed the stageplay of the Indigenous musical, Bran Nue Dae, and recently completed directing this for film. First Australians, the compelling seven part documentary series, six years in the making (which Rachel directed, co-wrote and produced) screened on SBS TV in 2008.
Serious Gaming and Interactive Content.
Are factual content makers making the most of newer markets? Explore how to link up with gamers and web designers to develop interactive platforms/off shoots for your project… and extend the life of your documentary.
DR MICHELLE SELINGER – Director, Education, Internet Business Solutions Group, Cisco. Australia.
Michelle has more than 25 years of experience teaching in secondary schools and in teacher education. In her work with IBSG, Michelle’s focus is primarily on education transformation in all areas of formal education. Prior to joining IBSG, Michelle was the education strategist for all of Cisco's social investments in education, including the World Economic Forum's Global Education Initiative. She also has experience in working with governments on developing their strategies for education reform through technology. Michelle was the director of the Centre for New Technologies Research in Education at the University of Warwick, a research and multimedia centre dedicated to research and development in ICT. She has worked in traditional, distance and online education, as well as vocational education and training, across many countries.
RONALD LENZ - Creative Director, 7scenes / Waag Society. Netherlands.
Ronald heads the Locative Media research program at Waag Society, a media lab in Amsterdam, and is also creative director at 7Scenes, a company that develops location-aware software for the cultural, educational and events sector. Ronald started at Waag Society in 2002 as a backend developer and worked on KeyWorx and many KeyWorx related projects. He now leads the development of mobile platform 7scenes and is involved in all other locative media projects of Waag Society, such as the Games Atelier. The Locative Media program researches the relation between location and social structures, play and 'information stickyness'. Before starting at Waag Society, Ronald was employed at Logica CMG and worked as a freelance software developer and audio producer.
WENDY LEVY - Director of Creative Programming, Bay Area Video Coalition (BAVC). USA.
Wendy is the Director of the MacArthur-funded Producers Institute for New Media Technologies, and develops content partnerships for BAVC's production, exhibition, and distribution programs, grants and residencies for independent producers and public broadcasters, programming for BAVC’s Video Preservation Center and the Nonprofit Institute for New Media Applications. For three years, Wendy served as the Director of Education and Media Arts at BAVC. She speaks regularly at festivals and conferences on documentary, emerging media and social justice. Prior to joining BAVC in 2004, Wendy served as the Festival Director for the Film Arts Festival of Independent Cinema in San Francisco. An accomplished filmmaker, Wendy's films have screened at Sundance, Lincoln Center, on PBS, and at international festivals.
ADAM GEE - Channel 4 New Media Commissioner Factual. UK.
One of the most experienced commissioners in UK broadcasting of multiplatform interactive projects around TV, Adam’s projects range from Big Art Mob to Embarrassing Bodies, and of course The Play’s The Thing. He was responsible for setting up 4Talent, the Channel’s major cross-platform talent development initiative. He has won over 50 international awards for his productions - including a BAFTA, two RTS Awards, the inaugural Media Guardian Innovation Award, and the Grand Award at the New York International Film & Television Festival.
PACO DE ONIS – Producer, Skylight Pictures. USA.
Paco is currently completing a film and educational media project about the International Criminal Court (ICC) titled The Reckoning. Prior to the ICC project, he produced State of Fear, a Skylight Pictures film about Peru’s 20-year “war on terror” based on the findings of the Peruvian Truth and Reconciliation Commission. Paco has produced documentaries for PBS (On Our Own Terms with Bill Moyers), National Geographic (Secrets from the Grave), New York Times Television (Police Force, Paramedics), and MSNBC (Edgewise with John Hockenberry). He was also a news producer for two internet companies, http://www.feedroom.com, a broadband news delivery site, and http://www.starmedia.com, a web site focused on Latin American affairs. Paco grew up in several Latin American countries and is multi-lingual. He’s created music festivals in South America & the Caribbean, operated an arts/performance theatre in Miami Beach, and a tapas tavern in Colombia.