STAFF & BOARD

MEET THE THE PEOPLE BEHIND THE AUSTRALIAN INTERNATIONAL DOCUMENTARY CONFERENCE

Management Team

NATASHA GADD
CEO / CREATIVE DIRECTOR

With a passion for documentary and factual storytelling spanning two decades, Natasha Gadd is the CEO/Creative Director of the Australian International Documentary Conference. Prior to this role, she was AIDC’s Partnerships and Industry Development Manager, where she oversaw the industry development program which has since unlocked over $2 million in project and professional development funding for AIDC delegates from 2019 to 2024. In 2005, she co-founded Daybreak Films, a Melbourne based production company committed to creating independent and engaging screen content. Natasha’s debut feature documentary, Words From the City was nominated for five AFI Awards and her follow up feature, Murundak: Songs of Freedom, received the Grand Prix – FIFO, Best Documentary – Valladolid International Film Festival, and the United Nations Association of Australia Media Peace Award. She has also made a number of short documentaries for SBS, ABC and Foxtel, including Anatomy: Muscle, for which she received an Australian Directors Guild Best Director award. Natasha has held leadership positions across a number of leading Australian screen organisations including Cinema Programs and Public Programs Manager at the Australian Centre for the Moving Image (ACMI), Festival Director of the REAL: Life on Film festival and board member of the National Film and Sound Archive.

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ALEX CASTRO
GENERAL MANAGER

Alex has worked in Program, Event, Marketing and General Manager roles with Open Channel Melbourne International Film Festival, Twentieth Century Fox, Cinema Nova, Lumiere Cinemas, and most recently, Palace Cinemas. He is the founder of Melbourne Filmoteca: Spanish, Latin American & Portuguese Film Group; as well as the Melbourne Latin American Film Festival (2004-2007).

At Open Channel he developed a suite of professional and project development programs for emerging screen practitioners including the inaugural Generation Next Documentary Conference, regular discussion panels and networking sessions; and production initiatives delivered in collaboration with Screen Australia, Film Victoria, local government, philanthropic and other partners.

A Canberra native, Alex completed a Bachelor of Arts (Art History & Curatorship) at the Australian National University, before moving to Melbourne and completing Honours in Cinema Studies at La Trobe University.

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Lauren Valmadre
INDUSTRY MANAGER

Lauren is an avid non-fiction fan and film industry professional with extensive experience across programming, international sales and distribution both within Australia and overseas. Beginning her career in film festival programming, Lauren most notably held the role of Program Director at the Human Rights Arts & Film Festival, as well as programming for the Shadow Electric Outdoor Cinema and running her own film residency at state-of-the-art performance space, Howler. She then moved to Copenhagen, Denmark for three years to work with International Sales Agent LevelK as their Sales & Acquisitions Manager, handling both world sales for their slate and specialising in documentary acquisitions. During her time in the Nordics, Lauren was a tutor for the prestigious international documentary program Dok.incubator, selected as part of the ‘Rising Stars of Nordic Sales and Distributors’ for the 2020 Helsinki International Film Festival and was a member of the Danish Film Academy. Upon her return to Australia, Lauren worked in distribution for Umbrella Entertainment, handling both the monthly digital releases and world sales of classic Australian cinema. Lauren was the former Conference Programmer of AIDC in 2022 and is thrilled to be continuing her work supporting the development of dynamic Australian non-fiction stories and bringing them to global audiences in her role as Industry Manager.

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JOANY SZE
PARTNERSHIPS & INDUSTRY DEVELOPMENT MANAGER

One of the original founders of Chemical Media, Joany has been Line Producer and Production Manager for some of Victoria’s strongest TV and feature documentary producers and worked with Renegade Films (Aftermath, People’s Republic of Mallacoota) and Genepool Productions (Carbon). She joined the AIDC 2023 team straight off delivering Who The Bloody Hell Are We? to SBS for Chemical Media and The Giants for General Strike/Matchbox Pictures. Joany began her career in the dance music working across nightclubs, dance parties and KISS FM radio in Melbourne. She moved into television production in London working on dance culture TV following DJs around the world and fitted in a stint as Producer at Cartoon Network. Returning to Melbourne, she started at Lonely Planet Television as production manager and ultimately Head of Production on travel series and shortform content for SBS, Discovery, National Geographic, Al-Jazeera, Eurosport and corporate partners.
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Chris Harms
Marketing & Communications Manager

Chris is a media, communications and marketing professional with extensive experience in the media, arts and not-for-profit sectors. As Marketing & Communications Manager for AIDC, he is responsible for brand management, audience development, market positioning, communications strategy and APAC region engagement. He has also worked as Industry Programmer and CrossCurrents International Fund assessor for the Hot Docs Industry conference in Toronto, Canada, and has research interests in documentary marketplace and pitching forum dynamics. His prior experience includes three years as Marketing Manager for the Melbourne Fringe Festival, a tenure that included the event’s most successful staging in 30 years in 2014, teaching in arts and creative management for the University of Melbourne, editing a weekly music, arts, and film magazine, and freelancing in music and entertainment marketing. He studied screen production and writing at Griffith University and QUT – resulting in a short documentary about the auto towing industry and a Channel [V] Clip of the Week music video – and holds a Master of Global Media Communication degree from the University of Melbourne.

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Board of Directors

KATE PAPPAS
CO-CHAIR

Kate Pappas is an executive producer at WildBear Entertainment, co-chair of AIDC and treasurer on the Management Committee for Sustainable Screens Australia. She has built a successful career producing close to 60 hours of internationally recognised science, wildlife and history documentaries. She cut her teeth in London in the wonderful world of kids’ science and has since worked across a diverse and award-winning documentary slate. Recent credits include factual series’ Wildlifers! (ABC Kids); Stuff the British Stole (ABC/CBC); A Dog’s World with Tony Armstrong (ABC); and the feature documentaries Playing With Sharks: The Valerie Taylor Story (Disney+/NatGeo); Carbon: An Unauthorised Biography (ABC/CBC); Westwind: Djalu’s Legacy (NiTV/MIFF) and animated short Love Letters To Our Trees. Kate is a passionate advocate for a planet-first approach to making content.

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PAUL WIEGARD
CO-CHAIR

Paul Wiegard co-founded Madman Entertainment, a leading independent distribution and rights management company for film and television with offices in Melbourne, Auckland & Berlin, in 1996. Madman operates an integrated business structure established on four key commercial pillars: Theatrical Distribution, Physical Media (DVD & Blu Ray), Digital and Ancillary sales. It has 80-plus staff and a turnover of $45 million per annum. Among his many achievements, Paul has executive produced 20+ feature and documentary films. Additionally he is responsible for establishing DocPlay, a dedicated documentary streaming VoD platform.

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Marco Angele
SECRETARY

Marco is a Principal at Marshalls + Dent + Wilmoth lawyers, specialising in commercial, media and entertainment law. His expertise includes commercial contracting and procurement, transactions, fundraising and intellectual property. Marco advises clients predominantly from the technology, media and entertainment industries. Recently, he has acted for leading television and film production companies, media content distributors, festivals and hospitality venues.

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ANDREW ARBUTHNOT

Andrew is an award-winning Creative Producer with 15+ years’ experience in film and television production. Andrew recently returned to producing after working as Investment / Development Manager, Documentary at Screen Australia. Previously, Andrew worked for broadcasters and production companies including SBS Television, BBC, Channel 4, PolyGram Films, Nickelodeon, Foxtel, Endemol and Essential Media & Entertainment where he gained invaluable experience in development, production, marketing and distribution. As a Producer of both drama and documentary he has experience in managing and guiding projects and creative teams from development to delivery and marketing.

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Bernadine Lim

Bernadine Lim is the Senior Commissioning Editor of Factual at SBS Australia, and was the former Head of Documentary at Screen Australia and Executive Producer of the award-winning SBS Dateline. Bernadine has over 20 years’ experience directing and producing a range of unscripted content in Australia, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom. Her previous projects cross science, history, factual entertainment, observational documentary, journalism, reality shows, live studio, and long format current affairs.  She has several awards including Gold and Silver from the New York Festivals and an Australian Academy Cinema Television Arts award for Best Direction in a Documentary. Bernadine also spent five years as Executive Producer of SBS Dateline commissioning over 100 films which received multiple awards including a Walkley and BAFTA.

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Kelrick Martin

Kelrick is a Ngarluma man from Broome WA, and in 1998 was the inaugural presenter of ABC TV’s Message Stick. In 2002 he completed his Masters in Documentary Writing and Directing at AFTRS, and in 2007 returned to WA to become NITV’s Commissioning Editor. He formed Spear Point Productions in 2010 – credits include the multiple 2015 AACTA Award nominee Prison Songs. Kelrick was also the Indigenous Manager for Screenwest before joining the ABC as Head of Indigenous in 2016. His commissions at ABC include Black Comedy, Maralinga Tjarutja, and popular award-winning drama Total Control.

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HOLLIE FIFER

Hollie is currently the Director of Australian Programs at Doc Society and Director of the arts not-for-profit Schoolhouse Studios in Melbourne.

As a documentary filmmaker, Hollie’s films have screened at festivals and broadcasted within Australia and internationally. The Opposition is Hollie’s debut feature documentary produced by Media Stockade that world premiered at Hot Docs and IDFA in 2016 before winning the Grand Prize at FIFO, screening at the UN Human Rights Council, winning Best Documentary Feature at the Oz Flix Independent Film Awards and screening in over 35 countries. Hollie’s latest short film Unbalanced recently premiered on Australian newspapers The Age/Sydney Morning Herald’s Vox Dox series.

Hollie on the Board of the Australian International Documentary Conference (AIDC) and the Castlemaine Documentary Festival (CDoc). In her previous work she has been a freelance tutor in Documentary Directing at NIDA and AFTRS, Co-Director of The Artists Guild, selected for MECCA Shark Island M-Power Program and Doc Society’s Global Impact Producers Squad.

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Paul Williams

Paul Damien Williams is the Documentary Executive at Screenwest, the screen industry agency for Western Australia, where he oversees development and production of a slate of great diversity including titles Aussie Gold Hunters Hunters (DISCOVERY), the Every Family Has a Secret series (SBS) and Ningaloo (ABC). He is also responsible for initiatives for the emerging sector. As a filmmaker Williams wrote and directed the critically acclaimed feature-length documentary Gurrumul about the blind, Indigenous singer Geoffrey Gurrumul Yunupingu. Gurrumul won the Asia Pacific Screen Academy Best Feature Documentary, the AACTA Best Feature Documentary, and the 2018 Australian Directors Guild Best Direction in a Feature Documentary, among many other festival, guild and critical awards. With over 20 years in the industry, Williams brings his experience as an editor, writer, director and producer to the AIDC Board.

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