TELEVISION

Downhill Skateboarding takes extreme sports to the next level. Living on the outer limits of danger and enduarance, riders push themselves to speeds of over 100km/h. This year Australia is hosting the World Championship for Downhill Skateboarding and during November 26th-29th over a hundred of the world’s best riders will descend upon the utopia of downhill skateboarding at Mount Panorama, Bathurst for a weekend of epic competition.

Iris Pictures and Pitbull Productions are filming the event to create a series of high quality content to be broadcast in February 2010 on Bigpond TV, Bigpond Sport Mobile networks and to be distributed on DVD throughout retail outlets across the country. Ranked in the top three online destinations for Australian users, Bigpond Sport attracts 2 million viewers per month.

The content created will include profiles of top-ranked riders, an insider’s perspective on the cutting-edge technology and techniques involved in downhill skating, interviews with ambassadors of the sport and breath-taking footage of the riders during the race itself. For a preview of some of the amazing footage visit:

http://downhillrepublic.com

If you would like to explore a range of flexible sponsporship opportunities please do not hesitate to contact us:

jdouglashenry@irispictures.com.au
(02) 9517 4306

Photo by Stephanie White

An epidemic of depression, anxiety and alienation is rife among teenagers in first world countries. A bold experiment is being trialled in Australia that offers a solution.

Geelong Grammar School is introducing leading psychologist Martin Seligman’s Positive Psychology into the curriculum in 2009. Involving the entire school community, this new approach to education will require teachers, students and their families to embrace a new way of learning that could revolutionise schools all over the world.

Accentuate the Positive follows staff and students over the first year, showing a way forward to help future generations of children grow up to be happier, more resilient and compassionate human beings.

Year of Production: 2008/9
Duration: 30 minutes
Producer: Jessica Douglas-Henry
Director: Jessica Douglas-Henry, Nicky Ruscoe

Anna’s Adventure is a cross-media project that combines linear documentary with a non-linear interactive website to interrogate Anna’s journey as she grapples with the really big questions of existence. Read more »

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Year of Production: 2008 
Duration: 3 x 52 minutes
Executive Producer: Jessica Douglas-Henry
Series Director: Judith John-Story 
Producer: John Janson-Moore

About women is a fascinating series that investigates the modern Australian woman in her many ages and stages of life – what she needs to thrive and survive in the 21st Century and the obstacles she faces on her life’s journey.

In 2008 the options for an Australian woman to do what she wants and to be who she wants to be are, in theory, limitless. She is no longer destined to marry the butcher, the baker or the candlestick maker – she can choose any of those careers herself and fulfil family obligations in her spare time. Read more »

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Year of Production: 2008
Duration: 3 x 52 mins
About Men is a documentary series that explores the major life stages, transitions and experiences of boys and men living in Australia. Read more »

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Year of Production: 2008
Based on the highly successful US series, Roadtrip Nation Australia is an observational documentary series for SBS and PBS that follows three young Australians, Bruce, Kay and Brynn, on a rugged five-week journey around Australia as they seek to define their own road in life. Read more »

Year of Production: 2007
Duration: 6 x 25 mins
A fascinating series that looks at contemporary solutions to age-old parenting problems by exploring the work undertaken by Karitane; an innovative service that offers practical help to families overwhelmed by the challenges of raising young children.
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Year of Production: 2005
Duration: 3 x 52 minutes
Awards:
2006 Logie Award Nominee
2006 Certificate of Merit, Documentary Series, Chicago, International Television Competition Hugo Awards
2005 Sydney Morning Herald Couch Potato Award, Best Local Documentary

This three-part series takes a close-up and personal look at divorce as people reveal their experiences, from marriage to breakup, conflict to compromise.
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Year of Production: 2003
Duration: 4 x 26 minutes
A four part observational series that follows the doctors and nurses who work with NETS, a neo-natal and paediatric emergency transport service providing mobile intensive care for critically ill children.
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Year of Production: 2002
Duration: 52 Minutes
Awards: 2004 Logie Award Nomine

In Limbo follows the story of a Vietnamese-Australian lawyer who is determined to see 2000 Vietnamese boat people stranded in the Philippines regain their lives, identities and homes. Hoi Trinh has been fighting for the rights of these people for more than five years. Read more »

Year of Production: 2002
Duration: 52 minutes
Awards:
2004 Logie Award Nominee
2002 Torino International Women’s Film Festival
2001 WOW Festival

The path to parenthood is never easy – especially when adopting from another country. Shot over a period of 2 years this is a warm and intimate portrait of lives about to change, the pain of the long wait, the reality of racism and the power of love. Follows the process for a young Australian couple adopting a Korean baby.

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Year of Production: 2001
Three Australian Clown doctors travel to East Timor to dispense smiles as medicine. SBS-TV
2001 Auburn International Children’s Film Festival.

Year of Production: 2000
Duration: 52 minutes
Awards:
2003 Centenary Medal for documentary script writing
2002 Nominee NSW Premier’s Literary Prize
2002 Nominee Critics Circle Award
2001 AWGIE Award
2001 Cork Film Festival

A documentary about youth suicide from a very personal perspective set in the rural community of Geraldton, Western Australia. Read more »

Year of Production: 1999
A young girl living with HIV learns to face her greatest fear of rejection, and find what she most wanted, the unconditional love and acceptance of her family.
Screened at 2000 Berlin Film Festival.

Year of Production: 1998
Documentary about a Chinese family with a profoundly deaf daughter who run a pizza take away in Sydney’s inner west. Broadcast on SBS-TV.
Awards:
1999 Most Popular Australian Documentary, Sydney Film Festival
1999 Finalist-Feature Category International, Documentary Association Awards, USA
1999 Highly Commended Dendy Awards, Sydney
1999 Winner Bronze Plaque Columbus International Film & Video Festival, USA
1999 Margaret Mead Film & Video Festival, USA
1999 Hot Springs Documentary Festival, USA
1999 Prix Leonardo Film & Video Festival, Italy
1999 St John’s International Women’s Film Festival, Canada

Year of Production: 1999
ABC-TV documentary for Compass about The Grail, a movement of women around the world joined together by a common faith. Told through the lives of five women using a mixture of archival footage and interviews. Shot on three continents.

Year of Production: 1994
FFC/Accord documentary about the experiences of parents and children in the Accident & Emergency department of an inner-city children’s hospital.
Broadcast: SBS-TV, NHK Japan.
Awards: 1996 Logie Award Nominee.