WHAT WEAVE BEEN WATCHING: Hamilton

I first became aware of Hamilton the musical not long after it first opened in New York in 2015. 

The musical about American Founding Father Alexander Hamilton was not only capturing the hearts of audiences and becoming the hottest ticket in town, it told a story I was learning about at the...

WHAT WEAVE BEEN WATCHING: Dave

Foxtel's streaming video platform Binge has just launched in Australia - and it didn't take long for me to sign up. 

In fact, it took no time at all - after all, Foxtel won the rights to HBO content in Australia and given the fact I'm constantly buying HBO series to keep up with their premium...

WHAT WEAVE BEEN WATCHING: Ozark

The early days of the coronavirus global pandemic where anxiety is exponentially heightened is probably not the best time to begin watching Ozark.

It's a Netflix series about a married couple, played by Jason Bateman and Laura Linney, who find themselves caught in a bungled money laundering...

Curtain closes on Darwin cinema

To say news of the Darwin cinema closing its doors next month is a blow, is an understatement.

There had been rumours of a closure for a while now, but the last I heard, it wasn't going to happen.

For Darwin to lose a cinema in the city is devastating. Thank goodness we have Deckchair...

DIFF Screen Summit

The biennial NT Screen Summit has arrived with another weekend action packed with workshops, panel discussions and the fantastic Capricornia Film Awards that takes place this evening.

I was lucky enough to join some of the nation's top producers, Maggie Miles and Shannon Swan, on a panel to...

That’s a wrap

After months of working on the film Top End Wedding, production has officially wrapped.

Unit, props and wardrobes are now all packed away in trucks that sit alongside the camera trucks. 

All the cast and crew are heading back to their respective homes and it's feels sad to say goodbye to...

Production kicks off

The day has finally arrived - production on the feature film Top End Wedding kicks off.

It's been an action-packed pre-production and I've learned such a huge amount working with director Wayne Blair.

We started with an office of just a few of us and over the many weeks we've been operating...

Mentors make a difference

As my mentorship through the Natalie Miller Fellowship comes to an end, I thought it timely to reflect on what I've learned and to thank the fellowship for offering an important program that has given so many women the opportunity to connect with likeminded people and to expand our knowledge...

Lane Art Space: Tramp

Following the successful opening on a new outdoor exhibition area Lane Art Space in Darwin's CBD, "weave" had requests to post the experimental video art piece Emma Masters created for the show.

"The piece is a compilation of photos I took while travelling extensivey last year," Emma...

DIFF Live Script Reading

Australian actor David Wenham has joined the News Junkies cast for the series' first public outing of the pilot script.

About 70 people braved exceptionally warm conditions to attend the reading at Darwin's Deckchair.

Darwin's very own logie-winning actor Rob Collins - who has been crushing...

News Junkies auditions

Just want to shout out a massive thank-you to all who auditioned for our comedy web series News Junkies.

It has been a huge process going through all the applications, reviewing everyone's submissions and then shortlisting those to audition for the roles.

We've been on the hunt for six...

David Wenham ... seriously

OK ... pinch me.

When myself, Kristy and Lucy first decided to do News Junkies together, never in a million years did I anticipate we would be given the chance to work with one of the nation's great actors.

Am I a fangurl? Sure am. It is not necessarily Diver Dan that did it for me - it's...

Desert dwellers

What a thrill and delight to be shooting in the desert at one of the most beautiful times of the year.

The red hills with golden grass and the bush scrub below sets a stunning canvas for the story of the growing number of women who are travelling solo around Australia.

The women have been...

I am Heath Ledger

He's known for his talent as one of Australia's great actors, but did you know Heath Ledger was also a director?

t's a little-known fact Heath Ledger was a prolific documenter and always had a camera in his hand.

I am Heath Ledger is a new documentary premiering at the Tribeca Film Festival...

In the FACTory

It's arrived. Today Alison Black and I are pitching our documentary project The Invisibles at the Australian International Documentary Conference international pitching forum The FACTory.

The situation: The Deakin Edge Auditirium, Federation Square. 10 projects have been selected out of a...

Virtual reality is the new black

When I roamed the hallowed Tribeca Film Festival halls, jumping from one VR stall to another, I had a lightning bolt from the blue moment that Virtual Reality is going to become an intergral part of my storytelling.

Immersion - it's addictive for someone who seizes on stories because they...

Brilliant Careers Leadership Conference

I had the pleasure and privilege of joining about 170 women from across Australian screen industry on Friday for the Natalie Miller Fellowship Leadership conference. 

There was indeed a buzz in the air as the women gathered at RMIT university in Melbourne for what was the first ever national...

Travelling Film Festival

It's beginning to feel as if the tropical build up will never end in the Top End, but one build up that has hit its mark is the Travelling Film Festival.

The good folk at the smaller, nation-crossing arm of the Sydney Film Festival have just released their program.

Nine fabulous films are...

Tickled @ MIFF

I don't know many people who hear the words "Competitive Endurance Tickling" and aren't instantly intrigued. There are tickling competitions? And there is a documentary about it? Awesome.

But it's not the tickling competitions that are the most bizarre element to the feature documentary...

Melbourne International Film Festival

After this long as a dedicated fan of all things screen, I'm ashamed to admit I'm a Melbourne International Film Festival virgin. Shocking but true. 

As MIFF - as it's most affectionately known - celebrates its 65th year in existence, I've finally managed to drag my sorry ass to the film...

Melbourne Web Fest

As Weave Films expands its work in the digital online environment, one event I was not going to miss was the Melbourne Web Fest.

Australia’s premiere international web series festival, Melbourne Web Fest is the fourth festival of its kind in the world and remains the biggest celebration of...

Tribeca Film Festival

I'm so excited I am almost about to pee myself. My head has been so far into my lastest documentary and life in Washington DC that I didn't even have time to research or check out what was happening in New York or in the film world before I landed. I've rented a great studio apartment on the...

Washington Wizardry

Washington DC is a big blast of American history, politics and culture like no other place on earth.

It's a shot in the arm of all you ever wanted to know about the United States of America. and I don't mean the type of shot fired by a gun. But Americans like their guns too, as we all know. 

Black As

Last year at the Australian International Documentary Conference, David Batty of Bush Mechanics fame pitched a new television show Black As about a group of friends in Arnhem Land. They crowdfunded the program and made their target! Yes, I was a supporter! Here's an awesome little video from...

Endemol Ethnology

An unexpected opportunity to witness big reality television in the making saw me working unaware in Darwin one week to staring at the Sydney Opera house on the way to work with Australia's premiere television production company Endemol a fortnight later

#excitment

The work at Endemol...

NET-WORK-PLAY ACCESS

It's been a busy time gearing up for NET-WORK-PLAY 2015.

For those wondering what NET-WORK-PLAY is all about - here's the lowdown. The 3-day event aims to champion conventional factual content creation through digital channels and platforms. It provides a range of experts focused in differing...

Last Cab Teaser Trailer

A sign we are a step closer to the seeing another great Australian movie hit the big screen.

Last Cab to Darwin's official teaser trailer has been released.

It's so great to see the team's hard work being realised.

Ubud Writers Festival

Touchdown in Bali. After much antipcation, the Ubud Writers adventure has begun. 

It's exciting to be a part of an esteemed group of writers at this year's festival. I'm really looking forward to meeting many of them and getting to hear about their life journey, professional hurdles and...

Last Cab steps off the rank in Darwin

Production on Last Cab to Darwin is underway in the film's namesake town.

The crew have travelled across Central Australia from Broken Hill for weeks and now filming in their  final destination.

The next fortnight will be spent filming in destinations around Darwin - from the city, to the...

Monkey Business

It's difficult not to be fascinated by the many physical, cultural and social connections between apes and humans.

So when I stumbled across a story about an intimate relationship between a bonobo and a scientist, it just had to be shared.

It's the story of Kanzi the bonobo. Kanzi was born...

Never Sorry

Ai Weiwei is an artist whose meteoric rise to international notoreity has been propelled by his unrelenting fight for justice and human rights in China.

His conceptual art challenges the status quo and his desire to shine a light on issues he seeks to expose and open for public discussion is...

Act of Killing

Surreal. Disturbing. Compelling.

The Act of Killing is the kind of documentary that sits with you long after the credits have stopped rolling. It's not just its content that lingers, but the way its form challenges conventional modes of documentary filmmaking leaves you gobsmacked. It's a...

Stories We Tell

A vivacious force of nature, actress and filmmaker Sarah Polley’s mother died when her daughter was just a child.

In the wake of a startling revelation, Polley intersperses observations from her large blended family, her mother’s friends and archival footage in her first documentary, and...

Cutie and the Boxer

This candid New York love story explores the chaotic 40-year marriage of famed boxing painter Ushio Shinohara and his wife, Noriko.

Anxious to shed her role as her overbearing husband's assistant, Noriko finds an identity of her own. 

I remember when this was promoted during Sundance Film...

Girl Rising

The road to equality for women is long and winding, with countless obstacles, plunging dips and soaring peaks to overcome.

The great challenge is to keep walking forward - left foot, right foot, one foot in front of the other - no matter how hard it may seem or how much we feel we may have...

Travelling Fim Festival

If the opening film is anything to go by, this year's Travelling Film Festival is going to be full of moving, amusing and bizarre stories. Fantastic!

The festival kicks off on Thursday February 6 with Warwick Thornton's latest installment, The Darkside, a collection of poignant, sad, funny...

Searching for Sugar Man

The Oscar award-winning "Searching for Sugar Man" documents a journey to uncover the mystery of how a man touted as a musical genius of his generation faded into obscurity in the early 1970s.

American-Mexican songwriter/singer Rodriguez recorded his debut album Cold Fact with two heavy-weight...

Across the Arafura

Weave Films is bouncing across the Arafura Sea to work in Indonesia, reinforcing our determination to develop greater ties with our nearest neighbour.

(FACT: did you know its quicker for Darwin residents to travel to Indonesia than to their nearest regional town of Katherine, or to fly...

Get up

Election Time. It's hard to ignore, particularly if you're a semi-reformed news junkie.

Weave Films has been observing a number of aspects to this year's election that are simply too difficult and too delightful to ignore. Rest assured, we're going to refrain from giving opinions about the...

Shot on what

A handy website launched last year for the tech-heads that relish knowing what cameras, lens, lighting rigs and other set-ups created the look and feel of the films they love!

http://shotonwhat.com

Mary Meets Mohammed

Mary meets Mohammed is a film that touches on the incredibly controversial topic of asylum seekers, a topic that has divided Australia, caused heated arguments at the dinner table and the office water cooler, a topic that has become the political hot potato of the 21st century.

Labor's...

Propoganda

This film Propoganda is allegedly from North Korea - arguably one of the most hidden, restricted and misunderstood countries in the world.

The film's asserted origins are outlined on a YouTube page published by a person with the name "sabineprogram": "On a trip to visit family in Seoul in...

Ray Mears’ Close Encounters

The first episode of a documentary series Weave Films worked on with an international crew will be broadcast in the UK tonight.

Ray Mears Close Encounters is a two-part documentary series being shown on primetime ITV1 and features survival expert Ray Mears getting up close with two of...

Territory Timelapse

Photographer Glenn Walker has visited national parks around the Territory and shot some iconic locations to make this beautiful sequence of timelapse video.

We love timelapse and it's abiility to show the changing light and landscape. This video is a perfect example of how it can be put to...

Keokjay

Cambodia is an amazing country. The moment I stepped foot onto Cambodia's soil I was immediately enchanted. The bustling centres rushing with tuk tuks and motos, the countryside of jungle, open fields and small villages where roosters and ducks roam, the exotic allure of spicy curries, rice and...

Climate crab

Weave Films' friends at the CSIRO have completed the first animated film in a series of short films designed to raise awareness of El Nino and La Nina.

This one is about a little hermit crab that travels around the Pacific. Another one featuring a reggae loving Parrot is due for release in...

Visual FX

Forever an admirer of work that combines artistic talent with modern technology, I never cease to be amazed by the ways visual FX artists in the screen industry keep pushing the boundaries of their work.

Today, Weave Films pays homage to the work of Baz Luhrmann and his team on the latest...

The story of stuff

What began as an interest in bamboo clothing and a mistaken belief it was more environmentally-friendly than cotton has inadvertently lead to a journey into social and environmental corporate responsibility.

I've supported fair trade and locally-made products since I was a teenager, but this...

Fashion Victims

The ABC Four Corners "Fashion Victims" program this evening has highlighted the horrors of unfair labour conditions in developing countries and the greed that drives companies, and the people that represent them, to take advantage of the poor and the needy and to put price and profit before...

Kurringal

A powerful photo-essay and commentary by NT News photographer Daniel Hartley-Allen screened on SBS2.

We love how the new digital channels are providing more options for stories to get light in the public domain.

FILM FEATURE: Chasing Ice

I love epic cinematography and predict the documentary Chasing Ice is going to deliver. One of the world's great natural photographers in one of the most beautiful places on earth is a winning combination. 

I really enjoyed the way The Cove not only told a story but also incorporated the...

FILM FEATURE: Minds in the Water

Minds in the Water is an award-winning documentary following the quest of professional surfer Dave Rastovich and his friends to protect dolphins, whales and the oceans they all share.

Through Dave's journey—a five-year adventure spanning the globe from Australia to the Galapagos, Tonga,...

Transitions

A new film festival has come to Darwin - and it's showing a swathe of documentaries that focus on all things green and environmental.

The festival is aptly titled "Transitions" - a reference to an era where civilisation moves from a fossil-fuel dominated, industrial complex to one...

Boots ‘n all

Tackling a US Marine during a game of AFL is certainly not on my bucket list, but I'll happily put it down to one of life's random experiences.

I'm also happy to say it was all in the name of raising money and awareness for Lifeline, a non-profit organisation that does great work in helping...

Mr Yunupingu

I met you a couple of times Mr Yunupingu.

The first on the unfortunate occassion when you and your fellow Yothu Yindi band members met with myself and NTNews' Ben Langford at a cafe near your home and spoke of your shock departure from the Yothu Yindi Foundation, an organisation that had...

Obrigada

The person who once quipped "do what you love" was indeed a very wise soul.

Media training is not something I've ever wanted to pursue, my years of university teaching and education are but a faded memory, however an invitation to work with Australia's CSIRO and Timor-Leste's journalists on...

Long wondering about the Ha Long wonder

It’s impossible to deny the stunning beauty of Ha Long Bay’s limestone karsts that shoot from the depths of the ocean to the sky.

Snaking through the bay on a little bamboo boat, it’s easy to see why ancient storytellers believed dragons in residence created the islands, which appear and...

Charming connections

Five years is possibly too long before making a journey back to a place you called home for many years.

I mused over what Hanoi would be like after half a decade – it changed so much during the time I was there - but from the moment we disembarked at No Bai airport, so much felt so familiar,...

A northern spectacle

I've always been fascinated by the phenomenon of the Aurora. The way the light and colour dances and plays in the sky is simply enchanting - and a perfect reminder of the myriad wonders of our wonderful world.

Standing on the arctic snowfields of Norway or Sweden with the lights in full...

Aerial cinematography

What began as a day quietly working at home turned into something quite different. A chance meeting with Mark Rolle from Helifish weeks prior, news calling for aerial footage and a lack of staff to operate filming equipment left me as a chance option to join Mark on a trip over Darwin and the...

Recce run

An energising and exhausting week all in one. Long days, travelling from one location to another and meeting a variety of characters with a suite of stories, each as deserving of the utmost attention as the other. With a special interest in the enviromnent and wildlife, assisting crew working...

Fixing films

Someone asked the other day, "what is a fixer?" Well, they do exactly what the name says. They fix everything - source locations, talent, cars, accommodation, and even advise on clothing. They do the work on the ground. Other titles bandied about to describe this unsual creature in the film...

Master hits the red centre

Some of the best cinematographers I've met in recent years are generally quiet, unassuming and humble, and Pieter de Vries is no exception. He has a reputation that extends across the globe - and some of the best in the business have hired him, including James Cameron when he went into the...

Adelaide International Documentary Conference - part 4

There are all kinds of people making factual "content" in the world. There are filmmakers who desire to create epic cinematic exposes they hope get bums on seats at film festivals and there are those who exist to constantly pitch TV broadcasters with new, innovative ideas for TV series or...

ADELAIDE INTERNATIONAL DOCUMENTARY CONFERENCE - PART 3

The feeling of "inspiration" is unlike anything else in the range of human emotions. It's effects are similar to a firework - involving a spark of the imagination, a soaring sense of "the possible", an appreciation of craft and its pathways to delivery, and a final blast of hope from excited...

Adelaide International Documentary Conference - part 2

OK, I'm getting the hang of this gig - and its fun. The Adelaide International Documentary Conference is a great opportunity to hear about the latest trends and what's hot and what's not with broadcasters in Australia and across the world. On one level you hear from people who say you need to...

Australian International Documentary Conference

I now know why friends in the film industry offered a friendly warning to prepare to feel overwhelmed at the conference. Sure, I've been to my fair share of conferences before - but I wasn't selling my research to all who would listen the entire time. Switch to AIDC and you are playing a whole...