SBS Australia benefits from documentary funding boost

Screen Australia, the country’s screen funding agency, is to invest more than AUD$2.3 million in four SBS documentary series triggering AUD$8.8 million in production.

Screen Australia’s documentary manager Liz Stevens said: “These four bold and perspective-changing documentary series will explore in detail different aspects of Australian society. We’re pleased to be able to invest in partnership with SBS to enable this talented group of documentary filmmakers to bring these stories to Australian audiences.”

The documentaries include The Catch, a three-part series following Matthew Evans, presenter of SBS’s Gourmet Farmer, as he investigates Australia’s seafood industry; a three-part series The Great Australian Race Riot, which looks at the history of tribe-on-tribe street fighting;  Z Special Unit, also a three-part series, charting the journey of Australia’s first special forces unit; and Living with the Enemy, a six-part series exploring the fault lines of social cohesion in Australia.